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Modern studies in Persian prosody fre- quently debate the origin of the quatrain Inquiries into Proto-World (Per. robā‛ī - Ar. rubā‛ī)1 as a metrical form Literatures: The Challenging which clearly arose in an indigenous lyrical tradition. This identifies quatrains as the “Literary Fate” of the Quatrain entry point to claim Persian prosodic pat- terns as having an independent origin across the Persian and from the ones. However, late 20th century scholarship relies on a response- Arabic Literary Tradition approach to the matter, and is essentially grounded in dismantling Arabo-centric prosodic categorization - i.e. founded on the Khalīlian prosodic model2 - which gathers both traditions since the 9th cen- tury, rather than on overcoming the Khalīlian framework as a self-evident late feature within the earlier Persian lyrical tra- dition. Chiara Fontana Recent studies of comparative prosody among Arabic-Persian-Urdu and Turkish Western studies on Persian metrical sys- . This study closely investigates the works (e.g. Ashwini and Kiparsky 147-173) tem debate the linguistic origins of qua- spread of robāʽī/rubāʽī from Persian to broaden Prince and Paoli’s approach to trains, (Per. robāʽiyyāt - Ar. rubāʽiyyāt) in employing a holistic cul- generative prosody across Middle Eastern Arabic, and regard prosodic Persian turally embedded methodology to re- languages, yet the analysis of the quatrain schemes independently of Arabic coun- read their linkages in global terms, as an is still essentially founded on metrical terparts, despite reciprocally influenced example of an inherited “Proto-World observations. This partial perspective may metrical patterns. Attempts to dismantle Literature”. be insufficient to describe a stratified liter- Arabo-centric critical inferences about ary phenomenon whose in-depth explora- Persian metres are largely prosodic obser- Keywords: Persian and Arabic Literatures, tion - especially if in a comparative cross- vations of the robāʽi/rubāʽī, thus neglect- Rhetorical and Metrical Studies, temporal perspective – is instead ing their ontological evolution from a Comparative Philology, Quatrains, concerned with a broader grasp of meth- metrical scheme into an aesthetically Rubā‛iyyāt, World literature. odological literary tools, such as those of experimental frame in Persian and Arabic poetics, rhetoric, formal and thematic con-

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ceptualization, and etymological and phil- upon numerous scholarly approaches ing - hence a “Proto-World-Literature” - ological inquiries. besides the metrical one (e.g. etymologi- independently from sectarian Persian or Moreover, as claimed by Ďurišin the mod- cal, philological, formal, thematic, socio- Arabic inquiries. ern notion of “World Literature” is often – literary), to focus on three critical unex- erroneously - conceived inseparably from plored areas within the copious literature Rubāʽi and Dūbayt within Arabic Literary comparative literatures (20-22; Tötösy de on the Persian or Arabic quatrain: Corpora: a Terminological and Semantic Zepetnek and Mukherjee 12). However, Obscurity more important in his vision is that com- a) the terminological and semantic obscu- The quatrain is a well-defined lyrical model parative literatures and world literature rity of the terms rubāʽi and dūbayt within of Persian origin, which was originally sometimes show an inherent axiomatic Arabic literary corpora; b) the ontological accompanied by music and tied to a spe- perception of cultural boundaries, often shift that led to a different literary concep- cific group of lyrical compositions struc- understood as tied to modern national tualization of robāʽī/rubāʽī’ within Persian tured in four lines, hence similar but differ- distinctions or influenced by Eurocentric and Arabic literary traditions; c) the com- ent from the dūbaytī lyrical form (Persian perspectives. According to Franco plex modern conceptualization of the compound noun: dū ῾two’; bayt ῾verse’). Moretti’s implementations to Ďurišin’s Persian and Arabic rubāʽiyyāt as a literary As well recalled by Elwell-Sutton (“The intellectual agenda, this is a paradoxical trend or a non-technical genre. Rūbā‛ī in Early ” 634- approach, considering that world litera- Overcoming the impasse of an alleged 635), since Khalīlian prosodic analysis is ture actually aimed to overstep these as integral systemic approach to world litera- concerned with the hemistich (Per. meṣrā‛ limitations (54). The evaluation of interlit- ture which, nonetheless, sometimes - Ar. shaṭr) as a unit and not the verse, the erary processes rather than mere differ- appears woven into a modern discourse respective Persian and Arabic terms ences/similarities becomes more compel- on modernity and unidirectional hege- robā‛ī/rubā‛ī - which mean “composed by ling in the case of cross temporal inquiry monic influences (Moretti 56), this critical four elements” - stress attention on the on Persian and Arabic quatrains. Their lit- analysis instead aims to uncover the spe- specific rhyming and prosodic rules erary fate cut across a historical and cul- cific ontologies to which the quatrain alter- related to the four hemistiches within the tural context where clear boundaries have natively refers within the “grey-zone” of a couple of verses. not already been traced, e.g. the Islamic pre-modern translocal literary continuum. To begin with, it is worth noting the decep- culture between the 9th and 14th centu- All this, highlighting how the more in- tive homonymy between dūbayt and ries (Utas, “The Literary Expression”), and depth exploration of Persian and Arabic rubā‛ī within the Arabic literary tradition proceeds, even according to significant studies in this case, might help shed light once these forms were introduced from transformations, across the new national on the “constellation of poetries and poet- Persian models, between approximately contexts of 19th and 20th centuries. ics and a consortium of ideas” (al-Musawi 9th and 10th centuries. In fact, according This inquiry assumes these considerations 36) which grew up within a secular hybrid to Persianists such as Thiesen, the dūbaytī3 as a methodological premise, and draws space of linguistic and cultural encounter- generically indicates a “two-couplet

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poem” composed in different meters, states, was already known among Ḥijāz peninsula had been conceivably which “can be considered as the two initial tribes under the name muthannāt (allo- established already during the pre-Islamic lines of any lyric composition ( or graphic of muthannā, ῾doubled’), a typol- period, as attested by the introduction of qaṣīda)”4 and follows a number of rhyming ogy of composition considered to be a Persian musical instruments and forms of patterns (172).5 Hence within Persian tradi- form of popular – and hence oral – poetry. chanted poetry thanks to the sought-after tion, the term dūbaytī refers to the specific Drawing upon the modern work of Shawqī Persian and Byzantine brides brought lyrical composition that is clearly indepen- Ḍayf, it is actually possible to propose a from Lakhmid and Ghassanid kingdoms dent from the robā‛ī verse. more plausible reconstruction of relations (194-196). For his part, the Persianist Elwell- In comparison, early references to the between dūbaytī and muthannāt than that Sutton, observed that the Persian dūbaytī introduction of Persian dūbaytī in written provided by al-Jawharī. The muthannāt is prior to the 9th-10th centuries “has argu- form within Arabic literary tradition quoted as a composition related to the ably been employed mostly as a form of conventionally date back to al-Bākharzī (d. pre-Islamic Arabic genre of hazaj (192), oral folk-poetry” (“The Rūbā'ī in Early 1075 – Talib, "Dūbayt in Arabic", which is also a prosodic in both Persian Literature” 635). Given this, the Encyclopaedia of Islam online), whilst also Persian and Arabic classic traditions, and lack of direct sources about the pre-Islamic previous references are quoted by - with specific variations - also the typical Persian dūbaytī and Arabic muthannāt al-Anbārī, al Iṣfahānī and at-Tanūkhī (fl. 9th- metre of the quatrain. In the same pas- leads only to the supposition of a nexus of 10th century) as recalled in al-Jawharī (d. sage, quoting the ancient poet al-Mufaḍḍal multiple connections between these folk 1003). It was al-Jawharī, in fact, who noted aḍ-Ḍabbī (d. 780), Ḍayf reports that the poetry forms. “the dūbayt also called rubā‛ī” was intro- pre-Islamic Arabic genre of hazaj was Within the link traced by ancient Arab duced into the Arabic literary tradition among the three categories of lyrics most scholars between the hazaj and folk poetry during this time period (422). Other early employed in amusement poetry and also accompanied by music, the term dūbayt reference includes an acknowledgement the one more suitable to the adaptation of seems to emerge more consistently with in an anecdote of at-Tanūkhī who refers lyrical forms borrowed from Persian tradi- respect to early sources, during the 14th that Abū Aḥmad ‛Abd Ibn ‛Umar tion. The other two are called an-naṣb and and 15th century and within the works of al-Ḥārithū encountered an anonymous as-sinād. While the first typology con- al-Ḥillī (d. 1339), Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406) and Persian mystic who “started to sing some- cerned religious and elegiac forms of al-Ibshīhī (d. 1448). According to thing similar to rubā‛iyyāt not finding, mourning poetry, the second typology, Hoenerbach (7-24), al-Ḥillī, in his work however, a great interest in his listener” adds Ḍayf, was maybe a typology of pan- Kitāb al-‛Aṭīl included the dūbayt among (qtd. in al-Ibshihī, 199-200). egyric poetry concerned with serious con- the seven poetic folk arts, in particular the Moreover, in the already quoted passage, tent (193).6 Thus, Ḍayf, also referencing the three “Arabized ones” (al-mu‛arraba): al-Jawharī states that ad-dūbayt/rubā‛ī is a great musician al-Mawṣilī (d. 850), noted dūbayt; qarīḍ; muwashshaḥ.7 Furthermore, typology of “poetry accompanied by that contact between Persians and the al-Ibshīhī adds that the term dūbayt was music” (shi‛r ghinā’ī) in couplets which, he Arab tribes who had already settled in the more often substituted by “its synonym

