A manuscript of an urjūza (versification) ofMuqaddimat Ibn Rushd ("The Introduction ofIbn Rushd al-Jadd," grandfather ofIbn Rushd the philosopher)
Rajaz (رَجَز, literally 'tremor, spasm, convulsion as may occur in the behind of a camel when it wants to rise'[1]) is ametre used in classicalArabic poetry. A poem composed in this metre is anurjūza. The metre accounts for about 3% of surviving ancient and classical Arabic verse.[2] Some historians believe that rajaz evolved fromsaj'.[3]
This form has a basic foot pattern of |⏓⏓⏑ – | (where '–' represents a long syllable, '⏑' a short syllable, and '⏓' a syllable that can be long or short), as exemplified through the mnemonic (Tafā'īl)Mustafʿilun Mustafʿilun Mustafʿilun (مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ).[4] Rajaz lines also have acatalectic version with the final foot |⏓ – – |.[5]
The form of each (metron) may be ⏑ – ⏑ –, – – ⏑ –, or – ⏑ ⏑ –; only rarely ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ –.[5]
Lines are most often of three feet (trimeter), but can also be of two feet (dimeter). Thus the possible forms are:
|⏓⏓⏑ – |⏓⏓⏑ – |⏓⏓⏑ – | (trimeter)
|⏓⏓⏑ – |⏓⏓⏑ – |⏓ – – | ( trimeter catalectic)
|⏓⏓⏑ – |⏓⏓⏑ – | (dimeter)
|⏓⏓⏑ – |⏓ – – | (dimeter catalectic)
Uniquely among the classical Arabic metres, rajaz lines do not divide intohemistichs.[6] The early Arab poets[5] rhymed every line on one sound throughout a poem.[7] A popular alternative torajaz poetry was themuzdawij couplet rhyme, giving the genre calledmuzdawija.[8]
Although widely held the oldest of the Arabic metres,[4] rajaz was not highly regarded in the pre- and early Islamic periods, being seen as similar to (and at times indistinguishable from) the rhymed prose formsaj'. It tended to be used for low-status, everyday genres such as lullabies, or for improvisation, for example improvised incitements to battle.
Rajaz gained in popularity towards the end of theUmayyad period, with poetsal-‘Ajjāj (d. c. 91/710),Ru‘ba (d. 145/762) andAbū al-Najm al-‘Ijlī (d. before 125/743) all composing longqaṣīda-style pieces in the metre.Abū Nuwās was also particularly fond of the form.[9]
In the twentieth century, in response to the aesthetics offree verse,rajaz, both in traditional form and more innovative adaptations, gained a new popularity in Arabic poetry, with key exponents in the first half of the century including poets‘Ali Maḥmūd Ṭāhā,Elias Abu Shabaki, andBadr Shakir al-Sayyab (cf. his 'Unshūdat al-Maṭar').[10] Since the 1950s free-verse compositions are often based on rajaz feet.[9]
A famous, early example is the following incitement to battle byHind bint Utbah (6th/7th century CE), showing the form |⏓⏓⏑ – |⏑ –⏑ – |, with the first two elements mostly long, and the fifth one always short:[11]
Five Raǧaz Collections: (al-Aghlab al-ʻIǧlī, Bashīr ibn an-Nikth, Ǧandal ibn al-Muthannā, Ḥumayd al-Arqaṭ, Ghaylān ibn Ḥurayth), ed. by Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, Studia Orientalia, 76/Materials for the study of Raǧaz poetry, 2 (Helsinki: Finnish Oriental Society, 1995),ISBN9519380264
Minor Raǧaz Collections: (Khiṭām al-Muǧashiʻī, the two Dukayns, al-Qulākh ibn Ḥazn, Abū Muḥammad al-Faqʻasī, Manẓūr ibn Marthad, Himyān ibn Quḥāfa), ed. by Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, Studia Orientalia, 78/Materials for the study of Raǧaz poetry, 3 (Helsinki: Finnish Oriental Society, 1996),ISBN9519380280
Manfred Ullmann,Untersuchungen zue Raǧazpoesie. Ein Beitrag zur arabischen Sprach- und Literaturewissenschaft (Wiesbaden, 1966)
D. Frolov, 'The Place of Rajaz in the History of Arabic Verse',Journal of Arabic Literature, 28 (1997), 242-90,https://www.jstor.org/stable/4183399
^The Penguin Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature, ed. by Robert Irwin (London: Penguin, 1999).
^Bruno Paoli, 'Generative Linguistics and Arabic Metrics', inTowards a Typology of Poetic Forms: From Language to Metrics and Beyond, ed. by Jean-Louis Aroui, Andy Arleo, Language Faculty and Beyond: Internl and External Variation in Linguistics, 2 (Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2009), pp. 193-208 (p. 203).
^abClassical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology, trans. by Geert Jan van Gelder (New York: New York University Press, 2013), p. 93.
^abcdeWright, William (1896),A Grammar of the Arabic Language, vol. 2, p. 362.
^Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology, trans. by Geert Jan van Gelder (New York: New York University Press, 2013), p. xxiii.
^Geert Jan van Gelder, 'Arabic Didactic Verse', inCentres of Learning: Learning and Location in Pre-Modern Europe and the Near East, ed. by Jan Willem Drijvers and Alasdair A. MacDonald, Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 61 (Leiden: Brill, 1995), pp. 103-18 (p. 107).
^Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. by Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey, 2 vols (London: Routledge, 1998), s.v. 'Prosody (‘arūḍ)'.
^abW. Stoetzer, 'Rajaz', inEncyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. by Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey, 2 vols (London: Routledge, 1998), II 645-46 (p. 646).
^Salma Khadra Jayyusi,Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic Poetry, trans. by Salma Khadra Jayyusi and Christopher Tingley, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1977), II 607-10.
^Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology, trans. by Geert Jan van Gelder (New York: New York University Press, 2013), p. 94.
^Maling, Joan (1973).The theory of classical Arabic metrics. Unpublished dissertation, MIT; p. 49.
