GENSHFT: Genre Shifting
| GENSHFT: Genre Shifting | |
|---|---|
| Category | Linguistic Embellishments (‘ilm al-badī‘) |
| Subcategory | Argumentation & Illustrative Persuasion |
| Built upon | 4 sources |
| Annotation Unit | |
| ARDT Code | GENSHFT |
| Level | 1 |
| Included in Taxonomy | |
| ARDT | v0.1.1 v0.1.0 |
| External Identifiers | |
| BALAGHAScore | CF-1 |
| BalaghaBase | Q102 |
| OpenAlex | W4415377154 |
| Cite this page | |
| 🔗 Live DOI | 10.64393/balagha.Q102 |
| Use this page | |
| Download | PDF JSON  |
Definition
Genre Shifting (al-iftinān) is an Arabic rhetorical device where the communicator combines two or more different literary genres or rhetorical purposes within a single compact utterance or composition.[1][2][3][4]
Linguistic Operations
- The speaker or poet combines two different literary genres or rhetorical purposes — such as ghazal, ḥamāsa, madḥ, hijāʾ, taʿziya, and tahniʾa — within a single compact utterance or composition.[1][2][3][4]
- The combination may be highly localised: ʿAkkāwī (1996) describes two distinct genres occurring within a single verse or sentence, while al-Nābulsī, as presented by Cachia (1998), specifies one or two lines of poetry.[3][4]
Recognition
Genre Shifting may be present when:
- A single utterance combines two recognisably different literary genres or rhetorical purposes.[1][2][3]
- The transition between the two genres remains part of one unified composition, rather than separate independent passages.[3]
The following diagnostic tests aid identification:
- Each segment could plausibly stand on its own as an instance of its respective genre.
- The shift involves a change in communicative function, not merely a change in topic.
Diagnostic Communicative Enhancements
- Communicative economy: By combining two genres within a single utterance, the speaker can fulfil multiple communicative purposes without dividing the discourse into separate compositions. Condolence and congratulation, for example, can be delivered together in a compact unified form.
- Compound emotional register: When distinct genres carrying different emotional valences are brought into immediate proximity — such as grief and celebration — the utterance acquires an emotionally layered character that reflects the complexity of the situation more effectively than a single genre could.
- Rhetorical tact: Where the situation requires the simultaneous communication of opposing or delicate social functions — such as condolence alongside congratulation — the combination of genres allows the speaker to distribute emotional weight across the utterance, softening abruptness and preserving decorum.
- Situational fidelity: By combining multiple genres, the utterance can mirror situations that themselves contain multiple simultaneous realities — such as loss and succession, grief and honour, or love and conflict — giving the discourse a closer fit to lived experience.
- Craftsmanship: The successful integration of distinct generic registers within a unified composition can display the communicator's control over multiple expressive modes, inviting admiration from a rhetorically literate audience.
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:
Examples
- The words of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hammām al-Salūlī, upon entering the presence of Yazīd after the death of his father Muʿāwiya, who had left him as his successor to the caliphate:
قَوْلُ عَبْدِ اللهِ بنِ هَمَّامٍ السَّلُولِيِّ حِينَ دَخَلَ عَلَى يَزِيدَ وَقَدْ مَاتَ أَبُوهُ مُعَاوِيَةُ وَخَلَّفَهُ هُوَ فِي المُلْكِ:
«آجَرَكَ اللهُ عَلَى الرَّزِيَّةِ، وَبَارَكَ لَكَ فِي العَطِيَّةِ، وَأَعَانَكَ عَلَى الرَّعِيَّةِ، فَقَدْ رُزِئْتَ عَظِيمًا، وَأُعْطِيتَ جَسِيمًا، فَاشْكُرِ اللهَ عَلَى مَا أُعْطِيتَ، وَاصْبِرْ عَلَى مَا رُزِئْتَ، فَقَدْ فَقَدْتَ الخَلِيفَةَ، وَأُعْطِيتَ الخِلَافَةَ، فَفَارَقْتَ خَلِيلًا، وَوُهِبْتَ جَلِيلًا.»
اصْبِرْ يَزِيدُ فَقَدْ فَارَقْتَ ذَا ثِقَةٍ ... وَاشْكُرْ حَيَاءَ الَّذِي بِالمُلْكِ أَصْفَاكَ
لَا رُزْءَ أَصْبَحَ فِي الأَقْوَامِ نَعْلَمُهُ ... كَمَا رُزِئْتَ وَلَا عُقْبَى كَعُقْبَاكَ
- عبد الله بن همام السلولي"May God reward you for your loss, and bless you in your gift, and aid you over your subjects. You have suffered a grievous bereavement and received a mighty bestowal; so give thanks to God for what you have been given, and be patient over what you have lost. You have lost a caliph and been given the caliphate; you have parted from a dear companion and been granted something magnificent."
Be patient, Yazīd — for you have parted from a man of trust ... and give thanks to the grace of Him Who has made sovereignty flow purely to you.
No bereavement among the peoples, as we know it ... has been like yours — and no recompense like yours.
- ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hammām al-Salūlī - Explanation
- This passage combines taʿziya (condolence), acknowledging the death of Muʿāwiya, with tahniʾa (congratulation), celebrating Yazīd's accession to the caliphate. Both Nāṣif et al. (2012) and al-Hāshimī (2019) cite this as the canonical classroom example of al-iftinān.[1][2]
- ʿAntara ibn Shaddād, combining nasīb and ḥamāsa within a single verse (metre: al-Kāmil):[3]
إِنْ تُغْدِفِي دُونِي القِنَاعَ فَإِنَّنِي ... طَبٌّ بِأَخْذِ الفَارِسِ المُسْتَلْئِمِ
- عنترة بن شدادIf you draw the veil down before me, know that I am skilled at seizing the fully-armoured knight.
