IGNORNC: Feigned Ignorance
| IGNORNC: Feigned Ignorance | |
|---|---|
| Category | Linguistic Embellishments (‘ilm al-badī‘) |
| Subcategory | Persuasive Tricks |
| Synonyms | al-tashakkuk |
| Balaghascore.com | |
| Code | CE-11 |
| BalaghaBase.org | |
| Code | Q117 |
| OpenAlex.org | |
| ID | W4415405321 |
| Cite this page | |
| 🔗 Live DOI | 10.64393/balagha.Q117 |
| Download PDF | |
| Taxonomy | |
| ARDT | v0.1.0, v0.1.1 |
| Provenance | |
| Sources | 3 |
Definition
Feigned Ignorance (tajāhul al-ʿārif) is an Arabic rhetorical device in which the communicator asks about, or expresses doubt concerning, something they already know, as though they do not know it.[1][2][3] It is also known as tashakkuk ("doubtfulness").[2]
Linguistic Operations
- The speaker feigns ignorance of something already known to them, presenting it as uncertain or unknown.[1]
- The device often arises from a metaphor taken literally: a figurative comparison is treated as a real question, as if the speaker genuinely cannot distinguish the two things being compared.[2][1]
Recognition
Feigned Ignorance may be present when:
- A speaker or writer poses a question or expresses doubt about something they demonstrably know or have established.[1]
- A figurative comparison is framed as a genuine question, as though the speaker cannot tell whether the subject belongs to one category or another.[2][1]
The following diagnostic tests aid identification:
- Test 1: Confirm the speaker's knowledge — would the speaker, in context, ordinarily be expected to know the answer to the question they are posing? If yes, feigned ignorance may be operative.
- Test 2: Identify whether the question rests on a prior figurative comparison (e.g., a beloved compared to an antelope) and whether the question treats that comparison as literal. If so, this is the metaphor-literalisation form of the device.
Diagnostic Communicative Enhancements
The following rhetorical purposes are explicitly enumerated in the sources:
- To express amazement or wonder (taʿajjub).[1]
- To express praise, specifically hyperbolic praise (madḥ).[1][3]
- To express blame or dispraise, specifically hyperbolic blame (dhamm).[1][3]
- To express attachment or coyness in love (tadalluʿ fī al-ḥubb).[1]
- To rebuke or reprimand (tawbīkh).[1]
- To affirm or emphasise a point (taqrīr).[1]
Al-Hāshimī (2019) notes that these purposes are among the badīʿ objectives of the device, and that they are too numerous to enumerate exhaustively.[3]
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:
Types of Feigned Ignorance
ʿAkkāwī (1996) records a division of the device into two subtypes based on the grammatical form of the feigned-ignorance statement:[1]
Type 1: Affirmative (mūjab)
A statement in which the feigned ignorance is expressed in an affirmative form.[1]
- Source Example
﴿أَبَشَرًا مِّنَّا وَاحِدًا نَّتَّبِعُهُ﴾
"Are we to follow a mortal man from among ourselves?" (Qurʾān 54:24)
- Explanation
- The speakers know that the messenger is a human being; the question is framed as though this were a surprising or unknown fact, expressing contempt and refusal through feigned astonishment.[1]
- Constructed Example
لَا أَدْرِي أَهَذَا الَّذِي أَمَامَنَا إِنْسَانٌ أَمْ وَحْشٌ.
"I do not know whether what stands before us is a human being or a beast."
- Explanation
- The speaker knows full well that the subject is human; the performed uncertainty about categorical identity expresses blame and contempt (dhamm) through feigned ignorance stated in declarative form.
Type 2: Negative (manfī)
A statement in which the feigned ignorance is expressed in a negative form.[1]
- Source Example
﴿مَا هَٰذَا بَشَرًا إِنْ هَٰذَا إِلَّا مَلَكٌ كَرِيمٌ﴾
"This is not a mortal; this is nothing but a noble angel." (Qurʾān 12:31)
- Explanation
- The women who speak these words have seen a man (Yūsuf), but feign inability to categorise him as human, expressing extreme admiration through the negative form.[1]
- Constructed Example
مَا هَذِهِ الْقَصِيدَةُ مِنْ نَظْمِ إِنْسَانٍ، إِنْ هِيَ إِلَّا نَسِيمٌ تَشَكَّلَ كَلِمَاتٍ.