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rubā‛ī” during the late Abbasid period This latter case, as well as quoted linkages tion in some 20th century-works of literary (199-200). In contrast, Ibn Khaldūn agrees between Persian dūbaytī and pre-Islamic criticism, such as with ar-Rāfi‛ (172).10 that dūbayt is a Persian compound name Arabic muthannāt betray a sort of Arab Moreover, modern Western scholarship’s synonym of rubā‛ī introduced in the 10th scholars’ misleading extension of the term inquiries still provide evidence of the die- century but specifies that this last type of dūbayt - and arbitrarily also rubā‛ī - to a hard legacy of an Arabized reading of the composition is marked by specific rules contemporary Arabic lyrical folk-tradition dūbayt’s introduction within Arabic cor- which tie its four hemistiches (aghṣān).8 which had scarcely been considered pora, notably, reporting the alleged pro- Moreover, he states that it was extremely before and was only later more closely sodic patterns customarily referred to in popular amongst folk poetry patterns in evaluated by Arabic scholars of the 14th the Arabic dūbayt. For instance, and build- Baghdad and especially in Kaẓimiyya and and 15th centuries. Thus, whilst classical ing on classic sources, Adam Talib states from there later became wide-spread in Arab scholarship acknowledged the that “the metre of the Arabic dūbayt Cairo, where poets were experimenting Persian contribution to the realization of (fa‛lun, mutafā‛ilun, fa‛ūlun, fa‛ilun) takes with the introduction of rhetorical devices original Arabic literary corpora between three forms” (“Dūbayt in Arabic”, and different styles (349) as also recently the 10th and the 15th century, Arabic schol- Encyclopaedia of Islam online), whilst confirmed by al-Musawi’s extensive recon- ars may have also tried to evaluate a later Stoetzer explains that the same pattern “is struction of 14th-15th centuries Cairene attested Arabic folk-tradition by con- more often used for a quatrain of a par- street poetry (262-264). sciously employing exotic, rather unclear ticular metre” (“Rubā'ī”, Encyclopaedia of If apart from Ibn Khaldūn’s statement definitions, and at the same time - not rec- Islam online). Yet, drawing upon the inter- about the diffusion of rubā‛ī in Egypt, ognizing in clear terms the Persian contri- esting work of Nājī (161-165), Arabic proso- which may be understood as a reference bution. dists debated at length on the metre of to the mystic rubā‛iyyāt composed by Ibn Nonetheless, putting aside the more the dūbayt, acknowledging its non-Arab al-Fāriḍ (d. 1234) and al-Bahā’ az-Zuhayr clumsy ideologically-oriented etymologi- origin, hence defining it as arguably built (d. 1258) during the Ayyubid regency (fl. cal reconstructions of al-Ḥillī about as an irregular “unique” metre (farīd) but 12th-14th century), then Ibn Khaldūn’s ref- mawālīya (specific form of sung poetry) never reaching an agreement about its erences to folk poetry that were very pop- and dūbayt, according to which the first fixed prosodic pattern(s). Three versions ular in Baghdad’s Kaẓimiyya referred not term derives from the Arabic mawālī-nā were therefore suggested respectively by to the dūbayt, but arguably to al-murabba‛ (our masters) and the second from al-Qarṭājannī (d. 1284) (mustaf‛ilatun, al-Baghdādī, a folk poetical composition ‛ubūdiyya (slavery), from the first non-Arab mustaf‛ilun, mustaf‛ilun), 11 Abū‛Abd Allāh in couplets, also just as popular in Abbasid performers of these lyrical forms (Jawwād ad-Darrāj (d. 1294) (fa‛lun, fa‛lun Baghdad, which has been already investi- 367),9 it is more surprising to find histori- mustaf‛ilun, mustaf‛ilun), and al-Qalalawsī gated by Thāmir ‛Abd al-Ḥasan al-‛Āmirī’s cally more imaginative readings about the (fl. 12th – 13th century)12 (fa‛lun, mutafā‛ilun, modern study (52-54). introduction of dūbayt within Arabic tradi- fa‛ūlun, fa‛ilun). Thus, this third became the most accredited one, probably since it is

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the closest to the four-footed Persian Who calms my insomnia and the anguish interesting to observe that a metrical anal- metres al-hazaj and ar-robā‛ī as well as the that has already entered my chest? ysis of the same dūbayt that matches most frequently found in poetry. However, Perhaps insomnia made me believe I was instead with al-Qarṭājannī’s pattern was two considerations are due: first, the three among them provided by ‛Abd al-Ilāh Kanafāwī in his patterns indicated by the quoted scholars And so, the eye is a prisoner, drowned in 2008 study. Also in this last case, however, are not conceived as three varieties, but its tears. the author cannot help but underline sev- rather as the three different possible cor- (Translated by the author) eral metrical inconsistencies. rect versions of the pattern, and each one Having said that, it is clear that the Arabic of them questions the other two.13 Second, The first hemistich shows an anomalous prosodists invested a great deal of effort according to Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 1200), despite sequence (fa‛lun, mutafā‛ilun, fa‛lun, fa‛ilun into forcing the dūbayt to fit with the the fact that al-Qalalawsī was engaged in – 0/// 0/0/ 0//0/// 0/0/)14 with the third Khalīlian metrical systems, however unsuc- providing thirteen possible derived varia- taf‛īla as “fa‛lun – 0/0/” instead of “fa‛ū”lun cessful this may have been. Moreover, tions for the taf‛īlāt (s. taf‛īla , ῾metrical 0/0//” which is the correct one according al-Fārābī (d. 950) justifies prosodic mis- foot’) that were indicated by his metrical to al-Qalalawsī (19). This variation, evi- match of the dūbayt with Arabic prosodic pattern, sixty-nine possible aḍrāb (one dently, could not be justified according to rules, saying that “when different peoples metre’s variations) and another sixteen are the Arabic prosodic rules since they pre- come to perform poetry through the same not entirely compatible (ghayr ‛alā al-qiyās) vent the occurrence of “low-impact” metri- language […], the rhythm (īqā‛) could not so as to justify several inconsistencies cal variations (ziḥāfāt) for specific groups be maintained without mispronunciation among dūbayt compositions, there is still of sounds such as al-awtād (e.g. 0//; /0/).15 (laḥn)” (172). Thus, al-Fārābī‘s statement evidence of several dūbayt verses which The second hemistich, in turn, is also irreg- not only indicates that non-Arab people do not correspond to the alleged pattern, ular with a sequence (fa‛lun, mutafā‛ilu, (‛ajam) were the first performers of a poetic such as the one given in the example fa‛ūlu, fa‛ilun) with two alleged examples frame, they also arguably introduced it as below: of ziḥāf mufrad (simple “low-impact” met- part of oral poetry. More importantly, it rical variation, i.e. al-qabḍ and al-kaff )16 in also leads us to recognize that lyrical order to justify the changes that occurred rhythms (ʾīqāʿāt) survive for a long time respectively at taf‛īla no. 3 and 4. Lastly, through different languages and that even the third hemistich shows a very puzzling once the poetic frames that attempted to (Ibn al-Jawzī, al-Mudhish 18) prosodic sequence where the possible represent these rhythms are definitively solutions devised by Ibn al-Jawzī do not traced, introduced and acknowledged by Who has pity on me? Who turns off my contribute in clarifying its prosody, whilst the target culture, their inner musicality fire? the fourth hemistich is regular according conflicts with the new rules set to describe So great is their distance, to the pattern provided by al-Qalalawsī them. Hence, it could be stated that incon- (fa‛lun, mutafā‛ilun, fa‛ūlun, fa‛ilun). It is sistency of the dūbayt with

