Orígenes y evolución del lenguaje según el gramático y exegeta caraíta Abū l-Farağ Hārūn ibn al-Farağ

Abstract

Abū l-Farağ Hārūn ibn al-Farağ is to be considered the main representative of the Karaite grammatical school that evolved in Palestine in the tenth and eleventh centuries CE. However, little is known of the contents of his works given the lack of complete editions of any of his grammatical treatises. Taking advantage of the fact that the first complete edition of one of his major works, al-Kitāb al-Kāfī (The Sufficient Book) has been finished and is about to come out, I present in this article a selection and summary of his ideas with regard to the origin and evolution of language, as it appears in this treatise. Its study reveals in a meaningful way the racionalist approach that caracterised the Karaite movement.