| Author(s) | Sand D. AI-Rohaily |
| Affiliation | Associate Professo~Arabic Department, College of Arts, King Saud University,Riaydh, Saudi Arabia |
| Title | AI-MadhhabAI-Kalami in Poetry |
| Source | Journal of King Saud University. Arts. Volume 14, No 1. (2002/1422) |
| Abstract | A/-Madhlwba/-ka/ami is a rhetorical tenn mentioned by Ibn al-Mu'tazz as the fifth and last category of badi' (new, novel, innovative style). fun 'al-Mu'tazz's proposition is that the so-called new style is not really new. To prove this, he cites for each category examples from the Qur'an, Hadith and ancient poetry. Unlike his method in the first four categories, however, he neither defines a/-madhhab a/-lea/ami nor cites examples for it from ancient texts, a fact which indicates that he was facing difficulty with it. His poetic examples are examined here to show that he did not have in mind a specific concept about the signification of this tenn. Later rhetoricians took up the term and tried to define it as a poetic discourse denoting subtle logical argumentation. This view of the tenn is, as I believe, narrow-minded, for it sees this tenn as denoting a purely mental activity which has little or nothing to do with the manipulation oflanguage. This tenn denotes, in effect, an intensive dialectical process based upon a keen awarenece of opposition and resemblance between words, with the result that we have a subtle, hyperbolic, symmetrical and paradoxical discourse both on the level of thought and on the level of expression. As such, this study approaches a narrow rhetorical tenn from a comprehensive literary point of view. Based upon this perspec-tive, the study goes on to examine the manifestion of a/-madhhab a/-kalami in al-Mutanabbi's poetry which presents the clearest case of this problem in Arabic poetry. The question whether this dialectical type of poetry can or cannot be poetic is dealt with in the last stage of the study. |
