al-Kisa'i

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Hamza al-Kisa'i (died c. 189 AH / 805 CE) was one of the most influential scholars of the Arabic language in the early Abbasid period. Of Persian descent and born at Kufa in Iraq, he became the foremost grammarian (nahwi) of the Kufan school, the rival of the Basran school associated with Sibawayh. He is also counted among the "seven readers" (al-qurra' al-sab'a) — the seven reciters whose ways of reading the Qur'an aloud were later accepted as canonical across much of the Sunni world; his "reading" (qira'a) is still transmitted today.

His byname al-Kisa'i is traditionally said to derive from the kisa', a kind of cloak or mantle he wore. He is reported to have learned grammar relatively late, studying under leading Kufan masters. He rose to prominence at the court of the caliph Harun al-Rashid in Baghdad, where he served as tutor to the two princes al-Amin and al-Ma'mun, both of whom later became caliphs.

The biographical tradition preserves a celebrated grammatical contest in Baghdad between al-Kisa'i and Sibawayh, the Basran master; later accounts dramatize its outcome, and these details belong to the anecdotal tradition rather than to firmly established fact. When the caliph travelled toward Rayy in the region of Khurasan, al-Kisa'i accompanied the court, fell ill, and died on the journey near Rayy. Several Arabic readings (qira'at), grammatical works, and a Ma'ani al-Qur'an are attributed to him.