Students of Arabic Morphology (Ṣarf) will hopefully find the following links helpful to assist in their study of the subject. I collected these files for students at Darul Qasim and thought it would be useful to post them all together on the same page.

This is the current textbook being used for the Shaykh al-Hind Immersion program. Although far from the ideal textbook, it is nevertheless the best available work in English that follows the format of textbooks like ʿIlm al-Ṣīghah that have been used for centuries and have a proven track-record of effective instruction in Ṣarf. This text is followed by a study of the Arabic text Kitāb al-Maqṣūd and then Taṣrīf al-ʿIzzī, which is the culmination of the study of Ṣarf at Darul Qasim.

This work is a supplementary work for students of Ṣarf. It contains a large list of commonly used verbs and organizes them by their verb form and verb category, making it an essential companion and exercise guide. Along with the Hans Wehr dictionary and the Abwāb al-Ṣarf al-Jadīd, this work is a required purchase for my Ṣarf students at Darul Qasim.

This companion text for intermediate students of Ṣarf was a must during after-class group study and personal study time. As a student, I would use this book to help make sure that I practiced all the conjugation tables for every verb category and to check my recitations. I suggest students use this work to check their partner’s table recitations during takrār sessions.

This is the work that I was taught as a beginner student of Ṣarf. I found it to be quite good as a student and didn’t struggle with the Arabic as much as I thought I would. Due to my inability to acquire any English work that might have assisted my study of Ṣarf, I occasionally looked at the Urdu work Tashīl al-Ṣarf for help and for exercises. I still believe that if a student memorizes the definitions and rules from this book that they will have a satisfactory grasp on the science. Still, students should read other works beyond this text, like the Marāḥ al-Arwāḥ and al-ʿIzzī (and their various commentaries) for example, to appreciate the various different presentations of the science.

This is a succinct and easily accessible introduction to the science. Along with the al-Bināʾ and al-Amthāl texts covered in the Ottoman system, if someone studies this work and then follows it with al-ʿIzzī, they shouldn’t need a work like ʿIlm al-Ṣīghah. Students at Darul Qasim study this work before al-ʿIzzī and after Treasures.

This is a work that is studied before al-Maqṣūd and is often the first work in Ṣarf taught to students. Some instructors at Darul Qasim use this work as well as the al-Amthāl, so I am including links to the text and its commentary here.

This English work is not a translation of the Urdu work by the same name. I have not used this work extensively nor looked at it deeply to recommend it for students. That said, some students have reported that reading this work helped them out when studying Treasures.

I used this Urdu work last year with students to supplement the few exercises found in Treasures. One of the many improvements needed in a work like Treasures is a larger set of exercise and practice questions. This work provides a long list of ṣīghahs that can be used for testing students in and outside the classroom.

This work, along with its commentary, is the most advanced Ṣarf work taught at Darul Qasim. The linked pdf is a great edition published by Dār al-Minhāj, but it doesn’t have al-Taftāzānī’s commentary, which can be very useful for students as well as teachers. The Dār al-Minhāj print of the commentary is linked here.

Another useful work at a level similar to ʿIlm al-Ṣīghah. This Arabic edition of the work makes it accessible to non-Urdu speakers.

This work is not as beneficial to non-native speakers but teachers and native speakers will find it very helpful for extracurricular reading.

This is the Urdu/Persian version of the work described above, which is the Arabized version of this work.

I haven’t looked through these two works thoroughly enough to be able to comment on them. They seem to be a work in progress. A short perusal led to me link them here as I believe some people may find the various exercises to be beneficial.

Another Arabic work that is more aimed at native speakers but useful to have.

One of the works studied formally in the madrasah systems, I thought it would be useful to post this work so that students can look through it and get a sense of the content of other textbooks in the science.