The Technical Aspests of Abdul-Qahir AL-Jurjani's Theory of Versification

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to explore the technical aspectsof Sheikh Abdul-Qahir Al-Jurjani's theory of versification which isscattered in his book Dala'il ul-I'jaz and to collect these dispersed parts.Al-Jurjani's theory of versification represented an outstandingcritical and rhetorical achievement in the Arabic critical rhetoricaltradition because it provided answers to many critical questions at thatearly epoch in the history of Arabic literary criticism. It, therefore,attracted the attention of critics and rhetoricians at all subsequenttimes. Such a theory can never be found in his predecessors except forsome hints in Ibnul Muqaffa' and Al-Jahidh's works though the idea ofversification was common among the Mu'tazila and Ash'ariya but itwas not evident; it was just mere hints which no one had interpreted indetail except Al-Jurjani who gave it much importance and talked aboutit in details, linking sound to sense, rhetorical figures of speech to themiraculous nature of Qur'anic language. Al-Jurjani's theory ofversification has become a scientific basis for the interpretation of theHoly Qur'an. Furthermore, some critics tried to link Al-Jurjani's theorywith contemporary stylistics and poetics.