The History of Arabic Rhetoric and Eloquence (Balagha)

The History of Balagha by Suheil Laher © 2017, Suheil Laher & Fawakih Institute NOTE: This article is a prefatory essay to Fawakih Institute’s “Introduction to Balagha” textbook. The textbook is part of Fawakih’s six-level Classical Arabic curriculum. Further details of the Fawakih curriculum and classes (online and in-person) can be found at http://fawakih.com Contents Prelude..................................................................................................................................................1 The Red Tent and the First Century.......................................................................................................2 Secretaries and Stallions : The Second and Third Centuries.................................................................4 Conceits and Quran : The Third and Fourth Centuries..........................................................................6 Synthesis and Consolidation : The Fifth and Sixth Centuries................................................................9 Stasis and Stagnation : The Seventh to Fourteenth Centuries............................................................11 Encounter and Engagement with Modernity......................................................................................13 Modern Rhetorical Exegesis................................................................................................................16 Epilogue...............................................................................................................................................17 Appendix A : Historical Development of Balagha (Diagram)...............................................................18 Appendix B : Selected Further Readings.............................................................................................19 Prelude The field of the Arabic language known as balagha (eloquence and rhetoric) started as a spirit without a definite name or formal description, and in time became something rigorously defined and delineated but lacking in its initial dynamic aesthetic spirit, until eventually seeing some degree of revival in modern times. This story covers fifteen centuries, starting in Arabia, but eventually spreading as far as central Asia and Andalusia. In the course of this journey across space and time, we will see the field described by multiple names (bayan, fasaha, balagha and others), and developing in several separate currents, before these are eventually brought to a confluence, and the field takes a steady- state shape comprising three sub-disciplines: maàni (linguistic pragmatics / semantics), bayan (imagery and figurative language) and badi` (rhetorical embellishments). As for the leading characters of this story, we will meet folk as diverse as Caliphs and imams, philologists and theologians (including Sunnis, Shiìs and Mu`tazilis), as well as poets and secretaries. So, won’t you join us on this fascinating odyssey? The Red Tent and the First Century The prodigy (“al-Nabigha”) Ziyad al-Dhubyani (d. 18 BH / 604 C), a renowned pre-Islamic poet, used to set up a red tent in the marketplace of Ùkaz, where poets would come and present their poetry to him for praise, criticism, and adjudication. Arabic poetry appears to have emerged quite suddenly in the sixth century CE, and was already very sophisticated by the time of the Prophet Muhammad. Poets would sometimes think about and refine their poems over an entire year (such poems were termed hawliyyat), and there were literary fairs and contests that drew poets from all over Arabia. The Prophet himself is reported to have appreciated good poetry. There were clearly aesthetic criteria that the Arabs had for judging poetry in this early period, but they were not yet formal or documented. Eloquence and sophistication have long been valued in Arabic, as they have been in other languages, but the emergence of balagha as a technical term and as a formal subject of study was a gradual development, involving a confluence of several currents in earlier scholarship, the earliest of which is probably this endeavor of poetry criticism. Into the midst of this milieu, which valued and delighted in poetry, emerged then the Qur’an, with an innovative literary style that did not conform to the conventions of Arabic poetry or prose, and yet was beautiful and powerful. The Quran posed a challenge to the Arab literary conoisseurs and artists to imitate it, declaring that their inability to do so proved the Quran’s divine origin. This theological concept of inimitability of the Quran would, in time, influence the development of balagha, as we pick up on later. The Prophet made a clear distinction between the Quran (believed to be God’s words brought to him by the angel Gabriel, and covered