Arabic prosody

Meters

The feet of an Arabic poem are traditionally represented by mnemonic words called ar (تفاعيل). In most poems there are eight of these: four in the first half of the verse and four in the second; in other cases, there will be six of them, meaning three in the first half of the verse and three in the second.

The ar (بحور) (meters) (sg. baḥr بحر), identified according to the traditional method, are the following. Underneath each meter is its scansion by the European method (read from left to right), where – = a long syllable, u = a short syllable, x = either long or short, uu = 1 long or two shorts.

The meters most commonly used are those of circles 1 and 2 (apart from the ar, which is rare). Those meters marked with an asterisk (*) are mainly theoretical, and in practice rarely used by poets.

Circle 1

: Ṭawīl (طَوِيل) "long": ar (فَعُولُنْ مَفَاعِيلُنْ فَعُولُنْ مَفَاعِلُنْ) :::| u – x | u – – – | u – x | u – u – |

: Madīd (مَدِيد) "protracted": ar (فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلُنْ فَاعِلَاتُنْ) :::| x u – – | x u – | x u – – |

: Basīṭ (بَسِيط) "spread out": ar (مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ فَاعِلُنْ مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ فَعِلُنْ) :::| x – u – | x u – | – – u – | uu – |

Circle 2

: Kāmil (كَامِل) "complete": ar (مُتَفَاعِلُنْ مُتَفاعِلُنْ مُتَفَاعِلُنْ) :::| uu – u – | uu – u – | uu – u – |

: Wāfir (وَافِر) "abundant": ar (مُفَاعَلَتُنْ مُفاعَلَتُنْ فَعولُنْ) :::| u – uu – | u – uu – | u – – |

Circle 3

: Hazaj (هَزَج) "trilling": ar (مَفَاعِيلُنْ مَفَاعِيلُنْ) :::| u – – x | u – – x |

: Rajaz (رَجَز) "trembling": ar (مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ) :::| x – u – | x – u – | x – u – |

: Ramal (رَمَل) "trotting": ar (فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلُنْ) :::| x u – – | x u – – | x u – |

Circle 4

: Sarīʿ (سَرِيع) "swift": ar (مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ فَاعِلُنْ) :::| x x u – | x x u – | – u – |

: Munsariħ (مُنْسَرِح) "quick-paced": ar (مُسْتَفْعِلُن فَاعِلَاتْ مُفْتَعِلُنْ) :::| x – u – | – x – u | – u u – |

: Khafīf (خَفِيف) "light": ar (فَاعِلَاتُنْ مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ فَاعِلَاتُنْ) :::| x u – x | – – u – | x u – x |

: *Muḍāriʿ (مُضَارِع) "similar": ar (مَفَاعِيلُ فَاعِلَاتُنْ) :::| u – x x | – u – – |

: *Muqtaḍab (مُقْتَضَبّ) "untrained": ar (فَاعِلَاتُ مُفْتَعِلُنْ) :::| x u – u | – u u – |

: Mujtathth (مُجْتَثّ) "cut-off": ar (مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ فَاعِلَاتُنْ) :::| x – u – | x u – – |

Circle 5

: Mutaqārib (مُتَقَارِب) "nearing": ar (فَعُولُنْ فَعُولُنْ فَعُولُنْ فَعُولُنْ) :::| u – x | u – x | u – x | u – |

: *Mutadārik (مُتَدَارِك) "overtaking": ar (فَعِلُنْ فَعِلُنْ فَعِلُنْ فَعِلُنْ) :::| x u – | x u – | x u – | (x u –) | ( – can be substituted for u u)

Sequences of three short syllables are not found in any Arabic meter, except occasionally in a variation of the rajaz meter, in which | x – u – | may sometimes be replaced by | x u u – |.

Frequency of the meters

Analysis of anthologies of classical Arabic poetry shows that some of these meters are much more common than others. The most common meter by far in early poetry is the ar; the ar, ar, and ar are also fairly common; the ar (which are sometimes considered to be variants of the same meter) and the ar occur occasionally; and the others are rarely found.

Thus in Vadet's (1955) corpus of Bedouin poetry of the 1st–3rd century AD, containing nearly 2,300 poems and fragments, the ar is used in 50% of the poems, the ar in 18%, the ar in 14%, and the ar in 11%. The ar make 3%, ar 2.4%, and all the rest together about 2%.

In Stoetzer's (1986) corpus of 130 poems of the 8th century, the ar accounts for 35% of the poems, ar 20%, ar 14%, ar 13%, ar 3%, ar 7%, and the rest about 6%.

