Examination of the Ḥurūf al-Maʿānī in Terms of Their Simple-Compound Structure Basit-Bileşik Yapılı Olmaları Açısından Hurûfü’l-meânî Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Types of words in the Arabic language are divided into three groups: nouns, verbs, and letters. Letters, one of these types, have a vast place in the literature regarding their functions (actions) and meanings in the sentence. The letters have been subjected to some classifications by the Arabic linguists. One of these classifications is the letters of the type "Ḥurūf al-Maʿānī", which means "Letters of Meaning". The letters of the type ḥurūf al-maʻānī have taken their place in the classical Arabic language sources with this name because they do not have any meaning when used alone, but verbalize a meaning when they are used together with a verb or noun in a sentence. In addition to their function and meaning in the sentence, the letters with structural features were also examined in terms of their simple and compound (murakkab) structure, and discussions took place among the scholars of the Arabic language. This study is the discussions of the scholars of the Arabic language specific to these letters. In the scope of the debate, there are those who claim that the letters have a simple structure and those who argue that they have a compound structure. In this research, the views of the scholars were put forward, and the reasons of both groups were examined. In this context, it has been designated as the primary source especially Ibn Hishām’s (d. 761/1360) work named Mughnī al-labīb ʻan kutub al-aʻārīb and Ibn Abd al-Nūr’s (d. 702/1302) work named Raṣf al-mabānī fī sharḥ ḥurūf al-maʻānī which deals with ḥurūf al-maʿānī independently. At the end of the study, it was determined that the main thing in letters is simplicity, and compound letters consist of simple letters.