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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10

R >> Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10




And now we are able to formulate the one simple rule, which
determines the prosodical quantity in Arabic: any moved letter,
as ta, li, mu, is counted short; any moved letter followed by a
quiescent one, as taf, fun, mus, i.e. any closed syllable
beginning and terminating with a consonant and having a short
vowel between, forms a long quantity. This is certainly a relief
in comparison with the numerous rules of classical Prosody,
proved by not a few exceptions, which for instance in Dr. Smith's
elementary Latin Grammar fill eight closely printed pages.

Before I proceed to show how from the prosodical unities, the
moved and the quiescent letter, first the metrical elements, then
the feet and lastly the metres are built up, it will be necessary
to obviate a few misunderstandings, to which our mode of
transliterating Arabic into the Roman
character might give rise.

The line::

"Love in my heart they lit and went their ways," (vol. i. 232)

runs in Arabic:


"Akamu al-wajda fi kalbi wa saru" (Mac. Ed. i. 179).

Here, according to our ideas, the word akamu would begin with a
short vowel a, and contain two long vowels a and u; according to
Arabic views neither is the case. The word begins with "Alif,"
and its second syllable ka closes in Alif after Fathah (a), in
the same way, as the third syllable mu closes in the letter Waw
(w) after Zammah (u).

The question, therefore, arises, what is "Alif." It is the first
of the twenty-eight Arabic letters, and has through the medium of
the Greek Alpha nominally entered into our alphabet, where it now
plays rather a misleading part. Curiously enough, however, Greek
itself has preserved for us the key to the real nature of the
letter. In ' the initial a is preceded by the so called
spiritus lends ('), a sign which must be placed in front or at
the top of any vowel beginning a Greek word, and which represents
that slight aspiration or soft breathing almost involuntarily
uttered, when we try to pronounce a vowel by itself. We need not
go far to find how deeply rooted this tendency is and to what
exaggerations it will sometimes lead. Witness the gentleman who,
after mentioning that he had been visiting his "favourite haunts"
on the scenes of his early life, was sympathetically asked, how
the dear old ladies were. This spiritus lends is the silent h of
the French "homme" and the English "honour," corresponding
exactly to the Arabic Hamzah, whose mere prop the Alif is, when
it stands at the beginning of a word: a native Arabic Dictionary
does not begin with Bab al-Alif (Gate or Chapter of the Alif),
but with Bab al-Hamzah. What the Greeks call Alpha and have
transmitted to us as a name for the vowel a, is in fact nothing
else but the Arabic Hamzah-Alif,(~)moved by Fathah, i.e. bearing
the sign(~) for a at the top (~), just as it might have the sign
Zammah (~) superscribed to express u (~), or the sign Kasrah (~)
subjoined to represent i(~). In each case the Hamzah-Alif,
although scarcely audible to our ear, is the real letter and
might fitly be rendered in transliteration by the above mentioned
silent h, wherever we make an Arabic word begin with a vowel not
preceded by any other sign. This latter restriction refers to the
sign ', which in Sir Richard Burton's translation of The Nights,
as frequently in books published in this country, is used to
represent the Arabic letter ~ in whose very name 'Ayn it occurs.
The 'Ayn is "described as produced by a smart compression of the
upper part of the windpipe and forcible emission of breath,"
imparting a guttural tinge to a following or preceding vowel-
sound; but it is by no means a mere guttural vowel, as Professor
Palmer styles it. For Europeans, who do not belong to the
Israelitic dispensation, as well as for Turks and Persians, its
exact pronunciation is most difficult, if not impossible to
acquire.

In reading Arabic from transliteration for the purpose of
scanning poetry, we have therefore in the first instance to keep
in mind that no Arabic word or syllable can begin with a vowel.
Where our mode of rendering Arabic in the Roman character would
make this appear to be the case, either Hamzah (silent h), or
'Ayn (represented by the sign') is the real initial, and the only
element to be taken in account as a letter. It follows as a self-
evident corollary that wherever a single consonant stands between
two vowels, it never closes the previous syllable, but always
opens the next one. Our word "Akamu," for instance, can only be
divided into the syllables: A (properly Ha)-ka-mu, never into
Ak-a-mu or Ak-am-u.

