ولقد كنت أفضل لو أني وجدت هذا المقال قابلا للنقل من دائرة المعارف (وهي موجودة في مظانها على الشبكة، وبعض المحترفين، لا شك، قادر على توفير رابط لها) فلم أكن مضطرا إلى إعادة نسخها بشكل يدوي، وهو ما استطعت أن أنجز شيئا محدودا منه، فكانت الحصيلة من هذا المقال نحوا من خمسة آلاف كلمة أثبتها هنا.
هذا، وقد حاولت أن أجاري كاتب المقال في استخدام حروف المد على النحو الذي ورد عنده، ولكني وجدت في الأمر بعض المشقة فتحولت من ذلك إلى التعبير عن حروف المد بتكرار الحركة التي هي بعض منها.
‘ ARUUD
1. ‘Ilm al-‘Aruud is the technical term for ancient Arabic metrics. ‘Ilm al-‘Aruud and ‘Ilm al-shi‘r are occasionally used synonymously in the sense of “science of versification”, and in this extended sense ‘Ilm al-‘Aruud embraces not only the science of metre, but also the science of rhyme. Usually, however, the rules governing rhyme (‘Ilm al-Kawaafi, sg. Kaafiya ) are treated separately, and ‘Ilm al-‘Aruud is confined to metrics in the stricter sense. As such, Arabic philologists define it in the following manner: Al-‘aruud ilm be usuul yu‘raf biha sahiih awzaan al-shi‘r wa-faasiduhaa (‘Aruud is the science of the rules by means of which one distinguishes correct metres from faulty ones in ancient poetry).
There is no generally accepted etymology for this sense of the term ‘Aruud. Some Arabic grammarians maintain that it acquired the meaning of metrics because the verse is constructed on its analogy (yu‘rad ‘alayhi); others say that the term was used because al-Khalil developed it in Mecca, and this city is also called al-‘Aruud. Georg Jacob (Studien in arabischen Dichtern, 180) has suggested a curious explanation by pointing to the passage in the Diwaan of the Hudhaylites (95, 16) where the poem is compared to an obstinate female camel (‘Aruud) which the poet tames. The most explanation still remains the one based on the concrete meaning which ‘Aruud has as part of a tent, and the transferred sense which it acquired in metrics, as the last foot of the first hemistich: originally it describes “the transverse pole or piece of wood which is in the middle of a tent, and which is its main support and hence the middle portion (or foot) of a verse” (Lane). Since the last foot of the first hemistich in the centre of the line (bayt al-shi‘r) is as important for its structure as the centre pole is for that of the tent (bayt al-sha‘r), one may readily assume that ‘Aruud then came to be the general term for the science of metric structure.
There are few works on metrics by Arab philologists, and there contents are of little value. This fact is all the more surprising if one bears in mind how many works of lasting value have been written by prominent Muslim scholars on grammar and lexicography. The kitaab al-Aruud, which al-Khalil, the founder of the science of metrics, is said to have written, has not survived, nor have any of the works on the subject written by the older grammarians. The earliest monographs which we have concerning ‘Ilm al-‘Aruud, in the wider sense, date from the turn of the 3rd century A. H. There are sections on metrics in some of the larger Adab works; the oldest and best known of these can be found in the ‘Ikd al-Fariid (Ed. Cairo, 1305, 111, 146 ff.) of Ibn Abd Rabbihii (died 328/ 940). The following list gives the names of those Arab philologists whose works on metrics are preserved in manuscrips (---mere commentators are omitted). They are arranged in centuries, reckoning from the Hidjra, and details are given only in the case of the better
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