Glossary of Names and Terms

adab good manners, erudition, rules of conduct, belles-lettres.

‘ajab amazement.

‘ajā’ib sg. ‘ajībah mirabilia, wonders.

āmmiyyah vernacular.

‘arū prosody.

badī novel, original, figures of speech.

bar pl. buūr meter, lit. sea, big river.

balāghah eloquence.

bayt pl. abyāt line of verse.

dīwān pl. dawāwīn collected poetry.

fakhr self-praise, vaunting.

fiqh jurisprudence.

fuā pure, standard Arabic.

ghara pl. aghrā purpose, theme.

ghazal love poetry.

ghazal mu’annath love poetry on women.

ghazal mudhakkar love poetry on men.

ghun pl. aghān strophe, lit. branch.

adīth tradition, esp. about the Prophet.

hijā invective, lampoon, satire.

‘ifrīt pl. ‘afārīt demon.

‘ilm al-‘arū the science of prosody.

inshā composition, letter-writing, epistolography.

isti‘ārah metaphor.

istirād digression; satirical aside.

‘itāb reproach.

jinn sg. jinnī demons, spirits.

kāhin pl. kuhhān soothsayer, diviner.

kalām speech; speculative theology.

kātib pl. kuttāb secretary, civil servant, lit. writer.

khamriyyah pl. khamriyyāt Bacchic poem.

kharjah lit. exit; last segment of a muwashshaah.

khayāl apparition, shadow, imagination.

khayāl al-ill shadow play.

khubah pl. khuab oration, speech, sermon.

kitāb pl. kutub book.

kunyah teknonym, name beginning with Abū or Umm.

laf pl. alfā word, wording, expression.

lahw amusement, entertainment.

laqab pl. alqāb nickname, agnomen, honorific.

madī panegyric, eulogy.

ma‘nā pl. ma‘ānī meaning, sense, motif.

maqāmah pl. maqāmāt maqamah.

marthiyah pl. marāthī elegy, lament.

mathal pl. amthāl proverb, common saying, parable.

mala‘ opening stanza.

maysir pre-Islamic form of gambling.

mudath pl. mudathūn “modern” [poet/poetry].

mukharam pl. mukharamūn [poet] straddling [the pre-Islamic and Islamic eras].

munāarah pl. munāarāt debate.

mushabbah primum comparationis.

muwallad pl. muwalladūn non-classical [poet].

muwashshaah pl. muwashshaāt a kind of strophic poem.

naqīah pl. naqā’i polemical poem, in reply to another poem.

nasab genealogy, lineage.

nasīb amatory or lyrical introdution.

nathr prose.

nam versification, poetry.

qāfiyah pl. qawāfī rhyme, rhyme-word.

qarī poetry, excluding rajaz and other non-classical forms.

qaīdah pl. qaā’id qasida, ode, longer poem.

qia al-anbiyā Tales of the Prophets.

raīl journey.

rajaz name of a simple poetic meter.

rāwī pl. ruwāh transmitter or reciter of poetry.

risālah pl. rasā’il letter, epistle.

rithā elegy, lament.

riwāyah transmission.

rubā‘iyyah quatrain.

sabab element of metrical analysis.

saj‘ rhyming prose.

an‘ah artfulness.

awt voice; song text.

shā‘ir pl. shu‘arā poet.

shi‘r poetry.

sim pl. asmā strophe.

sīrah pl. siyar conduct, biography; epic, romance.

ab‘ natural talent.

tafsīr [Qur’anic] exegesis.

takhyīl make-believe.

arab strong emotion, rapture, transport.

tashbīb amatory verse.

tashbīh pl. tashbīhāt comparison, simile.

urjūzah pl. arājīz poem in rajaz meter.

wajh al-shabah tertium comparationis.

waf pl. awāf description, ekphrasis.

waf al-nāqah description of one’s she-camel.

watid element of metrical analysis.

wazn pl. awzān meter, lit. weight.

zajal pl. azjāl zajal, strophic poem in vernacular Arabic.

zuhd asceticism, renunciation.

zuhdiyyah pl. zuhdiyyāt ascetic, renunciant poem.