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was arguably the main feature that assured A Different Literary Conceptualization of Beyond this, Elwell-Sutton pointed out the the preservation of its original catchy the Quatrain within the Persian and Arabic typical topics of 9th-10th century robā‛ī cadence, despite leading Arabic proso- Literary Traditions (“The Rūbā‛ī in Early Persian Literature” dists’ obstinate attempts at metrical can- Investigating deeper specific features of 637) whose development is attributed to onization into an irreversible impasse. the Persian robā‛ī verse, we find that robā‛ī the well renowned Persian poet ar-Rūdhakī Returning to the compelling synonymy employs a specific form of al-hazaj metre, (d. 941): originally typical topics found in between dūbayt and rubā‛ī in the Arabic which is marked by specific prosodic quatrains included the celebration of literary tradition, thus, it arguably tells us sequences not employed in other poetic wine, a lover’s complaint, satirical or gno- about two relevant issues. Firstly, it reveals compositional schemes.17 Twenty-four mic short expressions and aphorisms, and how much mutual bias, inspiration and basic sub-variations are derived from the later broadened to the longer and more cultural rivalry deeply influenced - both robā‛ī pattern, often creating circular complex philosophical reflections on life implicitly and explicitly - the conceptual- refrains within the composition.18 This pro- and wisdom that were deeply influenced ization of literary phenomena across time sodic pattern and its variations within by Sufi mysticism (De Blois, Persian and space, sometimes betraying certain, robā‛iyyāt led ancient and modern schol- Literature 51).19 alleged unidirectional, hegemonic influ- ars such as Thiesen (168-172) to rename Despite all these features, scholarship in ences argued by recent world literature’s this variation of al-hazaj metre as “the Persian studies always stressed a seem- criticism, as mostly grounded on the mod- robā‛ī metre”, hence the polysemous con- ingly prosodic analysis of the quatrain. ern West/East-centered framework of ceptualization of this term within Persian Persian robāʿī, despite its quite simple inquiry (Schwarz 50). Secondly, it also illus- tradition (as a verse and as a metre). structure has in fact puzzled many proso- trates the introduction of Persian robā‛ī In fact, Persian robā‛ī can be more appro- dists, mostly because it was often within Arabic, even though some prosodic priately conceived as a typology of verse employed as the bone of contention in features which could not be maintained since it features other specificities besides defining the similarities and differences within a different language such as Arabic the prosodic ones such as those related to between Persian and Arabic prosodies, were lost during this cultural and linguistic the (qāfia), which is always vindicating their mutual independence. encounter. accounted for among the four hemis- Both these prosodies are indeed defined All this, puzzled the possibility to ensure a tiches. The rhyme could be – less fre- through the common Khalīlian prosodic clear distinction of the rubā‛ī from the quently – tamām-maṭlaʿ (aaaa) or – more system, though more notably modeled on dūbayt, which in Arabic actually became frequently – with the third hemistich ʿfreeʾ Arabic language and not devised or suited closer to each other in meaning than (fard), hence conceived as according to for metres of a very different type (such as within Persian tradition. the ḡazal/qaṣīda model (aaba), though in Persian). every case robā‛ī is considered a In fact, during the 1930s, Benveniste devel- monorhyme composition, and as mostly oped the concept of “syllabic versifica- impromptu composition. tion” of Middle-Persian (1st century BCE -

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7th century CE) and New Persian (8th/9th from Arabic. More specifically, Elwell- more interest is the Arabic tradition that – 18th centuries) poetry as alternative to Sutton and Thiesen’s studies also identi- later accepted the employment of a num- the quantitative (long/short vowels) fied rhyming and thematic features of the ber of metres besides al-hazaj, such as ar- Khalīlian system. He was inspired by a Persian robā‛ī (Elwell-Sutton, “The Rūbā'ī rajaz, ar-raml, al-mutaqārib, al-basīṭ, backwards observation of robā‛ī pattern in Early Persian Literature” 633-657 and as-sarī‛, al-mutadārik (Nājī 161-165). from a philological and phonological per- “‛Arūẓ”, Encyclopaedia Iranica online; Moreover, Persian poetry by nature is spective. Notably, in fact, Khalīlian system, Thiesen 168-172), whilst Lazard recognized interested in limited prosodic variations, building on Arabic language specificities, the origin of the quatrain, arguing that which are consistent within the whole formally does not acknowledge a syllabic Arabic prosody’s interference has poem, while the accepts structure, although Kiparsky and Ashwini, obscured the relationship between Pahlavi several low-impact in-hemistich metrical who more recently collected several poem “Āhū-ye kūhī” (“The Chamois”) variations called ziḥāfāt (Elwell-Sutton, sources from Arabic prosodists’ debate on which arguably dates back to the Sasanian “‛Arūẓ”, Encyclopaedia Iranica online).22 Arabic metrics’ syllabic system, argued the period (3rd-7th centuries),20 and the 10th- Drawing from al-Qarṭājannī’s consider- indirect interference of a Greek prosodic century Persian robā‛ī (“Āhū-ye kūhī” 238- ations, it could be stated that the Arabic system on the Khalīlian model which, in 244). rubā‛ī is therefore conceived as a loan their view, could therefore be considered However, it is surprising that both Arabic from the Persian tradition, written in Arabic “weight-sensitive”, hence a system within and Persian scholars expressed a recipro- fuṣḥā () only23, understood which “the contrast between ʿlightʾ and cal lack of interest in uncovering different as neither a metre nor as a mere verse ʿheavyʾ syllables functions to mark the conceptualization of the quatrain within (243). It is a literary poetical frame based opposition in prominence between strong the other respective tradition. Only a on distiches – hence, in prosodic terms it and weak metrical positions” (148). recent comparative reading by Ashwini is hardly distinguishable from the dūbayt. In the 1950s, Henning boldly revisited and Kiparsky who employed a phonolog- Thus, the Arabic quatrain features specific Benveniste’s theory and introduced the ical terminology, defined the Persian qua- rhyming rules (similar to those found in concept of a “stress/accentual versifica- train as a “four-moras-tetrameter with a Persian tradition and referred to both tion” of Middle and New Persian poetry, a catalectic foot” (155) as applicable to the robā‛ī and dūbaytī) but also characterized theme which was in turn more deeply Arabic quatrain, whilst Arabic prosodic by a varying mūsīqā khārijiyya (rhyming explored by Elwell-Sutton, Thiesen and manuals maintain the classic diction and prosodic rhythm) as a result of the Lazard during the 1970s and the 1980s. according to which each hemistich is com- alternation of metres together with the This led to the revolutionary identification posed by four taf‛īlāt (al-Hāshimī 141). presence of occasional low-impact metri- of the traditional Persian prosody as an Hence, in both literary traditions every cal variation. All this, in spite of a homoge- “accent/stress-sensitive prosody” deeply hemistich is composed of four feet, the neous and fluid mūsīqā dākhiliyya influenced by the later introduction of last of which involves “high impact” metri- (euphonic rhythm), which is innovatively quantitative prosodic elements borrowed cal variation (Per. ‛elal – Arabic ‛illa).21 Of

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done by the punctual occurrence of cer- and in the name of all that He has created. to recognize two jinās nāqiṣ (paronoma- tain rhetorical figures of speech. (Translated by the author) sia, pun): According to the canonical definition of al-Ḥāshimī (140-141), Arabic quatrains are Proceeding to the metrical analysis, the (a) ufuq/falaq (horizon/universe) - jinās distinguished in seven typologies: the first text shows the employment of the most nāqiṣ naw‛ al-ḥurūf wa at-tartīb (1st/3rd and the second, comparable to the Persian common sequence of taf‛īlāt within both hemistiches); (b) falaq/khalaq(a) (uni- model, are featured by rhyming features the Arabic dūbayt and rubā‛ī, i.e., fa‛lun, verse/He has created) – jinās nāqiṣ naw‛ only (rubā‛ī kāmil, a complete quatrain and mutafā‛ilun, fa‛ūlun, fa‛ilun the first and al-ḥurūf (3rd/4th hemistiches) - and one rubā‛ī khaṣiyy o al-a‛raj, a crippled qua- third hemistiches. Yet, the analysis of the jinās tāmm in the 2nd and 4th hemistiches, train).24 The other five: rubā‛ī khāṣṣ, r. second hemistich shows there are only according to which the term “aḥd” mumanṭaq, r. muraffal, r. mardūf and three taf‛īlāt employed (fa‛ilun, mutafā‛ilun, assumes different meanings (yawm aḥd, majzu’ ad-dūbayt (pure quatrain, fashion- fa‛ūlun) instead of four, seemingly accord- ‘Sunday’ vs. kulli aḥd, ‘everyone’/ able quatrain, ornate quatrain, symmetric ing to either an incorrect cropped form of ‘everything’).28 quatrain, cropped quatrain)25 are charac- the pattern (according to this rule, in fact, Another interesting feature is given by the terized by the specific occurrence of dif- every hemistich of the whole composition presence of aṭ-ṭibāq al-ʾījābī (antithesis/ ferent typologies of jinās26 (paronomasia, should lack the last foot),27 or another oxymoron)29 between the two verbs kasa- pun, alliteration), a rhetorical device of the three-footed pattern. The fourth hemistich fat/raqā (eclipses/rises), respectively branch of Arabic rhetoric (al-balāgha) provides the anomalous sequence i.e. referred to as the sun and the full moon, named ‛ilm al-badī‛ (the science of embel- fa‛ilun, fa‛ilun, fa‛lun, fa‛ūlun. It is interest- hence a rhetorical device which, together lishments). I provide, for instance, the anal- ing to note that al-Hāshimī, who does not with the jinās, contributes to the realiza- ysis of a canonical example of rubā‛ī provide a metrical analysis of this rubā‛ī, tion of a vivid poetic image that celebrates muraffal: vaguely states that the second hemistich universal beauty in an antiphrastic man- “consists of three faqarāt (parts) which ner. enrich its prosody” (141). Doing this, in fact, Thus, though Arabic scholars’ poor accu- he seems to justify the occurrence of pro- racy neglected to clarify the difference sodic inconsistencies as an artistic embel- between rubā‛ī and dūbayt which seman- (al-Hāshimī 141) lishment rather than acknowledging tic proximity could at least be explained, ancient rubā‛iyyāt’s possible inconsisten- another issue seems to be now more rel- A full moon – which if only the sun at the cies when observed in Khalīlian terms. evant. In fact, arguably identifying the horizon saw it, no doubt Besides this, however, the example shows rhyming Arabic quatrains as those early it would eclipse - rises on a Sunday. how much euphony is given by the keen introductions from Persian tradition, the May its beauty be cursed, in the name of employment of jinās rather than by the other five rhetorical Arabic quatrain frames the Lord of the Universe prosodic structure. It is possible therefore align well with the original evolution of

