Ibn Mada's reaction toward Arabic grammar and grammarians wasn't without provocation. Both earlier Zahirite jurists such as Ibn Hazm and al-Ballūṭī and some Shafi'ites sparred with Hanafite jurists who sought to justify practices such as Istihsan, on the basis of grammatical and linguistic arguments. Thus suspicion and antagonism toward grammarians in the east, where the Hanafite rite predominated, had already been started before Ibn Mada began his whole-scale vehemence.
