Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical Period

The processes of cultural change that affected the world of Arabic literature during the fifth/eleventh century reflect a situation in which certain cultural forms chose to remain aloof from all events and trends connected with modernization. As a result, other forms of expression, ones that were in closer contact with such events and trends and could thus give them expression, came into existence. It was at this time that a variety of sub-genres of poetry emerged, including the muwashshaḥ and zajal in Spain, ῾arūḍ al-balad in the Maghrib, mawāliya, qūmā, kān wa-kān, dūbayt in the eastern regions (especially Iraq) and sung poetry called al-humaynī in Yemen (these genres are discussed in greater detail in Larkin’s contribution to this volume, Chapter 10). These were all modernist genres, or, to cite Ibn Khaldūn’s term for them, muwallada. It is precisely the general cultural influences that led to the appearance of these genres of expression that are also responsible for the emergence of the band genre as a new mode of expression.

The band is considered one of the literary modes of expression that emerged during the period of major cultural decentralization that early Arabic literature witnessed. The process engendered local cultural phenomena which, it would appear, were increasingly unwilling to tolerate the established norms of the higher culture. As a result, the band does not conform with many of the dicta of that higher culture regarding grammatical rules and discourse styles. Like the above-mentioned genres, the band did not conform with the rhythmical, stylistic or verbal structures that traditional Arabic literature had firmly established. Instead such structures were abandoned in favour of others that more closely matched the cultural environment that led to their very emergence. The genre emerged and spread initially in southern Iraq and its geographical extensions to the east and south. This, of course, is a region that from earliest times had witnessed cultural, linguistic, religious and racial incursions – Arab, Persian, Turkish, Islamic, Christian and Magian, not to mention a variety of popular beliefs, movements, sects and other categories of often conflicting endeavour. It is this fertile set of influences that are reflected in the band genre. It was heavily influenced by them and responded to a number of their particular characteristics – in the process of nomenclature, in its rhythmic systems and in its subject matter.

The prevalent view is that the word banditself is of foreign provenance; it is seen as entering Arabic through mutual borrowings between Arabic and its neighbour languages, as part of the cultural exchanges within the region as a whole. In the Arabic lexicon the word band has come to mean ‘standard’ or ‘flag’, and anything connected with such military notions. According to Karl Vollers in his Persian–Latin dictionary, band in Persian conveys the sense of ‘imagination’, ‘thought’ or ‘expectation’. However, a major modern linguist, Father Anastas Mīrī al-Karmalī (d. 1367/1947), relies on the definition provided by Reinhart Dozy in suggesting that the word band is connected with the idea of language-games and brain-teasers. From the linguistic works of Vollers, Dozy and al-Karmalī we may conclude that the band is an original form of literary expression, but it has as yet not proved possible to establish the precise ‘genre’ of this particular form of writing. Indeed, the task of assigning this band form to a particular genre has proved troublesome for researchers. When the Iraqi poet Jamīl Ṣidqī al-Zahawī (d. 1355/1936) was asked about the matter, he replied that it represented ‘the mid-point between poetry and prose’.¹ This suggestion, namely that the bandis a kind of half-breed genre, almost a conjunction, between poetry and prose, has aroused considerable interest. Researchers are divided into separate camps on the subject. One group maintains that it is verse discourse based on a specific and repeated metrical foot that continues throughout the text, but its rhymes and rhyming feet can be changed with no effect on the metrical pattern. The lines of poetry can vary in number of segments; each line consists of a single unit.² A second group regards the band as poetry pure and simple. Indeed they suggest that it is the form of early Arabic poetry that is closest to (modern) free verse; it is based on the foot of one of the metres of classical Arabic poetry, namely hazaj, and is not bound by the convention of two halves to each line (which is the norm in classical Arabic poetry).³ A third group considers the band to be metred, rhyming prose (saj‘) with a strong resemblance to prose poetry.⁴ There is also a fourth group that subsumes the band within the category of riddles, cryptograms and puzzles, all of them literary genres of obscure origin, that are included among the categories of verbal art relished by later periods. This last group claims that the band is a type of rhyming prose (saj‘) whose sentences are constructed on a specific rhythm and divided into short segments of metrical discourse, thus engendering various rhythms that convey the effect of poetry while not actually being so.

