Rhythmic Timing of Arabic Poetry Meters

Abstract

This study consists of a preface, three sections, and a conclusion. The preface proposes a new hypothesis in the study of Arabic prosody, which is to highlight the importance of the intersected educational chanting of poetry based on the rhythmic timing rather than the impactful recitation that is based on meaning in teaching the poetic meters, as they share the rhythmic variations in their melodies, the double, triple, and quadruple melodies.

In the first section, I dealt with the quadruple poetic meters: al-Tawīl, al-Madīd, and al-Basīt. In the second section, I analyzed the triple poetic meters: al-Raml, al-Khafīf, and al-Mujtath. In the third section, I dealt with the double poetic meters: al-Wāfir, al-Kāmil, al-Hazaj, al-Rajaz, al-Sarī, al-Munsarih, al-Mudari, al-Muqtadib, al-Mutaqārib, and al-Mutadārak.

The researcher developed a detailed table for each of the meters showing the rhythmic timing of each of: ([awtād], [asbāb], feet and poetic meters) with applied poetic models detailing the method of educational chanting performance based on the rhythmic timing rather than the impactful recitation that is based on meaning.

The conclusion presented the most important results, such as: the science of Arabic prosody has an audio-lingual dimension, a numerical dimension, and a rhythmic dimension, thus it incorporates several theories that attempted to analyze Arabic poetry such as the quantitative theory, the qualitative numerical theory, and the rhythmic theory. We emphasize that this proposed chanting method is only a means of understanding and an instructional aid rather than an alternative for the Khalili Arabic prosody approach.

Recommendations suggested employing the chanting method in teaching the meters of Arabic poetry according to the scientific foundations proposed in this study and represented in singing the rhythmic nuclei that consist of ([sabab], [watad], or a minor interval) as follows: Each rhythmic nucleus has one tone equal to the rest of the tones in melodic timing.

I also recommended conducting an empirical study to reshape the state of the art of teaching prosody at the university level by implementing the chanting method and measuring the effect of this method on comprehension and achievement.