Saj'
Encyclopedia
Saj‘, is a form of rhymed prose
in Arabic literature
. It is named so because of its evenness or monotony, or from a fancied resemblance between its rhythm
and the cooing of a dove
. It is a highly artificial style of prose, characterized by a kind of rhythm as well as rhyme
. Saj is used in sacred literature like the Koran(Qur'an is not Saj') and it is also used in secular literature like the "One Thousand and One Nights.
to : With Short Accounts of Other Disciplines and the Modern Renaissance in Muslim Lands" (1999) ISBN 817536145X
According to Al-Jahiz
, the advantages of rhymed prose are twofold; it is pleasing to the ear and easy to remember. He says the Arabs have uttered a far greater quantity of simple than of rhymed prose, and yet not a tenth of the former has been retained while not a tenth of the latter has been lost.
In pagan
(pre-Islamic) times it is supposed to have been the mode of expression in dignified discourses, challenges, harangues and orations. It was also the form in which the oracular sayings and decisions of the kahana
, the soothsayer
s or diviner
s, each of whom was supposed to have a familiar spirit, were expressed.
Because of its association with these pagan practices its use 'in commands and prohibitions' in the early days of Islam
is said to have been forbidden. Muhammad
said, "Avoid ye the rhyming prose of the soothsayers or diviners."
On the high authority of Ahmad ibn Hanbal
, the founder of one of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence
, we have it that Muhammad had a rooted repugnance to this kind of composition. In an incident related by him Muhammad said, "What! rhymed prose after the manner of the Arabs of the Days of the Ignorance?"
There is, therefore, naturally, no trace of it in the sermon of Muhammad after the capture of Mecca
, nor is it to be found in his farewell address and final charge on the occasion of the last pilgrimage. Nor is it used by the Khalifa
Muawiyah in his last khutba
.
In spite of the ban, however, it appears there were orators who spoke in rhymed prose.
With the spread of Islam the reason for the prohibition disappears and rhymed prose reasserts itself in some of the speeches made by Muslim orators in the presence of the first Khalifas and no objection appears to have been raised.
In early Islamic times it seems to belong to repartee, sententious sayings, the epigram, solemn utterances such as paternal advice, religious formulae, prayers, elogia addressed to princes and governors. Al-Jahiz cites several specimens of these and the author of the Kitab al-Aghani
quotes a eulogy in rhymed prose by Al-Nabigha
, one of the most celebrated of the poets contemporary with Muhammad.
During the first century of the Hijra it appears to have been regarded as the symbol of an elevated style peculiar to the orator.
In the earlier specimens of female eloquence compiled by Abu’l-Fadl Ahmad ibn Tahir (A.H. 204-80) there is, however, very little trace of this species of composition. In fact it was regarded as a rare accomplishment if not a lost art. But a few sentences of this form of composition by the wife of Abú’l-Aswad al-Du‘lí sufficed to draw from the Khalafa Muawiyah the exclamation, 'Good gracious! What rhymed prose the woman speaks!'
The institution of the weekly address (khutba) by the Khalifa, led no doubt to careful preparation and thus paved the way for pulpit oratory which found its loftiest expression in rhymed prose. It is not, however, until the beginning of the third century of the Hijra that it reappears in the khutba and becomes the conventional style of the professional preacher. An excellent specimen of a khutba in rhymed prose on death, resurrection and judgement is that by Ibn Nubata (A.H. 335-74) entitled 'The Sermon of the Vision.' The language is dignified and solemn, but perfectly plain and intelligible. A vast empire with its numerous provincial governments and political and commercial relations with neighbouring states required that its edicts, foreign despatches, and official correspondence should be expressed in language at once dignified and forceful.
Out of the necessity of this situation arose the study of the epistolary art and towards the beginning of the second century of the Hijra official letter writers had developed that florid style which has ever since been the distinguishing feature of such compositions. Nevertheless there were writers who eschewed this ornateness and wrote in language easy to be understood.
