Arabic poetry in the context of "Bayt (poetry)"

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⭐ Core Definition: Arabic poetry

Arabic poetry (Arabic: الشعر العربي ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy) is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existed in Arabic writing in material as early as the 1st century BCE, with oral poetry likely being much older still.

Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed or measured, and prose, with the former greatly preceding the latter. The rhymed poetry falls within fifteen different meters collected and explained by al-Farahidi in The Science of ‘Arud. Al-Akhfash, a student of al-Farahidi, later added one more meter to make them sixteen. The meters of the rhythmical poetry are known in Arabic as "seas" (buḥūr). The measuring unit of seas is known as "taf‘īlah," and every sea contains a certain number of taf'ilas which the poet has to observe in every verse (bayt) of the poem. The measuring procedure of a poem is very rigorous. Sometimes adding or removing a consonant or a vowel can shift the bayt from one meter to another. Also, in rhymed poetry, every bayt has to end with the same rhyme (qāfiyah) throughout the poem.

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👉 Arabic poetry in the context of Bayt (poetry)

A bayt (Arabic: بَيْت, romanizedbayt, pronounced [bajt], lit.'a house') is a metrical unit of Arabic, Azerbaijani, Ottoman, Persian, Punjabi, Sindhi and Urdu poetry.

In Arabic poetry, a bayt corresponds to a single line divided into two hemistichs of equal length, each containing two, three or four feet, or from 16 to 32 syllables. In Persian, Turkic and Urdu poetry, the word bayt has come to refer to two lines (like a couplet, although the two lines of a Persian, Turkic or Urdu bayt do not have to rhyme).

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Arabic poetry in the context of Zabur

Zabur (Arabic: ٱلزَّبُورِ, romanizedaz-zabūr) is, according to Islam, the holy book of David, one of the holy books revealed by Allah before the Quran, alongside others such as the Tawrāh (Torah) and the Injīl (Gospel). Muslim tradition maintains that the Zabur mentioned in the Quran is the Psalms of Dawud (David in Islam).

The Christian monks and ascetics of pre-Islamic Arabia may be associated in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry with texts called mazmour, which in other contexts may refer to palm leaf documents. This has been interpreted by some as referring to psalters.

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Arabic poetry in the context of Al-Tabari

Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (Arabic: أَبُو جَعْفَر مُحَمَّد بْن جَرِير بْن يَزِيد ٱلطَّبَرِيّ; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (Arabic: ٱلطَّبَرِيّ), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present-day Iran. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari is widely known for his historical works and expertise in Quranic exegesis, and has been described as "an impressively prolific polymath". He authored works on a diverse range of subjects, including world history, poetry, lexicography, grammar, ethics, mathematics, and medicine. Among his most famous and influential works are his Quranic commentary, Tafsir al-Tabari, and historical chronicle, Tarikh al-Tabari.

Al-Tabari followed the Shafi'i school for nearly a decade before he developed his own interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence. His understanding of it was both sophisticated and remarkably fluid, and, as such, he continued to develop his ideas and thoughts on juristic matters right until the end of his life.

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Arabic poetry in the context of Al-Tirmidhi

Muhammad ibn Isa al-Tirmidhi (Arabic: محمد بن عيسى الترمذي, romanizedMuḥammad ibn ʿĪsā at-Tirmidhī; 824 – 9 October 892 CE / 209–279 AH), often referred to as Imām at-Termezī/Tirmidhī, was an Islamic scholar, and collector of hadith from Termez (early Khorasan and in present-day Uzbekistan). He wrote al-Jami` as-Sahih (known as Jami` at-Tirmidhi), one of the six canonical hadith compilations in Sunni Islam. He also wrote Shama'il Muhammadiyah (popularly known as Shama'il at-Tirmidhi), a compilation of hadiths concerning the person and character of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. At-Tirmidhi was also well versed in Arabic grammar, favoring the school of Kufa over Basra due to the former's preservation of Arabic poetry as a primary source.

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Arabic poetry in the context of Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry

Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry is a term used to refer to Arabic poetry composed in pre-Islamic Arabia roughly between 540 and 620 AD. In Arabic literature, pre-Islamic poetry went by the name al-shiʿr al-Jāhilī ("poetry from the Jahiliyyah" or "Jahili poetry"). This poetry largely originated in the Najd (then a region east of the Hejaz and up to present-day Iraq), with only a minority coming from the Hejaz. Poetry was first distinguished into the Islamic and pre-Islamic by Ḥammād al-Rāwiya (d. 772). In Abbasid times, literary critics debated if contemporary or pre-Islamic poetry was the better of the two.