It has been stated above that the syllable ka is closed by the
letter Alif after Fathah, in the same way as the syllable mu is
closed by the letter Waw, and I may add now, as the word fi is
closed by the letter Ya (y). To make this perfectly clear, I must
repeat that the Arabic Alphabet, as it was originally written,
deals only with consonants. The signs for the short vowel-sounds
were added later for a special purpose, and are generally not
represented even in printed books, e.g. in the various editions
of The Nights, where only quotations from the Koran or poetical
passages are provided with the vowel-points. But among those
consonants there are three, called weak letters (Huruf
al-'illah), which have a particular organic affinity to these
vowel sounds: the guttural Hamzah, which is akin to a, the
palatal Ya, which is related to i, and the labial Waw, which is
homogeneous with u. Where any of the weak letters follows a vowel
of its own class, either at the end of a word or being itself
followed by another consonant, it draws out or lengthens the
preceding vowel and is in this sense called a letter of
prolongation (Harf al-Madd). Thus, bearing in mind that the
Hamzah is in reality a silent h, the syllable ka might be written
kah, similarly to the German word "sah," where the h is not
pronounced either, but imparts a lengthened sound to the a. In
like manner mu and fi are written in Arabic muw and fiy
respectively, and form long quantities not because they contain a
vowel long by nature, but because their initial "Muharrakah" is
followed by a "Sakinah," exactly as in the previously mentioned
syllables taf, fun, mus.[FN#449] In the Roman transliteration,
Akamu forms a word of five letters, two of which are consonants,
and three vowels; in Arabic it represents the combination
H(a)k(a)hm(u)w, consisting also of five letters but all
consonants, the intervening vowels being expressed in writing
either merely by superadded external signs, or more frequently
not at all. Metrically it represents one short and two long
quantities (U - -), forming in Latin a trisyllable foot, called
Bacchius, and in Arabic a quinqueliteral "Rukn" (pillar) or "Juz"
(part, portion), the technical designation for which we shall
introduce presently.

There is one important remark more to be made with regard to the
Hamzah: at the beginning of a word it is either conjunctive,
Hamzat al-Wasl, or disjunctive, Hamzat al-Kat'. The difference is
best illustrated by reference to the French so-called aspirated
h, as compared with the above-mentioned silent h. If the latter,
as initial of a noun, is preceded by the article, the article
loses its vowel, and, ignoring the silent h altogether, is read
with the following noun almost as one word: le homme becomes
l'homme (pronounced lomme) as le ami becomes l'ami. This
resembles very closely the Arabic Hamzah Wasl. If, on the other
hand, a French word begins with an aspirated h, as for instance
heros, the article does not drop its vowel before the noun, nor
is the h sounded as in the English word "hero," but the effect of
the aspirate is simply to keep the two vowel sounds apart, so as
to pronounce le eros with a slight hiatus between, and this is
exactly what happens in the case of the Arabic Hamzah Kat'.

With regard to the Wasl, however, Arabic goes a step further than
French. In the French example, quoted above, we have seen it is
the silent h and the preceding vowel which are eliminated; in
Arabic both the Hamzah and its own Harakah, i.e. the short vowel
following it, are supplanted by their antecedent. Another example
will make this clear. The most common instance of the Hamzah Wasl
is the article al (for h(a)l=the Hebrew hal), where it is moved
by Fathah. But it has this sound only at the beginning of a
sentence or speech, as in "Al-Hamdu" at the head of the Fatihah,
or in "Allahu" at the beginning of the third Surah. If the two
words stand in grammatical connection, as in the sentence "Praise
be to God," we cannot say "Al-Hamdu li-Allahi," but the junction
(Wasl) between the dative particle li and the noun which it
governs must take place. According to the French principle, this
junction would be effected at the cost of the preceding element
and li Allahi would become l'Allahi; in Arabic, on the contrary,
the kasrated l of the particle takes the place of the following
fathated Hamzah and we read li 'llahi instead. Proceeding in the
Fatihah we meet with the verse "Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka
nasta'inu," Thee do we worship and of Thee do we ask aid. Here
the Hamzah of iyyaka (properly hiyyaka with silent h) is
disjunctive, and therefore its pronunciation remains the same at
the beginning and in the middle of the sentence, or, to put it
differently, instead of coalescing with the preceding wa into
wa'yyaka, the two words are kept separate by the Hamzah, reading
wa iyyaka, just as it was the case with the French Le heros.