A notable example of this natural and simple style is Al-Jahiz
whose diction Hamadhani, writing a century later, condemns as wanting in artifice, adornment, and ornateness.
With such assiduity was the art of official writing cultivated, so great was the importance attached to it and so highly did it come to be appreciated, that the Katib, or secretary, not infrequently rose to the highest position in the state, that of Wazir
, or chief minister. Tha‘alibi throws considerable light upon the rise and development of this official correspondence. He says that epistolary writing began with ‘Abd al-Hamid (ob. A.H. 133)http://www.anthropology.wisc.edu/miller/ealt/formation-of-risaalah.html, Katib to Marwan II
the last of the Omayyad Khalífas, and ended with Ibn al-Amid (ob. A.H. 359 or 360), the Wazir of Rukn al-Daula
, the Buwayhid
prince.
In this striving after an ornate and elevated style the adoption of a species of composition, that had raised pulpit oratory above the language of every-day life, seems to be a natural result, and thus rhymed prose became the essential feature not only of official writing, but also of the private correspondence of the learned and the cultured.
It will be sufficient to mention three collections of such Epistles: those of Abu’l ‘Ala al-Mu‘arri (A.H. 363-449), edited and translated into English by Professor D. S. Margoliouth; extracts from those of Abu Bakr al-Khwarizmi cited by Tha'alibi; and those of al-Hamadhani himself.
It was Hamadhani, however, a master of the epistolary art himself, who conceived the idea of demonstrating in a series of dramatic discourses, known to us as the Maqamat
, how the use of this mode of composition might be extended to literature so as to include the entire range of the life and language of the Arabian people. He was, therefore, the popularizer of rhymed prose, in a class of compositions with which his name was first associated, and which have not only penetrated all Islamic literature as well as that of the Syrian Christians
, and the Spanish Jews, but have served as models of style for more than nine hundred years.
Rhymed prose
Rhymed prose is a literary form and literary genre, written in unmetrical rhymes. This form has been known in many different cultures. In some cases the rhymed prose is a distinctive, well-defined style of writing...
in Arabic literature
Arabic literature
Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
. It is named so because of its evenness or monotony, or from a fancied resemblance between its rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
and the cooing of a dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
. It is a highly artificial style of prose, characterized by a kind of rhythm as well as rhyme
Rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
. Saj is used in sacred literature like the Koran(Qur'an is not Saj') and it is also used in secular literature like the "One Thousand and One Nights.
Description
It is a species of dictionDiction
Diction , in its original, primary meaning, refers to the writer's or the speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story...
to : With Short Accounts of Other Disciplines and the Modern Renaissance in Muslim Lands" (1999) ISBN 817536145X
This common literary medium which developed out of the North Arabic, coinciding with the steady decline of the economic, political and cultural influence of the South, was leavened mainly in Hirah with the accompaniments of material and religious civilization as augmented with currents - Judaic, Christian, and Graeco-Roman - from the opposite end of the Northern Desert. Generally speaking, it was precise to finesse so far as BedouinBedouinThe Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
life and environment were concerned, but lacked the facility for conveying abstract ideas and general concepts. However, it possessed, by the very nature of its being a compromise between various dialects, an immense wealth of synonymSynonymSynonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
s together with ample resources of rhyme and assonanceAssonanceAssonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serves as one of the building blocks of verse. For example, in the phrase "Do you like blue?", the is repeated within the sentence and is...
inherent in its schematic morphologyMorphology (linguistics)In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
. Thus saj' (rhyme) came to be the first and natural form of artistic composition prompted by the instinct for symmetry and balance in the structure of short, compact sentences specially designed for intonation and oral transmission without being committed to writing. The saj' existed before meterMeter (poetry)In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
; the evolution of metrical formMeter (poetry)In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
s only pushed it to the end of a verseVerse (poetry)A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g. poetry. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza....
under the name of qafiyah.