by the challenge of inimitability), and his own words which, even when they related to religious matters, were not claimed to be inimitable in their style. Nevertheless, he did value eloquence and effective communication. Some of his sayings are succinct yet profound in meaning, and he declared this ability to be a divine blessing (even if not a miracle). Imam Nawawi’s (d. 676/1278) famous compilation of 40 Hadiths was an attempt to collect some of the most important such sayings. Other hadiths indicate that the Prophet also paid attention to word choice, disapproving of saying things in a way that could lead to misunderstanding, or have a negative psychological effect. After the Prophet’s death, the concern for language remained strong. The fourth caliph Àli (d. 40/661), in particular, had a reputation for eloquence, and two centuries later al-Sharif al-Radiyy (d. 406/1015, Twelver Shiì scholar and poet) attempted to compile what he could find of Imam Àli’s sermons, letters and other words in the book Nahj al-Balagha (‘The Peak of Eloquence.’) Although the subsequent the Umayyad dynasty (41/662 -132/750) certainly had its demerits, decline of the Arabic language was not among them. Among the skilful orators of this period were Zayd ibn al-Husayn (a descendant of the Prophet), the famous ascetic Hasan of Basra (d. 110/728), and the notorious tyrant Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (d. 95/714). Mu`tazilite theologian Wasil ibn Àta’ (d. 131/748) was unable to pronounce the ‘r’ sound, due to a speech impediment, but was so skillful with the language that he managed to speak eloquently without using any r-containing words! The Umayyad era was also one of territorial expansion (leading to cultural exchange) and intellectual maturation. The marketplaces of Mirbad and Kunasa, in the garrison cities of Basra and Kufa respectively, became sites for literary presentation, just as Ùkaz had been in the pre-Islamic (Jahiliyya) period. Secretaries and Stallions : The Second and Third Centuries The increased mingling of Arabs and non-Arabs spawned fruitful cultural exchange, but also rivalries motivated in part by each linguistic group’s fear of dilution and loss of their own languages’ purity. In the meantime, the conduct of official state business began to be more sophisticated, and the political stability and prosperity witnessed in this time allowed for further systematization of knowledge. All of these historical developments had their reverberations in the field of balagha in the 2nd and 3rd centuries . A major impetus to the development of balagha came from the official government secretaries (kuttab) who emerged as a distinct professional group during this time. These secretaries needed to use refined and ornamental language in official documents, and were also in contact with the poets of their time. As a result, they were able to master the arts of style and diction. Manuals for secretaries therefore started to be produced, such as Ibn Qutayba’s (d. 276/889) Adab al-Katib (The Secretary’s Etiquettes), and ʻAbdul-Rahman al-Hamadhani (d. 327/939) al-Alfaz al-Kitabiyya (‘The Secretarial Words,’ a compilation of synonyms and eloquent expressions useful for secretaries and others wanting to write eloquently). Philologists also contributed to the documentation of eloquence, but cast a wider net than merely serving secretarial needs. Baghdadian grammarian Thaʻlab’s (d. 291/914) al-Fasih (‘The Eloquent’) was not only a collection of eloquent words and expressions, but also drew attention to inelegant utterances and common errors (vulgarisms), and Ibn al-Sikkit’s (d. 244/848) Islah al-Mantiq (‘Rectification of Speech’) was similarly an encyclopedia of correct and eloquent expression. One motivating factor for such compilations by philologists was their awareness of the declining purity of people’s Arabic, as Arabs were influenced by their interactions with other ethnic groups, many of whom themselves started to speak Arabic. Another genre that emerged during this time was a formal literary criticism of poetry, and it drew the attention of both philologists and secretaries. The former (philological strand) includes the book Fuhulat al-Shuʻara’ (‘The Poetic Geniuses,’) by the Basran poetry expert and voyaging researcher of philology al-Asmaʻi (d. 216/831). The book evaluates the productions of a number of pre-Islamic and Islamic poets on the basis of both style and meaning, before judging whether or not each poet qualifies to be called an expert (fahl, literally: a stallion that has reached its fourth year). Qudama ibn Jaʻfar’s (d. 337/948) Naqd al-Shiʻr (‘Poetry Criticism’) and Ibn Tabataba’s (d. 322/934) ʻIyar al-Shiʻr (‘The Gauge of Poetry’) are prominent representatives of the secretarial thread of poetry criticism.

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