1. Rarely Occurring Meters in Arabic Poetry: A Statistical & Analytical Study
- Author
-
Dr Muhammad Bashir
- Subjects
Prosody ,Meters ,Ba╒ r ,Wazn ,Ilm al-‘Ar┴ ╔ ,Islam. Bahai Faith. Theosophy, etc. ,BP1-610 ,Social sciences (General) ,H1-99 - Abstract
The topic under discussion is very significant for those who have interest with prosody - one of the essential branches of Arabic poetry. Due to its importance, this course is taught in departments of Arabic in various universities and some religious seminars too. A survey of the books prescribed to teach this course shows that they follow the approach of al-Khal┘ l ibn A╒ mad al-Far┐ h┘ d┘ founder of this branch of poetic studies. These books offer a full range of complicated terminology without any solution as is also indicated by Sheikh Jal┐ l ╓ anaf┘ who said that this is a difficult art and its terms are so strange that they often lead to confusion. He further says that no serious attention has been paid to resolve these difficulties. No doubt that it is a difficult art to learn, but I have learnt from my personal experience that these problems can be overcome. During my long experience of teaching this subject I have discovered that most of the complicated meters which students find hard to memorize and consequently lose their interest are the rarest to occur in poetry. I also noticed that text books do not mention frequently occurring and rarely occurring meters. This affects the student’s confidence and requires a lot from his memory. The paper is based on that thinking and experience, and suggests that all these rarely occurring meters should be excluded from the taught course.
- Published
- 2014