The question of the historical origins of the band involves the history of its development, the region in which it emerged, and the influences that led to its appearance. The controversy can be clarified by dividing it up into the following sub-categories. The first is represented by the view of Muḥammad al-Hāshimī, who believes that the earliest text can be attributed to the famous linguist Ibn Durayd (d. 321/933) and that the earliest writers of band were Iraqis; indeed that was the only region where it was known.⁵ This opinion is based on the existence of a short text cited by al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1012) in his book, I῾jāz al-Qur᾽ān (The Inimitability of the Koran). Al-Bāqillānī embarks on a detailed discussion of the exclusion of poetry from the Koranic text; he is at some pains to refute the notion that the Koran contains discourse that has the metrical features of poetry. It is as part of this discussion that he introduces the short text that al-Hāshimī regards as the fīrst example of band.⁶

The second category is represented by the famous Iraqi poet al-Zahawī and by Father al-Karmalī. This view suggests that the band is of Persian and Turkish origin, and was adopted by the Iraqis, especially from the Persians. One of the meanings of the word band is a line of poetry that has a rhyme different from those of the rest of the lines in the poem,⁷ a kind of poetry that is widespread in Persia where it is regarded as a discredited and unauthentic type of poetic creation.

The third category can be represented by Muḥammad ḥasan al-ḥillī. He is of the opinion that the band developed out of the tradition of the Epistles of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ (Brethren of Purity), a model that developed relatively late and was subsumed within the artistic confines of traditional Arabic prose. According to this theory, writers of epistles developed literary modes of expression that were part prose, part verse, and at first done almost unconsciously. With time these styles developed and were used for personal themes without anyone being particularly aware that they were a kind of poetry. The styles became highly regarded and were much admired in southern and eastern regions of Iraq. Thereafter the band’s themes became more varied, and it was used to give expression to sentiments and personal relationships. It was also adapted for religious purposes – homilies, spiritual guidance and such categories – and was particularly prevalent in the eleventh/seventeenth century.⁸

Taking a closer critical look at these different theories, we can posit the following conclusions: they are based either on sheer guesswork – inflating the significance of ancillary matters in order to bolster historical claims – or else on the notion of rivalry between different national literatures and the necessities of mutual influence. It would appear that the band’s oral provenance led to a lack of critical concern, added to which is its acknowledged departure from prevailing stylistic, rhythmic and verbal structures. What is certain is that the first text in oral and recorded form which has come to light thus far is a collection of bands attributed to the poet Ibn Ma῾tūq al-Mūsawī (d. 1087/1676). There are five bands in all, and their general conformity and organized structure lead one to the conclusion that they had precedents. Interest in the band began to develop soon after this, but it was analysed by scholars who knew nothing about the metrics of Arabic poetry and possessed none of the academic grounding in morphology, syntax and the like expected of a literary critic.⁹ Unfortunately reciters were no more knowledgeable than the authors themselves. All of which makes it impossible to say anything definite about the situation of the band in its earliest phases. In the eleventh/seventeenth century one writer of band was ῾ Abd al-Ra’ūf ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Jadhafsī (d. 1113/1701), while in the eighteenth we find up to fifteen writers, among whom are Balīl al-Ḥusaynī, al-Zaynī al-Baghdādī, al-῾Asharī, al-Hā’irī, al-Biktashī and Ibn Khilfa, and in the nineteenth, ῾ al-Ghaffār al-Akhras, al-῾Āmilī, al-Muẓaffar, al-Jazā’irī, al-῾Idharī and al-Ḥillī. In the twentieth century the number goes down, and only a few writers seem interested in writing the band, among them al-Shalijī, al-Qazwīnī, Abū Ṭabikh and al-Wā῾iẓ.¹⁰

