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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
Scholarly assemblies in the Arabic intellectual tradition served as forums not only for entertainment butalso for spectacular events of both literary and historical significance. Al-Sīrāfī (d. 368/979) related how at one such literary seance, which was organized at the instance of Ibn Durayd (d. 321/933), a participant read these verses, attributed to Adam, the progenitor of mankind, lamenting the murder of Abel by Cain:
The land and all those on it have altered the face of the earth has turned dusty and vile. Anything of beautyand splendour has altered and the smile of the lovely face has waned.
The observation that the rhyme letter carries, in breach of the standard rule, different desinential vowels, namely, ḍamma in one line and kasra in the other, provoked a reaction from Ibn Durayd who said ‘This is a poem said at the beginning of the world, yet iqwā' was committed in it.’
But of course in Arabic historical lore, Ishmael, the son of Abraham, is said to have been the first to speak Arabic; and Adam is believed to have spoken Syriac. Factors which encouraged false ascriptions and the outright forgery of poetry have been discussed in various published works and the subject need not detain us here: suffice it to say that the foisting of these lines on Adam, and indeed the entire anecdote, might well be seen in terms of myth, in the sense defined by Jolles (Wahrsage), invented for the sake of a historical perspective.
2 ‘Abd Allāh al-Sīrāfī, Ḣasan b.., Akhbār al-naḣwiyyīn, (ed.) Ibrāhīm al-Bannā, Muḣammad (Cairo, 1985), 13Google Scholar; idem, Ḍarūrat al-shi‘Fr, (ed.) ‘Abd al-Tawwāb, Ramaḍān (Beirut, 1985), 101–2Google Scholar. See also al-Anbārī, Ibn, al-Inṣāf fī masā'il al-khilāf (Cairo, 1961) II, 662–3Google Scholar.
3 Sallām al-Jumaḣī, Ibn, Ṭabaqāt fuḣūl al-shu‘arā (Beirut, 1982), 28Google Scholar.
4 'l-‘Alā’ al-Ma‘arrī, Abū, Risālat al-ghufrān, (ed.) ‘Alī, Shalaq(Beirut, 1975), 171Google Scholar.
5 See Ḣusayn, Ṭahā, Fī' l-Adab al-Jāhilī (Cairo, 1927), 117–86;Google Scholaral-Raḣmān Badawī, ‘Abd, Dirāsāt al-mustashnqīn ḣawla sihhat al-shi'r al-Jāhiīī (Beirut, 1979), passim; Aghānī (Cairo, 1927–1974), I, 325Google Scholar. See also W., ‘Arafat, ‘Ėarly critics of the authenticity of the poetry of the sīra’, BSOAS, xxi, 3, 1958, 453–63;Google Scholaridem, ‘An aspect of the forger's art in early Islamic poetry’, BSOAS, XXVIII, 3, 1965, 477–82;Google ScholarHamori, Andras, On the art of medieval Arabic literature (Princeton, 1974), 35 fGoogle Scholar.
6 See Jolles, A., Einfache Formen (Tübingen, 1972), 91–125Google Scholar.
7 What is doubtless certain is that these faults had become fully formalized by the beginning of the third century. This is confirmed by following verse, cited by Abū Ḣātim al-Sijistānī (d. 250/865).
Accept it as a gift from a poet,
for which presentation no reward is sought
The composition of a writer who chose the best of his
poetry, the splendour of which is not effaced by ikfā.
He committed no iqwā' therein, nor sinād,
nor īṭd', which will thus enervate its structure.
See al-Marzubānī, , al-Muwashshaḣ, (ed.) Muḣib, al-Dīn al-Khaṭīb (Cairo, 1965)Google Scholar.
8 Still further support is given by a verse recited by Ḣassān b. Thābit, which suggests that the quality of poetry is revealed through singing:
Sing any poetry that you recite, for singing is the testing
ground of poetry.
See Dīwān Ḣassān Ibn Thābit, (ed.) Sayyid, Ḣanafī Hasanayn (Cairo, 1974), 280Google Scholar.
9 Muwashshaḣ, 36. See the example in Dīwān al-Nābigha, (ed.) Muḣammad, Abū 'l-Faḍl Ibrāhīm (Cairo, 1977)Google Scholar, occurring as lines 1 and 3 respectively; Aghānī, xi, 10; Fāris, Ibn, Dhamm al-khaṭa,(ed.) Ramaḍān ‘Abd al-Tawwāb(Cairo, 1980), 7Google Scholar; ‘al-Ḣamīd al-Rāḍī, Abd, Sharḥ Tuḥfat al-Khdlīl (Baghdad, 1968), 364Google Scholar.
10 For example, see Lyons, M. C. and Cachia, P. ‘The effect of monorhyme on Arabic poetic production’, Journal of Arabic Literature, I, 1970, 3–13Google Scholar.
