CHNGTOP: Rhetorical Change of Topic

    From The Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric

    حسن التخلص
    CHNGTOP: Rhetorical Change of Topic
    CategoryLinguistic Embellishments (ʿilm al-badīʿ)
    SubcategoryParagraph Structure & Flow
    Built upon7 sources
      
    Annotation Unit
    ARDT CodeCHNGTOP
    Level1 (Rhetorical device)
       ↳ Has 2 subtypes
      
    Included in Taxonomy
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    v0.1.0
      
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    BALAGHAScoreCF-5
    BalaghaBaseQ95
    OpenAlexW4415373592
      
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    🔗 Live DOI10.64393/balagha.Q95
     
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    Definition

    Rhetorical Change of Topic (ḥusn al-takhalluṣ) is an Arabic rhetorical device in which the communicator uses a rhetorically effective transition from one purpose to another, or from the opening of a speech to its intended main subject.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

    Background Information

    The name ḥusn al-takhalluṣ (حسن التخلص) combines ḥusn (excellence or skilfulness) with takhalluṣ (disengagement or freeing oneself from something).[3] It thus characterises an accomplished departure from one rhetorical purpose into another. The excellence concerns the handling of the transition: it may be achieved through a smooth connection between the two purposes or through a rhetorically motivated abrupt shift.[5]

    The device is named barāʿat al-takhalluṣ by al-Qazwīnī and his commentators.[2] It also appears in the sources under the names ḥusn al-takhalluṣ and ḥusn al-khurūj; Thaʿlab uses the latter in his Qawāʿid al-Shiʿr.[2][3]

    Linguistic Operations

    • The speaker or poet moves from one rhetorical purpose to another, particularly from an opening passage — such as a nasīb (amatory prelude), tashbīb, or other introductory matter — to the intended subject (maqṣūd), such as praise (madḥ), boasting (fakhr), description (waṣf), or another purpose.[3][5][4][6]
    • The transition may be connected: a meaning in the preceding material is used as a bridge (sabab) into the new purpose, so that the discourse proceeds without appearing to be cut off and restarted.[3][7][8][9]
    • Alternatively, the transition may be abrupt (iqtiḍāb): the preceding discourse is cut off and the new purpose begun without a connecting relationship between them. ʿAkkāwī records this operation as the opposite of takhalluṣ and cites al-Tanūkhī's description of a transition in which one part of the discourse is not attached to the other.[1] Ḥātim specifies that such a sudden shift is effective when rhetorically motivated.[5] Al-Taftāzānī likewise discusses iqtiḍāb as a transition distinguished from the connected form of takhalluṣ.[8]
    • The device applies to both poetry and prose.[3]

    The Linguistic Operation consists in making the transition between distinct rhetorical purposes itself rhetorically significant: either by connecting the two purposes through a semantic bridge, or by deliberately leaving the transition abrupt.

    Recognition

    Rhetorical Change of Topic may be present when:

    • A text moves from one rhetorical purpose to another, particularly from an opening passage (nasīb, tashbīb, or other prelude) to a distinct main subject (madḥ, fakhr, waṣf, etc.).[3][1][5]
    • In a connected transition, a meaning in the preceding section provides a bridge (sabab) into the new rhetorical purpose, so that the discourse proceeds without an apparent break.[3][7][8][9]
    • Such a connected transition should be fitting and appropriate: a formally ingenious connection that produces an unbecoming or tasteless implication may constitute a defective rather than felicitous transition.[6]
    • In an abrupt transition (iqtiḍāb), the new rhetorical purpose begins without a connecting relationship to the preceding one; the discourse is cut off and another is begun independently.[1][8]
    • An abrupt transition is rhetorically significant rather than merely accidental; Ḥātim describes iqtiḍāb as effective when the sudden shift is rhetorically motivated.[5]

    The following diagnostic tests aid identification:

    • Identify whether the text moves between distinct rhetorical purposes or discourse sections.
    • If a meaning in the preceding section provides a semantic bridge into the new purpose, identify a connected transition.
    • If the new purpose begins without such a bridge, determine whether the abrupt shift is rhetorically motivated rather than merely an ordinary change of subject.

    Communicative Enhancements

    • In a connected transition, the linkage between successive rhetorical purposes gives the discourse unity and continuity rather than making its parts appear severed. Ibn al-Athīr compares a well-connected composition to a body whose limbs remain joined together.[3]
    • A well-executed connected transition can stimulate the listener's attention and encourage attention to what follows.[3][7][8]
    • An abrupt transition (iqtiḍāb) can instead derive its rhetorical effectiveness from a motivated sudden shift between purposes. Ḥātim specifies that such a transition is effective when rhetorically motivated.[5]

    The two forms therefore exploit the boundary between rhetorical purposes differently. A connected transition enhances continuity by integrating the new purpose with what precedes it, whereas an abrupt transition can make the change itself salient by deliberately withholding such a connection.