There is radical disagreement concerning the band’s rhythmic structure. Scholars divide into two completely separate and opposing camps: one claims the band is poetry, the other that it is prose. Early in 1922, al-Hāshimī, for whom the band is a kind of saj‘discourse, noted that certain saj‘ segments in the band conform with the metrical pattern of hazaj.¹¹ This suggestion, grounded on the supposition that the band can be simultaneously linked to poetry and prose, drew the attention of scholars in the next generation to the need to examine its rhythmical structure. In that context, the views of al-Dujaylī come into play. He does not say whether the band is to be considered poetry or prose, but accepts al-Zahāwī’s view that it constitutes a mid-point between the two. Even so, he notes that if it maintained a single rhyme, it would be poetry in the hazaj metre. His investigations lead him to the conclusion that the band uses the hazaj foot and its segments which are repeated four times in each line.

The poetess Nāzik al-Malā’ika devotes a complete chapter in her well-known book, Qaḍāyā᾽l-shi῾r al-mu῾āṣir (Problems of Contemporary Poetry) to a study of prosodic issues connected with the band genre. At first she rejects all views claiming that the band uses the hazaj metre alone and its basic foot (of the pattern mafā῾īlun). Influenced by the urgent need to trace the origins of the modern free-verse poem (of which she is one of the pioneers), she proceeded to categorize the band as poetry that is free of the constraints imposed by the system of dividing lines of poetry into halves and of rhyme. Instead she suggested a pattern of repeated feet, that being the characteristic feature of free verse. She then determined that it combines the metres of hazaj and ramal, this fusion of the two constituting a new development in the metrics of Arabic poetry. Conforming to the general system of rhythm in the traditional Arabic qaṣīda, it engenders innovation without departing from its basic principles.

These analyses by Nāzik al-Malā’ika, one of the outstanding theorists on the rhythmic structure of modern Arabic poetry and also one of its finest poets, are clearly highly competent. Even so, they fail to provide a complete picture of the rhythmic structure of the band. Here another researcher, Muṣṭafā Jamāl al-Dīn, enters the picture, suggesting that the band uses three metres – ‘pure hazaj’, ‘pure ramal’ and a third metre which is a fusion of the two as required by the nature of band.

However, even this is not the end of the story. Yet another specialist who has looked into the question is ῾Alī ῾Abbās ῾Alwān. He suggests that the band has three metres – hazaj, ramal and rajaz. His reasoning is that the three metres are all in the circle of al-Khalīl’s prosodic system that is called mujtalab; they can thus be easily distinguished because the musical measure in temporal terms is one and the same.¹² Another researcher, Muḥammad ḥasan al-Ḥillī, adopts the same approach.¹³ However, Jamīl al-Malā’ika, who has devoted a valuable and detailed study to the rhythm of band, is of the opinion that the mujtalab circle on its own – with its three metres – is not sufficient to subsume within it all the issues connected with the band’s rhythmic patterns. Instead, he suggests a new circle that he terms the ‘band circle’, thereby negating the possibility of the band having a predictable metrical pattern within al-Khalīl’s system.

Opinions that regard the band as a prose genre are considerably fewer. Hardly a single study exists that deals with the rhythmic structure of the band as prose in the light of the rhythmic patterns of saj‘, that being a varied, flexible and evolving rhythm. While the rhythmic systems of poetry may be characterized by a certain degree of stability, those of prose are anything but that. Influenced by the needs of speech transmission and relying on the demands of reception, the rhythmic systems of prose were continually being refashioned. And it was not merely themes that changed, but forms as well.

