{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm05.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm05.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm05.htm","text":"The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t of Bad\u00ed\u2018 al-Zam\u00e1n al-Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed, tr. W.J. Prendergast [1915]\nRHYMED prose called saj\u2018 (\u2026) because of its evenness or monotony, or from a fancied resemblance between its rhythm and the cooing of a dove, is a highly artificial style of prose, characterized by a kind of rhythm as well as rhyme. It is a species of diction to which the Arabic language, because of its structure, the mathematical precision of its manifold formations and the essential assonance of numerous derivatives from the same root supplying the connexion between the sound and signification of words, peculiarly lends itself. 1\nAccording to J\u00e1\u1e25iz (ob. A.H. 255) the advantages of rhymed prose are twofold; it is pleasing to the ear and easy to remember. He says the Arabs have uttered a far greater quantity of simple than of rhymed prose, and yet not a tenth of the former has been retained while not a tenth of the latter has been lost. 2\nIn pagan times it is supposed to have been the mode of expression in dignified discourses, challenges, harangues and orations. 3 It was also the form in which the oracular sayings and decisions of the kahana, the soothsayers or diviners, each of whom was supposed to have a familiar spirit, were expressed. 4\nBecause of its association with these pagan practices 5 its use 'in commands and prohibitions' in the early days of Isl\u00e1m is said to have been forbidden. 6 The Prophet is reported to have said: \u2026 'Avoid ye the rhyming prose of the soothsayers or diviners.'\nOn the high authority of A\u1e25mad ibn \u1e24anbal (ob. A.H. 258), the founder of one of the four Schools of Law, we have it that the Prophet had a rooted repugnance to this kind of composition. In an incident related by him the Prophet is reported to have\nindignantly exclaimed, 'What! rhymed prose after the manner of the Arabs of the Days of the Ignorance?' 1\nThere is, therefore, naturally, no trace of it in the sermon of the Prophet after the capture of Mecca, nor is it to be found in his farewell address and final charge on the occasion of the last pilgrimage. 2 Nor is it used by the Khal\u00edfa Mu\u2018\u00e1w\u00edya in his last khutba. 3\nIn spite of the ban, however, it appears there were orators who spoke in rhymed prose, and one of the earliest specimens of a khutba in rhymed prose is by the celebrated preacher and orator, contemporary with Mu\u1e25ammad, Sa\u1e25b\u00e1n W\u00e1\u2019il (ob. A.H. 54). 4 On the other hand he did not use it in his reply to \u1e6cal\u1e25a al-\u1e6cal\u1e25\u00e1\u1e6d the governor of Sijist\u00e1n. 5\nWith the spread of Isl\u00e1m the reason for the prohibition disappears and rhymed prose reasserts itself in some of the speeches made by Muslim orators in the presence of the first Khal\u00edfas and no objection appears to have been raised. 6\nIn early Isl\u00e1mic times it seems to belong to repartee, sententious sayings, the epigram, solemn utterances such as paternal advice, 7 religious formulae, prayers, elogia addressed to princes and governors. J\u00e1\u1e25iz cites several specimens of these 8 and the author of the Agh\u00e1n\u00ed quotes a eulogy in rhymed prose 9 by al-Nabigha al-Ja\u2018ad\u00ed, one of the most celebrated of the poets contemporary with Mu\u1e25ammad. 10\nDuring the first century of the Hijra it appears to have been regarded as the symbol of an elevated style peculiar to the orator. 11\nIn the earlier specimens of female eloquence compiled by Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Fa\u1e0dl A\u1e25mad ibn \u1e6ca\u1e25ir (A.H. 204-80) there is, however, very little trace of this species of composition. 12 In fact it was regarded as a rare accomplishment if not a lost art. But a few sentences of this form of composition by the wife of Ab\u00fa\u2019l-Aswad\nal-Du\u2018l\u00ed sufficed to draw from the Khal\u00edfa Mu\u2018awiya the exclamation, 'Good gracious! What rhymed prose the woman speaks!' 1\nThe institution of the weekly address (khu\u1e6dba) by the Khal\u00edfa, led no doubt to careful preparation and thus paved the way for pulpit oratory which found its loftiest expression in rhymed prose. It is not, however, until the beginning of the third century of the Hijra that it reappears in the khutba and becomes the conventional style of the professional preacher. An excellent specimen of a khutba in rhymed prose on death, resurrection and judgement is that by Ibn Nubata (A.H. 335-74) entitled 'the sermon of the vision.' 