Wāfir (Arabic:وَافِر, literally 'numerous, abundant, ample, exuberant') is ameter used in classicalArabic poetry. It is among the five most popular metres of classical Arabic poetry, accounting (alongsideṭawīl,basīṭ,kāmil, andmutaqārib) for 80-90% of lines and poems in the ancient and classical Arabic corpus.^[1]

The metre comprises pairedhemistichs of the following form (where "–" represents a long syllable, "u" a short syllable, and "uu" one long or two shorts):^[2]

| u –uu – | u –uu – | u – – |

Thus, unlike most classical Arabic metres,wāfir allows the poet to substitute one long syllable for two shorts, an example of the prosodic element known as abiceps. Thus allowswāfir lines to have different numbers of syllables from each other, a characteristic otherwise only found inkāmil,mutadārik and some forms ofbasīṭ.^[3]

Wāfir is traditionally represented with the mnemonic (tafāʿīl)Mufāʿalatun Mufāʿalatun Faʿūlun (مُفَاعَلَتُنْ مُفاعَلَتُنْ فَعولُنْ).

Historically,wāfir perhaps arose, along withṭawīl andmutaqārib, fromhazaj.^[4] In the analysis of Salma K. Jayyusi, theUmayyad poetJarir ibn Atiyah used the metre for about a fifth of his work, and at that time "this metre was still fresh and did not carry echoes of greatpre-Islamic poets as didṭawīl andbaṣīt.Wāfir had therefore a great potential for introducing a diction nearer to the spoken language of the Umayyad period."^[5]

The metre, like other Arabic metres, was later borrowed into other poetic traditions. For example, it was adopted inHebrew, where it is known ashamerubeh^[6] and became one of the pre-eminent metres of medieval poetry.^[7] In the Arabic and Arabic-influenced vernacular poetry ofSub-Saharan Africa it also features,^[8] for example inFula^[9] andHausa.^[10] It also underpins some oral poetic traditions in Palestine today.^[11] However, it was not used inUrdu,Turkish, orPersian (or perhaps, rather, it can be said to have merged for linguistic reasons withhazaj).^[12]

The following Arabic epigram by‘Ulayya bint al-Mahdī is inwāfir metre:^[13]

كتمتُ اسم الحبيب من العباد * وردّدت الصبابة في فؤادي

فوا شوقي إلى بلدِِ خليّ * لعلّي باسْم من أهوى أنادي

katamtu sma l-ḥabībi mina l-‘ibādī / wa-raddadtu ṣ-ṣabābata fī fu’ādī

fa-wā-shawqī ’ilā baladin khaliyyin / la‘allī bi-smi man ’ahwā ’unādī

| u – – – | u – uu – | u – – || u – – – | u – uu – | u – – |

| u – – – | u – uu – | u – – || u – – – | u – – – | u – – |

I have hidden the name of my love from the crowd: / for my passion my heart is the only safe space.

How I long for an empty and desolate place / in order to call my love's name out aloud.

An example of the metre inFula is the following poem byÏsa ɓii Usmānu (1817-?):^[9]

Kulen Allaahu Mawɗo nyalooma jemma, / Mbaɗen ka salaatu, hooti mbaɗen salaama

He dow ɓurnaaɗo tagle he Aalo’en fuu, / Sahaabo’en he taabi’i, yimɓe himma.

Nufaare nde am mi yusɓoya gimɗi, anndee, / mi woyra ɗi Naana; ɓernde fu firgitaama

He yautuki makko, koowa he anndi juulɓe / mbaɗii hasar haqiiqa, cunninaama.

| u – – – | u – uu – | u – – || u – uu – | u – uu – | u – – |

| u – – – | u – uu – | u – – || u – – – | u – uu – | u – – |

| u – uu – | u – uu – | u – – || u – uu – | u – uu – | u – – |

| u – uu – | u – uu – | u – – || u – – – | u – – – | u – – |

Let us fear Allah the Great day and night, / let us continually invoke blessing and peace

Upon the best of creatures and all his kinsfolk, / his companions and followers, men of zeal.

Know ye, my intention is to compose verses / and with them to lament for Nāna; every heart is startled

At her passing, everyone knows that the Moslems / have suffered loss indeed, and have been saddened.

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