Al-Hāshimī had pointed to the prosaic nature of the band, regarding it as metred discourse in saj‘ . ¹⁴ The historian ῾Abbās al- ῾Azzāwī believes that, while the band does resemble verse, it is closer to prose or is a mid-point between the two.¹⁵ However it is al-Rāfī῾ī who is the most explicit. He states that it is a type of saj‘ writing whose sentences are based on rhythm; it is divided into short segments that orchestrate differing rhythmic patterns, thus lending them a poetic feeling even though they are not actually poetry.¹⁶ Unfortunately this suggestion has gone the way of all flesh, mostly for cultural reasons. First, the saj‘ mode of Arabic prose writing disappeared before the emergence of the band as a literary-historical problem, largely because the topic of saj‘ itself was not usually discussed in studies on literature; second, serious research on the band’s rhythmic structure qua poetry was adversely impacted by the furious arguments in Iraqi cultural circles over free verse and its rules. Other scholars joined with Nāzik al-Malā’ika in this fight, and as a result the problem of modern poetry produced a ‘victory’, one that inevitably demanded the creation of a history. It was in this context that the band came to be utilized, invoked as part of that very history.¹⁷

The general metrical structure of saj‘ demands a degree of rhythmic balance between phrases.¹⁸ Thus, some saj‘ segments require a conformity in metre and rhyme between the different phrases, making them equivalent to each other– neither of them longer than the other and each saj‘ unit mirroring the other(s), whereas other segments will be free of these requirements, with no expectation of equivalence. There are then two types. The first requires that the phrases should coincide on their rhyming syllable, with progressive degrees of excellence; this starts with metrical parallelism of phrase and equality of length, then examines the balance between the final two words in the phrase alone (ignoring the others), and concludes by looking at congruence in the rhyming syllable without being concerned about balance in the remaining parts of the segment. The second type differs in its rhyming syllable between the two segments, and is of two sorts: in the first a metrical pattern is observed in all, or at least most of, the segments, along with a parallelism between one word and its metrical equivalent in the other phrase (this being regarded as the best kind of saj‘ in the prose realm), or else that the balance be observed only in the final two words; the second sort occurs in poetry and is termed taṣrī ῾.

What is noteworthy here is that the balancing of phrases involves a freedom to make them equivalent in one type but not in another; and the same with rhyme and the question as to whether the rhyme is internal to the phrase or at the end. It is also clear that general criteria existed for evaluating the excellence of saj‘. Thus, if it was thought best that every pair of rhyming words (or perhaps even three or four, but no more) should rhyme on a single consonant, then anything that went beyond that could be regarded as excessively elaborate. If it was deemed aesthetically most pleasing for the segments to be balanced, or, if not, for the final part to be longer with the additional caveat that segments be in a single metre (even if not a single rhyming consonant), then equivalence and balance would be the anticipated result.

From the preceding paragraphs it emerges that five types of rhythmic system for saj‘ can be identifīed; together they constitute the rhythmic structure of Arabic prose in saj‘. They are:

When different systems interact with each other, they adopt forms in accordance with the demands of the expressive mode required. A general framework is created, endowed with rhythmic patterns that sometimes accumulate rapidly and at others stay separate, forming a much more measured sequence. This principle can be illustrated with what is considered to be the first band known to us. It is by Ma῾tūq al-Mūsawī who lived in the seventeenth century. It begins: Ayyuhā ᾽l-rāqid fī᾽l-ẓulma (O you, lying asleep in the dark).¹⁹ Before we proceed to examine the rhythmic saj‘-based structure of al-Mūsawī’s band, we need to point out that, when the five systems we referred to above interact, they adopt forms that can be extrapolated from the principal sources that have focused on the topic.²⁰ Among the most important are:

1. A form in which the saj‘ segments can be of equal length and generally consist of two or three phrases which may coincide either in metre and rhyming consonant or else in the two final words of the segments, and in which the rhyming consonant may differ while the metre is the same, or vice versa;

2. A form where the second saj‘ segment is longer than the first;

3. A form where the second segment is shorter than the first;

4. A form where the second segment is longer than the first, the third is longer than the second and so on (which Devin Stewart has characterized as ‘a pyramidal structure’;²¹

5. A form consisting of two segments in saj‘ of equal or almost equal length, followed by another segment that is longer; a form that can be reckoned as having segments of varying lengths.