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Persian robā‛ī from a metre or a rhyming traces, because it was essentially an oral (Elwell-Sutton, “‛Arūẓ”, Encyclopaedia verse to a rhetorical compositional form. Iranica online). scheme within Arabic tradition (Fontana Consequently, Bo Utas argues that centu- De Blois adds, however, that within the 210-214). This is a significantly different ries later, between the 9th and 10th centu- New Persian Literature of the 10th-11th cen- conceptualization that in other terms con- ries, poets such as ‛Abd Allah ibn Ja‛far turies, this prototypical form of robā‛ī sud- cerns also both Persian and Arabic qua- Rūdakī (d. 941)30 perhaps influenced by denly broadened to become a longer and trains in modern times. previous oral models such as dūbayt, independent monorhyme poetical com- robā‛ī and tarana (regional/rural song) position which however never enjoyed the Thematic Specificities of Quatrains and (Elwell-Sutton, “The Rūbā‛ī in Early Persian same status as more complex rhymed- the Modern Conceptualization of Literature” 633), soon chose to adopt the couplets poems such as mathnawīs Rubāʽiyyāt as a Non-technical Literary “robā‛ī as artistic form of poetry and devel- (Persian Literature 51), and quatrains Genre oped traditions independently of its pop- began to be tied to religious reflections on Besides the technical and formal aspects ular variant” (“Arabic and Iranian Elements” life and wisdom. According to both Utas of Persian and Arabic quatrains it is now 143). With regard to the themes within ini- and al-Musawi, this last thematic choice is worth examining the themes that have tial forms of robā‛ī31 (9th and f.) in New not surprising. In fact, taking into account been tied to this literary form from a cross- Persian, de Bruijn affirms that together the cultural richness of the Islamic com- temporal perspective. Drawing upon with the lyrical form of qiṭʿa32 (brief, mono- munity which recognized Arabic as the Lazard’s considerations of the origin of thematic poem), the quatrain was origi- official religious language, Persian or robā‛ī (“Āhū-ye kūhī” 238-244), the Persian nally best suited for epigrams and fre- Persian-born shuyūkh (pious men) were quatrain might be understood as a legacy quently inserted in prose texts to highlight bilingual and many of them, especially from Middle Persian literature in Pahlavi special points in a discursive or narrative Sufi preachers from Khorasan, felt it was which was acknowledged as a “courtly, context (“The qiṭʿa and the robāʿī”, essential to use a language easily under- elegant literary language” (Lazard, Encyclopaedia Britannica online). Hence it stood by common people who did not “Pahlavi, pârsi, dari” 361-362, 385; Tafaẓẓoli may be reasoned that the themes of the speak Arabic proficiently, and also easily 158-162) as opposed to Middle Persian earlier robā‛iyyāt i.e. gnomic sentences, memorized, such as poetry (Utas, “The scholarly language (i.e. Pārsi). As well dis- aphorisms of wisdom, courtly short pan- Literary Expression” 208; al-Musawi 206- cussed by De Blois (“A Persian Poem” egyric, love and mystical verses, were het- 208). 82-95), literature in Pahlavi prior to its dis- erogeneous in so far as they were appro- Thus, beyond the original forms of Persian appearance resisted different dialectal priate to the cohesive lyrical structure of or Persian/Arabic Sufi musajja‛āt (works in forms (among which Dari was one), and quatrain featured by brevity “with the first rhymed prose) such as those of al-Hujvīrī maintained only the Pahlavi script which, three hemistiches building up to a climax (d. 1045), which were notably, influenced despite its poetic tradition, left hardly any and the last providing the punch line” by Arabic models of Abū Naṣr as-Sarrāj’s (d. 988) and Qushairī (d. 1045) (Berthels

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1-31), preachers’ employment of lyrical al-Fārīḍ (Ibn al-Fāriḍ Poems’ Collection) Ibn ‛Arabī (d. 1240) besides the others forms initially included ghazal-styled reli- also called al-Tā’iyya al-Kubra34 (The Great already quoted. gious poems and mathnawīs (8th century) Poem Ending with the Letter Tā) (Scattolin After centuries of changes to the model of as well as mystical quatrains (11th centu- 217-231). Other examples are tied to Bahā’ writing quatrains (15th – 18th centuries) ries). Therefore, subsequent specimens of Zuhayr (d. 1258) in which, as in the case of during which this form was essentially spiritual work such as those attributed to Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s al-Khamriyya, the interex- employed in the style of previous exam- the nebulous figure Bābā Ṭāher (1019) or change and familiarity with Sufi Persian ples (Jayyūsī 422, 623; Elwell-Sutton, “The others by Abū Sa‘īd ibn Abi‘l-Khair (d. rubā‛iyyāt is evident (Massignon 63-68). In Rūbā‛ī in Early Persian Literature” 653; 1049),33 Abdu‘llāh Ansārī of Herat (1089) mystic-religious Persian poetry, as empha- Tafaẓẓoli 158-162), the habitual employ- and then great poets such as Hakīm Sanā’ī sized by Utas, “the double legacy of court ment of Persian and Arabic quatrains in (d. 1131), Farīd ud-dīn ‛Attār (d. 1220) and poetry and popular love lyrics” - such as Sufi and religious lyrics seems not to be Jalāl ud-dīn Rūmī (d. 1273) quoted in Utas the Middle Persian poem “Āhū-ye kūhīʿ” enough to explain the modern - mostly (“Arabic and Iranian Elements” 138-139), forefatherʾ of robā‛ī and the popular qua- thematic rather than formal - perception formed the basis for the first customary train in Persian dialects prior to New of quatrains as a non-technical poetical association between quatrains and spiri- Persian - on the one hand, and a widely literary genre, thematically featured by a tual-religious literary topics, rather than prevalent mystic poetry on the other “cre- mixture of mystic and philosophical issues, the specific employment of Persian robā‛ī ated an intricate poetical situation in which both religious and non-religious spiritual- verse to this literary purpose. In fact, some multiple ways of expression came to inter- ity and a free-thinking reflection on life. of the quoted authors worked chiefly in act” (“The Literary Expression” 218). The This stratified perception was arguably other genres, as also Gould recalled in her same view is shared by Scheindlin (111-112), introduced in the 19th century when both preface to the translation of poetess Meisami (37-38), and al-Musawi who Persian and Arabic modern literary con- Mahsatī of Ganja’s quatrains (fl. 12th cen- extends his reflection upon different top- ceptualizations of robā‛iyyāt/rubā‛yyāt tury) (228). ics and registers gathered under the were deeply influenced by Western stud- In turn, Sufi Persian poetry deeply influ- umbrella of spiritual Sufi quatrain. They ies. This is illustrated in the long-lasting enced the 12th-13th century Arabic pro- include ghazal varieties, homoerotism, legacy of two excellent examples of duction of religious rubā‛iyyāt. According agnostics and divine ecstasy embedded Gnostic, philosophical quatrains, such as to both Western and Oriental scholarship, in the clear symptomatology of sensuous the Arab poet Abū al-‛Alā al-Ma‛arrī (d. the first significant employment of Arabic love which, however, is not always con- 1057) and above all the Persian ‛Omar quatrains in Sufi lyrics can be ascribed ceived as a metaphor for the divine one Khayyām (d. 1131) (Nicholson 71). As argued within Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s (d. 1234) widely stud- (170-181). All this is traced for instance in by Graves and Ali-Sha (24-27), FitzGerald’s ied poems, such as in al-Khamriyya (Wine the production of famous Sufi masters free-translation and inquiries on Khayyām’s Ode) and within a section of his most such as Fakhr ad-Dīn ‛Erāqī (d. 1289) and quatrains, including the spurious ones famous Sufism treatise in verseDiwān Ibn (Zhukovski 349-366) contributed to erro-