11 al-Jawharī, , al-Ṣiḣāh (Cairo, 1982)Google Scholar; Manẓūr, Ibn, Lisān al-‘Arab (Beirut, 1955-1956), s.v. ‘qawā’Google ScholarSee also al-Mubarrad, , al-Qawāfī, (ed.) Ramaḍān, al-Tawwāb, q.v. in Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, 13, 1973, 12Google Scholar.
12 See infra, note 22.
13 Ṭabaqāt, 45.
14 Ibn ‘ Abd, Rabbihī, al-farīd, al-‘Iqd (ed.) Aḥmad, Amīn et al. (Cairo, 1940-1965), v, 507Google Scholar; Ibn Rashīq, , al-‘Umda, (ed.) Muḣammad, Muḣyī al-DƲn ‘al-Ḣamīd, Abd (Cairo, 1963), I, 165Google Scholar. The view that ikfā' relates to co-occurrence of different vowels on the rhyme is also attributed to al-Farrā’ (d. 207/822). See Lisdn, s.v. ‘kafa'a’Google Scholar.
15 Qutayba, Ibn, al-Shi'r wa 'l-shu‘arā’ (Beirut, 1984), 45Google Scholar.
16 al-Akhfash, , Kitāb al-Qawāfī (ed.) ‘Azza, Ḣasan (Damascus, 1970), 43:Google Scholar
Ibn Durayd (d. 321/933) also reported the Basran bedouin Arabs as applying ikfā’ to interchange between cognate letters as rhyme, which view is also posited by b. Ja‘far, Qudāma (d. 327'948). See al-Ālūsī, , al-Ḍarā'īr, (ed.) Muhammad, Bahiat al-Atharī (Baghdad, 1922), 201–2Google Scholar.
17 Rashīq, Ibn, al-‘Umda, I, 165Google Scholar. See also Jinnī, Ibn, Mukhtaṣar al-qawāfī, (ed.) H. S., Farhūd, q.v. in Majallal Kuliyyat al-Ādāb [Riyadh], 3, 1973, 200–1Google Scholar.
18 See Lisān, s.v. ‘qawā’. Cf. al-Jinnī, Ibn, al-Khaṣā'is, (ed.) Muḣammad, al-Najjār (Cairo, 1952–1956), i, 69–71Google Scholar. It is, however, significant that Abū ‘Amr is said by some sources to have applied the term al-Isrāf to the co-occurrence of fatḣa with the other two vowelsGoogle Scholar. For example, see b, Yaḣyā. ‘Tibrīzī, Alīal-Wāfī fī 'l-‘arūḍ wa 'l-qawāfī (ed.) ‘al-Dīn Qabāwa, Fakhr and ‘Yaḣyā, Umar (Damascus, 1975), 239–40;Google Scholar'l-‘Alā’, Abūal-Ma‘arrī, , Shurūḣ Siqṭ al-zand (Cairo, 1947), Part 3, 1281-3. But cf. Ibn Rashīq, i, 167Google Scholar.
19 al-Akhfash, 41-3. Cf. b., Muḥammadal-Khuwārazmī, Aḣmad, Mafātīhal-‘ulūm (Cairo, 1923), 61Google Scholar; Wright, William, Arabic Grammar (Cambridge, 1952), II, 357Google Scholar. Also, see al-Zamakhshanī, , al-Fā'iq fī gharī al-ḥadīth, (ed.) Abū 'l-Faḍl Ibrāhīm, Muḣammad (Cairo, 1945–1948), i, 89Google Scholar.
20 Rashīq, Ibn, i, 166. Cf. al-Mubarrad, al-Qawāfī, 12Google Scholar.
21 See Qutayba, Ibn, 46–7Google Scholar; Ibn, Rashīq, I, 167Google Scholar; ‘Abd Rabbihī, Ibn, al-‘Iqd al-Farid, v, 507Google Scholar. Some other sources, also citing al-Khalīl, give an entirely different interpretation. They define ijāza as interchange in the rhyme between letters whose points of articulation are far apart— ‘ikhtilāf al-rawī bi tabā‘udmakhārijal-ḥurūfGoogle Scholar. See ‘Abd, al-Bāqī Ibn al-Muhsin, al-Qawāfī(Beirut, 1970), 134Google Scholar; Naṣ ṣār, Ḣusayn, al-Qāfiya fī'l-‘aruḍ wa 'l-adab (Cairo, 1980), 1987Google Scholar. See also al-Damanhūrī, Muḥammad, al-Ḥāshiyat al-kubrā 'alā matn al-KāFī (Cairo, 1914), 102. Cf. note 24 belowGoogle Scholar.
22 Kaysān, Ibn, Talqīb al-qawāfī, q.v. in William, Wright (ed.), Opuscula Arabica (Leiden, 1859), 57Google Scholar.
23 al-Shantarīnī, , al-Mi‘yār fī awzān al-shi‘r, (ed.) Muḥammad, Riḍwzān al-Dāya (Beirut, 1968), 100–1:Google Scholar
He proposed that variation in the vowel desinence, especially when phonologically cognate phonemes are employed as rhyme, is to be referred to as iqwa' or ikfā'.
