Our panel is discussing the huge importance that ideals of linguistic excellence and clarity had in the intellectual culture of the medieval Islamicate world. These ideals were particularly important for al-R??ib al-I?fah?n?, and his relationship to them is the subject of my paper. He was both an ad?b (litterateur) whose two adab collections have the word bal??ah in their titles, and at the same time a member of the ?ulam?’ (scholars/intellectuals) whose work in ethics and exegesis required clear definitions, explanations and positions. Like Ab? Hil?l al-?Askar?, al-R??ib distinguishes bal??ah, which involves the meaning of words (ma??n?), from fa???ah (eloquence) which involves only the words themselves (alf??). Unlike fa???ah, bal??ah means that words and their meanings are true. For al-R??ib, bal??ah is, inter alia, “the pursuit of truth in words”. How does al-R??ib square his understanding of bal??ah as defined by truth with his collection and analysis of poetry in his adab compendia and his definition of poetry as an art that puts falsity into the form of truth and is only ever truthful by accident? Furthermore, when it comes to describing the inimitability (i???z) of the Quran, why does al-R??ib not use the standard of bal??ah (well-expressed truth)? According to al-R??ib, the Quran is inimitable because humans cannot provide the information that it provides, and also because God actively prevents humans from trying. Why is there no linguistic dimension, fa???ah, bal??ah or otherwise, to al-R??ib’s understanding of Quranic inimitability? Al-R??ib al-I?fah?n? lived in the area of I?fah?n from 954 to 1021 (343-412 H.). Medieval biography and modern scholarship in European languages on him is scarce. This state of affairs has not been helped by confusion about when he lived, a confusion successfully resolved in the last few decades by scholars writing in Arabic (notably ?Abd al-Ra?m?n al-S?r?s? and I?s?n ?Abb??). Despite his failure to make a mark on the biographical tradition, his Quranic Glossary (Mufrad?t Alf?? al-Qur’?n) and his major adab compendium (Mu???ar?t al-Udab?’ wa Mu??war?t al-Šu?ar?’ wa-l-Bula??’) proved popular across centuries, and his ethical work (al-?ar??ah il? Mak?rim al-Šar??ah) was so admired by al-?az?l? that it found its way, albeit unattributed, into the I?y?’ ?Ul?m al-D?n and the M?z?n al-?Amal (over half of the latter work is copied from al-R??ib’s ?ar??ah).