    Applying the Recognition Framework

    The information on this page can be used to evaluate whether this device is present in a candidate lexical item using the Specific Device Recognition part of the Universal Framework for Identifying Arabic Rhetorical Devices:

    • Use the Definition, Mechanism, and Recognition sections of this page in Step 1.
    • Apply the substitution test in Step 2.
    • Consider contextual indicators in Step 3.
    • Use the Diagnostic Communicative Enhancements section of this page in Step 4.

    Subtypes of Rhetorical Change of Topic

    The sources distinguish two forms of rhetorically effective transition: a connected transition (takhalluṣ) and an abrupt transition (iqtiḍāb). Ḥātim explicitly treats iqtiḍāb as a form of skilful transition, while al-Taftāzānī discusses the distinction between the two operations.[5][8]

    CHNGTOP-GRC: Graceful Transition (ḥusn al-intiqāl)

    Annotation Unit
    ARDTCHNGTOP-GRC
    Level2 (Subtype)
    BalaghaBaseQ390
    Official Arabic nameḥusn al-intiqāl[10]

    A form of Rhetorical Change of Topic in which there is a smooth and fitting transition from what the speech was opened with to the intended subject, with attention to the appropriateness (murāʿāt al-munāsaba) between the two parts, so that the discourse proceeds without an apparent break.[5][11][3][7][8][9]

    دَعَتِ النَّوى بِفِرَاقِهِم فَتَشَتَّتُوا
    وَقَضَى الزَّمَانُ بِبَيْنِهِم فَتَبَدَّدُوا
    دَهْرٌ ذَمِيمُ الحَالَتَيْنِ فَمَا بِهِ
    شَيْءٌ سِوَى جُودِ ابْنِ أَرْتَقَ يُحْمَدُ

    Separation called them apart and they were scattered; / Time decreed their dispersal and they were dispersed. / An age blameworthy in both its states — there is nothing in it / Worthy of praise save the generosity of Ibn Artuq.

    Explanation
    The opening lines lament separation and the blameworthy age, then the final line pivots to praising Ibn Artuq's generosity.[5]

    ﴿نَحْنُ نَقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ أَحْسَنَ الْقَصَصِ﴾

    "We relate to you the most excellent of stories." (Qur'an 12:3)

    Explanation
    ʿAkkāwī cites this verse as an example of the device in the Qur'an: God signals the story through allusion (ramz) and subtlety (laṭāfa) before entering the narrative proper.[3]

    For generations, the old bridge carried travellers safely across the river. Its stones endured countless winters, holding firm against every flood. Such steadfastness is also the mark of a good leader, and it is for this quality that we honour our mayor today.

    Explanation
    The passage begins by describing an old bridge, then transitions into praise of the mayor. The quality of steadfastness provides the semantic bridge between the two rhetorical purposes: the bridge's physical endurance leads naturally into the mayor's dependable leadership. The transition is smooth and fitting rather than an abrupt change of subject.

    أَجِـدَّكِ هَـلْ تَـدْرِيـنَ أَنَّ رُبَّ لَيْلَةٍ
    كَـأَنَّ دُجَـاهَـا مِنْ قُـرُونِـكِ تَنْثَـرُ
    نَـصَبْـتُ لَهَـا حَـتَّى تَـجَلَّتْ بِغُـرَّةٍ
    كَغُـرَّةٍ يَحْيَى حِيـنَ يُـذْكَـرُ جَعفَـرُ

    In earnest — do you know how many a night / Whose darkness was as if scattered from your tresses, / I kept vigil for it until it broke with a white dawn / Like the bright face of Yaḥyā when Jaʿfar is mentioned?

    Explanation
    ʿAkkāwī cites this verse by Muslim ibn al-Walīd as a poetic example of barāʿat al-takhalluṣ: the image of dawn serves as the bridge between the nasīb and the madḥ.[3]

    نُوَدِّعُهُمْ وَالْبَيْنُ فِينَا كَأَنَّهُ
    قَنَا ابْنِ أَبِي الْهَيْجَاءِ فِي قَلْبِ فَيْلَقِ

    We bid them farewell, while our separation among us is as though it were the spears of Ibn Abī al-Hayjāʾ in the heart of an army.