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neously tying the great Persian astrono- study and reprise of quatrains from a phil- and traditional prosodic and rhyming mer and philosopher to the class of 11th osophical perspective in “Moqaddam bar structure (metre: ar-ramal at-tāmm; rhym- century Sufi poets, and at the same time Rubaiyat-e Khayyam (Introduction to ing scheme: abab) and use the rhetorical bringing quatrains to the fore in several Khayyam’s Rubaiyat)”. devices typically employed in pre-modern studies or indirect translation within the The Egyptian experimental poet Najib rubā‛iyyāt (i.e., al-jinās, al-muqābala; Persian and Arab world (Seyed-Gohrab Surūr (d. 1978) relied on his work Rubā‛iyyāt al-majāz etc.).35 More compelling, how- 20-22). Hence, it might be argued that Najīb Surūr (Najīb Surūr’s Quatrains) to ever, is Surūr’s attempt to thematically some scholars’ historical and literary reflect on both the private and public renew the genre by introducing political poorly contextualized attempts “to make dimensions of the independent intellec- issues and references to the modern pub- a good Sufi shaykh” of Khayyām or tual in Egypt during Nasser and Sadat’s lic intellectual’s demeanor. al-Ma‛arrī (Simidchieva 62-67; cf. Sa‛ūd 21) regencies (1956-1970/ 1970-1981) as being In addition, though definitively not had a regressive influence on the modern constantly suspended between the politi- respecting the formal pattern of classic conceptualization of Islamic mysticism cal and social commitment and a frustrat- rubā‛ī which is instead reprised by Surūr, itself within Western and both Arabic and ing sense of isolation: the Palestian poet Maḥmūd Darwīsh (d. Persian modern literatures, despite the 2008) composed his brief anthology existence of coeval and more accurate “Rubā‛iyyāt” as poetry of intimate resis- philological and literary inquiries on these tance to political persecution: corpora (Dashi 20-22). This process should be viewed in the more (14) general milieu of an ideological, social and even literary modernization which Oh, my companion, affected both Persian and Arabic modern be sure that I did not betray the prin- (al-A‛māl al-Kāmila 788) cultures. Modernization brought, in the ciples, specific field of poetry production, a pro- although the principles - despite my I see what I want in prison: days of gressive refusal of prosodic constraints, loyalty - flowering and a more thematic approach to tradi- they betrayed the vow I made them! that led from here to two strangers in me tional literary frames (Rezaei Yazdi and It is me who, suspended seated in a garden - I close my eyes: Mozafari 63; Jayyūsī 162-164). It is in this between my love and mad passion, How spacious is the earth! How beautiful new context, as well as inspired by a sort I go through my days as they were woods. the earth of more secular mysticism and a new con- (Translated by the author) from the eye of a needle. ception of modern intellectual, that the (Translation by Saadi Simawe and Doré father of modern Iranian literature Ṣādeq In the example as well as within the whole Watson, Modern Poetry in Translation) Hedāyat (d. 1951) dedicated himself to the work, Surūr’s quatrains feature a very clear

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Lastly, also the South Mahjar poet Ilyās quatrains as a mostly thematically defined- throughout the long centuries of what al- Farāt (Rubā‛iyyāt Farḥāt) and Ṣalāḥ Jahīn modern literary genre. In fact, even if mod- Musawi defined a lively Islamic “republic” (d. 1986) - who even chose to write his ern authors refused some distinctive tech- of letters (21-26).36 Rubā‛iyyāt Ṣalāḥ Jahīn (Ṣalāḥ Jahīn’s nical features of classical robā‛iyyāt/ Quatrains) in the Egyptian Arabic variety rubā‛iyyāt, they, however, felt a genuine Conclusion – keenly employed this genre as a way to link to the previous tradition, not with the This philological, formal and thematic reflect on the relationship between intel- aim to dignify/justify their literary experi- inquiry on the different ontological con- lectual and public spheres. mentations under a well-renowned label, ceptions of the robā‛ī/rubā‛ī and literary Adam Talib’s keen reasoning about the but mostly to indicate what the specific conceptualizations across Persian and Arabic epigram and the promiscuity of quatrain’s legacy means in their own mod- Arabic literary traditions has shed the light pre-modern Arabic literary genres sees in ern context, in what specific terms and on three critical questions neglected by the classic Arabic quatrain a formally thematic customary uses, and what previous studies, and thus contributed in defined exception within that framework expressive needs the quatrain both clarifying the interliterary process at the of literary production (How Do you Say inspires and satisfies at the same time. core of development of the quatrain “Epigram” 3). However, how could we It should be noted, however, that the mod- within a hybrid context of cultural and lin- instead read this conceptualization cross- ern conceptualization of quatrains as a guistic encountering. temporally, hence, in the face of the grad- common new literary trend within Iranian The first section showed the semantic ual abandonment of prosodic constraints and Arab countries’ literatures should not obscurity between the terms dūbayt and and formalistic features in writing of a lead to inappropriate overgeneralizations rubā‛ī within Arabic literary corpora, a puz- rubā‛iyyāt as well as in the face of the about a fully shared perception of the liter- zling synonymy that should be read in emergence of a more global thematic ary past in both modern contexts. On the view of the different conceptualization of approach to poetry writing among both contrary, the case of the quatrain emerges the quatrain in both literary traditions modern Persian and Arabic literature? as an exception within both modern (Persian as a verse, metre or a prosodic I argue that Talib’s valid arguments and Persian and Arabic language speaking features-grounded poetical frame; Arabic reader-response approach clarify how the cultures’ attempts at a literary indepen- rhetorical poetical frame). Having shown epistemological shift in readers’/critics’ dent self-definition which leads many that some specific features of the Persian historicization of one literary genre (i.e. the scholars to look at secular mutual influ- quatrain were lost in the new Arabic con- epigrammatic one) always reflects an ences and contacts between Persian and ceptualization, hence the synonymy of ontological shift in the object, hence in the Arabic literary legacy through the “new- dūbayt and rubā‛ī - if not justifiable – it fol- conceptualization of the genre itself (How born cultural and national boundaries” lows that another more general, consider- Do you Say “Epigram” 216; cf. Žižek 17). (Blondel Saad 32), arguably disregarding ation of the common context of the Persian This, I argue, could also be applied to the interwoven paths of artistic expression and Arabic classical quatrain production is explain the modern conceptualization of espoused by their respective traditions necessary.

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In this sense, Arabic classic scholarship’s fully match with the joint cultural and soci- hence more technical – and “distant ” – i.e. lack of clarification on the synonymy etal flux of pre-modern Islamic world. more global – readings (Moretti 56-58) of between the two terms and also the Arabic Moreover, the third section above showed the Persian and Arabic quatrain interliter- and Persian scholars’ mutual lack of inter- that the diachronic overview of the themes ary phenomenon, away from the wholly est in recognizing the different conceptu- most employed in classic Persian and thematic approach that is mostly in vogue alizations of the robā‛ī/rubā‛ī, which was Arabic quatrains as well their reciprocal within contemporary world literature stud- sometimes motivated by cultural rivalry influence, assumes a pivotal importance in ies, given that it seems to be almost exclu- and misleading readings, arguably indi- the long-lasting legacy of quatrains in sively tailored to modern novel produc- cates the existence of a fluid duality of modern and contemporary Iranian and tion. mutual inspirations, borrowings and Arab world literatures. In fact, the progres- The above overview of these compelling exchanges among the two literary tradi- sive refusal of prosodic and rhyming con- questions related to the challenging liter- tions, in particular between the 9th and straints within both areas during the late ary fate of quatrains across Persian and 14th centuries when specific boundaries 19th and 20th centuries traditions, may Arabic traditions would benefit from were not too rigid. Therefore, it might be affirm that the quatrains also started to be deeper and more specific exploration, argued these flowing interliterary prac- conceived as a trend or a non-technical especially if grounded in the sociology of tices were conceived as natural, in so far literary genre. In this regard, however, literature approach. For now, this organic as they occurred in the context of the clas- what seems more relevant to note is that panorama of themes that concern both sic Islamic, culturally and linguistically het- in a new historical context in which clearer Persian and Arabic studies is welcomed in erogeneous “Proto-World Literature”. new-born boundaries and interactions are different ways: firstly, stressing the rele- Thus, the reason for suggesting this last now outlined, both modern Iranian and vance of interdisciplinary approach to alternative definition to “World-Literature” Arab-countries’ authors of robā‛iyyāt/ humanities if applied to literature and also in this case, is grounded on the challeng- rubā‛iyyāt however still draw inspirations within literary studies’ branches, filling the ing applicability of modern discipline’s from a compound of shared literary refer- gap between more technical philological, axioms to the selected subject of inquiry. ences and examples from a common past, metrical and rhetorical inquiries and the Hence, scholars such as Moretti (59) and though they creatively revise them in the thematic ones. Secondly, underlining how Schwarz (50), while advoking for the light of new expressive urgencies tied to an organic analysis of interliterary pro- employment of an integral systemic their respective cultural and sociopolitical cesses should be pursued avoids sectari- approach to world literature, arguably contexts. This reflection, I argue, would anism often tied to Islamic culture studies, maintained an unidirectional hegemonic have been of little substance without tech- including Persian and Arabic studies but discourse about the extraneity of the nical and close reasoning on how pro- also Turkish, Ottoman Turkish and Urdu, as alleged “subaltern” which appears sodic constraints mattered instead, in a appropriate. And thirdly, inspiring a meth- grounded on the economic, political order previous era. In this sense, this study odological shift in approaching diachronic of modern societies and which does not engages with combining both a “close” – literary inquiries on classic Islamic poetics,