If the conjunctive Hamzah is preceded by a quiescent letter, this
takes generally Kasrah: "Talat al-Laylah," the night was
longsome, would become Talati 'l-Laylah. If, however, the
quiescent letter is one of prolongation, it mostly drops out
altogether, and the Harakah of the next preceding letter becomes
{he connecting vowel between the two words, which in our parlance
would mean that the end vowel of the first word is shortened
before the elided initial of the second. Thus "fi al-bayti," in
the house, which in Arabic is written f(i)y h(a)l-b(a)yt(i) and
which we transliterate fi 'l-bayti, is in poetry read fil-bayti,
where we must remember that the syllable fil, in spite of its
short vowel, represents a long quantity, because it consists of a
moved letter followed by a quiescent one. Fil would be overlong
and could, according to Arabic prosody, stand only in certain
cases at the end of a verse, i.e. in pause, where a natural
tendency prevails to prolong a sound.

The attentive reader will now be able to fix the prosodical value
of the line quoted above with unerring security. For metrical
purposes it syllabifies into: A-ka-mul-vaj-da fi kal-bi wa sa-ru,
containing three short and eight long quantities. The initial
unaccented a is short, for the same reason why the syllables da
and wa are so, that is, because it corresponds to an Arabic
letter, the Hamzah or silent h, moved by Fathah. The syllables
ka, fi, bi, sa, ru are long for the same reason why the syllables
mul, waj, kal are so, that is, because the accent in the
transliteration corresponds to a quiescent Arabic letter,
following a moved one. The same simple criterion applies to the
whole list, in which I give in alphabetical order the first lines
and the metre of all the poetical pieces contained in the Mac.
edition, and which will be found at the end of this volume. {This
appendix is not included in the electronic text}

The prosodical unities, then, in Arabic are the moved and the
quiescent letter, and we are now going to show how they combine
into metrical elements, feet, and metres.

i. The metrical elements (Usul) are:

1. The Sabab,[FN#450] which consists of two letters and is
either khafif (light) or sakil (heavy). A moved letter followed
by a quiescent, i.e. a closed syllable, like the afore-mentioned
taf, fun, mus, to which we may now add fa=fah, 'i='iy, 'u='uw,
form a Sabab khafif, corresponding to the classical long quantity
(-). Two moved letters in succession, like mute, 'ala, constitute
a Sabab sakil, for which the classical name would be Pyrrhic (U
U). As in Latin and Greek, they are equal in weight and can
frequently interchange, that is to say, the Sabab khafif can be
evolved into a sakil by moving its second Harf, or the latter
contracted into the former, by making its second letter
quiescent.


2. The Watad, consisting of three letters, one of which is
quiescent. If the quiescent follows the two moved ones, the Watad
is called majmu' (collected or joined), as fa'u (=fa'uw), mafa
(=mafah), 'ilun, and it corresponds to the classical Iambus (U -
). If, on the contrary, the quiescent intervenes or separates
between the two moved letters, as in fa'i ( = fah'i), latu
(=lahtu), taf'i, the Watad is called mafruk (separated), and has
its classical equivalent in the Trochee (- U)

