(died AD

Anno Domini

and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....

 735 / AH

Islamic calendar

The Hijri calendar , also known as the Muslim calendar or Islamic calendar , is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to date events in many Muslim countries , and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic...

 117) an Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 grammarian and is the earliest known grammarian of the Arabic language

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

. He compiled a prescriptive grammar by referring to the usage of the Bedouins, whose language was seen as especially pure (see also ).

Two students of Abi Ishaq's were (died 149 H) and (died 154 H.). Al-Thaqafi seems to have had more prescriptive views while al-Ala's were more descriptive. Their differences have been suggested to lie at the core of the late division of Arabic grammar into the schools of Kufa

Kufa

Kufa is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000....

 and Basra

Basra

Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...

.