In Ma῾tūq al-Mūsawī’s band the saj‘ expressions adhere to the principles of rhyme and balance in their final phrases, but the internal rhythms vary, ranging from complete adherence, to relatively minimal departure from the norm, and to occasional complete departure. This flexibility and free intermingling bring with them variations in rhythm and eliminate any sense of monotony. The result is an obvious fluctuation in tone (nagham). The rhythmic patterning of saj‘ then cannot be regarded as a closed structure. The opening parts of each saj‘ expression are not regarded as part of the metrical pattern; there are many of these, ranging from consonants, to words, to short expressions. This manages to resolve the problem that has dogged previous researchers on the band’s prosody, namely the existence of the patterns termed sabab (cord) and watad (peg) at the beginning of the phrase. Furthermore no heed is paid to expansions at the end of expressions in the final unit of the band, something that has also aroused a lot of argument and that al-Zarkashī regarded as being common expansions in saj‘.²²

Previous paragraphs have clearly revealed the nature of the disagreement that colours debate over the rhythmic structure of the band. As we have already seen, such a statement does not necessitate compulsory emendments to band texts; indeed it manages to avoid unresolvable arguments about the rhythmic structure of the band as poetry, whether we are talking about pulse, poetic feet or metre. In the long run we cannot establish the typology of any kind of literary expression by relying on just one of its constituent elements. That implies that the rhythmic structure of the band cannot serve as the final arbiter in defining its generic nature. While scholars who have dealt with the prosodic aspect of the band have eventually concluded that it is a poetic genre, the very research itself was bound to lead to such a conclusion; since they were totally influenced by prevailing cultural trends, they overlooked other possibilities that should have been part of the research process. While there was an intense concentration on the prosodic aspects of the band as poetry, all conflicting possibilities were ignored. The topic was broached as though prose was a rhythmless form of literary expression. In this context we need to recall the Russian Formalists’ insistence that prose is not a gelatinous and jumbled kind of arhythmic discourse; on the contrary, the phonic organization of prose has as important a status as that of poetry, even though the nature of each may be different.²³

Amid this nexus of interlocking ideas there remains the issue of the band’s rhythmic structure. While, as we can see, the textual formations of this mode of literary expression have occurred within a milieu replete with the influences of classical prose, the processes of analysis and study have to the contrary all occurred in a different milieu, the impetus for which has been provided by modern poetic tendencies. Nāzik al-Malā’ika reckoned it to be the poetic precedent to free verse. Indeed she went even further by declaring it the most daring step taken by Iraqi poets in the eleventh/seventeenth century, in that they invented this mode of expression where rhymes could vary with no fixed pattern. According to her, this was the first time in the history of Arabic poetry that there was complete freedom of rhyme, the matter being left entirely to the poet’s own taste. Free verse was thus a successor and imitator of the early band genre.²⁴ Obviously the free-verse movement, whose revolutionary effects began near the middle of the twentieth century in the Arab world and especially in Iraq, created a general cultural ‘horizon of expectation’.

The least that can be said is that the difficulties involved in this situation are not just literary ones. The band provides a model of the way in which a dominant literary norm can be discarded and another put in its place, all that in the context of external requirements of reception and the nature and goals of critical judgement (implying, it would seem, an organization based on judgement of value). Todorov has specified the mechanism for this phenomenon, pointing out that in every era the core of homogeneous features in a literary work is accompanied by a number of others, the importance of which is downplayed in the process of linking a particular work to one specific genre. As a consequence, literary works can actually be linked to a variety of genres; the variable is the extent to which we judge the significance of one or other feature of its structure.²⁵

Is it possible then to declare the rhythmic structure of the band, whether it be poetry or prose, to be its predominant feature? Clearly those who have advocated the poetic view of the band have answered this question in the affirmative, even though all their research without exception has been done without recourse to the insights revealed by modern approaches. We would rather suggest that the saj‘ prose rhythmic structure constitutes just one in an interlocking mesh of elements that render the prosaic nature of the band seem the more likely. Its value and significance lie in the way these different elements interact with each other. Among the most significant of these elements we would list:

1. The prevalence of the representative rather than implicational function of language in the band; as a result, the relationship of text to world is one of representation, not symbolization;

2. The prevalence of the dimension of the ‘other’, and absence of that of the ‘self’;

3. The prevalence of a prose stylistic aesthetics in the text, one that is based on the normal digressions of traditional Arabic prose, along with an occasional tendency to elaborate description;

4. The presence of a high degree of directness and objectivity; the expression usually operates by fulfilling a reporting function, thus suppressing the aesthetic goal that is the most particular feature of poetry;

5. The presence of a certain amount of narrative in the text, providing it with a kind of density that contrasts with the transparency that is the goal of all poetry;

6. The presence, indeed predominance, of the more traditional aspects of classical Arabic prose: introductory devotions and intercessions, categories of panegyric and exaltation that afford the object of praise the standard array of epithets, and closure procedures that downplay the self and lead to predetermined conclusions;

7. A widespread use of recognized topics of prose in classical Arabic literature, most especially personal correspondence, since the text is a mode of expression concerned with attitudes, goals and aspirations, rather than presenting a view of the world.

As a consequence of all these different facets and artistic, objective characteristics, the band creates in the recipient a ‘horizon of expectation’, whose constituent parts are all organized in accordance with the general features of early Arabic prose-writing. It is within this particular network of ideas that the role of ‘the rhythmic structure of prose saj‘’ emerges in order to reinforce the recipient’s awareness and to fulfil his ‘horizon of expectation’ through the genres, purposes and topics that were prevalent within the prose tradition.

It has not been our goal here to separate the band genre from the world of poetry, as those who support the idea of band as poetry would like to suggest. Every kind of elevated literary discourse is possessed of a kind of poetic quality that affords it a particular splendour and beauty. This poetic quality cannot have as its only source something called ‘poetic metre’. Rather what is involved is ‘rhythm’ in its most general sense, something that fulfils its role along with all the other aesthetic criteria that are involved, stylistic, structural and semantic. With this conception in mind, the notion of ‘generic interplay’ comes to be the principal constituent of the band, but it remains an interplay with a prose stamp to it, one that gives ‘rhythm’ a clear importance while not downplaying the importance of other elements.

To me there comes the scent of a rose gracing a beauty’s cheek;

Familiar are the wafts of its heady perfume.

While from the black night of her hair

a gleaming morn on her brow is viewed.

Did you but see each of us scolding his companion,

Concealing a surfeit of passion that the heart pains to suppress,

While fear of God has garbed us in a chastity never soiled by sin

Save kisses,

You would out of envy be at a loss

till in shame you approached me to declare your apology.

Then you would declare, to intimate friend and the world at large, your

love for a delicate fawn.

Many’s the friend who contented me,

with the bonds of whose friendship I have tied my hands;

A firm tie of love on my part, and

I do not think he would be niggardly towards one who hopes;

A firm tie of love on my part, and

I do not think he would alter our pact or

Ever withdraw from it,

but my hope in him was dashed.

You who would reproach those in love, abandon your blame!

Could you but see arched brows over gorgeous dark eyes,

Rouge of cheeks, the succulent nectar of her lips,

Slender figure, its supple curves and upright proportion

resembling a tree-branch,

The green myrtle of her cheeks over which hair ringlets dangle on the temple,

A mouth of lovely teeth, arrayed like pearls

in a red silky bed that needs no dye,

A nose to rival a necklet of pearl, where the assessor

values what remains as supple as the fingers of young maids,

A neck to rival the wild calf; scared by the hunter,

it cowers behind the rose-bush, while fear of the hunter’s shaft

at a far distance shakes the dew from its back

Could you but touch in your passion that well-rounded arm,

that arm, that wrist, that hand resembling the pens of Yāqūt himself;

at the sight of them how many men of intellect would be dazzled and at a loss!

