Rajaz (prosody)
Rajaz (رَجَز, literally 'tremor, spasm, convulsion as may occur in the behind of a camel when it wants to rise'[1]) is a metre used in classical Arabic poetry. A poem composed in this metre is an urjūza. The metre accounts for about 3% of surviving ancient and classical Arabic verse.[2]
Form[edit]
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).[3] It is exceptional, but possible, for both anceps syllables to be short. Rajaz lines also have a catalectic version with the final foot | ⏓ – – |.[4]
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 into hemistichs.[5] The early Arab poets[6] rhymed every line on one sound throughout a poem.[7] A popular alternative to rajaz poetry was the muzdawij couplet rhyme, giving the genre called muzdawija.[8]
Although widely held the oldest of the Arabic metres,[9] 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 form saj'. 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 the Umayyad period, with poets al-‘Ajjāj (d. c. 91/710), Ru‘ba (d. 145/762) and Abū al-Najm al-‘Ijlī (d. before 125/743) all composing long qaṣīda-style pieces in the metre. Abū Nuwās was also particularly fond of the form.[10]
In the twentieth century, in response to the aesthetics of free 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, and Badr Shakir al-Sayyab (cf. his 'Unshūdat al-Maṭar').[11] Since the 1950s free-verse compositions are often based on rajaz feet.[12]
Example[edit]
A famous, early example is the following incitement to battle by Hind bint Utbah (6th/7th century CE), showing the form | ⏓ ⏓ ⏑ – | ⏑ – ⏑ – |, with the first two elements mostly long, and the fifth one always short:[13]
|
|
|
|
Key studies[edit]
- 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), ISBN 9519380264
- 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), ISBN 9519380280
- 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
References[edit]
- ^ The Penguin Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature, ed. by Robert Irwin (London: Penguin, 1999).
- ^ Bruno Paoli, 'Generative Linguistics and Arabic Metrics', in Towards 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).
- ^ Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology, trans. by Geert Jan van Gelder (New York: New York University Press, 2013), p. 93.
- ^ Wright, 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.
- ^ Wright, William (1896), A Grammar of the Arabic Language, vol. 2, p. 362.
- ^ Geert Jan van Gelder, 'Arabic Didactic Verse', in Centres 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)'.
- ^ Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology, trans. by Geert Jan van Gelder (New York: New York University Press, 2013), p. 93.
- ^ W. Stoetzer, 'Rajaz', in Encyclopedia 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.
- ^ W. Stoetzer, 'Rajaz', in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. by Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey, 2 vols (London: Routledge, 1998), II 645-46 (p. 646).
- ^ Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology, trans. by Geert Jan van Gelder (New York: New York University Press, 2013), p. 94.