Among the 1385 short poems included in the Arabian Nights, ar is used in 24%, ar 24%, ar 23%, ar 10%, ar 2%, ar 2%, ar 5%, ar 4%, ar 1%, ar 1%, and ar 3%. The ar and the ar almost never occur, and the ar, ar, and ar do not occur at all. These last three were usually regarded as artificial meters. The ar breaks almost all regular rules of meter, however it was highly regarded by Arabic Grammarians in the 10th century CE, and was noted for its eloquence. Its earliest attestation is in the 7th century CE by Amr Bin Jabir Al Jani in a poem for praise of the prophet:

The collated figures can be expressed in a table as follows:

Al-Khalil's terminology

Al-Khalil was primarily a grammarian and using the grammatical terminology of his day he made use of the terms ar "mobile letter" (i.e. one followed by a vowel) and ar "quiescent letter" (i.e. one not followed by a vowel) to build up larger prosodic units, which he called "peg" (ar or ar, pl. ar) and "cord" or "guy-rope" (ar, pl. ar). In European descriptions, these are conventionally abbreviated "P" and "K" respectively. A "peg" is a sequence of two syllables, usually short + long (u –) (a ar); but occasionally in the rarely used metres of circle 4, long + short (– u) (a ar). A "cord" is a short syllable (u), long syllable (–), or two shorts (u u). Surprisingly, al-Khalil's system makes no use of the concept of the syllable as such.

The ar is repeated at fixed points along the line and is generally unchanging, while the ar or cords are the syllables in between which could be modified. A peg and either one or two cords makes a ar (pl. ar) "tent pole or support" or what in European terms is called a foot. Thus a half-line of the ar metre (ar, | u – x | u – x – | u – x | u – u – |) is analysed as PK PKK PK PKK. A complete line of poetry usually consists of either six or eight feet, but sometimes shorter lines are found.

When analysing a verse, an Arab prosodist begins by rewriting the line phonetically, that is, as it is actually pronounced. Doubled letters are written twice and silent letters, such as the ar of the article when it follows a vowel, are omitted. Thus the word اَلْكَرِيم, ar in ar writing is written phonetically as "لكريم". In a word like ar (اَلْشَّمْس, pronounced ar, meaning "the sun"), where the "l" of the article is assimilated to the first consonant of the noun, the actual sound is written instead; so in ar writing, this is written ششمس (ššms). Then each mobile letter is represented by a vertical line (ا), known as ar, and each quiescent letter by a small circle (ه), known as ar. Thus a ar will be represented in the scansion by two ar symbols and one ar.

A line of poetry, known as a ar (بيت "tent"), is composed of two half-lines or hemistichs, each of which is known as a ar (مصراع "door-flap"). The first half-line is called the ar (صَدْر, literally "forepart"), and the other is called the ar (عَجُز, literally "rear"). The ar and the ar have two parts each:

• The last word of the ar is called the ar ("central pole of a tent") and the rest of it is called ar (حَشُو ٱلصَّدْر, meaning "the filling of the forepart")
• The last word of the ar is called the ar (literally "the hitting (of the tent-peg)") and the rest of it is called ar (حَشُو ٱلْعَجُز, meaning "the filling of the rear").

The last consonant of the ar and the vowel that comes after it are called the ar (رويّ) and its last two ars, all the ar letters that are in between, and the last ar before them, is called the ar (قَافِيَّة) or 'rhyme'.

Al-Khalil's circles

Khalil noticed that the metres can be divided into different groups. If a meter is written out in a circle, then by starting in different places on the circle it is possible to derive the other meters of the same group. Expressed in terms of syllables rather than Khalil's silent and moving letters, the different circles can be tabulated as follows. The columns marked P are the "pegs" (awtād), while between each peg and the next are either one or two "cords" (asbāb). The order of metres is the one traditionally used by poets such as Al-Maʿarri, who arranged his poems not only by rhyme by also metrically.

Meters in the same circle have similar features. For example, the meters in circle 1 all make use of feet of 3 syllables alternating with feet of 4 syllables. Both meters in circle 2 make use of biceps elements, in which a pair of short syllables can be replaced by a long one (uu); meters of circle 4 all have one place in the hemistich (half-line) where the watid is a trochee (– u) instead of an iamb (u –); the meters of circle 5 have short feet of PK PK or KP KP.

The above meters are given in their tetrameter form, but some (such as the madīd) are generally found with only three feet per hemistich.

As Stoetzer (1982) points out, the anceps syllables (x) in tables such as the above are in many cases not really anceps, but merely an abstraction to make it seem that two different meters belong to the same circle. For example, the penultimate syllable of the Ṭawīl (the 13th) in practice is always short, while the corresponding syllable in Basīṭ (the 8th) is always long.

Variations

Variations of these meters can be found. Some exist in shorter or longer forms, for example with either three or four feet in each half-line (known as trimeter and tetrameter respectively). Some meters have a catalectic variation, in which the end of the line is shortened by one syllable.

A whole series of Arabic technical terms exists to describe these variations. Minor variations which affect the cords only are known as ar (singular: ar); major variations which affect the beginning or end of a line are known as ar (singular ar). There are 14 possible ar and 34 possible ar.

For example, if the foot ar (– – u –) is replaced by ar (u – u –), it is said to be ar, that is, it has undergone the ar known as ar "hemming" or "shortening".