Could you but espy, dear Sa῾d, that mirror of wonders on her bosom,

mounted on it twin ivory breasts, fragrant with choicest perfume,

or a waist that again is slender and lithe after bearing the weight of her hips,

or a pair of buttocks so exquisitely set, they resemble a moving sand-dune,

with both sides aquiver; legs as though of purest crystal, well-turned

ankles, their feet crafted from silver;

saw you all this, you would not reproach a lover who in his passion for her

wanders the desert wastes. Know you not that love has its delights?

The one who perishes of love and heart-break is to be forgiven, not reproved.

Thus is the way of those who aspire to perfection.

So put aside such trivial tales of reproach. Many’s the fool who has been

cultivated by love, pursuing thereafter the enlightened path of culture and virtue.

¹ al-Dujaylī, al-Band fī ᾽l-adab al-῾arabī, p. H.

² Jamīl al-Malā’ika, Mīzān al-band, p. 5.

³ Nāzik al-Malā’ika,Qaḍāyā᾽l-shi῾r al-mu῾āṣir, p. 195; Maṭlūb, al-Naqd al-adabī, p. 190; al-Ḥillī, ῾Shi῾r al-band’, 37.

⁴ al-Hāshimī, al-Yaqīn, vol. 1 (1922). The issue of saj‘ is discussed further in the contributions of Mūsawī and Stewart to this volume (Chapter 5 and 7).

⁵ al-Dujaylī, al-Band fī’l-adab al- ῾arabī, p. M.

⁶ al-Bāqillānī, I ῾jāz al-Qur’ān, p. 56.

⁷ al-Dujaylī, al-Band fī’l-adab al- ῾arabī, pp. J–K.

⁸ al-Ḥillī, ‘Shi῾r al-band’, 41.

⁹ Jamāl al-Dīn, al-Īqā῾fī ᾽l-shi῾r, p. 224.

¹⁰ The complete list refers to the names to be found in al-Dujaylī, al-Band fī’l-adab al- ῾arabī, and Jamīl al-Malā’ika, Mīzān al-band.

¹¹ al-Hāshimī, al-Yaqīn.

¹² ῾Alwān, Taṭawwur al-shi῾r, p. 75.

¹³ al-Ḥillī, ‘Shi῾r al-band’, 40.

¹⁴ al-Hāshimī, al-Yaqīn.

¹⁵ al- ῾Azzāwī,Tārīkh al-adab,vol. Ⅱ, p. 192.

¹⁶ al-Rāfī ῾ī, Tārīkh, vol. Ⅲ, p. 413.

¹⁷ Nāzik al-Malā’ika, Sikulujiyyat al-shi῾r, pp. 40–1.

¹⁸ For a study of the metrical qualities of saj‘, see al-Mis῾adī, al-Īqā῾ fī ᾽al-saj‘ al-῾arabī.

¹⁹ al-Dujaylī, al-Band fī᾽l-adab al-῾arabī, pp. 3–4.

²⁰ Arab rhetoricians have written in detail on the topic of saj‘, its features, types and subdivisions. See e.g. al-῾Askarī, Kitāb al-ṣinā῾atayn, pp. 263–4; al-Qalqashandī, Ṣubḥ al-a῾shā, vol. Ⅱ, pp. 302–6; al-Suyūṭī, al-Itqān, vol. Ⅱ, p. 98; al-Zarqashī, al-Burhān fī ῾ulūm al-Qur’ān, vol. I, pp. 53–100; Ibn al-Athīr, al-Mathal al-sā’ir, vol. I, p. 238; and al-Qazwīnī, al-Talkhīṣ fī ῾ulūm al-balāgha, pp. 397–404.

²¹ Stewart, ‘Saj‘ in the Qur᾽ān’, 127.

²² al-Zarkashī, al-Burhān fī῾ulūm al-Qur’ān, vol. Ⅰ, pp. 6ff.

²³ Faḍl, Naẓariyyat al-binā’iyya, p. 74.

²⁴ Nāzik al-Malā’ika, Sikulujiyya al-shi῾r, pp. 40–1.

²⁵ Todorov, Poetics, p. 78.