Abū ‘Amr Isḥaq ibn Mirār ash-Shaybānī (d. 206/821, or 210/825, or 213/828, or 216/831) was a famous lexicographer-encyclopedist and collector-transmitter of Arabic poetry of the Kufan School of philology.
[1] A native of Ramādat al-Kūfah, who lived in Baghdad, he was a mawla (client) under the protection of the Banū Shaybān, hence his nisba.
Descended from an Iranian landowner (dihqān) on his paternal side, his mother was an Arab 'Nabataean' (an Aramaic-speaking, rural Iraqi), and he reportedly knew a little of the 'Nabataean' language (an unattested form of Aramaic).
[2][3] Abū 'Amr's teachers were Rukayn b. Rabī' ash-Shāmī, a transmitter of ḥadīth and al-Mufaddal ad-Dabbi, who developed his love of poetry.
It seems that Abu Amr's intention in writing this book was to compile unfamiliar and far-fetched words.