If the line-ending ar (– – u –) is replaced by ar (– – –) that is, if the line is catalectic, the meter is said to be ar, that is, it has undergone the ar known as ar "cutting" or "curtailment".

A full description of all the ar and ar is given in Elwell-Sutton (1976), pp. 13–39.

Minor rules of prosody

There are a number of prosodic conventions which are observed in writing and scanning Arabic poetry, of which the following are the most important:

• The case endings -u (Nominative), -a (Accusative), -i (Genitive), known as ʾiʿrāb, which in prose are always omitted in pronunciation at the end of a clause or sentence, are usually pronounced in poetry, even at the end of a sentence.
• At the end of a line (and sometimes at the end of the first hemistich), any vowel is considered long. in this position a short -i can rhyme with a long one. The vowel fatḥa (a) at the end of a line is written with an alif, as if it were a long vowel.
• The -n on the indefinite case endings -un, -an, -in is dropped at the end of a line, making -ū, -ā, -ī. (This does not apply at the end of the first half-line, however.)
• The ending -hu "his" is frequently pronounced with a long vowel: -hū. The pronoun anā "I" can also be scanned as ana.
• A long ī can occasionally rhyme with a long ū; for example, ar "the Nile" can rhyme with ar "acceptable".
• Although the two halves of a bayt are usually separate, it is not uncommon to find lines where there is no break between them, and a word continues across the division in the middle of the line.

References

Bibliography

• Abdel-Malek, Zaki N. (2019)Towards a New Theory of Arabic Prosody (5th edition).
• Alnagdawi, M., et al. (2013). "Finding Arabic Poem Meter using Context Free Grammar". J. of Commun. and Comput. Eng. 3.1.52-59
• Elwell-Sutton, L.P. (1976).The Persian Metres. Cambridge University Press.
• Frolov, Dmitry (1996). "The Circles of al-Khalil and the structure of Luzumiyyat of Abu 'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri". Studies in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. Memorial Volume of Karel Petraček, Praha, 1996, 223-236.
• Golston, Chris & Riad, Tomas (1997). "The Phonology of classical Arabic meter". Linguistics 35 (1997), 111-132.
• Maling, J.M. (1973). The Theory of Classical Arabic Metrics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. PhD Thesis.
• McCarus, Ernest N. (1983). "Identifying the Meters of Arabic Poetry", Al-'Arabiyya vol 16. no. 1/2, pp. 57–83. (Georgetown University Press).
• Scott, Hazel (2009). "Pegs, Cords, and Ghuls: Meter of Classical Arabic Poetry". Swarthmore College.
• Stoetzer, Willem (1982). "Some Observations on Quantity in Arabic Metrics". Journal of Arabic Literature, Vol. 13 (1982), pp. 66–75. (JSTOR)
• Stoetzer, W.F.G.J. (1989), Theory and Practice in Arabic Metrics, Het Oosters Instituut, Leiden.
• Weil, Gotthold (1958), Grundriss und System der altarabischen Metren (Wiesbaden).
• Wright, W. (1951). A Grammar of the Arabic Language, vol. II, Cambridge University Press, pp. 350–390.

References

1. Elwell-Sutton (1976), p. 42.
2. Elwell-Sutton (1976), p. 3; Scott (2009), p. 8.
3. Golston & Riad, pp. 120-121.
4. Scott (2009), p. 7
5. Frolov (1996), p. 4.
6. The translations are from Elwell-Sutton (1976), p. 40.
7. Also known as Khabab ({{lang. ar. الخبب) "ambling" or Muḥdath ({{lang. ar. المحدث) "innovated" ([[:ar:عروض. Arabic Wikipedia]])
8. McCarus (1983), p. 78.
9. Sir Richard Burton, ''The Arabian Nights'', vol. 10, terminal essay.
10. Scott (2009), pp. 8-9.
11. Maling (1973), pp. 26-7.
12. Elwell-Sutton, (1976), p. 3.
13. Lane, [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000315.pdf ''Arabic Dictionary''].
14. Maling (1973), p. 29; Scott (2009), p. 10.
15. See for example Alnagdawi (2013).
16. Lane, ''Arabic-English Lexicon'' p. 2010.
17. Adapted from L.P. Elwell-Sutton (1975), [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4300527 "The Foundations of Persian Prosody and Metrics"], ''Iran'', Vol. 13 (1975), pp. 75-97; p. 80 (based on Weil 1958); see also Scott (2009), p. 10.
18. Frolov (1996).
19. cf. M. ben Cheleb, [https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-1/madid-SIM_4404?s.num=18 "Madīd"], ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', First Edition (1913-1936) (Brill).
20. Stoetzer (1982), p. 75.
21. Elwell-Sutton (1982), p. 14.
22. McCarus (1983), p. 81-82.
23. Wright (1896), ''A Grammar of the Arabic Language'', vol. 2, p. 253.
24. Arberry (1965). ''Arabic Poetry: A Primer for Students'', p. 133.