RHYMED: Rhetorical Rhymed Prose
| RHYMED: Rhetorical Rhymed Prose | |
|---|---|
| Category | Linguistic Embellishments (ʿilm al-badīʿ) |
| Subcategory | Wordplay & Phonetic Styling |
| Built upon | 9 sources |
| Annotation Unit | |
| ARDT Code | RHYMED |
| Level | 1 (Rhetorical device) |
| ↳ Has 3 subtypes | |
| Included in Taxonomy | |
| ARDT | v0.1.1 v0.1.0 |
| External Identifiers | |
| BALAGHAScore | CD-1 |
| BalaghaBase | Q125 |
| OpenAlex | W4415412567 |
| Cite this page | |
| 🔗 Live DOI | 10.64393/balagha.Q125 |
| Use this page | |
| Download | PDF JSON  |
Definition
Rhetorical Rhymed Prose (al-sajʿ) is an Arabic rhetorical device in which the rhetorical use of the agreement of two prose fāṣilatayn (phrase-endings) on one and the same final letter.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Background Information
The Arabic term al-sajʿ is associated in its ordinary lexical usage with the patterned, recurring calls of birds, traditionally including the cooing of pigeons. The rhetorical term applies this idea of recurring sound to prose: the endings of successive segments correspond in their final rhyme-letter, producing an audible pattern. Thus, the name evokes the repeated, patterned vocal sound that characterises the device. In English, sajʿ is conventionally rendered as “rhymed prose”, although Abdul-Raof (2006) also uses “assonance”.[8][9]
Linguistic Operations
- Rhymed prose operates through agreement in the final rhyme-letter of two prose phrase-endings (fāṣilatayn). Each prose segment is called a fiqra. The agreement concerns the final words of these segments, rather than requiring the entire words to be identical.[1][2][3]
- The correspondence is analogous to poetic rhyme (qāfiya). Al-Sakkākī expresses this as al-sajʿ fī al-nathr ka-al-qāfiya fī al-shiʿr (“sajʿ in prose is like rhyme in poetry”). Al-Nābulsī similarly describes the arrangement of phrase-endings according to a single rhyme (ijrāʾ al-fawāṣil ʿalā qāfiya wāḥida).[1][5]
- The phrase-endings are conventionally pronounced in pause (waqf), ordinarily omitting their final grammatical short vowels. ʿAṭīq and al-Hāshimī explain that rhymed prose is based on the vowelless pronunciation of its endings. Thus, differences in final grammatical vowels do not necessarily prevent rhyme agreement in pause.[1][10]
The Linguistic Operation consists of organising successive prose phrase-endings into a recognisable rhyme pattern. For rhetorical annotation, this correspondence must be communicatively relevant rather than merely incidental. Its artistic quality is a separate consideration.
Communicative Enhancements
- Rhymed prose creates an effect of audible closure and rhythmic pairing between adjacent prose segments.[1][3]
- Balanced prose segments strengthen the rhythmic effect and make the paired endings more perceptible to the listener.[1][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:
Recognition
Rhetorical Rhymed Prose may be present when:
- Two successive prose segments (fiqratayn) end on the same final letter.[1][3]<[9]
- The final words (fāṣilas) show terminal rhyme-agreement analogous to poetic rhyme.[1][3]
- The final words may also share the same morphological weight (wazn), indicating a more structured subtype.[1][2][3]
The following diagnostic tests aid identification:
- Locate the final word of each prose segment.
- Compare the final rhyme-letters of those words, taking account of their conventional pronunciation in pause. Do not require the entire final words, or all their preceding vowels, to agree.
- If the final letters match, the underlying linguistic feature of sajʿ is structurally present.
- Determine whether the correspondence functions as a communicatively relevant patterned recurrence rather than an incidental phonological similarity. Incidental agreement alone is insufficient for rhetorical annotation.
- If the paired words also match in morphological pattern, determine the subtype.
