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(a.), literally “the adducing of a likeness, example; representation”. 1. In grammar. Here, it is used in various senses. As a denominative from mat̲h̲al “example”, it denotes the citing of examples and the technique of definition by exemplification (cf. Versteegh, 59, n. 8), while from mat̲h̲al in the extended meaning of “proverb”, it denotes the creation or use of such expressions; thus the phrase ʿalayhi māl un is called a tamt̲h̲īl by al-Mubarrad [ q.v.] ( al-Muḳtaḍab , i, 51) “because [the debt] has got on top of him”, a usage which clearly overlaps with tamt̲h̲īl in rhetoric. As a deno…

, Abu ’l-Farad̲j̲ Muḥammad b. Aḥmad (or Muḥammad) al-G̲h̲assānī, 4th/10th century Syrian poet, d. between 370/980-1 and 390/ 1000. Originally a fruit-seller in the market-place at Damascus, he may have acquired there his nickname (“the Crier” or “Howler”). His reputation as a poet was established after he was “discovered” by the s̲h̲arīf Abu ’l-Ḳāsim al-ʿAḳīḳī, on whom he had made an ode. He addressed some panegyric poems to Sayf al-Dawla [ q.v.], but he is better known for his short poems in the more lyric genres: love, wine and nature. In some of these (e.g. Dīwān ,…

(a.), literally, “freeing oneself, escaping from (something)”, a technical term of literary usage. 1. In literary form. Here, it is the transition from the introduction [see nasīb ] of the polythematic ḳaṣīda [ q.v.] to subsequent themes, esp. the panegyric section. Often called k̲h̲urūd̲j̲ “exit”, it may be abrupt, without any attempt at preparing what follows, or effected brusquely with formulas such as daʿ d̲h̲ā “leave this (and speak on something else)”. From ʿAbbāsid times onwards, poets and critics favoured t…

, Abu ’l-Ḳāsim al-Ḥusayn b. al-Ḥasan (or al-Ḥusayn) b. Wāsān (or Wāsāna), minor poet of invective and satirical verse. He lived in Damascus in the 4th/10th century and died in 394/1003-4. Very little is known of his life; he or his family may have come originally from Aleppo. Al-T̲h̲aʿālibī ( Yatīmat al-dahr , Cairo 1947, i, 335) calls him the Ibn al-Rūmī [ q.v.] of his time, on account of his invective verse [see hid̲j̲āʾ ]. It is said that he once lost his job, some kind of official position, as a result of his scurrilous attacks on a certain Ma…

(a.), candle. As a literary topos, the candle is poetically described in many “ekphrastic” epigrams in Arabic, especially from the later ʿAbbāsid and post-ʿAbbāsid periods; in pre- and early Arabic poetry the topos appears to be absent. Poems by al-Maʾmūnī, al-Sarī al-Raffāʾ and Kus̲h̲ād̲j̲im [ q.vv.] are among the earliest (see J.C. Bürgel, Die ekphrastischen Epigramme des Abū Ṭālib al-Maʾmūnī , Göttingen 1965, 254; Alma Giese, Wasf bei Kušāǧim , Berlin 1981, 156, 263-5). A few other examples are found in al-S̲h̲arīs̲h̲ī’s S̲h̲arḥ maḳāmāt al-Ḥarīrī (repr.…

, early ʿAbbāsid poet (d. 186/802), born in Baṣra in a family of mawālī . He was a pupil and rāwī of the poet Bas̲h̲s̲h̲ār [ q.v.], whose verse he is said to have plundered for motifs, and he befriended Abu ’l-ʿAtāhiya [ q.v.] until they became estranged. When young, he moved to Bag̲h̲dād and became a panegyrist of the caliphs al-Mahdī and al-Hādī, the Barmakids and other leading persons. He also excelled in elegies, which he sometimes seems to have prepared in advance. Notorious for his dissoluteness and libertinism ( mud̲j̲ūn [ q.v.]) and even accused of heresy by later writers (proba…

(a.), food, nourishment. For foods and food habits, see g̲h̲id̲h̲āʾ ; for cookery and the culinary art, see ṭabk̲h̲ . The present article deals with the restricted topic of food etiquette. Since pre-Islamic times, the rules of food etiquette were divided between host and guests, the prime rules being that the former should be as generous as possible and the latter should not appear too greedy. Much may be learned from the numerous anecdotes on those who sinned against these rules: see the monographs and chapters in adab anthologies on misers ( buk̲h̲alāʾ ), especia…