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Chiara Fontana and more in general, World Literature inquiries, avoiding the application of a ret- has a PhD in Arabic Literature and roactive conceptualization of modern, Linguistics at Sapienza University sometimes Eurocentric boundaries to past of Rome. Her thesis was entitled A contexts. Linguistic, Rhetorical and Metric Analysis of Najīb Surūr’s Experimental Works (February 2018). Since 2014, she has taught and continues her research at institutions in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia where she is currently based. In 2017, she received an Italian Ministry of Research scholarship to conduct a pilot study on Rhetorical/ Poetic Forms in Southern Tunisian and Western Libyan Dialects. She is also an associate member of the research boards for ERC project GlobaLit: Caucasus Literatures Compared at the University of Birmingham and for the Leverhulme-funded research project, A Sorcerer‘s Handbook, at the University of Exeter. email: [email protected]

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Notes 2 Refers to the prosodic 7 Other three forms of seven 10 Ignoring the previous and 15Ar. zihāf s. / ziḥāfāt pl. system devised by Khalīl Ibn are called malḥūna - hence copious literature on the is a “low-impact metrical 1 I wish to thank Professor Bo Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī (d. 718), influence by dialectal or non- topic, ar-Rāfi‛ affirms that the variation” (Fontana 463- Utas and Professor Muhsin later revised by al-Akhfash Arabic languages - and they dūbayt was introduced from 467) which concerns the Jasim al-Musawi for their al-Awsaṭ (d. 830) and since were az-; al-kān-wa-kān; Persian literary tradition into shortening of specific kindness in reading an earlier the 9th century has provided al-qawma (al-Musawi 263- the Arabic one not before groups of sounds (majmū‛āt draft of this article and for formal rules for both Arabic 265). The form considered the 7th century AH hence the ṣawṭīyya) called asbāb (e.g., their valuable comments and and Persian prosodies. the most noble of them as it 14th century. //, 0/). This variation does corrections. Needless to say, I “follows the syntactic rules not significantly change the alone am responsible for any 3 Difference between Persian of al-fuṣḥā and al-i‛rāb” 11 Also Abū ‛Abd Allah at- realization of the metre as it is of its shortcomings. and Arabic terms robā‛ī/ (Jawwād, 364) was known Tilmisānī (d. 1370) agrees with considered “maqbūl wa-laysa Suggested transcriptions rubā‛ī and Persian dūbaytī as al-mawālīya, which was this pattern (Nājī 163). ḍarūrī” (not to be applied for the Persian and Arabic and Arabic dūbayt marked in derived the modern popular throughout the whole poem) allographic term ( ) transcription. See note no. 1. mawwāl (Cachia 19-39; 12 His dates of birth/death (al-Hāshimī 12-28). accounts for their respective Fontana 292-302). are unknown. He was pronunciations. Though 4 Indistinguishable in settled in Granada and was 16 They refer respectively to many sources (Elwell- form and meter from 8 More canonically defined pl. a contemporary of Abū the elision either of the fifth Sutton, “The rūbā‛ī in Early each other (Elwell-Sutton, ashṭur (s. shaṭr) (al-Hāshimī Ja‛far az-Zubayr (1230-1308) or seventh non-vocalized Persian Literature”) also “‛Arūẓ”, Encyclopaedia Iranica 6-8). and proceeded with the letter of the taf‛īla (al-Hāshimī transcribe the Persian term online). organization of the possible 15). as rubā‛ī due to customary 9 According to clearly metrical patterns of the 5 17 influence of Arabic- Some of which, such as unfounded etymological dūbayt suggested by the The alternation of a grounded transcription (aabb) or (abab), are not reconstruction of al-Ḥillī, the poet Malik Ibn al-Muraḥḥal sequence (ᴗ - ᴗ -) with (- ᴗᴗ -) system, this study provides allowed in robā‛ī frame term dū-bayt derives per (Ṣayf al-Islām 167). is not traceable in every other both Persian and Arabic (Elwell-Sutton, “The Rūbā‛ī in metathesis from an alleged Persian metre (Elwell-Sutton, 13 phonetic transcriptions for Early Persian Literature” 634). (erroneously compound) Referring to the other “The rūbā'ī in Early Persian correct reference. The terms term > būdhia >abū two patterns, al-Qalalawsī Literature” 633-635). For the 6 robā‛ī/rubā‛ī (pl. robā‛iyyāt/ As for the sinād, aḍ- adhiya “[belonging] to who states: “wa-kilā al-qawlayni diagrammatical realization rubā‛iyyāt) are maintained Ḍabbī only mentions offends, angers” (Fontana bāṭil – and both of them are of prosodic patterns, here throughout and employed as that it concerns circular 282). From this, is not clear incorrect” (qtd. in Nāji 161). it is followed the standard appropriate. All transcribed compositions characterized why al-Ḥillī ties this clumsy syllabic version of the titles of both Persian and by repetitiveness (“dhū at- reconstruction to ‛ubūdiyyā 14 For the diagrammatical Khalīlian system employed Arabic studies are quoted tarjī‛ al-kathīr an-naghamāt (slavery) if not according to realization of prosodic in major Persian prosody without further adaptations. wa-n-nabarāt”) whilst Ḍayf an ideological intention to patterns, here it follows the manuals (Thiesen 8-15; Elwell- adds that as-sinād was a discredit the Persian element Khalīlian standard system Sutton, The Persian Metres “heavy, serious” (“thaqīl”) within contemporary society. employed in major Arabic 5-10). genre without providing prosody manuals (e.g. al- more details (193-194). Hāshimī). ––›

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––› 18 The most common forms 21 Within the Arabic prosodic 22 Ar. ziḥāf s. / ziḥāfāt pl. – 25 Within my previous inquiry 27 The rule quoted above is of robā‛ī metre are the hazaj tradition this typology of Per. zehāf s. / zehāfāt pl. For I have already dedicated a called ṣūrat al-majzū’ li-l-baḥr mothamman akhrab makfūf variation (‛illa) indicates that the definition see note no section to Arabic quatrains (al-Hāshimī 12). majbūb (- - ᴗᴗ - - ᴗᴗ - - ᴗᴗ -) the last foot of a hemistich 15. It should be highlighted, as a model reprised in and the hazaj mothamman may lacks or presents an however, that though the contemporary Arabic poetry. 28 For typologies of jinās, see akhrab maqbūz majbūb additional group of sounds definition is essentially the I argue for the first time the previous note. (- - ᴗᴗ- ᴗ - ᴗ - - ᴗᴗ -), from (majmū‛ ṣawṭī), more same within both the Arabic the acknowledgement of which derives up to 126 broadly considered a ʿlightʾ and Persian traditions, rhetorical typologies of 29 It is a specific form of subvariations (Elwell-Sutton, or ʿheavyʾ syllabe. This according to the Persian rubā‛iyyāt, describing for asemantic beautifier/ “‛Arūẓ”, Encyclopaedia Iranica phenomenon contributes in prosody the zehāf should each category quoted the enhancer (balāgha >ʽilm al- online). changing the realization of be applied to the whole specific rhyming patterns, badīʽ) called ṭibāq (antithesis/ the metre since, according composition as the ‛elal. See and occurrence of jinās oxymoron) according to 19 The mathnawī (doubled), to additional rules, it should Elwell-Sutton (Elwell-Sutton, among the hemistiches which both a term and its as the etymology reveals, is be applied consistently “‛Arūẓ”, Encyclopaedia Iranica (Fontana 185-214). For the opposite in meaning occur in the most canonical form of throughout the whole online). typologies of jinās see note a text contiguously (Maṭlūb rhymed couplets in Persian composition - hence below. 522). literature, traditionally considered ḍarūrī (necessary) 23 “Lā yajūzu fī-hi al-laḥnu 26 employed in very long or a “high impact metrical muṭlaqan”. About the rubā‛ī The jinās is one of the 30 Actually, considered epic, didactic, romantic or variation” (Fontana 469- al-Qarṭājannī also adds his most employed euphonic the father of robā‛ī in New philosophical poems (Elwell- 473). The most relevant personal judgment “lā bā’s beautifiers/enhancers Persian. Sutton, “‛Arūẓ”, Encyclopaedia difference in the realization bi-l-‛amali ‛alay-hi, fa-inna- (balāgha >ʽilm al-badīʽ). Iranica online). of this variation within Persian hu mustaẓrafun wa waḍ‛u- Its effects vary as its forms 31 The scarce sources about prosody is that the ‛elal may hu mutanāsibun” (there is vary as in the case of the poem “Āhū-ya kūnī” 20 For years the poem has occur, however infrequently nothing wrong with using it, it jinās tāmm (two or more did not allow scholars to been spuriously attributed to also in the first foot of a is nice, light and widely used) homographic terms with assume the poem’s themes Abū Ḥafṣ Soḡdī (fl. 9th-10th hemistich (al-Hāshimī 12- (241). different meanings) or jinās that are typical in other centuries). 28; Elwell-Sutton, “‛Arūẓ”, nāqiṣ, i.e. alliteration or lost compositions with a 24 Encyclopaedia Iranica online). The first follows the (aaaa) paronomasia between terms similar structure (Lazard, rhyming scheme while the different in meaning which “Prosody iii. Middle Persian”, second the (aaba) one (al- are similar in pronunciation Encyclopædia Iranica online). Hāshimī 140-142). or that even differ from each other according to the type/ 32 Mostly used for satire and vocalization/number of topical poetry. letters or the order between them (respectively: jinās 33 His quatrains however were nāqiṣ al-ḥurūf/ ash-shakl/ collected later by his great- al-ʽadad/ at-tartīb) (Maṭlūb great-grandson Muḥammad 450-455). ibn Munavvar (fl. 12th century) (Nicholson 46).