The agreement of prose phrase-endings constitutes the underlying linguistic feature of sajʿ. For this feature to constitute a rhetorical device, the correspondence must function as a Linguistic Operation capable of establishing a communicatively relevant Cognitive Relationship and contributing to Communicative Enhancement, as described in the Model for Rhetorical Action. Incidental phonological agreement alone is insufficient.
Subtypes of Rhetorical Rhymed Prose
RHYMED-UEW: Rhetorical Rhymed Prose with Unequal Morphological Weight (al-muṭarraf)
| Annotation Unit | |
|---|---|
| ARDT | RHYMED-UEW |
| Level | 2 (Subtype) |
| BalaghaBase | Q395 |
| Official Arabic name | al-muṭarraf[11] |
A form of Rhetorical Rhymed Prose in which the two phrase-endings agree in their final letter (rhyme) but differ in morphological weight.[1][2][5][12][13][14]
﴿أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ الْأَرْضَ مِهَادًا وَالْجِبَالَ أَوْتَادًا﴾
Have We not made the earth a resting place, and the mountains as stakes? (Q78:6–7)
- Explanation
- Mihādan and awtādan agree in final rhyme-letter but differ in morphological weight, making this an instance of muṭarraf.[2]
«إنَّ العِلمَ نُورٌ، وإنَّ الجَهلَ فُجُورٌ»
Indeed knowledge is a light, and indeed ignorance is a transgression.
- Explanation
- Nūrun and fujūrun agree in final rhyme-letter (ر) but differ in morphological weight (fuʿlun vs. fuʿūlun), making this an instance of muṭarraf.
The traveller followed the light,
And disappeared into the night.- Explanation
- Light and night rhyme, but differ in their consonantal structure. This illustrates rhyme agreement without requiring identical morphological weight, as in al-muṭarraf. English word structure is used here as a pedagogical approximation of Arabic morphological weight.
RHYMED-MMW: Rhetorical Rhymed Prose with Matching Morphological Weight (al-mutawāzī)
| Annotation Unit | |
|---|---|
| ARDT | RHYMED-MMW |
| Level | 2 (Subtype) |
| BalaghaBase | Q396 |
| Official Arabic name | al-mutawāzī[15] |
A form of Rhetorical Rhymed Prose in which the final word of each prose segment agrees with its counterpart in both morphological weight and final rhyme-letter.[1][2][5][6][7]
﴿فِيهَا سُرُرٌ مَرْفُوعَةٌ وَأَكْوَابٌ مَوْضُوعَةٌ﴾
Within it are couches raised high, and cups put in place
Quran 88:13–14- Explanation
- Marfūʿa and mawḍūʿa match in both morphological pattern and rhyme, making this an instance of mutawāzī.[1][9][5]
«اللَّهُمَّ أَعْطِ مُنْفِقاً خَلَفاً وَأَعْطِ مُمْسِكاً تَلَفاً»
O God, give the spender replacement, and give the miser ruin.
- Explanation
- Khalafan and talafan match in weight and rhyme.[1][3]
«الحَقُّ مَنشُودٌ، والعَدلُ مَقصُودٌ»
Truth is sought after, and justice is aimed for.
- Explanation
- Manshūdun and maqṣūdun agree in both morphological weight (mafʿūlun) and final rhyme-letter (د), making this an instance of mutawāzī.
The engineer was a creator,
The scientist was an innovator.- Explanation
- Creator and innovator rhyme and share a comparable English agent-noun formation ending in -ator. This approximates the combination of rhyme and matching morphological weight characteristic of al-mutawāzī.
