ʿArūḍ (Arabic:اَلْعَرُوض,al-ʿarūḍ) orʿilm al-ʿarūḍ (عِلم العَروض) is the study ofpoetic meters, which identifies the meter of a poem and determines whether the meter is sound or broken in lines of the poem. It is often called theScience of Poetry (Arabic:عِلْم اَلشِّعْر,ʿilm aš-šiʿr). Its laws were laid down byAl-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī (d. 786), an early Arablexicographer andphilologist. In his bookAl-ʿArḍ (Arabic:العرض), which is no longer extant, he described 15 types of meter. LaterAl-Akhfash al-Akbar described a 16th meter, themustadārik.[1]
Following al-Khalil, the Arab prosodists scan poetry not in terms of syllables[2] but in terms of vowelled and unvowelled letters, which were combined into larger units known aswatid orwatad "peg" (pl.awtād) andsabab "cord" (pl.asbāb). These larger units make up feet (rukn, pl.arkān).
Western prosodists, on the other hand, usually analyse the meters in terms of syllables, which can be long (–), short (u) andanceps (x), that is, a syllable which can be optionally long or short. Certain meters also havebiceps positions where a pair of short syllables can optionally be replaced by a long one.
The great majority (85-90%) of early classical Arabic poetry is composed in just four meters: theṭawīl (which is the most common), thekāmil, thewāfir and thebasīṭ.[3]
Rhyme is an important part of classical Arabic poetry.[4] Almost all Arabic poetry is composed in couplets and the same rhyme is used in the second half of each couplet throughout the poem.
The feet of an Arabic poem are traditionally represented by mnemonic words calledtafāʿīl (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.
Thebuḥūr (بحور) (meters) (sg.baḥrبحر), 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 themadīd, which is rare). Those meters marked with an asterisk (*) are mainly theoretical, and in practice rarely used by poets.[5]
Sequences of three short syllables are not found in any Arabic meter, except occasionally in a variation of therajaz meter, in which | x – u – | may sometimes be replaced by | x u u – |.[8]
Analysis of anthologies of classical Arabic poetry shows that some of these meters are much more common than others.[3] The most common meter by far in early poetry is theṭawīl; thekāmil,wāfir, andbasīṭ are also fairly common; therajaz/sarīʿ (which are sometimes considered to be variants of the same meter) and themutaqārib 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, theṭawīl is used in 50% of the poems, thekāmil in 18%, thewāfir in 14%, and thebasīṭ in 11%. Therajaz/sarī' make 3%,mutaqārib 2.4%, and all the rest together about 2%.[3]
In Stoetzer's (1986) corpus of 130 poems of the 8th century, theṭawīl accounts for 35% of the poems,kāmil 20%,wāfir 14%,basīṭ 13%,rajaz/sarīʿ 3%,mutaqārib 7%, and the rest about 6%.[3]
Among the 1385 short poems included in theArabian Nights,ṭawīl is used in 24%,basīṭ 24%,kāmil 23%,wāfir 10%,ramal 2%,rajaz 2%,xafīf 5%,sarīʿ 4%,munsarih 1%,mujtatt 1%, andmutaqārib 3%. Themadīd and thehazaj almost never occur, and themutadārik,muḍāri', andmuqtaḍab do not occur at all.[9] These last three were usually regarded as artificial meters.[5] Themutadārik 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 theprophet:
أشَجاكَ تَشَتُّتُ شِعْبِ الحَيِّ == فأنْتَ لَهُ أرِقٌ وَصِبُ
The collated figures can be expressed in a table as follows:
| Metre | Vadet 1st–3rd C | Stoetzer 8th C | Arabian Nights 9th–10th C |
|---|---|---|---|
| ṭawīl | 50% | 35% | 24% |
| basīṭ | 11% | 13% | 24% |
| kāmil | 18% | 20% | 23% |
| wāfir | 14% | 14% | 10% |
| ramal | 2% | ||
| rajaz/sarīʿ | 3% | 3% | 2% + 4% |
| xafīf | 5% | ||
| munsarih | 1% | ||
| mujtatt | 1% | ||
| mutaqārib | 7% | 3% | |
| others | 2% | 6% | <1% |
Al-Khalil was primarily agrammarian and using thegrammatical terminology of his day he made use of the termsḥarf mutaḥarrik "mobile letter" (i.e. one followed by a vowel) andḥarf sākin "quiescent letter" (i.e. one not followed by a vowel) to build up larger prosodic units, which he called "peg" (watid orwatad, pl.awtād) and "cord" or "guy-rope" (sabab, pl.asbāb). In European descriptions, these are conventionally abbreviated "P" and "K" respectively.[10] A "peg" is a sequence of two syllables, usually short + long (u –) (awatid majmūʿ); but occasionally in the rarely used metres of circle 4, long + short (– u) (awatid mafrūk).[11] 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.[12]
