محمدعلی همتی

Grammarians and commentators disagree about the syntactic role of "Asbata" in the verse "…va qaṭṭa'nāhumuth-natay 'ashrata asbāṭan…" (وَ قَطَّعْناهُمُ اثْنَتَیْ عَشْرَهَ أَسْباطا) and have proposed several roles for it. According to Arabic grammar, the accusative of specification (tamiz) the numbers eleven and nineteen must be singular and assigned. The accusative of specification (tamiz) the number "twelve" in the above verse should come in the form of "sabṭan", while it is plural and accusative, which is against the grammar. For this reason, four grammatical roles are mentioned for it in syntactic and explanatory sources. Christoph Luxenberg, the author of the book "Syriac-Aramaic reading of the Qur'an", believes that the grammatical role of "asbaṭan" is distinctive accusative of specification (tamiz) ; But not according to the Arabic grammar, but according to the Syriac grammar. He considers the difference of opinion of grammarians and commentators in the role of "asbaṭan" due to their lack of familiarity with the Syriac Aramaic language and its influence on the Arabic language and the Qur'an. The current research has reviewed Luxenberg's point of view in this regard with the library method and comparative approach. Although there are some similarities between Syriac and Arabic syntax, the results indicate that Luxenberg's claim is not true.