RHYMED-MWR: Multi-Word Rhyme with Matching Morphological Weight (al-muraṣṣaʿ, al-tarṣīʿ)
| Annotation Unit | |
|---|---|
| ARDT | RHYMED-MWR |
| Level | 2 (Subtype) |
| BalaghaBase | Q397 |
| Official Arabic name | al-muraṣṣaʿ, al-tarṣīʿ[16] |
A form of Rhetorical Rhymed Prose in which multiple corresponding words across the paired prose segments match in both morphological weight and rhyme.[1][2][17][6][7] ʿAṭīq (2002) defines it as the pairing of every word from a prose segment or hemistich with a word of equal weight and rhyme.[1] Al-Hāshimī defines al-tarṣīʿ as the balancing of words with corresponding or closely corresponding endings.[17] Rowson (1998) cites Qudāma ibn Jaʿfar's definition of tarṣīʿ as combining multiple sajʿ rhyme with full morphological parallelism.[8]
ʿAkkāwī (1996) also lists al-mutawāzan, where the paired endings agree in weight without sharing the same rhyme-letter.[2] Some rhetoricians do not treat this as full rhymed prose because final-letter agreement is absent.[2]
﴿إِنَّ الْأَبْرَارَ لَفِي نَعِيمٍ وَإِنَّ الْفُجَّارَ لَفِي جَحِيمٍ﴾
Indeed the righteous are in bliss, and indeed the wicked are in Hellfire. (Q82:13–14)
- Explanation
- Each word of the first segment is paired with a corresponding word of equal morphological weight and matching rhyme-letter in the second segment, making this an instance of muraṣṣaʿ.[1][2]
«يَطْبَعُ الأَسْجَاعَ بِجَوَاهِرِ لَفْظِهِ، وَيَقْرَعُ الأَسْمَاعَ بِزَوَاجِرِ وَعْظِهِ»
He stamps sajʿ with the jewels of his diction, and strikes the ears with the admonitions of his preaching.
- Explanation
- From al-Ḥarīrī. Multiple corresponding lexical pairs match in weight and rhyme.[1]
«يُشِيعُ الأَمِينُ الوَفَاءَ بِصِدقِ لِسَانِهِ، ويُذِيعُ الخَوِينُ الجَفَاءَ بِكَذِبِ بَيَانِهِ»
The trustworthy man spreads loyalty through the truth of his tongue, and the treacherous man spreads harshness through the falsehood of his speech.
- Explanation
- Multiple corresponding lexical pairs match in both morphological weight and rhyme: yushīʿu / yudhīʿu; al-amīnu / al-khawīnu; al-wafāʾa / al-jafāʾa; bi-ṣidqi / bi-kadhbi; lisānihi / bayānihi, making this an instance of muraṣṣaʿ.
Bright minds devise, and wise hearts advise;
Right minds revise, and kind hearts surprise.- Explanation
- The two segments contain multiple corresponding rhyming words: bright/right, minds/minds, devise/revise, wise/kind (structurally parallel but not rhyming), hearts/hearts, and advise/surprise. The example approximates the extended correspondence of al-muraṣṣaʿ, although not every corresponding pair meets both Arabic requirements of matching weight and rhyme.
Different From
- al-mursal (free or unadorned prose): Rowson (1998) explicitly contrasts sajʿ with mursal prose, the latter being prose without the constraints of rhythm and rhyme that define sajʿ.[8]
- al-fawāṣil (Qurʾānic phrase-endings): Some scholars, including al-Rummānī and al-Bāqillānī, argued that the phrase-endings of the Qurʾān should not be called sajʿ but rather fawāṣil. Ibn al-Athīr and others disputed this restriction.[3][1]
- al-tarṣīʿ: Heinrichs (1998) notes that internal rhyme in a line of poetry is sometimes called tarṣīʿ, while ʿAṭīq treats tarṣīʿ or muraṣṣaʿ as a subtype involving broader word-for-word parallelism alongside final-rhyme agreement.[18][1]
- Taṣrīʿ (التصريع) - Tarṣīʿ involves correspondence in rhyme and morphological weight across multiple paired words or expressions. Taṣrīʿ, by contrast, concerns specifically the correspondence between the endings of the two hemistichs of a poetic line.
Notes
- Translation of sajʿ: Rowson (1998) renders it as “rhymed prose”; Abdul-Raof (2006) renders it as “assonance”. In this encyclopedia, “rhymed prose” is preferred because it best reflects the classical Arabic definition.[8][9] The term "Rhetorical Rhymed Prose" is used to refer to rhymed prose used for rhetorical benefit.