According to Al-Jahiz
Al-Jahiz
Al-Jāḥiẓ was an Arabic prose writer and author of works of literature, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics.In biology, Al-Jahiz introduced the concept of food chains and also proposed a scheme of animal evolution that entailed...
, the advantages of rhymed prose are twofold; it is pleasing to the ear and easy to remember. He says the Arabs have uttered a far greater quantity of simple than of rhymed prose, and yet not a tenth of the former has been retained while not a tenth of the latter has been lost.
In pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
(pre-Islamic) times it is supposed to have been the mode of expression in dignified discourses, challenges, harangues and orations. It was also the form in which the oracular sayings and decisions of the kahana
Kahana
- People :* Rav Kahana II, Jewish Amora sage, active in Babylon and in the Land of Israel* Rav Kahana IV, Jewish Amora sage of Babylon* Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, a collection of Aggadic Midrash which exists in two editions* Kahana b...
, the soothsayer
Fortune-telling
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...
s or diviner
Diviner
Diviner is an infrared sensing instrument aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, part of the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program which is studying the moon...
s, each of whom was supposed to have a familiar spirit, were expressed.
Because of its association with these pagan practices its use 'in commands and prohibitions' in the early days of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
is said to have been forbidden. Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
said, "Avoid ye the rhyming prose of the soothsayers or diviners."
On the high authority of Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Hanbal Abu `Abd Allah al-Shaybani was an important Muslim scholar and theologian. He is considered the founder of the Hanbali school of fiqh...
, the founder of one of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence
Fiqh
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....
, we have it that Muhammad had a rooted repugnance to this kind of composition. In an incident related by him Muhammad said, "What! rhymed prose after the manner of the Arabs of the Days of the Ignorance?"
There is, therefore, naturally, no trace of it in the sermon of Muhammad after the capture of Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
, nor is it to be found in his farewell address and final charge on the occasion of the last pilgrimage. Nor is it used by the Khalifa
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
Muawiyah in his last khutba
Khutba
Khutbah serves as the primary formal occasion for public preaching in the Islamic tradition.Such sermons occur regularly, as prescribed by the teachings of all legal schools. The Islamic tradition can be formally at the dhuhr congregation prayer on Friday...
.
In spite of the ban, however, it appears there were orators who spoke in rhymed prose.
With the spread of Islam the reason for the prohibition disappears and rhymed prose reasserts itself in some of the speeches made by Muslim orators in the presence of the first Khalifas and no objection appears to have been raised.
In early Islamic times it seems to belong to repartee, sententious sayings, the epigram, solemn utterances such as paternal advice, religious formulae, prayers, elogia addressed to princes and governors. Al-Jahiz cites several specimens of these and the author of the Kitab al-Aghani
Kitab al-Aghani
Kitab al-aghani , is an encyclopedic collection of poems and songs that runs to over 20 volumes in modern editions by the 8th/9th-century litterateur Abu l-Faraj al-Isfahani . Abu l-Faraj claimed to have taken 50 years in writing the work, which ran to over 10 000 pages...
quotes a eulogy in rhymed prose by Al-Nabigha
Al-Nabigha
Al-Nabigha , was one of the last Arabian poets of pre-Islamic times. "Al-Nabigha" means "genius" in Arabic....
, one of the most celebrated of the poets contemporary with Muhammad.
During the first century of the Hijra it appears to have been regarded as the symbol of an elevated style peculiar to the orator.
In the earlier specimens of female eloquence compiled by Abu’l-Fadl Ahmad ibn Tahir (A.H. 204-80) there is, however, very little trace of this species of composition. In fact it was regarded as a rare accomplishment if not a lost art. But a few sentences of this form of composition by the wife of Abú’l-Aswad al-Du‘lí sufficed to draw from the Khalafa Muawiyah the exclamation, 'Good gracious! What rhymed prose the woman speaks!'
