my grandfather, from Abū al-Aswad, who said:
“I entered upon ʿAlī and found him lowering his head in deep thought. I asked, ‘Commander of the Believers, what are you contemplating?’ He replied, ‘I have heard people in your land committing solecisms, so I wish to compose a book on the principles of Arabic.’ I said, ‘If you do that, you will revive us!’
“A few days later I returned to him, and he handed me a sheet on which was written:
‘Speech consists entirely of noun, verb, and particle. A noun informs about the named entity; a verb informs about the movement of the named entity; and a particle conveys a meaning that is neither noun nor verb.’
“He then said to me, ‘Add to it and pursue it further.’ So I gathered material and presented it to him.”

ʿUmar ibn Shabbah said: Ḥayyān ibn Bishr narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Ādam narrated to us, from Abū Bakr, from ʿĀṣim, who said:
“Abū al-Aswad came to Ziyād and said, ‘I see that the Arabs have mingled with non-Arabs and their tongues have changed. Will you allow me to devise for the Arabs a set of rules by which they can straighten their speech?’ He replied, ‘No.’
“Later a man came to Ziyād and said, ‘May Allah set the governor right! Our father has died and he left behind bunūn.’ Ziyād ordered, ‘Call Abū al-Aswad for me.’ When he arrived, Ziyād said, ‘Compose for the people what I had earlier forbidden you to do.’”

Al-Jāḥiẓ (1) said: “Abū al-Aswad occupies the foremost rank among men. He is counted among the jurists, the poets, the hadith transmitters, the notables, the horsemen, the commanders, the strategists, the grammarians, the quick-witted respondents, the Shīʿah, the misers, and the bald nobles.”

And in Tarīkh Dimashq (2) it is stated: “Abū al-Aswad is Ẓālim ibn ʿAmr ibn Ẓālim.” It is also said that his grandfather was Sufyān; others say he was ʿUthmān ibn ʿAmr; still others say he was ʿAmr ibn Ẓālim, and that he served as judge of Basra during the time of ʿAlī.