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––› 34 About the alphabetical Works Cited aḍ-Ḍabbī, al-Mufaḍḍal De Blois, Francois, “A Domínguez, César, Haun arrangement of the Arabic ibn Muḥammad. Al- Persian Poem Lamenting the Saussy, and Darío Villanueva. and Persian poetical al-‛Āmirī, Thāmir ‛Abd Mufaḍḍaliyyāt (Selected Arab Conquest” Studies in Introducing Comparative anthologies under rhyming al-Ḥasan. al-Ghinā’ al-‛irāqī Poems). Annotated and Honour of Clifford Edmund Literature: New Trends and letters during the 9th–15th (Songs from Iraq). Dār edited by Aḥmad Abū al- Bosworth, edited by Ian Applications. Routledge, centuries see Schimmel (33- ash-Shu’ūn ath-Thaqāfiyya Ashbāl and ‛Abd as-Salām Richard Netton. Brill, 2000, 2014. 34) and Badawī (491). al-‛Āmma, 1988. Hārūn. Dār al-Ma‛ārif, 1942. pp. 82-95. Ďurišin, Dionýz. Theory 35 Translation by the author. Badawī, Muṣṭafā, editor. ad-Darrāj, Abū ‛Abd Allāh. ____, editor. Persian Literature of Interliterary Process. For the metrical, rhetorical Modern Arabic Literature. Kitāb al-Imtā‛ wa-l-intifā‛ - A Bio-Bibliographical Translated by Jessie analysis and full translation Cambridge University Press, fī masa’lat samā‛ as-samā‛ Survey: Poetry of the Pre- Kocmanová and Zdenek of “Rubā‛iyyāt Najīb Surūr”, 1992. (The Book of the Useful and Mongol Period, Routledge, Pistek. Slovak Academy of see my critical monograph, the Pleasurable in the Art 2004. 5 vols. Sciences, 1989. the first in any language, on Benveniste, Émile. “Le of Listening). Maṭba‛at al- Surūr’s poetry, theatre and texte du Draxt Asûrîk et Andalus, 1982. de Bruijn, J.T.P. “The qiṭʿa and Elwell-Sutton, Laurence Paul. literary criticism (Fontana). la versification pehlevie.” the robāʿī (Persian literature)”, “The Rūbā‛ī in Early Persian Journal Asiatique, vol. 129, no. Darwīsh, Maḥmūd, “I see Encyclopædia Britannica Literature.” Cambridge 36 As the Egyptian writer Ṭāhā 218, 1930, pp. 193-225. what I want”. Translated by online 2015, www.britannica. History of Iran, vol. 4, edited Ḥusayn oddly remarked, Saadi A. Simawe and Ellen com/art/Persian-literature. by Richard N. Frye et al. in his introduction to the Berthels, Evgeniĭ Doré Watson. Modern Poetry Accessed 27 February 2019. Cambridge University Press, translation of the Diwān Èduardovich. “Grundlinien in Translation, no. 14, 1999, 1975, pp. 633-657. of Ḥafīẓ of Shirān (fl. 14th der Entwicklungsgeschichte pp. 214-218. Deo, Ashwini, and Paul century): “Before the age des sufischen Lehrgedichtes.” Kiparsky Paul. “Poetries in ____. The Persian Metres. of the [Arab] Renaissance, Islamica, vol. 3, no. 1, 1929, ____, “Rubā‛iyyāt”. Maḥmūd contact: Arabic, Persian, Cambridge University Press, our knowledge of Persian pp. 1-31. Darwīsh - al-A‛māl al-Kāmila and Urdu.” Frontiers in 1976. literature was very narrow (“Quatrains”. Maḥmūd comparative prosody, edited and limited. It is great that our Blondel Saad, Joya. The Darwīsh’s Complete Works). by Maria-Kristina Lotman and ____. “‛Arūẓ.” Encyclopaedia familiarity with this literature image of Arabs in modern al-Miṣriyya li-l-Nashr wa at- Mihhail Lotman. Lang, 2011, Iranica online 2011. www. begins with an eminent poet Persian literature. University Tawzī‛, 2000, pp. 786-791. pp. 147-173. iranicaonline.org/articles/ such as Khayyām, though it Press of America, 1996. aruz-the-metrical-system. reached us through [indirect] Dashi, Ali. In Search of Omar Dev, Amiya, and Sisir Kumar Accessed 15 February 2019. translations” (ash-Shawārbī Csato, Eva Agnes, Bo Khayyam. Translated by Das. Comparative Literature: 6). See also Hawas (66-92). Isaksson, and Carina Laurence Paul Elwell-Sutton. Theory and Practice. Indian Al-Fārābī, Abū Naṣr Jahani, editors. Linguistic Routledge, 2011. Institute of Advanced Muḥammad. Jawāmi‛ ash- Convergence and Areal Studies-Allied Publishers, shi‛r (The Compendium of Diffusion: Case Studies from Ḍayf, Shawqī, editor. Tārīkh 1989. Poetry). Annoted and edited Iranian, Semitic and Turkic. al-adab al-‛arabī (The History by Muḥammad Salīm Sālim. Psychology Press, 2005. of Arabic Literature). Dār al- al-Majlis al-A‛lā li-l-Shu’un al- Ma‛ārif, 2013, 22 vols. Islamiyya, 1971.

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––› Farāt Ilyās. Rubā‛iyyāt Farḥāt Hedāyat, Ṣādeq. “Moqaddam Jāhīn, Ṣalāḥ. Rubā‛iyyāt Lazard, Gilbert. “Āhū-ye al-Mawṣilī, Muwaffaq ad-Dīn. (Farḥāt’s Quatrains). Maṭba‛at bar roba‘iyat-e Khayyam” Ṣalāḥ Jāhīn (Ṣalāḥ Jāhīn’s kūhī: le chamois d’Abu Sharḥ al-mufaṣṣal li-l- Ṣafadī, 1954. (Introduction to Khayyām’s Quatrains). al-Hay’a al- Hafs de Sogdiane et les Zamakhsharī (A Commentary Quatrains). Majmu‘e-ye Miṣriyya al-‛Āmma li-l-Kitāb, origines du robâi.” W.B on Zamakhsharī’s Fontana, Chiara. Un’analisi neveshteha-ye parakande-ye 1974. Henning Memorial Volume, “Compendium”). Annoted linguistica, retorica e metrica Sadeq-e Hedayat (Anthology edited by Mary Boyce and and edited by Imīl Badī‛ dell’opera sperimentale di of Ṣādeq Hedāyat’s Scattered Jahn, Karl, editor. History of Ilya Gershevitch. Lund Ya‛qūb. Dār al-Kutub al- Najīb Surūr: la “seconda Works), edited by Hasan Iranian Literature. D. Reidel Humphries, 1970, pp. 238-44. ‛Ilmiyya, 2001. nahḍa” degli anni ’60 e ’70 Qa‘emiyan. Thaleth, 1990, pp. Publishing Company, 1968. e l’evoluzione del testo in 275-288. ____. “Pahlavi, pârsi, dari: les Meisami, Julie Scott. ʻāmmiyya e fuṣḥā. 2018. al-Jawharī, Ismā‛il ibn langues de l’Iran d’après Ibn Medieval Persian Court Sapienza Università di Roma, Henning, Walter Bruno. “A ‛Ammād. aṣ-Ṣiḥāḥ. Tāj al- al-Muqaffa‛.” Iran and Islam. Poetry. Princeton University PhD Dissertation. Pahlavi Poem.” Bulletin of lugha wa-ṣiḥāḥ al-‛arabiyya, In Memory of the Late V. Press, 1987. the School of Oriental and (Flawless Arabic Language’s Minorsky, edited by Clifford Gould, Rebecca Ruth. African Studies, vol. 13, no. 3, Crown and Perfection). Edmund Bosworth. Bosworth, Moretti, Franco. “Conjectures “Mahsati of Ganja’s 1950, pp. 641-48. Annoted and edited by 1971, pp. 361-91. on World Literature.” New Wandering Quatrains: Aḥmad ‛Abd al-Ghafūr ‛Aṭṭār. Left Review, no. 2, 2000, pp. Translator’s Introduction.” al-Ḥillī, Ṣafiyy ad-Dīn. Die Dār al-‛Ilm li-l-Malāyīn, 1987. ____. “Prosody iii. Middle 54-68. Literary Imagination, vol. 13, Vulgärarabische Poetik. Persian.” Encyclopædia no. 2, 2011, pp. 225-231. Translated and edited by Jawwād, Muṣṭafā. Fī Iranica online 2017, www. al-Musawi, Muhsin Jasim. The Wilhelm Hoenerbach. Steiner, at-turāth al-‛arabī (About iranicaonline.org/articles/ Medieval Islamic Republic of Graves Robert, and Omar Ali 1956. Arabic [Literary] Heritage). prosody-middle-persian. Letters: Arabic Knowledge Shah. The Rubaiyyat of Omar Manshūrāt Wizārat al-I‛lām Accessed 10 January 2019. Construction. University of Khayaam – A New Translation Ibn Khaldūn, ‛Abd ar- al-‛Irāqiyya, 1975. Notre Dame Press, 2015. with Critical Commentaries. Raḥmān. al-Muqaddima Massignon, Louis. Essai Cassell, 1967. (The Introduction). Annoted Jayyusi, Salma Khadra. sur les origines du lexique Nājī, Hilāl. “ar-Risāla ath- and edited by Darwīsh al- Trends and Movements in technique de la mystique thānya min risālatayni fī ‛arūḍ al-Hāshimī, Aḥmad. Mizān Juwaydī. Dār Sa‛īda, 2000. Modern Arabic Poetry. Brill, musulmane. Paul Geuthner, ad-dūbayt ” (“A Second Paper adh-dhahab fīṣinā‘t ash-shi‛r 1977. 1922 on the Two-Couplet Poem’s al-‛arabī (The Golden Scale Ibn al-Jawzī, Abū al-Faraj. Prosodical Pattern”). al-Murīd, for Measuring the Art of Al-Mudhish (The Amazing). al-Kanafāwī, ‛Abd Allāh, “‛Arūẓ Maṭlūb, Aḥmad. Mu‛jam al- vol. 2, no. 4, 1974, pp. 161-165. Composing Arabic Poetry), Edited by Marwān Qabbānī. ad-Dubayt”. Dunya al-Watan, muṣṭalaḥāt al-balāghiyya wa edited by ‘Abd al-Ğalīl Yūsuf Dār al-Kutub al-‛Ilmiyya, 1971. 21 November 2008,, www. taṭawwuri-hā (A Dictionary Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne. Ḥusnī. Maktabat al-Ādāb, pulpit.alwatanvoice.com/ of Arabic Rhetorical Terms Studies in Islamic Poetry. 1997. al-Ibshīhī, Bahā’ ad-Dīn. al- articles/2008/11/21/151346. and Their Development). Cambridge University Press, Mustaṭraf fī kulli mustaẓraf html. Accessed 4 September Maktabat Lubnān li-l- 2011. Hawas, May. “Taha Hussein (Gems from Fancies). Dār 2019. Nāshirīn, 2007. and the Case for World al-Ma‛ārif, 2008. ––› Literature.” Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 55, no. 1, 2018, pp. 66-92.