    Explanation
    Nābulsī cites al-Mutanabbī's verse in praise of Sayf al-Dawla as an example of ḥusn al-takhalluṣ. The poet moves from the theme of parting to praise through the comparison of the pain of separation with the patron's spears penetrating an army, so that the image itself carries the poem into its new subject.[6]

    طَالَ السَّهَرُ وَأَرَّقَتْنِي ذِكْرَاكِ،
    وَالنَّجْمُ يَسْبَحُ فِي سَمَاءٍ مُعْتِمَة،
    حَتَّى تَنَفَّسَ الفَجْرُ بِضِيَاءٍ كَضِيَاءِ وَجْهِ العَدَالَةِ
    يَوْمَ أَنْصَفَ القَاضِي المَظْلُومِينَ.

    Long was the sleepless night, and your memory kept me wakeful, / as the stars drifted through a darkened sky, / until dawn breathed its light — bright as the face of justice / on the day the judge vindicated the wronged.

    Explanation
    The opening lines evoke a sleepless night of longing, a conventional nasīb-style prelude; the image of dawn breaking then serves as the bridge (sabab) into praise of a judge's rectitude. The transition is concealed within a single continuous image — the light of morning and the light of justice — so that the two sections feel unbroken.

    CHNGTOP-ABR: Abrupt Transition (iqtiḍāb)

    Annotation Unit
    ARDTCHNGTOP-ABR
    Level2 (Subtype)
    BalaghaBaseQ391
    Official Arabic nameiqtiḍāb[1]

    A form of Rhetorical Change of Topic in which the speaker breaks off one topic and begins another without establishing a connecting relationship between them. It contrasts with takhalluṣ, in which one part of the discourse is connected to the next.[1][5][8]

    ʿAkkāwī records Ibn al-Athīr's description of iqtiḍāb as the opposite of takhalluṣ (khilāf al-takhalluṣ). He also cites al-Tanūkhī's definition of it as moving from one discourse to another with no noteworthy correspondence between them, beginning the second independently without connecting one part of the discourse to the other.[1]

    فَانْصِبْ لِي كَأْسًا عَلَى عَذَلِي
    كَرِهْتُ مَسْمُوعَهُ أُذُنِي
    مِنْ كُمَيْتِ اللَّوْنِ صَافِيَةٍ
    خَمْرُهَا شَامِلَةٌ بَدَنِي

    Pour me a cup, despite my reproacher—
    my ear has grown weary of hearing him—
    of wine, deep-red in colour and clear,
    whose intoxication pervades my body.

    Explanation
    ʿAkkāwī cites these lines from Abū Nuwās as an example of iqtiḍāb. The transition occurs by breaking from one discourse and beginning another rather than establishing a connecting relationship between them.[1]

    لَعَمْرُكَ مَا الدُّنْيَا بِنَا قَصَّةَ الْجِدِّ
    إِذَا بَقِيَ الْفَتْحُ بْنُ خَاقَانَ وَالْقَطْرُ

    By your life, the world is no matter of grave concern to us,
    so long as al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān and the rain remain.

    Explanation
    ʿAkkāwī cites this verse in his discussion of iqtiḍāb. He explains that the poet moves from ghazal to praise without a connecting cause (min ghayr sabab mā), so that the new rhetorical purpose is begun without being linked to the preceding one.[1]

    مَا زِلْتُ أَذْكُرُ آخِرَ لِقَاءٍ بَيْنَنَا، وَآخِرَ كَلِمَةٍ قُلْتِهَا عِنْدَ الْوَدَاعِ. أُرَدِّدُهَا فِي نَفْسِي كُلَّ لَيْلَةٍ، وَأَتَخَيَّلُ صَوْتَكِ كَأَنَّكِ لَمْ تَرْحَلِي.
    أَيُّهَا الْأَمِيرُ، أَنْتَ أَكْرَمُ النَّاسِ وَأَحْرَصُهُمْ عَلَى الْعَدْلِ. لَا تُحَابِي قَرِيبًا فِي حُكْمٍ، وَلَا تَمْنَعُ ضَعِيفًا مِنْ حَقِّهِ.

    I still remember our last meeting, and the last word you spoke at our farewell. I repeat it to myself each night and imagine your voice as though you had never left.
    Prince, you are the most generous of people and the most committed to justice. You favour no relative in a judgement and deny no powerless person their due.

    Explanation
    The opening addresses an absent beloved and dwells on the memory of parting. The next sentence independently begins praise of the prince's generosity and justice. No image, comparison, or argument from the amatory opening carries the discourse into the praise. The direct address marks the new purpose but does not provide a semantic bridge between the two passages. In the imagined setting of a ceremonial address to the prince, the abrupt turn can give immediate prominence to the intended subject: the speaker leaves private recollection behind and begins the public encomium without preparing a connection.