The examples given as illustration by al-Shantarīnī are those specifically illustrative of ikfā’ as ascribed to al-KhalģBl by certain earlier sources.
For example, see al-Marzubānī, , Muwashshaḥ, (ed.) ‘Alī, Muḥammad al-Bajāwī (lCairo, 1965), 16Google Scholar.
24 He applies the generic term ijlimā‘ al-akhawāt to interchange between cognates, employing ikfā' specifically to describe interchange involving phonologically related phonemes, and ijāzaGoogle Scholar to the co-occurrence of those that are similar in orthography. See Tha‘lab, Qawā'id al-shi‘r, (ed.) Ramaḍān, ‘Abd al-Tawwāb (Cairo, 1966) 68–9. Cf. supra note 21Google Scholar.
25 Qudāma, , Naqd al-shi‘r, (ed.) Muḥammad, ‘Khafājī, Abd al-Mun‘im (Beirut, n. d.), 181–2Google Scholar; al-Marzubānī, , Muwashshaḣ (ed. Bajāwī, ), 15–16;Google Scholarb, al-Ṣāḥib. ‘Abbād, , al-Iqnā‘ fi' ’l-‘arūḍ wa takhrīj al-qawāfī, (ed.) Muḥammad, Ḥasan Āl Yāsīn (Baghdad, 1960), 81Google Scholar; al-Khafājī, Ibn Sinān, Sirr al-faṣāḣa (Beirut, 1982), 185Google Scholar. See also al-Damanhūrī, 100-2; al-Ālūsī, 202–7Google Scholar.
26 al-Akhfash, 53,
27 Qutayba, Ibn, 45, 168Google Scholar; Muwashshah (ed. Bajāwī, ), 45, 80Google Scholar. See also al-Jumaḣī, , Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-shu‘arā’, (ed.) Maḣmūd, Muḥammad Shākir (Cairo, 1952), 55.Google Scholar
28 See Ḣammūdī, Nūrī, ‘al-Iqwā’, ‘I-shi'r al-Jāhilī’, fī, Bulletin [of the] College of Arts [Baghdad], 8, 1965, 213–22Google Scholar.
29 al-Akhfash, 42.
30 Zwettler, M., The oral tradition classical of Arabic poetry (Ohio, 1978, 104–5Google Scholar, quoting Birkeland, H., Altarabischen Pausalformen (Oslo, 1940), 13–14Google Scholar. See also Wright, Arabic Grammar, II, 357Google Scholar. Cf. Rabin, Chaim, al-Lahjāt al‘Arabiyya al-gharbiyya al-qadīma (Arabic tr.), ‘al-Raḥmān Ayyūb, Abd (Kuwait, 1986), 78–9Google Scholar.
31 Ismā'īl Muḣammad, b., otherwise known as al-Sayyid al-Ḥimyarī (d. 173/789) saysGoogle Scholar:
‘I compose (poetry), not committing iqwā’ in it, many a Tenderer of poetry commits iqwā’, thus solecism’.
See, Muwashshaḥ, (ed. Bajāwī), 3.
32 al-Jumaḥī, Ṭabaqāt (Cairo ed., 1952), 58–9;Google Scholaral-Marzubānī, , Muwashshah (ed. Bajāwī, ), 17Google Scholar; Ibn Rashīq, 166–8; al-Ālūsī, 204Google Scholar. See also Zwettler, 153 ff. But Abū ‘Alī al-Fārisī (d. 377/987) thinks somewhat differently. See Ibn Jinnī, I, 329–31Google Scholar.
33 The advice of Ibn al-A‘rābī (d. 231/844) to poets is relevant here, he said:
‘Perfect the rhymes, for they are the hoofs of poetry’.
See al-Jinnī, Ibn, al-Muḣtasab (Cairo, 1966–1969), 209–10Google Scholar. See also al-Iṣfahānī, al-Rāghib, Muhḣādarāt al-udabā’ (Beirut, 1961), I, 82Google Scholar. Cf. Ṭāha, ‘al-Karīm, Abd, ‘Structural characteristics of poetry in English and Arabic’, Bulletin [of the] College of Arts [Baghdad], 5, 1962, 73–84Google Scholar.
34 See Nūrī Ḥammūdī, 200.
35 See Van Gelder, G. J. H., ‘Breaking rules for fun: on enjambment in Classical Arabic poetry’, in The Challenges of the Middle East: Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, 1982), 30–1Google Scholar.
36 See Rashīq, Ibn, i, 178;Google ScholarḢusayn Naṣṣār, 98–9Google Scholar. Literally, al-qawādīsī means the ropes of the water mill which go up and down while drawing water, and the alternation between kasra and ḍamma is thus likened to this phenomenonGoogle Scholar.
37 See my article, ‘Interpretations in a theoretical tradition: On īṭā’ in Arabic poeticsarticle’, Journal of Arabic Literature, 21/, 1990, 155–62Google Scholar.
38 See the preceding note and my article, ‘On taḍmīn (enjambment) and structural coherence in classical Arabic poetry’, BSOAS, LII, 3, 1989, 463–66Google Scholar