Pre-Islamic poetry constitutes a major source for classical Arabic language both in grammar and vocabulary, and as a record of the political and cultural life of the time in which it was created. A number of major poets are known from pre-Islamic times, the most prominent among them being Imru' al-Qais. Other prominent poets included Umayya ibn Abi as-Salt, Al-Nabigha, and Zayd ibn Amr. The poets themselves did not write down their works: instead, it was orally transmitted and eventually codified into poetry collections by authors in later periods, beginning in the eighth century. Collections may focus on the works of a single author (such a collection is called a diwan) or multiple authors (an anthology).

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Arabic poetry in the context of Muwashshah

Muwashshah (Arabic: مُوَشَّح muwaššaḥ 'girdled'; plural مُوَشَّحَات muwaššaḥāt; also تَوْشِيْح tawšīḥ 'girdling,' pl. تَوَاشِيْح tawāšīḥ) is a strophic poetic form that developed in al-Andalus in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. The muwaššaḥ, embodying the Iberian rhyme revolution, was the major Andalusi innovation in Arabic poetry, and it was sung and performed musically. The muwaššaḥ features a complex rhyme and metrical scheme usually containing five aghṣān (أَغْصَان 'branches'; sing. غُصْن ghuṣn), with uniform rhyme within each strophe, interspersed with asmāṭ (أَسْمَاط 'threads for stringing pearls'; sing. سِمْط simṭ) with common rhyme throughout the song, as well as a terminal kharja (خَرْجَة 'exit'), the song's final simṭ, which could be in a different language. Sephardic poets also composed muwaššaḥāt in Hebrew, sometimes as contrafacta imitating the rhyme and metrical scheme of a particular poem in Hebrew or in Arabic. This poetic imitation, called muʿāraḍa (مُعَارَضَة 'contrafaction'), is a tradition in Arabic poetry.

The kharja, or the markaz (مَـْركَز 'center') of the muwaššaḥ, its final verses, can be in a language that is different from the body; a muwaššaḥ in literary Arabic might have a kharja in vernacular Andalusi Arabic or in a mix of Arabic and Andalusi Romance, while a muwaššaḥ in Hebrew might contain a kharja in Arabic, Romance, Hebrew, or a mix.

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Arabic poetry in the context of Ibn Bajjah

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyà ibn aṣ-Ṣā’igh at-Tūjībī ibn Bājja (Arabic: أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى بن الصائغ التجيبي بن باجة), known simply as Ibn Bajja (Arabic: ابن باجة) or his Latinized name Avempace (/ˈvəmps/; c. 1085 – 1138), was an Arab polymath, whose writings include works regarding astronomy, physics, and music, as well as philosophy, medicine, botany, and poetry.

He was the author of the Kitāb an-Nabāt ("The Book of Plants"), a popular work on botany, which defined the sex of plants. His philosophical theories influenced the work of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Albertus Magnus. Most of his writings and books were not completed (or well-organized) due to his early death. He had a vast knowledge of medicine, mathematics, and astronomy. His main contribution to Islamic philosophy was his idea on soul phenomenology, which was never completed.

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Arabic poetry in the context of Ghazal

Ghazal is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry that often deals with topics of spiritual and romantic love. It may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss, or separation from the beloved, and the beauty of love in spite of that pain.

The ghazal form is ancient, tracing its origins to 7th-century Arabic poetry. It spread into the Indian subcontinent in the 12th century due to the influence of Sufi mystics and the courts of the new Islamic Sultanate, and is now most prominently a form of poetry of many languages of South Asia and Turkey.

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Arabic poetry in the context of Armen Firman

Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbbās ibn Firnās ibn Wardās al-Tākurunnī (Arabic: أَبُو ٱلْقَاسِمِ، عَبَّاسُ بْنُ فِرْنَاسِ بْنِ وَرْدَاسَ ٱلتَّاكُرُنِّيُّ; c. 809/810 – 887 CE), known as ʿAbbās ibn Firnās (Arabic: عَبَّاسُ بْنُ فِرْنَاسٍ) was an Andalusi polymath: an inventor, astronomer, physician, chemist, engineer, Andalusi musician, and Arabic-language poet. He was reported to have experimented with unpowered flight.

Ibn Firnas made various contributions in the field of astronomy and engineering. He constructed a device which indicated the motion of the planets and stars in the Universe. In addition, Ibn Firnas came up with a procedure to manufacture colourless glass and made magnifying lenses for reading, which were known as reading stones.

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