- Prose and poetry: The device is fundamentally a prose category in classical balāgha, even though related internal-rhyming structures also occur in poetry. Nābulsī distinguishes general sajʿ from tasjīʿ al-bayt (internal rhyming of the poetic line), which he defines as dividing a verse into metrically identical parts and rhyming all of them according to the rhyme of the poem.[5] Related poetic structures are also discussed under categories such as tarṣīʿ.[18][1]
- Poetic extension omitted from the main taxonomy: ʿAṭīq (2002) also lists al-mashṭūr as a poetic subtype, where each hemistich has its own internal rhyme pattern.[1] It is not treated as a core subtype on this page because this entry focuses on rhymed prose as a rhetorical device rather than on poetic internal-rhyme taxonomy.
- Structural detection vs. artistic quality: The sources distinguish the presence of rhymed prose from its artistic quality. Rhymed prose may be structurally present even when rhetoricians judge it forced or weak.[1][3]
References
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Atīq, ʿIlm al-Badīʿ (Beirut: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya lil-Ṭibāʿa wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 2002), 215–224.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j 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), 578.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Faḍl Ḥasan ʿAbbās, Al-Balāgha: Funūnuhā wa-Afnānuhā - ʿIlm al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ (Amman: Dār al-Furqān lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 2007), 305–309.
- ↑ Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, Durūs al-Balāgha (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 119–120, ISBN 9786144162798.
- ↑ 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. 15; §10, ISBN 9783447040327.
- ↑ a b c 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), 296–298, ISBN 9782745139078.
- ↑ a b c 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), 695–702, ISBN 9782745131768.
- ↑ a b c d E. K. Rowson, ‘Sajʿ’, in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (London: Routledge, 1998), 677–678, ISBN 0415068088. DOI: 10.4324/9780203020425
- ↑ a b c d Hussein Abdul-Raof, Arabic Rhetoric: A Pragmatic Analysis (Oxford: Routledge, 2006), 260–261, ISBN 9780415386098. DOI: 10.4324/9780203965399
- ↑ Aḥmad al-Hāshimī, Jawāhir al-Balāgha fī al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ (Windsor: Hindāwī Foundation, 2019), 410, ISBN 9781527316386.
- ↑ ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Atīq, ʿIlm al-Badīʿ (Beirut: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya lil-Ṭibāʿa wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 2002), 217.
- ↑ 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), 296, ISBN 9782745139078.
- ↑ 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), 695, ISBN 9782745131768.
- ↑ Badawī Ṭabāna, Muʿjam al-Balāgha al-ʿArabiyya, 3rd rev. and expanded ed. (Jeddah: Dār al-Manāra; Riyadh: Dār al-Rifāʿī, 1988), 381.
- ↑ ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Atīq, ʿIlm al-Badīʿ (Beirut: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya lil-Ṭibāʿa wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 2002), 219.
- ↑ ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Atīq, ʿIlm al-Badīʿ (Beirut: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya lil-Ṭibāʿa wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 2002), 218.
- ↑ a b Aḥmad al-Hāshimī, Jawāhir al-Balāgha fī al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ (Windsor: Hindāwī Foundation, 2019), 411, ISBN 9781527316386.
- ↑ a b W. P. Heinrichs, ‘Rhetorical Figures’, in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (London: Routledge, 1998), 661, ISBN 0415068088. DOI: 10.4324/9780203020425
Page History
- 2026-10-07 - Linguistic Operation-Based Names: Renamed from RHYMED: Rhymed Prose to RHYMED: Rhetorical Rhymed Prose.
- 2026-04-26 - Renamed from ASSONAN: Assonance to RHYMED: Rhymed prose to more accurately reflect the rhetorical mechanism.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2026-02-11 - Migration to Semantic Device Identifiers: Renamed from CI-1: Assonance to ASSONAN: Assonance.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2024-04-22 - Page created: Assonance.
