STACKED: Stacked-up Descriptions
| STACKED: Stacked-up Descriptions | |
|---|---|
| Category | Linguistic Embellishments (‘ilm al-badī‘) |
| Subcategory | Indirectness & Ambiguity |
| Balaghascore.com | |
| Code | CE-2 |
| BalaghaBase.org | |
| Code | Q107 |
| OpenAlex.org | |
| ID | W4415376799 |
| Cite this page | |
| 🔗 DOI | 10.64393/balagha.Q107 |
| Download PDF | |
| Taxonomy | |
| ARDT | v0.1.0, v0.1.1 |
| Provenance | |
| Sources | 4 |
Definition
Stacked-up Descriptions (al-istitbāʿ) is an Arabic rhetorical device where praise of something is expressed in a way that entails a further praise.[1][2][3] A broader formulation is also attested, in which the first meaning may concern praise, blame, or another poetic purpose, and entails a further meaning of the same genus.[4][5][2]
Linguistic Operations
- Lexically, al-istitbāʿ denotes bringing forth one aspect in a way that entails another aspect following it (istatbaʿahu: to ask something to follow it).[6]
- Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī describes the mechanism as an utterance containing two meanings: one explicitly stated, and one as if merely alluded to.[6]
- Ibn Abī al-Iṣbaʿ describes the mechanism as the communicator coming with a meaning from among the purposes of poetry, then attaching to it another meaning of the same purpose that necessitates an increase in the meanings of that art — for example attaching generosity to a mention of courage, such that the two cannot be prised apart.[7]
- Cachia frames the mechanism as one notion, in the service of a panegyric, satirical, or other poetic motif, implying another notion of the same kind, furthering the same motif.[4][5]
In this encyclopedia, the mechanism is described as:
- A first description establishes one evaluative or rhetorical meaning.
- That meaning entails or brings with it a further meaning of the same kind.
- The second meaning is not merely added alongside the first; it follows from it.
Recognition
The following diagnostic tests aid identification:
- Does one description give rise to a further meaning of the same kind, rather than merely adding another independent description?
- Could the second meaning be removed without leaving the first meaning incomplete? If so, this favours Stacked-up Descriptions over al-Takmīl (Supplementation), where the added material completes what was said first.[5][8]
Diagnostic Pragmatic Effects
- An increase or furthering in the description of the rhetorical or poetic purpose being pursued.[4][5]
- Ibn Abī al-Iṣbaʿ likewise describes the effect as an increase in the meanings belonging to that purpose.[7]
Examples
- Source Example
سَمْحُ البديهةِ ليس يُمْسِكُ لفظَهُ فكأنَّ ألفاظَه من ماله
Generous of impromptu speech, he does not withhold his words — as though his very words were part of his wealth [that he freely gives away].
- Explanation
- Praise of the addressee's eloquence entails a further praise of his generosity: his freely given words are likened to wealth that he gives away freely. This verse is attributed to al-Khwārazmī.[9][3]
- Source Example
أَتَرَى القاضِيَ أعمى أم تراهُ يَتعامى سَرَقَ العيدَ كأنَّ أموالَ اليتامى
Do you see the judge as blind, or do you see him feigning blindness? He has stolen the [ʿĪd] festival, as if [stealing] orphans' wealth.
- Explanation
- An anonymous poet satirises a judge who refused to accept testimony that the new moon marking the end of Ramaḍān had been sighted. Blame of the judge for depriving the community of its festival entails a further blame concerning the wealth of orphans.[10][3] This usage is additionally termed al-muḍāʿaf.[10] This example illustrates the broader blame usage recorded as a minority extension in al-Hāshimī ("wa qīla") and independently in Akkawi (termed al-muḍāʿaf), rather than the narrow praise-only core definition above.
- Source Example
وكتابي إليك، وكتابي قلبي عندك، والشطر الآخر غير خلوٍ من تذكرك وعلى عهدك، فأعطاك الله بركة وجهك
This letter of mine to you — my heart, too, is a letter with you, and the other half is not without remembering you and keeping to your covenant. May God grant you the blessing of your countenance.