3. The Fasilah,[FN#451] containing four letters, i.e.
three moved ones followed by a quiescent, and which, in fact, is
only a shorter name for a Sabab sakil followed by a Sabab khafif,
as mute + fa, or 'ala + tun, both of the measure of the classical
Anapaest (U U -)

ii. These three elements, the Sabab, Watad and Fasilah, combine
further into feet Arkaan, pl. of Rukn, or Ajzaa, pl. of Juz, two
words explained supra p. 236. The technical terms by which the
feet are named are derivatives of the root fa'l, to do, which, as
the student will remember, serves in Arabic Grammar to form the
Auzan or weights, in accordance with which words are derived from
roots. It consists of the three letters Fa (f), 'Ayn ('), Lam
(l), and, like any other Arabic root, cannot strictly speaking be
pronounced, for the introduction of any vowel-sound would make it
cease to be a root and change it into an individual word. The
above fa'l, for instance, where the initial Fa is moved by Fathah
(a), is the Infinitive or verbal noun, "to do," "doing." If the
'Ayn also is moved by Fathah, we obtain fa'al, meaning in
colloquial Arabic "he did" (the classical or literary form would
be fa'ala). Pronouncing the first letter with Zammah (u), the
second with Kasrah (i), i.e., fu'il, we say "it was done"
(classically fu'ila). Many more forms are derived by prefixing,
inserting or subjoining certain additional letters called Huruf
al-Ziyadah (letters of increase) to the original radicals: fa'il,
for instance, with an Alif of prolongation in the first syllable,
means "doer"; maf'ul (=maf'uwl), where the quiescent Fa is
preceded by a fathated Mim (m), and the zammated 'Ayn followed by
a lengthening Waw, means "done"; Mufa'alah, where, in addition to
a prefixed and inserted letter, the feminine termination ah is
subjoined after the Lam, means "to do a thing reciprocally."
Since these and similar changes are with unvarying regularity
applicable to all roots, the grammarians use the derivatives of
Fa'l as model-forms for the corresponding derivations of any
other root, whose letters are in this case called its Fa, 'Ayn
and Lam. From a root, e.g., which has Kaf (k) for its first
letter or Fa, Ta (t) for its second letter or 'Aye, and Ba (b)
for its third letter or Lam

fa'l would be katb =to write, writing;
fa'al would be katab =he wrote;
fu'il would be kutib =it was written;
fa'il would be katib =writer, scribe;
maf'ul would be maktub=written, letter;
mufa'alah would be mukatabah = to write reciprocally,
correspondence.

The advantage of this system is evident. It enables the student,
who has once grasped the original meaning of a root, to form
scores of words himself, and in his readings, to understand
hundreds, nay thousands, of words, without recourse to the
Dictionary, as soon as he has learned to distinguish their
radical letters from the letters of increase, and recognises in
them a familiar root. We cannot wonder, therefore, that the
inventor of Arabic Prosody readily availed himself of the same
plan for his own ends. The Taf'il, as it is here called, that is,
the representation of the metrical feet by current derivatives of
fa'l, has in this case, of course, nothing to do with the
etymological meaning of those typical forms. But it proves none
the less useful in another direction: in simply naming a
particular foot it shows at the same time its prosodical measure
and character, as will now be explained in detail.

We have seen supra p. 236 that the word Akamu consists of a short
syllable followed by two long ones (U - -), and consequently
forms a foot, which the classics would call Bacchius. In Latin
there is no connection between this name and the metrical value
of the foot: we must learn both by heart. But if we are told that
its Taf'il in Arabic is Fa'ulun, we understand at once that it is
composed of the Watad majmu' fa'u (U -) and the Sabab khafif lun
(-), and as the Watad contains three, the Sabab two letters, it
forms a quinqueliteral foot or Juz khamasi.

In combining into feet, the Watad has the precedence over the
Sabab and the Fasilah, and again the Watad majmu' over the Watad
mafruk. Hence the Prosodists distinguish between Ajza asliyah or
primary feet (from Asl, root), in which this precedence is
observed, and Ajza far'iyah or secondary feet (from Far'=
branch), in which it is reversed. The former are four in number:-
-

1. Fa'u.lun, consisting,as we have just seen, of a Watad majmu'
followed by a Sabab khafif = the Latin Bacchius (U - -).

2. Mafa.'i.lun, i.e. Watad majmu' followed by two Sabab khafif
= the Latin Epitritus primus (U - - -).

3. Mufa.'alatun, i.e. Watad majmu' followed by Fasilah = the
Latin Iambus followed by Anapaest (U - UU -).

4. Fa'i.la.tun, i.e. Watad mafruk followed by two Sabab khafif
= the Latin Epitritus secundus (-U- -).

The number of the secondary feet increases to six, for as Nos. 2
and 4 contain two Sabab, they "branch out" into two derived feet
each, according to both Sabab or only one changing place with
regard to the Watad. They are:

5. Fa.'ilun, i.e. Sabab khafif followed by Watad majmu'= the
Latin Creticus (-U-). The primary Fa'u.lun becomes by
transposition Lun.fa'u. To bring this into conformity with a
current derivative of fa'l, the initial Sabab must be made to
contain the first letter of the root, and the Watad the two
remaining ones in their proper order. Fa is therefore substituted
for lun, and 'ilun for fa'u, forming together the above Fa.'ilun.
By similar substitutions, which it would be tedious to specify in
each separate case, Mafa.'i.lun becomes:

6. Mus.taf.'ilun, for 'I.lun.mafa, i.e. two Sabab khafif,
followed by Watad majmu' = the Latin Epitritus tertius (- -U-),
or:

7. Fa.'ila.tun, for Lun.mafa.'i, i.e. Watad majmu' between two
Sabab khafif = the Latin Epitritus secundus (-U- -).

8. Mutafa.'ilun (for 'Alatun.mufa, the reversed Mufa.'alatun),
i.e. Fasilah followed by Watad majmu'=the Latin Anapaest
succeeded by Iambus (UU-U-). The last two secondary feet are
transpositions of No. 4, Fa'i.la.tun, namely:

9. Maf.'u.latu, for La.tun.fa'i, i.e. two Sabab khafif,
followed by Watad mafruk = the Latin Epitritus quartus (- - -U).

10. Mus.taf'i.lun, for Tun.fa'i.la, i.e. Watad mafruk between
two Sabab khafif=the Latin Epitritus tertius (- -U-).[FN#452]

The "branch"-foot Fa.'ilun (No. 5), like its "root" Fa'u.lun (No.
1), is quinqueliteral. All other feet, primary or secondary,
consist necessarily of seven letters, as they contain a
triliteral Watad (see supra i. 2) with either two biliteral Sabab
khafif (i. 1) or a quadriliteral Fasilah (i. 3). They are,
therefore, called Saba'i = seven lettered.

iii. The same principle of the Watad taking precedence over
Sabab and Fasilah, rules the arrangement of the Arabic metres,
which are divided into five circles (Dawair, pl. of Dairah), so
called for reasons presently to be explained. The first is named:

A. Dairat al-Mukhtalif, circle of "the varied" metre, because
it is composed of feet of various length, the five-lettered
Fa'ulun (supra ii. 1) and the seven-lettered Mafa'ilun (ii. 2)
with their secondaries Fa'ilun, Mustaf.'ilun and Fa.'ilatun (ii.
5-7), and it comprises three Buhur or metres (pi. of Bahr, sea),
the Tawil, Madid and Basit.

1. Al-Tawil, consisting of twice

Fa'u.lun Mafa.'ilun Fa'u.lun Mafa.'ilun,

the classical scheme for which would be

U - - | U - - - | U - - | U - - - |

If we transfer the Watad Fa'u from the beginning of the line to
the end, it would read:

Lun.mafa'i Lun.fa'u Lun.mafa'i Lun.fa'u which, after the
substitutions indicated above (ii. 7 and 5), becomes:

2. Al-Madid, consisting of twice

Fa.'ilatun Fa.'ilun Fa.'ilatun Fa.'ilun.

which may be represented by the classical scheme

- U - - | - U - | - U - - | - U - |

If again, returning to the Tawil, we make the break after the
Watad of the second foot we obtain the line:

'Ilun.fa'u. Lum.mafa 'Ilun.fa'u Lun.mafa, and as metrically

'Ilun.fa'u (two Sabab followed by Watad) and Lun.mafa (one
Sabab followed by Watad) are='Ilun.mafa and Lun.fa'u
respectively, their Taf'il is effected by the same substitutions
as in ii. 5 and 6, and they become:

3. Basit, consisting of twice

Mustaf.'ilun Fa.'ilun Mustaf.'ilun Fa.'ilun,

in conformity with the classical scheme:

- - U - | - U - | - - U - | - U - |

Thus one metre evolves from another by a kind of rotation, which
suggested to the Prosodists an ingenious device of representing
them by circles (hence the name Dairah), round the circumference
of which on the outside the complete Taf'il of the original metre
is written, while each moved letter is faced by a small loop,
each quiescent by a small vertical stroke[FN#453] inside the
circle. Then, in the case of this present Dairat al-Mukhtalif for
instance, the loop corresponding to the initial f of the first
Fa'ulun is marked as the beginning of the Tawil, that
corresponding to its l (of the Sabab fun) as the beginning of the
Madid, and that corresponding to the 'Ayn of the next Mafa'ilun
as the beginning of the Basit. The same process applies to all
the following circles, but our limited space compels us simply to
enumerate them, together with their Buhur, without further
reference to the mode of their evolution.

B. Dairat al-Mutalif, circle of "the agreeing" metre, so called
because all its feet agree in length, consisting of seven letters
each. It contains:

1. Al-Wafir, composed of twice

Mufa.'alatun Mufa.'alatun Mufa.'alatun (ii. 3)

= U - U U - | U - U U - | U - U U - |

where the Iambus in each foot precedes the Anapaest, and
its reversal:

2. Al-Kamil, consisting of twice

Mutafa.'ilun Mutafa.'ilun Mutafa.'ilun (ii. 8)


= U U - U - | U U - U - | U U - U - |

where the Anapaest takes the first place in every foot.

C. Dairat al-Mujtalab, circle of "the brought on" metre, so
called because its seven-lettered feet are brought on from the
first circle.

1. Al-Hazaj, consisting of twice

Mafa.'ilun Mafa.'ilun Mafa.'ilun (ii. 2)

= U - - - | U - - - | U - - - | U - - - |

2. Al-Rajaz, consisting of twice

Mustaf.'ilun Mustaf.'ilun Mustaf.'ilun,

and, in this full form, almost identical with the Iambic Trimeter
of the Greek Drama:

- - U - | - - U - | - - U - |

3. Al-Ramal, consisting of twice

Fa.'ilatun Fa.'ilatun Fa.'ilatun,

the trochaic counterpart of the preceding metre

= - U - - | - U - - | - U - - |

D. Dairat al-Mushtabih, circle of "the intricate" metre, so
called from its intricate nature, primary mingling with secondary
feet, and one foot of the same verse containing a Watad majmu',
another a Watad mafruk, i.e. the iambic rhythm alternating with
the trochaic and vice versa. Its Buhur are:

1. Al-Sari', twice

Mustaf.'ilun Mustaf.'ilun Maf'u.latu (ii. 6 and 9)
= - - U - | - - U - | - - - U |

2. Al-Munsarih, twice

Mustaf.'ilun Mafu.latu Mustaf.'ilun (ii. 6. 9. 6)
= - - U - | - - - U | - - U - |

3. Al-Khafif, twice

Fa.'ilatun Mustaf'i.lun Fa.'ilatun (ii. 7.10.7)
= - U - - | - - U - | - U - - |

4. Al-Muzari', twice

Mafa.'ilun Fa'i.latun Mafa.'ilun (ii. 2.4.2)
= U - - - | - U - - | U - - - |

5. Al-Muktazib, twice

Maf'u.latu Mustaf.'ilun Maf'u.latu (ii. 9.6.9)
= - - - U | - - U - | - - - U |

6. Al-Mujtass, twice

Mustaf'i.lun Fa.'ilatun Mustaf' i.lun (ii. 10.7.10)
= - - U - | - U - - | - - U - |

E. Dairat al-Muttafik, circle of "the concordant" metre, so
called for the same reason why circle B is called "the agreeing,"
i.e. because the feet all harmonise in length, being here,
however, quinqueliteral, not seven-lettered as in the Matalif.
Al-Khalil the inventor of the ''Ilm al-'Aruz, assigns to it only
one metre:

1. Al-Mutakarib, twice

Fa'ulun Fa'ulun Fa'ulun Fa'ulun (ii. 1)
= U - - | U - - | U - - |

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