The institution of the weekly address (khutba) by the Khalifa, led no doubt to careful preparation and thus paved the way for pulpit oratory which found its loftiest expression in rhymed prose. It is not, however, until the beginning of the third century of the Hijra that it reappears in the khutba and becomes the conventional style of the professional preacher. An excellent specimen of a khutba in rhymed prose on death, resurrection and judgement is that by Ibn Nubata (A.H. 335-74) entitled 'The Sermon of the Vision.' The language is dignified and solemn, but perfectly plain and intelligible. A vast empire with its numerous provincial governments and political and commercial relations with neighbouring states required that its edicts, foreign despatches, and official correspondence should be expressed in language at once dignified and forceful.
Out of the necessity of this situation arose the study of the epistolary art and towards the beginning of the second century of the Hijra official letter writers had developed that florid style which has ever since been the distinguishing feature of such compositions. Nevertheless there were writers who eschewed this ornateness and wrote in language easy to be understood.
A notable example of this natural and simple style is Al-Jahiz
Al-Jahiz
Al-Jāḥiẓ was an Arabic prose writer and author of works of literature, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics.In biology, Al-Jahiz introduced the concept of food chains and also proposed a scheme of animal evolution that entailed...
whose diction Hamadhani, writing a century later, condemns as wanting in artifice, adornment, and ornateness.
With such assiduity was the art of official writing cultivated, so great was the importance attached to it and so highly did it come to be appreciated, that the Katib, or secretary, not infrequently rose to the highest position in the state, that of Wazir
Vizier
A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....
, or chief minister. Tha‘alibi throws considerable light upon the rise and development of this official correspondence. He says that epistolary writing began with ‘Abd al-Hamid (ob. A.H. 133)http://www.anthropology.wisc.edu/miller/ealt/formation-of-risaalah.html, Katib to Marwan II
Marwan II
Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan or Marwan II was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 744 until 750 when he was killed. He was the last Umayyad ruler to rule from Damascus.In A.H. 114 Caliph Hisham appointed Marwan governor of Armenia and Azerbaijan. In A.H...
the last of the Omayyad Khalífas, and ended with Ibn al-Amid (ob. A.H. 359 or 360), the Wazir of Rukn al-Daula
Rukn al-Daula
Hasan , known as Rukn al-Dawla, was the first Buyid amir of northern and central Iran . He was the son of Buya.-Struggle for power:...
, the Buwayhid
Buwayhid
The Buyid dynasty, also known as the Buyid Empire or the Buyids , also known as Buwaihids, Buyahids, or Buyyids, were a Shī‘ah Persian dynasty that originated from Daylaman in Gilan...
prince.
In this striving after an ornate and elevated style the adoption of a species of composition, that had raised pulpit oratory above the language of every-day life, seems to be a natural result, and thus rhymed prose became the essential feature not only of official writing, but also of the private correspondence of the learned and the cultured.
It will be sufficient to mention three collections of such Epistles: those of Abu’l ‘Ala al-Mu‘arri (A.H. 363-449), edited and translated into English by Professor D. S. Margoliouth; extracts from those of Abu Bakr al-Khwarizmi cited by Tha'alibi; and those of al-Hamadhani himself.
It was Hamadhani, however, a master of the epistolary art himself, who conceived the idea of demonstrating in a series of dramatic discourses, known to us as the Maqamat
Maqamat
Maquamat may have the following meanings.*Plural for Magam*Plural for Maqama*Maqamat Badi' az-Zaman al-Hamadhani, Arabic collection of stories*Maqamat al-Hariri, Arabic collection of stories...
, how the use of this mode of composition might be extended to literature so as to include the entire range of the life and language of the Arabian people. He was, therefore, the popularizer of rhymed prose, in a class of compositions with which his name was first associated, and which have not only penetrated all Islamic literature as well as that of the Syrian Christians
Syrian Christians
Syrian Christians may refer to*the Christian minority in Syria*in older publications, the Syriac Christians*in a South Asian context, the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala....
, and the Spanish Jews, but have served as models of style for more than nine hundred years.