2 The language is dignified and solemn, but perfectly plain and intelligible. A vast empire with its numerous provincial governments and political and commercial relations with neighbouring states required that its edicts, foreign despatches, and official correspondence should be expressed in language at once dignified and forceful.\nOut of the necessity of this situation arose the study of the epistolary art and towards the beginning of the second century of the Hijra official letter writers had developed that florid style which has ever since been the distinguishing feature of such compositions. Nevertheless there were writers who eschewed this ornateness and wrote in language easy to be understood.\nA notable example of this natural and simple style is J\u00e1\u1e25iz whose diction Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed, writing a century later, condemns as wanting in artifice, adornment, and ornateness. 3\nWith such assiduity was the art of official writing cultivated, so great was the importance attached to it and so highly did it come to be appreciated, that the K\u00e1tib, or secretary, not infrequently rose to the highest position in the state, that of Waz\u00edr, or chief minister. Tha\u2018\u00e1lib\u00ed throws considerable light upon the rise and development of this official correspondence. He says that epistolary writing began with \u2018Abd al-\u1e24am\u00edd (ob. A.H. 133), K\u00e1tib, or secretary, to Marw\u00e1n the last of the Omayyad Khal\u00edfas, and ended with Ibn al-Am\u00edd (ob. A.H. 359 or 360), the Waz\u00edr of Rukn al-Daula, the Buwayhid prince. 4\nIn this striving after an ornate and elevated style the adoption of a species of composition, that had raised pulpit oratory above the language of every-day life, seems to be a natural result, and thus rhymed prose became the essential feature not only of official writing, but also of the private correspondence of the learned and the cultured.\nIt will be sufficient to mention three collections of such Epistles: those of Ab\u00fa\u2019l \u2018Al\u00e1 al-Mu\u2018arr\u00ed (A.H. 363-449), edited and translated into English by Professor D. S. Margoliouth; extracts from those of Ab\u00fa Bakr al-Khw\u00e1razm\u00ed cited by Tha\u2018\u00e1lib\u00ed; 1 and those of al-Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed himself, edited and published with notes by Ibr\u00e1h\u00edm Ibn \u2018Al\u00ed al-A\u1e25dab (Beyr\u00fat).\nIt was Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed, however, a master of the epistolary art himself, who conceived the idea of demonstrating in a series of dramatic discourses, known to us as the Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t, how the use of this mode of composition might be extended to literature so as to include the entire range of the life and language of the Arabian people. He was, therefore, the popularizer of rhymed prose, in a class of compositions with which his name was first associated, and which have not only penetrated all Isl\u00e1mic literature as well as that of the Syrian Christians, and the Spanish Jews, but have served as models of style for more than nine hundred years.\n8:1 See Chenery's Introduction to \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, pp. 50-51.\n8:2 Kit\u00e1b al-Bay\u00e1n wa\u2019l-Taby\u00edn, i, 112.\n8:3 Ibid., p. 119 (oration of Koss ibn Sa\u2018ida).\n8:4 Ibid., p. 113; Qur\u2019\u00e1n lii, 29.\n8:5 Life of Mu\u1e25ammad, W\u00fcs\u1e6denfeld, Band I, pp. 171, 191.\n8:6 Kit\u00e1b al-Bay\u00e1n wa\u2019l-Taby\u00edn, p. 113.\n9:1 Musnad of Ibn \u1e24anbal, iv, 245.\n9:2 Kit\u00e1b al-Bay\u00e1n wa\u2019l-Taby\u00edn, ii, 163-4 and Life of Mu\u1e25ammad (W\u00fcstenfeld) Band iv, 968.\n9:3 Kit\u00e1b al-Am\u00e1l\u00ed, ii, 313.\n9:4 Chenery's Translation of \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, p. 309.\n9:5 \u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, p. 49.\n9:6 Kit\u00e1b al-Bay\u00e1n wa\u2019l-Taby\u00edn, i, 113. s\n9:7 Agh\u00e1n\u00ed, iii, 6.\n9:8 Kit\u00e1b al-Bay\u00e1n wa\u2019l-Taby\u00edn, i, 111.\n9:9 Agh\u00e1n\u00ed, xiv, 3,\n9:10 Ibn Khallikan, i, 456.\n9:11 Kit\u00e1b al-Am\u00e1l\u00ed, \u00fc, 73.\n9:12 See Bal\u00e1ghat al-Nis\u00e1, pp. 15 and 16.\n10:1 See Bal\u00e1ghat al-Nis\u00e1, p. 54.\n10:2 Journal Asiatique, January, 1840.\n10:3 Text, p. 72.\n10:4 Yat\u00edma, iii, 3.\n11:1 Yat\u00edma, iv, 114-23.","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: Introduction: II. Rhymed Prose","type":"page"}