(a.), lit. “amazement”, a term of rhetoric. Though sometimes given a separate place in lists of badīʿ [ q.v.], as in Rādūyānī’s [ q.v.] Tard̲j̲umān al-balāg̲h̲a or Ras̲h̲īd al-Dīn Waṭwāṭ’s [ q.v.] Ḥadāʾiḳ al-siḥr , it is far more often mentioned, in more general discussions of poetry, as one of the basic effects or aims of the poetic process, especially of imagery. It is found, together with its active counterpart taʿd̲j̲īb (“causing amazement”) in the Aristotelian tradition (Ibn Sīnā, Ḥāzim al-Ḳarṭād̲j̲annī [ q.vv.]) and, in a somewhat different sense, in the poetics of ʿAbd…

, rhetorician, Zaydī scholar and imām (669-745/1270-1344; a death date of 749/1348 is also mentioned). Yaḥyā b. Ḥamza b. ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥusaynī al-ʿAlawī al-Ṭālibī, a versatile and prolific Yemeni scholar, was descended from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and the imām ʿAlī al-Riḍā [ q.vv.]. He was born in Ṣanʿāʾ and played a role in politics, for after the death of al-Mahdī Muḥammad b. al-Muṭahhar in 729/1329 he ruled over part of Yemen as Zaydī imām under the name al-Muʾayyad bi ’llāh until his death. It is said that the number of quires ( karārīs ) written by him equalled t…

, Maḥmūd b. (al-)Ḥasan al-Warrāḳ al-Nak̲h̲k̲h̲ās, poet of the early ʿAbbāsid period. He lived in Bag̲h̲dād, where he died ca. 230/845. As Ibn al-Muʿtazz [ q.v.] says in his Ṭabaḳāt al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ (ed. ʿAbd al-Sattār Aḥmad Farrād̲j̲, Cairo n.d., 367), “most of his poetry consists of sententious, gnomic, paraenetic and ethical sayings ( amt̲h̲āl wa-ḥikam wa-mawāʿiẓ wa-adab), in which genres he does not fall short of Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAbd al-Ḳuddūs [ q.v.] and Sābiḳ al-Barbarī”. Specialising in epigrams on zuhd [ q.v.] rarely longer than six lines, with an easy diction and almost wholl…

(a.) “contradicting poems, flytings”, pl. of naḳīḍa (from the verb naḳaḍa “to destroy, undo, rebut, oppose”), synonymous with munāḳaḍāt (from the verbal form III nāḳaḍa ): a form of poetic duelling in which tribal or personal insults are exchanged in poems, usually coming in pairs, employing the same metre and rhyme. It is thus part of invective poetry or hid̲j̲āʾ [ q.v.]. Such duels were an established form in pre-Islamic times, and had their origin in the slanging-matches between members of ¶ different clans or tribes which took the place of, or formed the preliminaries fo…

, a minor poet and minor muḥaddit̲h̲ from Kūfa, who lived in the middle of the 2nd/8th century. He belonged to Ḳays b. ʿAylān b. Muḍar. He is also called a mawlā of ʿAdwān, a tribe of D̲j̲adīlat Ḳays; but his name and that of his father seem to indicate his Arab origin. Short notices and fragments of his poetry are found in biographies of muḥaddithūn (e.g. Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar, al-Tahd̲h̲īb , Ḥaydarābād 1325-27, x, 103) and several works of adab , notably al-Aghānī ed. Dār al-Kutub, xviii, 148-53). Ibn al-Nadīm ( al-Fihrist , Leipzig 1871-2, 162) mentions his verse as fil…

(a.), quotation, enjambment, implication. This term (“inclusion”) has a number of different senses in Arabic poetics and stylistic s. It is used for the incorporation in a poem of a line, or part of a line, by another poet by way of quotation rather than plagiarism [see sariḳa. In literature, in Suppl.]. Felicitous quotation was included by Ibn al-Muʿtazz [ q.v.] in his seminal K. al-Badīʿ among the “beauties of speech” and was therefore adopted by many later authors, who often discuss it together with related phenomena such as the literary quotation of Ḳurʾān or Tradition [see iḳtibās …

(a.), literally “the act of comparing, comparison”. 1. In rhetoric. “Simile” or “(explicit) comparison” is one of the most important literary techniques in all literatures. It is especially frequent in pre- and early Islamic Arabic poetry, where metaphor [see istiʿāra ] is less common than in ʿAbbāsid poetry, but it remained a central figure of speech, forming the main “point” of innumerable lines and epigrams. When describing objects, persons or events, classical poets are not content with “factual” description …

(a.), mirage. 1. As a natural phenomenon. Sarāb is specifically the illusion of water (sometimes running water, due to a sense of the verb saraba ) seen at midday which appears to be on the ground, as compared to āl , which is seen early and late in the day and makes things appear to float in mid-air and quiver. The lexicographical tradition attempts several ways of distinguishing these two words, but the emphasis on the time of day of their appearance is the most consistent differentiation. Sarāb is used twice in the Ḳurʾān, in XXIV, 39, within a simile for the deeds of the unbel…