Thewatid is repeated at fixed points along the line and is generally unchanging, while theasbāb or cords are the syllables in between which could be modified. A peg and either one or two cords makes arukn (pl.arkān) "tent pole or support"[13] or what in European terms is called a foot. Thus a half-line of theṭawīl metre (faʿūlun mafāʿīlun faʿūlun mafāʿilun, | u – x | u – x – | u – x | u – u – |) is analysed as PK PKK PK PKK.[14] 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 thealif of the article when it follows a vowel, are omitted. Thus the wordاَلْكَرِيم,al-karīm inʿarūḍ writing is written phonetically as "لكريم". In a word likeal-shams (اَلْشَّمْس, pronounced(a)š-šams, 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 inʿarūḍ writing, this is writtenششمس (ššms).[15] Then each mobile letter is represented by a vertical line (ا), known asmutaḥarrik, and each quiescent letter by a small circle (ه), known assukūn. Thus awatid will be represented in the scansion by twomutaḥarrik symbols and onesukūn.
A line of poetry, known as abayt (بيت "tent"), is composed of two half-lines orhemistichs, each of which is known as amiṣrāʿ (مصراع "door-flap"). The first half-line is called theṣadr (صَدْر, literally "forepart"), and the other is called theʿajuz (عَجُز, literally "rear"). Theṣadr and theʿajuz have two parts each:
The last consonant of theḍarb and the vowel that comes after it are called therawiyy (رويّ) and its last twosākins, all themutaḥarrik letters that are in between, and the lastmutaḥarrik before them, is called theqāfīyah (قَافِيَّة) or 'rhyme'.
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.[17] 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 asAl-Maʿarri, who arranged his poems not only by rhyme by also metrically.[18]
| Circle | Meter | P | P | P | P | P | P | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ṭawīl Madīd Basīṭ | u – | x x | u – u – | x x x x x x | u – u – u – | x x x | u – u – u – | x x x x x x | u – u – | x | u – | |
| 2 | Wāfir Kāmil | u – | xx x xx x | u – u – | xx x xx x | u – u – | xx x xx x | u – u – | xx x xx x | u – | |||
| 3 | Hazaj Rajaz Ramal | u – | x x x x x | u – u – u – | x x x x x x | u – u – u – | x x x x x x | u – u – u – | x x x x x x | u – u – | x | ||
| 4 | Sarīʿ Munsariħ Khafīf *Muḍāriʿ *Muqtaḍab Mujtathth | x x | u – | x x x x x | u – u – u – u – | x x x x x x x x x x x | – u – u – u – u – u – u | x x x x x x x x x x | u – u – u – u – u – | x x x x x x x | u – u – | x | |
| 5 | Mutaqārib *Mutadārik | u – | x x | u – u – | x x | u – u – | x x | u – u – | x x | u – |
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 ofbiceps 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 thehemistich (half-line) where thewatid 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 theirtetrameter form, but some (such as themadīd) are generally found with only three feet perhemistich.[19]
As Stoetzer (1982) points out, theanceps syllables (x) in tables such as the above are in many cases not reallyanceps, 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.[20]
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 astrimeter andtetrameter respectively). Some meters have acatalectic 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 asziḥāfāt (singular:ziḥāf); major variations which affect the beginning or end of a line are known asʿilal (singularʿilla). There are 14 possibleziḥāfāt and 34 possibleʿilal.[21]
For example, if the footmustafʿilun (– – u –) is replaced bymafāʿilun (u – u –), it is said to bemaxbūn, that is, it has undergone theziḥāf known asxabn "hemming" or "shortening".
If the line-endingmustafʿilun (– – u –) is replaced bymustafʿil (– – –) that is, if the line is catalectic, the meter is said to bemaqṭūʿ, that is, it has undergone theʿilla known asqaṭʿ "cutting" or "curtailment".
A full description of all theziḥāfāt andʿilal is given in Elwell-Sutton (1976), pp. 13–39.
There are a number of prosodic conventions which are observed in writing and scanning Arabic poetry, of which the following are the most important:[22]