Chapter 6. Morphosyntax

This chapter examines the distribution of verbal mood morphology — indicative, subjunctive, and jussive — in the prefix conjugation throughout Vat. Ar. 13, documenting every instance in which mood-triggering particles and syntactic contexts occur. Like the preceding chapter on nominal case, the analysis is comprehensive and quantitative, covering strong verbs, geminate (II=III) roots, and weak (II-Y/W and III-Y/W) roots. The chapter finds that while indicative forms in non-indicative contexts are attested — a phenomenon widely noted in the Middle Arabic literature — the distribution of such cases is patterned rather than random, and parallels are readily forthcoming in the Quranic qirāʾāt and the ʿArabiyyah tradition. A particular focus is the jussive forms of geminate verbs, where Stokes identifies a notable preference in Hand A for the Ḥiǧāzī variants, whereas later hands adopt Naǧdī forms increasingly associated with the Classical tradition — paralleling the observations made in Chapter 4 on morphology. Overall, the chapter argues that verbal mood inflection in Vat. Ar. 13 reflects a system in which scribal authors navigated a diverse and still-evolving range of prestige norms, rather than either imperfectly approximating a fixed Classical standard or relying predominantly on colloquial vernacular forms.