Our Philosophy
What is the Trivium and Quadrivium?
Linguistically, trivium in Latin is derived from tri, meaning ‘three,’ and via, meaning ‘road.’ The trivium, according to Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, is a place where three ways [roads] meet.” In the West, the liberal arts of grammar, logic and rhetoric are known as the trivium. In Arabic it is called ‘ulūm al-ālah (auxiliary sciences), more precisely, the instrumental sciences.
In her book, The Trivium: Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, Sister Miriam Joseph also employs the term ‘instrument’ to define the trivium. She says, “The trivium is the organon, or instrument, of all education at all levels.” Her usage of the term ‘instrument’ together with ‘tool’ to describe the trivium makes up what in Arabic is called ālah. However, the ʽulūm al-ālah is much more complex as it includes several ancillary sciences. The major instrumental sciences of Arabic language are twelve (according to one of my teachers, there are sub-disciplines of these sciences that number forty in total). In his commentary, al-kawākib al-durriyyah sharḥ ‘alā mutammimah al-ājurumiyyah, the 13th century scholar al-Sayyīd al-Shaykh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abd al-Bārī al-Ahdal (d. 1298 H), says, “The sciences of Arabic language are twelve, and they are: ‘ilm al-lughah (lexicography), ‘ilm al-ṣarf (morphology), ‘ilm al-naḥw (syntax), ‘ilm al-ma’ānī (word order), ‘ilm al-bayān (figures of speech), ‘ilm al-badī’ (embellishments), ‘ilm al-‘arūḍ (prosody), ‘ilm al-qawāfi (rhyme), ‘ilm qawānin al-kitābah (writing), ‘ilm qawānin al-qirā’a (reading), ‘ilm inshā’ al-rasāil wa al-khuṭab (composition and oration), and ‘ilm al-muḥādarāt (comprehensive literature) wa al-tārikh (history).” Ibn Khaldun, in his muqaddimah, translated by Franz Rosenthal, summarizes it to four major disciplines and explains as to why they are necessary for seekers of knowledge. He says, “The pillars of the Arabic language are four: lexicography, grammar, syntax and style (bayan), and literature. Knowledge of them all is necessary for religious scholars, since the source of all religious laws is the Qur’an and the Sunnah, which are in Arabic. Their transmitters, the men around Muhammad and the men of the second generation, were Arabs. Their difficulties are to be explained from the language they used. Thus, those who want to be religious scholars must know the sciences connected with the Arabic language.”
There are several versified enumerations of the twelve arts. Below is just one found in Sayyid Aḥmad al-Hashimi’s al-qawāʽid al-asāsīyyah li-l lughah al-‘arabiyyah. Serious students of the Arabic language are highly encouraged to commit the verses to memory.
نَحْوٌ وصَرْفٌ عَرُوضٌ ثُمَّ قَافِيَة
وَبَعْدهَا لُغَةٌ قَرْضٌ وَإِنْشَاءُ
خَطٌّ بَيَانٌ مَعَانٍ مَعَ مُحَاضَرَةٍ
وَالْإِشْتِقَاق لَهَا الْآدَاب وأَسْمَاء
In addition to classical Arabic language, we are currently offering three of the four arts of the quadrivium. The quadrivium is the art of arithmatic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Ibn Khaldun calls it ta’ālim (mathematical sciences). This is so because each art of the quadrivium deals with numbers, either in theory, space or sound. He says, “The fourth science is the study of quantities (measurements). It comprises four different sciences, which are called the mathematical sciences.”
Finally, the liberal arts are an interesting educational model attributed to the western higher education. Many people wrongly assume that it’s uniquely western. The truth is that it’s more civilizational than western. In other words, every great civilization has had the liberal arts. Ibn Khaldun makes this argument as well in his muqaddimah. He says, “The intellectual sciences are natural to man, in as much as he is a thinking being. They are not restricted to any particular religious group. They are studied by the people of all religious groups who are all equally qualified to learn them and to do research in them. They have existed (and been known) to the human species since civilization had its beginning in the world.” He then lists the various intellectual sciences, starting from logic, physics, metaphysics, and then the mathematical sciences, in essence the quadrivium.
At The Arabic Trivium Academy, our aim is to focus on classical Arabic grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. We believe that classical Arabic grammar and mathematics are closely related. Suffice it to say that both sciences are formulaic, logical, and consistent in their principles.
On Grammar
In general, grammar is a neglected science and art, let alone logic and rhetoric. Its importance cannot be overlooked. This is more so the case with classical Arabic, for it is a grammar sensitive language. Those who have studied Arabic, even at the elementary level, know very well that a slight change in the vowel or diacritical mark can alter the meaning of a word.
Not only have we neglected the importance and necessity of learning classical Arabic but sadly the reverence that is owed to this sacred language is entirely diminished. We forget that the Arabic language, according to many of the great Muslim scholars of the past, is considered divine.
Reverence for the Arabic Language
It is here that I must concur with Nevile M. Gwynne’s perspective on the importance of studying grammar and the reverence that we must show to those who went before us for painstakingly preserving this sacred language and passing the baton to the next generation. As he argues, albeit about the English language, I felt as though he was expressing the exact feelings I’ve had about the Arabic language and its scholars (traditional linguists, lexicographers, philologists and litterateurs), a feeling I could not have expressed more eloquently. He says, “Our language…has been both improved and guarded by our ancestors. Changes were admitted when they were desirable and fought off when they were not. We should continue to do this … so that we and our contemporaries can all of us continue to speak the same precious [and sacred] language to each other, and to understand our forefathers… This is to give our ancestors the respect we owe them. We of today are– as the saying goes – standing on the shoulders of giants who themselves revered what they had received and, generation after generation, took the trouble to pass it on, intact …, to the next generation. It would be an act of ingratitude and vandalism to throw that away, and also an act of ingratitude and vandalism to let it be thrown away without resistance. What our ancestors did for us, we owe it to them to do for ourselves and for future generations. ‘Our language belongs to us all?’ Not in the sense that we are free to dispose of it as we happen to see fit. Our language is something that we have the use of, but we have the duty to be responsible, even to consider ourselves trustees during our period of ‘occupation’.”