Abu Jaʿfar An-Nahhas (; 874 CE – 949 CE; 260 AH – 338 AH) was an Egyptian Muslim scholar of grammar and Qur'anic exegete during the 10th-century Abbasid period.
Life Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ismā‘īl b. Yūnus al-Murādi, surnamed al-Nahhās "coppersmith", was born in Fustat circa 260 AH. He studied in Baghdad under the foremost grammarians of the period, like Abu Ishaq al-Zajjaj who familiarised him with Al-Kitāb by Sībawayh. He also studied philology under Al-Akhfash al-Aṣghar and Nifṭawayh. He is the author of an influential work on abrogation, Al-Nāsīkh wal-Mansūkh. He wrote a full grammatical analysis of the Qur'an and a grammatical primer known as "The Apple" (التفاحة at-Tuffāha). He also wrote works on poetry, including a commentary on the Mu'allaqat.
Death He was killed as he was reciting poetry sitting on the banks of the Nile in Cairo. The story goes that a passing peasant thought he was uttering a magical curse to prevent the rise of the Nile to raise the price of food, and so kicked him into the river causing him to drown.
References
Sources Mac Guckin de Slane, (trans.), Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, vol. 1, Paris, 1843, p. 81. Louis Moréri, Le grand dictionnaire historique (1759), Abou-Giafar al Nahas