A first-hand account of al-Nadim in his Al-Fihrist supports the view that al-Duʾalī was the first grammarian. He visited a book collector, Muḥammad ibn al-Husayn in the city of Haditha, who had the most marvelous library al-Nadim had ever seen. It contained Arabic books on grammar, philology and literature, and ancient books. He had visited a number of times and found the collector friendly, but wary; fearful of the Clan of Hamdan Aleppo. He was shown a large trunk left Al-Husayn by a Kufan collector of ancient writings. This trunk, filled with parchments, deeds, pages of paper from Egypt, China, Tihamah, 'adam' (sg. 'adim' type of parchment) skins, and paper of Khurasan, seen by Al-Nadim, had bundles of notes on grammar and language written in the hand of scholars like Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala', Abu Amr al-Shaybani, Al-Asmaʿi, Ibn al-A'rābī, Sibawayh, al-Farrā', and Al-Kisa'i, as well as the penmanship of authorities of the Hadith, such as Sufyān ibn 'Uyaynah, Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Awzaʿi, and others. Among these I read that grammar came from Abu al-Aswad [al-Duʾalī]. On four leaves, of what looked to be China paper, in the writing of Yahya ibn Ya'mar, of the Banu Layth was written "Remarks about the Subject and Object". Under these notes, written in ancient calligraphy "This is the handwriting of 'Allān the Grammarian", and under this "This is the handwriting of al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl."