Arabic Metrics Research Articles

The Painting and the Background in Arabic Prosody

Following the interest in the theory, system, and method in contemporary studies, there is a clear focus on the theory of Arabic prosody in modern studies, which investigate the phonetic aspects of Arabic poetry and how they are unified with the senses in the poetry. Some scholars have introduced their hypotheses and conceptions about the metrical system of Arabic poetry. The present paper aims to introduce a new hypothesis, which concentrates on distinguishing between the metrical painting and its background as well as determining the metrical basis, rhythmic alternating units, and the metrical texture. In investigating the metrical system in Arabic, it reviews some prominent studies about Arabic metrics and discusses different metrical bases that have been proposed, such as stress, syllable length, and syllable weight, through the relation between these proposed metrical bases and the linguistic and metrical systems. In addition, the paper proposes a parallel unit to the syllable called “segment pack” to be the alternating metrical unit instead of the syllable, which has been adopted in aforementioned studies as if it is an alternating unit. Furthermore, it distinguishes between the elements of the metrical painting and its background and advances new hypotheses regarding the metrical basis and texture alongside the genesis of Arabic poetry.

Sound of Quantitative Metres in Medieval Hebrew Poetry

Abstract The conventional view of quantitative metres in medieval Hispano-Hebrew poetry confuses vowels and syllables. This is because it was syllable structure, rather than vowel typology, that produced the quantitative oppositions. Vocalic shewa was not a furtive but a regular short vowel; its syllable was light because it was not closed by a consonant. Heavy syllables were formed by closing consonants, replaceable by a long vowel, as in Arabic and other languages. Arabic metres could be used in Hebrew with no modification of their phonological basis. However, the quantitative prosody of Arabic poetry was the same as in Qurʾānic recitation, whereas its application to Hebrew contradicted the accentual prosody of the Bible. This appears to be the reason for the controversy surrounding the introduction of Arabic metrics into Hebrew poetry. Quantitative metres require only the focus on the articulatory structures to become audible. Musical durations and accents can corroborate the metre, but they can also be non-related without compromising metre perception.

Al-Qaṣīda al-Ḫazraǧiyya. Arabic Metrics Explained in Verses

Didactic poems are one of the main sources for the study of Arabic metrics; one of the best known and most widespread examples is that of al-Ḫazraǧī, Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUṯmān al-Mālikī al-Andalusī. His work, entitledal-Rāmiza al-šāfiya fī ʿilmay al-ʿarūḍ wa-l-qāfiya, came to be known asal-Qaṣīda al-Ḫazraǧiyya. The current study focuses on the presentation, translation, and description of thisqaṣīda, based on the commentary made by Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Damāmīnī (d. 827/1424) and entitledal-ʿUyūn al-ġāmiza ʿalā ḫabāyā al-rāmiza. The main objective is to offer an Italian version of theqaṣīda, and at the same time to show that the didactic poem is, even today, a convenient starting point for the study ofʿilm al-ʿarūḍ.

A-4 Analytical Study Exegeses of “Alfiyya Ibn-E-Malik”

This research deals with an Analytical Study Exegeses of “Alfiyya of Ibn Malik”. The Alfiyya of Ibn Malik is a rare book of Arabic grammar written by Ibn Malik in the 13th century. Ibn Malik was a great man, he was well versed in Arabic language and literature and Arabic grammar. He wrote works in the field of Arabic grammar, philology, Arabic metrics, Qira'at and Hadith. He left behind a number of scientific works, some in the form of prose, and other in the form of "educational poetry". Alfiyya is his by far the most important work, which made his famous and preserved memory of him to this day. Due to his overall contribution to the grammar of the Arabic language, The importance of Alfiyya of Ibn Malik can be gauged from this Along with the Ajārūmīya, the Alfiya was one of the first books to be memorized by students in religious schools after the Qur'an. Alfiyya of Ibn Malik has been included in madrassas for many years. Alfiyya of Ibn Malik was memorized in some madrassas in today’s۔ Alfiyya has been Part of the syllabus in madrassas for many years. Many Exegeses on Alfiyya of Ibn Malik have been written. These explanations have been reviewed in the following discussions.

Muestras del estrofismo andalusí y su métrica según la poesía hebrea

The first samples of Andalusi Hebrew poetry inspired by the Arabic metric and figures in the 10th century at Cordoba took the form of musammaṭ . Hebrew musammaṭ lends both strophic games and metric changes not tolerated in Hebrew poetry inspired by classical Arabic metrics. This phenomenon will occur throughout all the classical period of the Jews of Andalus (10th-12th centuries). I selected a sample of acrostic Hebrew musammaṭ in order to show this use establishing their date and place. The aim of these samples is to shed some light on two premises currently accepted: the stanzaic structure of the Andalusi poetry is rooted in the musammaṭ and the Hebrew poetry has two metrical models: quantitative and syllabic.

Fragment of a Judaeo-Arabic Treatise on Andalusi Hebrew Metrics (ʽilm al-ʽarūḍ)

Treatises on Hebrew metrics (ʽilm al-ʽarūḍ) are scarce and almost all of those that are known to scholars at present postdate the classical period of Andalusi Hebrew poetry (tenth–twelfth century). The Cairo Genizah fragment T-S Ar. 31.232 concerns Andalusi Hebrew metrics. This fragment shows how its author did not conceptualize medieval Hebrew metrics using the categories employed in its study today, but worked with purer Islamic concepts. The single damaged folio is dedicated to the different forms that the mutaqārib metre can take. It must have been written in an Islamic environment between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the golden age for this poetry in its original form. This paper includes an introduction to Arabic and Hebrew medieval metrics, the study, edition and translation of the fragment and at the end of the article, a glossary on the Arabic metrical terminology used in the fragment is provided.

Towards a systematic corpus analysis of Arabic poetry

Recent work on Arabic metrics aims at developing a coherent research programme which relies on the systematic analysis of electronic corpora. The computer program XALIYL performs, for any line of ancient Arabic poetry, an automatic recognition of the metre used. This operation takes place whatever the length of the verses, and regardless of whether they are encoded in ordinary Arabic script (with the addition of vowels) or by means of the TRS system, which relates functionally to ordinary Arabic script. XALIYL produces a textual database that contains the syllabic decomposition for each hemistich of each line, as well as its metrical analysis. It can cope not only with the general problems linked to re-syllabification and sandhi, but also with problems of syllabification specific to Arabic metrics. Errors due to the metrical scanning or to the editing of poems can be located automatically. Moreover, by allowing a computerised search for formulae, XALIYL provides significant information on the “formulaic systems” of ancient Arabic poetry.

The CV-syllable in Egyptian-Arabic verse

This is a study of some metrical peculiarities of a corpus of 159 Egyptian-Arabic quatrains. The light CV-syllable, accepted in all metrical positions, is the exclusive type in three of the eleven positions of the standard line, but it figures together with heavy syllables in the eight remaining positions. Does quantity, therefore, matter in a restricted number of cases only? The riddle is solved by distinguishing between two classes of CV-syllables, depending on whether the vowel is lax or tense: CVlax is always light, CVtense is generally heavy, but light in a weak metrical position. Other findings concern CVCV, which may fill several strong positions in the metre, and CVVC, which may be either heavy or superheavy. Superheavy CVVC can fill a strong + weak position, or, together with CVlax, two strong positions. Nothing of the sort occurs in classical Arabic; still, classical and vernacular Arabic metrics are related to a point where the existing differences are easily overlooked. Only a thorough investigation of the vernacular metres on their merits can establish the exact relationship between classical and vernacular prosodic systems.

The phonology of classical Arabic meter

We propose a phonologically well motivated theory of metrics that avoids several problems (e.g. ternarity and center-headedness) with the traditional analysis of Arabic metrics (al-Xalīl †c. 791 ; Maling 1973 ; Prince 1989). We propose that the content of a metrical position is universally restricted to three prosodically motivated units : L, H, LL and that binarity holds at the levels of the verse foot and metron. This constrains the number of possible verse feet to nine and leads to the insight that the traditional Arabic verse feet are in reality metra (pairs of verse feet). The different degrees of popularity of the Arabic meters (cf. corpora in Vadet 1955 ; Stoetzer 1986 ; Bauer 1992), we argue, can be understood as a direct function of rythmic well-formedness. The best meters are all iambic (Ewald 1825 ; Jacob 1967 [1897] ; Fleisch 1956), the rhythmic advantage being that they contain no rhythmic lapse (Kager 1993), an important constraint in Arabic phonology and morphology generally (Fleisch 1956 ; McCarthy and Prince 1990). Relative rhythmic well-formedness is formally expressible under a simple constraint-based analysis (cf. Prince and Smolensky 1993)

Métrique arabe : une alternative au modèle xalilien

G. Bohas & B. Paoli This article is an attempt to provide some new insights in the analysis of Classical Arabic metrics and to bring to light some arguments against al-Xalîl's theory of circles, by eliminating one of its fundamental elements, the minimal unit (watid mafrûq, <- >). This theory prevented from discovering important generalizations, which imply the reorganization of the metrical system.

Some Observations On Quantity in Arabic Metrics

Some Observations On Quantity in Arabic Metrics