- Explanation
- This prose example from al-Ḥasan ibn Wahb is cited by Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī to illustrate an utterance containing two meanings: one stated explicitly and another conveyed by implication. The prayer for blessing also conveys the further meaning associated with the addressee's countenance.[6]
- Constructed Example
يُعطي قبل أن يُسأل، فكأنَّ حاجاتِ الناسِ معروفةٌ عنده قبل أن ينطقوا بها
He gives before he is asked, as though people's needs are known to him before they speak of them.
- Explanation
- Praise of the addressee's generosity in giving before being asked entails a further praise of his attentiveness to the needs of others.
Different From
- al-Takmīl (Supplementation): Cachia states that al-Takmīl adds to a notion already expressed, whereas Stacked-up Descriptions is not so restricted.[5] Ibn Abī al-Iṣbaʿ, per 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)., frames the same distinction: al-Takmīl completes what was first described, whereas Stacked-up Descriptions does not necessarily require this.[8]
Notes
Historical
- The tradition attests several alternative names for this device or closely related phenomena, transmitted in 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).: Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī names it al-istitbāʿ or "al-muḍāʿafa" (duplication);[6] Usāma ibn Munqidh, followed by Ibn Abī al-Iṣbaʿ al-Miṣrī, names it "al-taʿlīq";[7] a group including Ibn Mālik, al-ʿAlawī, al-Ḥalabī, al-Nuwayrī, and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya name it "al-Muwajjah" — a naming credited to al-Thaʿālibī;[7] separately, Ibn Jinnī termed the al-Mutanabbī "nahabta" verse specifically "al-madḥ al-muwajjah," a naming later adopted by al-Waṭwāṭ;[7] and the blame usage illustrated by the qāḍī/ʿĪd example is additionally termed "al-muḍāʿaf" (al-muḍāʿaf).[10] The precise relationship between the "al-Muwajjah" naming used by the first group and Ibn Jinnī/al-Waṭwāṭ's usage is not fully disentangled in 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).; readers should consult that source directly (pp.69–70) for the fuller chain.
- Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamza al-ʿAlawī separately names the phenomenon "al-taʿlīq" and gives it a two-part subtype division, distinct from any subtype division of al-istitbāʿ itself.[8]
- Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, [ Durūs al-Balāgha] (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), ISBN 9786144162798. alone, among the sources reviewed, classifies al-istitbāʿ as a subtype of al-Idmāj ("ومن الإدماج ما يسمى بالاستتباع" — "among al-Idmāj is what is called al-istitbāʿ").[1] This classification is not corroborated by Cachia, 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)., or Template:Jawaher, each of which treats the device as standalone; it is recorded here as a single-source data point relevant to the al-Idmāj entry.
- Ibn Abī al-Ḥajja al-Ḥamawī's badīʿiyya is cited in 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). as a further shawāhid (evidentiary) example, and the source there also notes that al-Ḥamawī's definition parallels one given by the modern grammarian Germanus Farḥāt.[8]
Technical
- The English name "Stacked-up Descriptions" is an encyclopedia label intended to describe the observable mechanism: one description entails or brings with it a further description of the same kind.
- The sources differ in definitional scope. Several give a narrow praise-to-further-praise formulation, while others explicitly extend the device to blame and other poetic purposes. The narrower formulation is used in the core definition, with the broader formulation recorded separately.
References
- ↑ a b Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, Durūs al-Balāgha (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 107-108, ISBN 9786144162798.
- ↑ a b 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), 68-71.
- ↑ a b c Aḥmad al-Hāshimī, Jawāhir al-Balāgha fī al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ (Windsor: Hindāwī Foundation, 2019), 382, ISBN 9781527316386.
- ↑ a b c 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); §179, ISBN 9783447040327.
- ↑ 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. 131-132, ISBN 9783447040327.
- ↑ a b c d 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), 68.
- ↑ a b c d e 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), 69.
- ↑ a b c d 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), 70.
- ↑ Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, Durūs al-Balāgha (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 108, ISBN 9786144162798.
- ↑ a b c 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), 71.
Page History
- 2026-02-11 - Migration to Semantic Device Identifiers: Renamed from CG-8: Stacked-up Descriptions to STACKED: Stacked-up Descriptions.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2024-04-22 - Page created: Stacked-up Descriptions.
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