"This poem is not the composition of a human being — it is nothing but a breeze that took the form of words."
- Explanation
- The speaker is fully aware that the poem was written by a person; the negative denial of that fact is a form of feigned ignorance deployed for praise (madḥ), closely parallel in structure to the Qurʾānic model (مَا هَٰذَا بَشَرًا). The negation ما… إن هي إلا performs the categorical refusal that defines the negative subtype.
- Constructed Example
مَا هَذَا الَّذِي تُسَمِّيهِ عَدْلًا، إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا ظُلْمٌ مُقَنَّعٌ.
"What you call justice is not justice at all — it is nothing but injustice in disguise."
- Explanation
- The speaker has no genuine doubt about the nature of what is being described; the negative denial of the category expresses rebuke (tawbīkh) through feigned ignorance in declarative form. The in… illā construction mirrors the Qurʾānic negative subtype structurally.
Examples
- Source Example
﴿وَإِنَّا أَوْ إِيَّاكُمْ لَعَلَىٰ هُدًى أَوْ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ﴾
"And indeed, either we or you are upon guidance or in clear error." (Qurʾān 34:24)
- Explanation
- The speaker knows with certainty which party is rightly guided; the expression of mutual doubt is a form of feigned ignorance deployed for rhetorical effect, functioning as affirmation (taqrīr).[1]
- Source Example
بِاللهِ يَا ظَبَيَاتِ الْقَاعِ قُلْنَ لَنَا: هَذِي لَيْلَى أَمْ أَنْتُنَّ أَمْ هِيَ مِنْ بَشَرِ؟
"By God, O antelopes of the plain, tell me: is my Laylā one of you, or is Laylā one of humankind?"
- Explanation
- Al-ʿArjī asks the antelopes whether his beloved Laylā belongs to their kind, treating the conventional comparison of a beautiful woman to an antelope as though it were a genuine question of category. The feigned ignorance arises from taking a figurative comparison literally.[2]
- Source Example
وَمَا أَدْرِي وَسَوْفَ أَخَالُ أَدْرِي أَقَوْمٌ آلُ حِصْنٍ أَمْ نِسَاءُ
"I do not know — though I think I shall come to know — whether the clan of Ḥiṣn are men or women."
- Explanation
- Zuhayr feigns uncertainty about whether his adversaries are men or women, while knowing full well that they are men. The feigned ignorance expresses hyperbolic blame (dhamm) by implying their conduct is unworthy of men.[1][3]
- Source Example
﴿أَفَسِحْرٌ هَٰذَا أَمْ أَنتُمْ لَا تُبْصِرُونَ﴾
"Is this sorcery, or do you not see?" (Qurʾān 52:15)
- Explanation
- The question is posed despite the answer being known; the feigned uncertainty expresses amazement (taʿajjub).[3]
Notes
- The term tashakkuk ("doubtfulness") is given as an alternative name by Heinrichs (1998).[2] ʿAkkāwī (1996) records the additional designation mazj al-shakk bil-yaqīn ("mixing doubt with certainty"), attributed to al-ʿAskarī.[1]
- The rhetorical purpose translated here as "attachment or coyness in love" renders the Arabic tadalluʿ fī al-ḥubb. This is a specific poetic-affective purpose; it does not denote a general communicative sense of "familiarity".
- The subtype division (affirmative/negative) and the enumerated rhetorical purposes are attested only in ʿAkkāwī (1996).[1]
References
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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), 287.
- ↑ a b c d e f W. P. Heinrichs, ‘Rhetorical Figures’, in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (London: Routledge, 1998), 659, ISBN 0415068088. DOI: 10.4324/9780203020425
- ↑ a b c d e f Aḥmad al-Hāshimī, [ Jawāhir al-Balāgha fī al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ] (Windsor: Hindāwī Foundation, 2019), 386, ISBN 9781527316386.
Page History
- 2026-02-11 - Migration to Semantic Device Identifiers: Renamed from CH-8: Feigned Ignorance to IGNORNC: Feigned Ignorance.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2024-04-22 - Page created: Feigned Ignorance.