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––› Paoli, Bruno. De la Rezaei Yazdi, Hamid, and Schimmel, Annemarie. A Stoetzer, W. “Rubāʿī (pl. Tafaẓẓoli, Aḥmad. “Fahlavīyāt.” théorie à l’usage. Essai de Arshavez Mozafari, editors. Two-colored Brocade: The Rubāʿiyyāt.)” Encyclopaedia Encyclopædia Iranica online reconstitution du système de Persian Literature and Imagery of Persian Poetry. of Islam online 2012. www. 2012. www.iranicaonline.org/ la métrique arabe ancienne. Modernity: Production and Univ. of North Carolina Press, brillonline.com/entries/ articles/fahlaviyat. Accessed Presses de l‘Ifpo, 2008. Reception. Routledge, 2018. 1992. encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/ on 2 April 2019 rubai-pl-rubaiyyat. Accessed Prince, Alan. “Metrical forms.” Sa‛ūd, Ibn ‛Abd al-‛Azīz Scheindlin, Raymond. “Ibn 15 March 2019 Thiesen, Finn. A Manual of Rhythm and Meter, edited Khalaf. Qawl al-falāsifa Gabirol’s Religious Poetry Classical Persian prosody. by Paul Kiparsky, and Gilbert al-muntasibīna li-l-Islām fī and Sufi Poetry”. Sefarad, vol. Surūr, Najīb. “Rubā‛iyyāt Najīb With chapters on Urdu, Youmans. Academic Press, tawḥīd ar-rubūbiyya (What 54, no. 1, 1994, pp. 109-142. Surūr.” Najīb Surūr -al-Aʿmāl Karakhanidic, and Ottoman 1989. Philosopher Adherents of al-kāmila (“Najīb Surūr’s prosody. Harrassowitz, 1982. Islam Faith Say about Deism’s Schwarz, Roberto. “The Quatrains.” Najīb Surūr’s al-Qalalawsī, Abū Bakr Monotheism). Jāmi‛at Umm Importing of the Novel to Complete Works), vol. 4, Tötösy de Zepetnek, and Muḥammad. Zahrat aẓ-ẓarf al-Qurā, 2004. Brazil and Its Contradictions al-Hay’a al-Miṣriyya al-‛Āmma Tutun Mukherjee, editors. wa-zahrat aṭ-ṭarf fī basṭ al- in the Work of Roberto li-l-Kitāb, 1997, pp. 7- 69. Companion to Comparative jumal min al-‛arūḍ al-muhmil Ṣayf al-Islām, Muḥammad, Alencar”. Misplaced Ideas, Literature, World Literatures, (The Flower of the Wit and Juhūd ‛ulamā’ al-Andalus fī edited by John Gledson. Talib, Adam. How Do You and Comparative Cultural the Flower of Elegance in khidmat at-tārīkh wa-t-tarājim. Verso, 1992, pp. 41-77. Say “Epigram” in Arabic?: Studies. Cambridge Composing Verses with Ibn Khaṭīb wa kitab al-Iḥāṭa Literary History at the Limits University Press India, 2013. Neglected Metres). Annoted numūdhajan (Andalusian Seyed-Gohrab, Asghar, of Comparison. Brill, 2017. and edited by Muḥammad Scholars’ Commitment to editor. The Great Umar Utas, Bo. “The Literary al-Fihrī. Maktabat Salmā ath- Historical and Biographical Khayyam: A Global Reception ____. “Dūbayt in Arabic.” Expression of Persian Sufism.” Thaqāfiyya, 2009. Studies. Ibn Khaṭīb and his of the Rubáiyát. Leiden Encyclopaedia of Islam Mysticism 5, edited by Sven “Book of Completeness” as University Press, 2012. online 2014. www.brillonline. S. Hartman, and Carl-Martin al-Qarṭājannī, Abū al-Ḥassan. a Model). Dār al-Jinān li-n- com /encyclopaedia-of- Edsman. Almqvist & Wiskell, Minhāj al-bulaghā’ wa sirāj al- Nashr wa at-Tawzī‛, 2014. ash-Shawārbī, Amīn. Ḥāfiẓ islam-3/dubayt-in-arabic. 1970, pp. 206-219. udabā’ (The Methodologies ash-Shīrāzī: shi‛r al-ghinā’wa- Accessed 8 April 2019. of Arabic Scholars in Rhetoric Scattolin, Giuseppe. “A l-ghazal fīĪrān (Ḥāfīẓ ash- ____. “Arabic and Iranian and the Luminous Guide Critical Edition of Ibn al- Shirāzī: Sung Poetry and Love at-Tanūkhī, al-Muḥsin ibn Elements in New Persian for Arab Men of Letters). Fāriḍ‘s Dīwān: Reading a Poetry in Iran). Dār al-Ma‛ārif, ‛Alī. Nishwār al-muḥāḍara Prosody.” Arabic Prosody Annoted and edited by Sufi Text.” Le développement 1944. wa-akhbār al-mudhākara, and its Applications in Ḥabīb ibn al-Khūja. ad-Dār al- du soufisme en Égypte à (A Lesson in the Best Muslim Poetry, edited ‛Arabiyya li-l-Kitāb, 2008. l‘époque mamelouke, edited Simidchieva, Marta. Speeches- What is Worth by in L. Johanson and B. by Richard McGregor. Institut “FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát and Remembering). Annoted and Utas. Swedish Research ar-Rāfi‛, Muṣṭafā Ṣādiq. Tārīkh français d‘archéologie Agnosticism” FitzGerald’s edited by ‛Abbūd ash-Shālijī. Institute,1994, pp. 129-41. ādāb al-‛arab (A History of orientale, 2006, pp. 217-231. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Dār Ṣādir, 1995. Arab Literatures). Maktabat Popularity and Neglect, ––› al-Imān, 1940. edited by Adrian Poole et. al. Anthem Press, 2011.

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––› Zhukovsky, Valentine. “Omar Khayyám and the Wandering Quatrains.” Translated by E. Denison Ross. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1898, pp. 349-366.

Žižek, Slavoj. The Parallax View. MIT Press, 2006.

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ISSN: 2196-629X https://doi.org/10.17192/ meta.2019.13.8088

Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 13 –2019