    I remember the evenings we spent beside the harbour, watching the fishing boats return. I can still hear your laughter and see the gesture with which you brushed the hair from your face.
    Madam Mayor, you have kept every undertaking you gave this town. You opened the council's accounts to public scrutiny, refused favours to your friends, and answered your critics in person.

    Explanation
    The opening recalls an absent beloved; the next sentence abruptly begins a public tribute to the mayor. Nothing in the harbour scene or the personal recollection supplies an image, comparison, or argument leading into the praise. “Madam Mayor” marks the new addressee without connecting the two rhetorical purposes. In the imagined setting of a civic tribute, the sudden turn redirects attention from private memory to the person being honoured. The second purpose begins independently rather than growing out of the first.

    Notes

    • Nāṣif et al. and ʿAkkāwī treat al-takhalluṣ, barāʿat al-takhalluṣ, and ḥusn al-takhalluṣ as synonymous or closely equivalent designations.[2][11]
    • The term takhalluṣ literally means "disentangling" or "freeing oneself from" something, hence its rhetorical use for departing from one subject to another.[3]
    • The name ḥusn al-khurūj is recorded by ʿAkkāwī as an alternative historical designation.[3]
    • Hatim (2010) translates barāʿat al-takhalluṣ as "Skilful Transition".[5]
    • Cachia translates ḥusn al-takhalluṣ as “Felicitous Transition”. Nābulsī observes that the technique is particularly characteristic of later poets and warns against sacrificing propriety or sound taste merely to achieve an ingenious transition.[6]
    • The device is counted among the merits of both poetry and prose.[3]
    • It is described by some scholars as one of the aspects of Qur'anic inimitability (iʿjāz).[3]
    • Ṭabāna reports that Ibn al-Muʿtazz's ḥusn al-khurūj (حسن الخروج) corresponds to what other rhetoricians call istiṭrād (الاستطراد).[12] This illustrates historical variation in terminology; the present taxonomy distinguishes Rhetorical Change of Topic from Istiṭrād according to their respective linguistic operations.

    References

    1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Inʿam Fawwal ʿAkkawi, al-Muʿjam al-Mufassal fi ʿUlum al-Balagha: al-Badiʿ wa-l-Bayan wa-l-Maʿani (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 200-201.
    2. ↑ a b c d Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, Durūs al-Balāgha (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 128, ISBN 9786144162798.
    3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Inʿam Fawwal ʿAkkawi, al-Muʿjam al-Mufassal fi ʿUlum al-Balagha: al-Badiʿ wa-l-Bayan wa-l-Maʿani (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 263-264.
    4. ↑ a b Inʿam Fawwal ʿAkkawi, al-Muʿjam al-Mufassal fi ʿUlum al-Balagha: al-Badiʿ wa-l-Bayan wa-l-Maʿani (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 536.
    5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Basil Hatim, Arabic Rhetoric: The Pragmatics of Deviation from Linguistic Norms, LINCOM Studies in Communication 04 (Munich: Lincom Europa, 2010), 180, ISBN 9783929075731.
    6. ↑ a b c d e Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), p. 9; §3, ISBN 9783447040327.
    7. ↑ a b c d e Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qazwīnī, known as al-Khaṭīb al-Qazwīnī, al-Īḍāḥ fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ, ed. and comm. Ibrāhīm Shams al-Dīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003), 324-325, ISBN 9782745139078.
    8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī, al-Muṭawwal: Sharḥ Talkhīṣ Miftāḥ al-ʿUlūm, ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Hindāwī, Shurūḥ al-Talkhīṣ 3, 3rd ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2013), 736-738, ISBN 9782745131768.
    9. ↑ a b c d Badawī Ṭabāna, Muʿjam al-Balāgha al-ʿArabiyya, 3rd rev. and expanded ed. (Jeddah: Dār al-Manāra; Riyadh: Dār al-Rifāʿī, 1988), 200-201.
    10. ↑ Inʿam Fawwal ʿAkkawi, al-Muʿjam al-Mufassal fi ʿUlum al-Balagha: al-Badiʿ wa-l-Bayan wa-l-Maʿani (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 263.
    11. ↑ a b Inʿam Fawwal ʿAkkawi, al-Muʿjam al-Mufassal fi ʿUlum al-Balagha: al-Badiʿ wa-l-Bayan wa-l-Maʿani (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 295.
    12. ↑ Badawī Ṭabāna, Muʿjam al-Balāgha al-ʿArabiyya, 3rd rev. and expanded ed. (Jeddah: Dār al-Manāra; Riyadh: Dār al-Rifāʿī, 1988), 169.



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