Arabic, Qurʾān, and Poetic License: Reciting the Word of God (Routledge Studies in the Qur'an)

Description

This book examines the similarities between the Qurʾān and ancient Arabic poetry, analyzed through the framework of Arabic grammar prior to their standardization and subsequent development into distinct genres. Of central relevance is the relationship between the Qurʾān and Arabic poetry, and how Muslim scholars defined this relationship based on a formulaic structural approach rather than a thematic and motif-oriented one. The book aims to reposition the so-called non-standard usages of Arabic vernaculars, non-canonical readings of the Qurʾān, and unusual grammatical structures in ancient poetry at the heart of the Arabic-Islamic tradition. The book deals with different theological, legal, and social controversies regarding the proper recitation of the Qurʾān and its individuation from poetry and other verbal arts. For the first time, this study offers a comprehensive categorization of unusual grammatical structures in both the Qurʾān and ancient Arabic poetry, which Arab grammarians classified as poetic license. The close affinity between the linguistic styles of the Qurʾān and ancient Arabic poetry suggests that the Qurʾān was a form of ancient Arabic poetry. To individuate the Qurʾān, Muslim scholars put in place various theological and legal restrictions for its proper recitation, the most important of which was tajwīd (Qurʾānic recitation). The book will interest students and scholars of Qurʾānic and Islamic studies, as well as those researching Arabic poetry and grammar. Cover Endorsement Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface Essential Terminology System of Transliteration Background Material Qirāʾāt: Canonical and Non-Canonical Readings Arabic Poetry and Prosody Arabic Language, Grammar, and Old Dialects (Lugha, Lughāt) Introduction: The Qurʾān–Poetry Dichotomy Qurʾān as Divination and Mantic Speech The Qurʾān Is Not Poetry: Al-Bāqillānī’s Manifesto Bibliography 1 Rules for Reciting the Eternal Word of God: Tajwīd, Music, and Textual Criticism Reading the Qurʾān as a Text The Recited Qurʾān as the Created Word of God Etiquette of Qurʾānic Recitation The Qur.ʾān, Music, and Non-Melodic Recitation The Rise and Fall of the Egyptian School of Recitation Individuating the Inimitable Qurʾān Individuating the Written Qurʾān Individuating the Oral Qurʾān Conclusion Bibliography 2 The Standardization of Arabic Grammar Part I: Grammarians, Qirāʾāt, and Language Contamination The Arabic High Literary Register and Dialects (Lughāt) Origins of the Language Between Tawqīf and iṣṭilāḥ Pure and Contaminated Arabic Textual Contamination of Ḥadīth Grammarians, the Qurʾān, and Poetry Abū Al-Aswad: the Vowel-Dot System of the Early Qurʾān Early Qurʾān Readers/grammarians of Baṣra Al-Khalīl and His Students Accusing Al-Aṣmaʿī of Fabrication Al-Yazīdī’s Family Yaʿqūb al-​Ḥaḍramī Early Kūfan Grammarians? “Ḥamza Was Nothing” Kūfans and Poetry Fabrication Al-Kisaāʾī and Al-Farraāʾ “There Is No Grammar Except in Baṣra and Kūfa” Deviations From the Preponderant Norms of Arabic Organic Developments in the Language: Code-Switching? Tawātur and Consensus in Language Intentionality and the Correctness of Grammar Conclusion Part II: Qirāʾāt and Dialects “Quraysh, the Most Eloquent of All Arabs” Dialects as Tribally Inherited Features The Taltala of Bahrāʾ The Correlation Between Qirāʾāt and Dialects 1) Ishmām 2) Hāʾ Al-​ḍamīr 3) The Hamza Glottal Stop 4) Gutturals 5) Kasr ḥarf al-​muḍāraʿa 6) Internal Vowels 7) Al-Idghām Al-Kabīr (Major Assimilation) 8) Imalāt Hāʾ Al-Taʾnīth 9) Imala Dialects as Techniques and Tools to Perform the Qurʾān Conclusion: Circulating ḥadīiths On Qirāʾāt and Dialectal Features Bibliography 3 The Standardization of Arabic Poetry Part I: Ancient Poetry, the Qaṣīda, and Arabic Prosody Reconstructing the Original Qaṣīda Extant Poetry The Development of the Qaṣīda Prosody (ʿarūḍ) and the Metric Circles of Al-Khalīl Shortcomings of Al-Khalīl’s System: Al-Mutadārak A Pre-Islamic Free-Verse Poem? Ziḥāf Qabīḥ: to Prioritize Grammar Or Prosody? Prosody in the Qurʾān Part II: Defects of the Rhyme (ʿuyūb Al-​qāfiya) Al-Marzubānī’s Muwashshaḥ ʿUyūb Al-Qāfiya Conclusion Bibliography 4 Tajwīd as a Disrupting Mechanism Performing the Qurʾān Without Tajwīd Editorial Techniques in the Qirāʾāt and Tajwīd Tradition 1) Dialects 2) Shawāhid 3) The Craft of Grammar (ṣanʿa) 4) Principles of Recitation (uṣūl) Rawm, Ishmām, and Ikhtilās Yāʾāt Al-Zawāʾid Waṣl and Waqf (Pausing and Continuing the Recitation) Conclusion Poetry Recitation Verse Endings in Poetry and the Qurʾān Conclusion Bibliography 5 Poetic and Qurʾānic License (Ḍarāʾir al-​shiʿr) Ibn ʿUṣfūr’s Ḍarāʾir al-​shiʿr Categories of ḍarāʾir Part I: Al-Ziyāda (Addition) I-A) Vowel Addition I-B) Letter Addition (Ziyadat Al-.arf) I-C) Addition of Words/particles I-D) Addition of Phrase (Jumla) Part II: Al-Naqṣ (Omission) II-A) Omission of Vowels (Naqṣ Al-ḥaraka) II-B) Omission of Letters/consonants (Naqṣ Al-ḥarf) II-C) The Omission of Words and Particles (Naqṣ Al-Kalima) II-D) The Omission of Sentences Or Clauses (Naqṣ Al-Jumla) Part III: Reordering (al-Taqdim Wa-L-Ta.khir) III-B) Pre- and Post-Positioning Letters (Metathesis, Qalb) III-C) Pre- and Post-Positioning Words and Clauses Part IV: Substitution (al-Badal) IV-A) Vowels, Letters, Or Consonants IV-B) Particles Or Words Conclusion Bibliography Conclusion Bibliography Bibliography Index