Influence Ibn Mada's mastery of the Arabic language and its subfields was so great that, at the time, he was said to have been isolated from the general body of scholarship in terms of sheer knowledge. His refutation was written toward the end of his life and demonstrated his clarity of thought and independent judgment, causing his student Ibn Dihya al-Kalby to brand him as the leader of all grammarians. His critical views of Arabic grammar as it was taught in the eastern Muslim world found an audience with other linguistic and religious scholars of the western half, Abu Hayyan Al Gharnati being one example. Gharnati also criticized so-called "eastern grammarians" and, after his treatise on the non-existence of grammatic causality, cited Ibn Mada as his inspiration. Although Ibn Dihya, Abu Hayyan and Ibn Mada shared their Zahirite and Andalusian backgrounds, not all of Ibn Mada's intellectual descendants shared these traits. Thus, while Ibn Mada opened the discussion regarding the competence of grammarians, suspicion surrounding them and the religious implications of their work continued even after his death. In the mid-20th century, the rediscovery of Ibn Mada's Refutation by Egyptian linguist Shawqi Daif caused minor shockwaves. Convinced that Ibn Mada's abolition of linguistic analogy and governance were the solutions to the failure of Arabic language education, Daif used this foundation for his later advocacy of modernizing language arts education in the Middle East. So strong was Ibn Mada's refutation of grammarians that University of Oxford Laudian Professor of Arabic Geert Jan van Gelder referred to Ibn Mada as the Sextus Empiricus of the Arab world. Works () () () References 1116 births 1196 deaths 12th-century Arabs 12th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Arab grammarians Medieval grammarians of Arabic Zahiris 12th-century jurists Scholars from al-Andalus Almohad scholars