The Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric
A source-grounded reference resource for the definition, classification, and reproducible identification of rhetorical devices in Arabic.
Browse Arabic rhetorical devices →
Arabic Rhetoric
Arabic Rhetoric (al-balāgha) is the Arabic rhetorical tradition concerned with the effective, expressive, and aesthetically powerful use of language.
It encompasses a wide range of linguistic and literary phenomena, including sentence construction, figurative expression, semantic relationships, wordplay, sound patterning, and other forms of linguistic embellishment.
The Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric documents these phenomena as identifiable rhetorical devices.
How the Encyclopedia Works
The Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric uses an explicit methodological framework to support the consistent and reproducible definition, classification, and identification of Arabic rhetorical devices.
- Model for Rhetorical Action — provides the theoretical foundation for the Encyclopedia by defining rhetorical action and the relationship between communicative intent, linguistic operation, cognitive relationship, and pragmatic effect.
- Seven Design Principles — govern how rhetorical devices are conceptualised, defined, and classified.
- Criteria for Inclusion — determine whether a candidate rhetorical device qualifies for inclusion in the Encyclopedia.
- Principles for Identifying Arabic Rhetorical Devices — provide the operational framework for identifying rhetorical devices in texts.
The resulting inventory of rhetorical devices is periodically released in stable, time-stamped, and citable form as the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy.
Explore the Encyclopedia
Browse the Encyclopedia's rhetorical devices, taxonomy, and research resources.
- Browse Arabic Rhetorical Devices — explore the Encyclopedia's complete structured inventory of rhetorical devices.
- Device Subtypes — browse recognised subtypes.
- Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy — access stable, time-stamped, citable releases of the device inventory.
- Research Applications — explore applications in linguistic, literary, corpus, and computational research.
Explore Arabic Rhetoric by Concept
Start with a familiar rhetorical concept and discover how it is analysed within Arabic rhetorical theory. These concept guides are gateways into the Encyclopedia's taxonomy, not additional rhetorical devices.
CONCEPT GUIDE
How Arabic rhetoric analyses the attribution of human actions, qualities, or capacities to non-human or abstract entities — principally through metaphor (istiʿāra), especially istiʿāra makniyya.
CONCEPT GUIDE
How Arabic rhetoric analyses the attribution of human actions, qualities, or capacities to non-human or abstract entities — principally through metaphor (istiʿāra), especially istiʿāra makniyya.
CONCEPT GUIDE
How Arabic rhetoric analyses speech directed at animals, objects, places, abstract entities, and other non-human addressees — principally through the Vocative, often combined with other sentence types and figurative operations.