- ʿAntara ibn Shaddād
- Explanation
- ʿAkkāwī (1996) states explicitly that the first hemistich is nasīb and the second is ḥamāsa.[3]
- Abū Nuwās, combining condolence with congratulation:[3]
نَعَزُّ أَبَا العَبَّاسِ عَنْ خَيْرِ هَالِكٍ ... بِأَكْرَمَ حَيٍّ كَانَ أَوْ هُوَ كَائِنُ
حَوَادِثُ أَيَّامٍ تَدُورُ صُرُوفُهَا ... لَهُنَّ مَسَاوِي مَرَّةً وَمَحَاسِنُ
وَفِي الحَيِّ بِالمَيِّتِ الَّذِي غَيَّبَ الثَّرى ... فَلَا أَنْتَ مَغْبُونٌ وَلَا المَوْتُ غَابِنُ
- أبو نواسWe console you, Abū al-ʿAbbās, for the best of those who have perished, with the noblest of the living.
- Abū Nuwās - Explanation
- ʿAkkāwī (1996) cites this as an instance combining taʿziya and tahniʾa.[3]
- Al-Nābulsī, combining praise and condolence:[3]
طُوبَى لَكُمْ مَعْشَرَ الإِسْلَامِ فِيهِ وَبَا ... خُسْرَانَ مَنْ كَفَرُوا يَا طُولَ حُزْنِهِم
- النابلسيGlad tidings to you, O community of Islam ... and loss to those who disbelieved; how long their grief.
- النابلسي - Explanation
- ʿAkkāwī (1996) cites this as an instance combining madḥ and taʿziya.[3]
- Abū Dulaf, combining ghazal and ḥamāsa:[4]
أُحِبُّكِ يَا ظَلُومُ وَأَنْتِ مِنِّي ... مَكَانَ الرُّوحِ مِنْ جَسَدِ الجَبَانِ
وَلَوْ أَنِّي أَقُولُ مَكَانَ رُوحِي ... خَشِيتُ عَلَيْكِ بَادِرَةَ الطِّعَانِ
- أبو دلفI love you, O tyrant, and you hold in me
as dear a place as life in a coward's body;
were I to say: as dear as my own life,
I should fear that you be placed in the forefront of battle.
- Abū Dulaf
- Explanation
- Al-Nābulsī cites these lines as an instance of al-iftinān. The expression combines ghazal with ḥamāsa: the opening declaration of love belongs to the former, while the imagery of cowardice, combat, and the thrust of weapons introduces the latter.[4]
إِنَّ فِقْدَانَ الأُسْتَاذِ الدُّكْتُورِ سَامِي العُمَرِي خَسَارَةٌ جَلَلٌ، فَقَدْ كَانَ مِنَّارَةً لِطُلَّابِهِ وَمَرْجِعًا لِزُمَلَائِهِ، وَأَدْعُو اللهَ أَنْ يَتَغَمَّدَهُ بِرَحْمَتِهِ الوَاسِعَةِ.
وَإِنَّ الجَائِزَةَ الَّتِي مُنِحَتْ لَهُ اليَوْمَ لَهِيَ شَهَادَةٌ حَقَّةٌ عَلَى عَطَائِهِ، وَاعْتِرَافٌ بِمَا قَدَّمَهُ لِلْعِلْمِ وَأَهْلِهِ.
- من كلمة التأبينThe loss of Professor Sāmī al-ʿUmarī is a grave calamity; he was a beacon to his students and a point of reference for his colleagues, and I pray that God enfold him in His vast mercy.
And the prize awarded to him today is a true testimony to his contribution, and a recognition of what he gave to knowledge and its people.
- From a memorial address
- Explanation
- This constructed passage combines taʿziya (condolence) with madḥ (praise) and tahniʾa (congratulation) within a single unified address. The opening mourns the deceased and prays for his soul; the closing acknowledges a posthumous honour. Each segment retains the communicative function and conventional phrasing of its respective genre.
Notes
- Nāṣif et al. (2012) gloss the device as "the combining by the speaker of genre after genre" (al-jamʿ bayna fann baʿda fann).[1]
- ʿAkkāwī (1996) additionally cites the definition of Ibn Abī al-Iṣbaʿ al-Miṣrī: that the speaker combines two distinct genres of speech within a single verse or sentence.[3]
- Al-Nābulsī, as presented by Cachia (1998), cross-references al-iftinān to al-idmāj ("blending"), indicating a relationship between the two concepts.[4]
References
- ↑ a b c d e Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, Durūs al-Balāgha (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 109-110, ISBN 9786144162798.
- ↑ a b c d Aḥmad al-Hāshimī, Jawāhir al-Balāgha fī al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ (Windsor: Hindāwī Foundation, 2019), 365, ISBN 9781527316386.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Inʿām Fawwāl ʿAkkāwī, Al-Muʿjam al-Mufaṣṣal fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: Al-Badīʿ wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Maʿānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 189-190.
- ↑ a b c d e f 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. 131; §178, ISBN 9783447040327.
Page History
- 2026-02-10 - Migration to Semantic Device Identifiers: Renamed from CG-3: Genre Shifting to GENSHFT: Genre Shifting.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2024-04-22 - Page created: Multi-Genre.
