Not everything that rhymes is verse: only metrical, rhymed speech is considered poetry according to traditional Arabic opinion. Non-metrical, rhymed prose is called saj‘. In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times it was used for special occasions and genres: pithy sayings, maxims, proverbs, speeches of heightened emotion or for solemn occasions, and for the oracular, often enigmatic, mantic utterances of soothsayers and diviners (kuhhān, sg. kāhin). The early suras of the Qur’an also use rhyme or assonance that resembles the soothsayers’ saj‘, and the Prophet took pains to make it understood that he was neither a poet (shā‘ir) nor a soothsayer (kāhin). In the course of the Abbasid period polished and artful kinds of saj‘ were used by epistolographers, chancery scribes, and increasingly in other prose genres, notably the maqāmah; it is also widely used in book titles.
In Arabic editions rhyming segments are often separated by full stops, even when the sentence runs on. This does not work in English, so I have used asterisks instead to mark these divisions in the pieces below where the saj‘ is imitated in translation.
The mother of the pre-Islamic poet-brigand Ta’abbaṭa Sharrā, lamenting her son:330
wā-bnāh wa-bna l-layl * laysa bi-zummayl * sharūbun lil-qayl * raqūdun bil-layl * wa-wādin dhī hawl * ’ajazta bil-layl * taḍribu bidh-dhayl * bi-rajlin ka-th-thawl
O son, son of the night * he is no coward taking flight * who drinks at noon bright * or sleeps at night * many a wadi full of fright * you crossed at night * shaking your coat’s hem (?)331 * with men like bees in a swarm.
Quss Ibn Sā‘idah (legendary pre-Islamic orator), preaching, and apparently foretelling the coming of Islam:332
’ayyuhā n-nāsu sma‘ū * wa-‘ū * man ‘āsha māt * wa-man māta fāt * wa-kullu mā huwa ’ātin ’āt *…
O people, hear * and be aware! * Whoever lives will die * whoever dies will disappear * and everything that will come to pass will come near! * A dark night * Constellations in the sky * Seas that rise * Stars that shine * Light and darkness * Piety and sins * Eating and drinking * Clothing and mounts for riding * How is it that I see people pass away * and not return? * Are they pleased to stay so they stayed away? * Or have they been abandoned so they went to sleep? * By the God of Quss ibn Sā‘idah: there is on the face of the earth no religion better than a religion the time of which has come, with its shade to protect you * and its moment has reached you * Blessed he who reaches it and follows it * Woe to him who opposes it *
A prophecy about the ruler of Kindah (Central Arabia), Ḥujr ibn al-Ḥārith (father of the poet Imru’ al-Qays) by ‘Awf ibn Rabī‘ah, a pre-Islamic kāhin (soothsayer; first half of the sixth century):333
mani l-maliku l-’aṣhab * al-ghallābu ghayru l-mughallab * fī l-’ibili ka-’annahā r-rabrab * lā ya‘laqu ra’sahu ṣ-ṣakhab * hādhā damuhū yantha‘ib * wa-hādhā ghadan ’awwalu man yuslab *
Who is the fair-haired king * unvanquished, vanquishing * amidst camels like a herd advancing * his head unaffected by the clamoring * this one’s blood will be gushing * and this one will tomorrow be the first for plundering.
Two fragments attributed to Musaylimah, the “false prophet” in the time of Muḥammad, who was active in Eastern Arabia and was defeated shortly after Muḥammad’s death (the texts sound like a parody of the Qur’an):
ḍifda‘u bintu ḍifda‘ayn * niqqī mā taniqqīn * ’a‘lāki fī l-mā’i wa-’asfaluki fī ṭ-ṭīn * lā l-mā’a tukaddirīn * wa-lā sh-shāriba tamna‘īn *334
Frog, daughter of two frogs! * Croak! What are you croaking? * Your top half in the water soaking, * your lower half in the mud poking! * The drinker you rile not, * the water you soil not. * We have half the earth and Quraysh335 the other half, but Quraysh are a hostile lot.
wal-mubdiyāti zar‘ā * wal-ḥāṣidāti ḥaṣdā * wadh-dhāriyāti qamḥā * waṭ-ṭāḥināti ṭaḥnā * wal-khābizāti khubzā *wath-thāridāti thardā * wal-lāqimāti laqmā * ’ihālatan wa-samnā *336
By the seed-sowing women * and the crop-reaping women * and the wheat- winnowing women * and the flour-milling women * and the bread-baking women * and the bread-broth-sopping women * and the women gobbling morsels * of fat and butter: * You are better than the dwellers in tents of hair. * Nor do the village dwellers take precedence over you. * Your cultivated fields, defend them! * He who addresses you humbly, harbor him! * And the oppressor, oppose him!
Someone about to be beheaded is asked, “Are you scared (a-tajza‘)?” He replies:337
’in ’ajza‘ fa-qad ’arā kafanan manshūrā * wa-sayfan mashhūrā * wa-qabran maḥfūrā!
Wouldn’t I be scared seeing a shroud spread and aired, a sword bared, and a grave prepared!