The history of literary style in Arabic went hand in hand with the standardisation of the language. The development of such a style did not have to start from scratch. The same two sources that had been available for the standardisation of the language, the Qur’aan and the pre-Islamic poems, became the initial models for a literary style. As in other cultures, the structured composition of poetry in Arabic preceded the emergence of a literary prose style. But here, too, the desert type of poetry did not satisfy all the needs of a new, elegant sedentary civilisation. New forms of poetry developed under the dynasty of the ‘Umayyads, at whose court love poems became a new fashion (e.g. the poems of ‘Umar ibn ‘Abee Rabee’a, d. 43/712). Inevitably, this led to a looser use of language and to the development of new, often strophic types of poetry, that were not as heavily dependent on the Bedouin model. In such forms of poetry, there was easier access for popular expressions reflecting the new environment of Arabic culture. Some deviations in morphology, syntax and lexicon became gradually accepted, e.g. the use of contracted forms such as naseehi (from nasiyahu ), baqee (from baqiya ), or the confusion of the fourth and the first verbal form (cf. Fück 1950: 73ff.) . In rajaz, poets could experiment with the creation of new words and word forms to a much higher degree than was permitted in official poetry. In general, the muwalladoon, the new Arabs, who had never seen the desert, could not be expected to be as excellent connoisseurs of Arabic as the pre-Islamic poets. Although for a long time the Bedouin model continued to serve as a strict canon, in Seebawayhi’s Kitaab the poems of the muwalladoon are not excluded as evidence: the 1,000-plus quotations from poetry in the Kitaab include both Jaahilee poets and those from the urban milieu of the ‘Umayyad period, such as ‘Umar ibn ‘Abee Rabee’a; he even quotes from rajaz poetry.

Gradually, a distinction came into being between the official brand of poetry that clung to the old models and took pleasure in using obsolete vocabulary and avoiding any adaptation to the new modes of speaking, on the one hand, and a new, ‘faster’, kind of poetry, often improvised, often in strophic form, and very often containing vulgarisms, on the other. In the course of time, these two kinds of poetry grew further apart. Official poetry became more and more erudite, until it could no longer be understood without explanation. The poet al-Mutanabbee (d. 355/965), for instance, published his poems together with a learned commentary. The more popular form of poetry, on the other hand, went through a different development. In its most developed form, the strophic muwashsha H and the zajal, it included the use of colloquial forms in a refrain. This kind of poetry became especially popular in the Islamic West (cf. below, p.227).

Because of its idiosyncrasies, poetry is of lesser importance in the standardisation of language than prose. We have seen above that for commercial and administrative purposes Arabic was used from the beginning of the Islamic empire. Such written documents had no literary pretensions whatsoever, although their scribes did try to maintain a Classical norm, which means that already at this time there was a standard (on the language of the papyri see below, Chapter 8). But there were other forms of speech, some of them with roots in the Jaahiliyya . In the first place, Arabic culture had a reputation of long standing for its ability to put speech to rhetorical use. The Bedouin admired verbal prowess, and the tradition of delivering public speeches was continued in early Islam. The earliest preserved speeches already exhibit the use of various literary devices and conventions, in particular that of parallelism. A famous example is the speech given by al- Hajjaaj (d. 95/714) on the occasion of his inauguration as governor of Kufa:

Kufa: The Commander of the Believers has emptied his quiver and tested its arrows. He found me to be of the firmest wood and of the strongest shaft and shot me at you. As long as you gallop in rebellion and recline in the beds of error and follow the stray path, by God, I shall skin you like a new stick and bind your leaves like a thorn bush and whip you like wandering camels. ( ‘inna ‘ameera l-mu’mineena kabba kinaanatahu thumma ‘ajama ‘eedaanahaa fa-wajadanee ‘amarrahaa ‘oodan wa-’a Slabahaa ‘amoodan fa-wajjahanee ‘ilaykum fa-’innakum Taalamaa ‘aw Da’tum fee l-fitani wa- D Taja’tum fee maraaqidi D- Dalaali wa-sanantum sunana l-ghayyi ‘ammaa wa-llaahi la-’al Hawannakum la Hwa l-’a Saa wa-la-’a’ Seebannakum ‘a Sba s-salamati wa-la-’a Dribannakum Darba gharaa’ibi l-’ibil, al-Jaa Hi D , Bayaan II, ed. as-Sandoobee, Beirut, n.d., p. 349)

A second genre of texts with roots in the preIslamic period is the art of story-telling. From early times onwards, storytellers ( qussaas ) had played an important role in the life of the tribe by transmitting the stories about the exploits of the tribes ( ‘ayyaam al-’Arab ), and this tradition was continued in a modified form in early Islam when storytellers went around to tell about the events in the life of the Prophet, the early Islamic expeditions and the conquests of foreign countries. These stories were meant for the general public and they were no doubt told in a lively style, full of fictitious conversations and without any literary embellishments. The topics dealt with by the professional storytellers were also studied by scholars. They had in common with the storytellers a certain aversion to writing down their reports: only the Qur’aan could be a written Book. They did use written notes for recording their own memories and those of their informants, but these were intended for private use only. The earliest efforts to put down in writing systematically the traditions about Muhammad and the early period of the conquests did not start until the end of the first century of the Hijra, at a time when the last people who had actually met the Prophet were old men and women who were bound to die soon. This period witnessed a feverish activity on the part of scholars to collect all they could from the last witnesses still alive. Scholars such as az-Zuhree (d. 124/742) compiled collections of Hadeeths, that were eagerly sought by the caliphal court and were probably deposited in the palace.

The best-documented genre in early Islam is the epistolary one. The earliest examples of epistolary texts are found in the accounts of the correspondence between the Prophet and the tribal chieftains. During the period of the conquests, there must have been a constant stream of letters between the central authorities in Medina and the commanders in the field. The contents of these letters were mostly commercial, but no doubt some epistolary conventions existed even then. It is impossible to determine to what degree the texts of those letters that have been preserved by later historians are authentic. Some historians refer to actual documents, for instance the treaty between the Prophet and the community of Doomat al-Jandal, which al-Waaqidee ( Maghaazee III, 1,030) claims to have seen personally. But in general we have no guarantee about the authenticity of the exact wording, although the historians may well have preserved the gist of the contents. The same conclusion applies to such texts as the letters of the early raashidoon or the arbitration pact of Siffeen.

Since most of the scribes ( kuttaab ) in the early period were Syrians or Persians, or perhaps even Christian Arabs from the tribes outside the peninsula, some foreign examples and conventions may have found their way into Arabic literary products at this period. The reform of the caliph ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 65/68586/705), who as we have seen was responsible for the shift of language in the deewaan, must have been the starting point for a new fashion in writing Arabic for official purposes. Since the secretaries were responsible for the composition of official documents and letters, their role in the development of a chancellery style was essential. Under ‘Abd al-Malik’s successor Hishaam (r. 105/724-125/743), the foundation was laid for the administrative system that was later taken over and perfected by the ‘Abbaasid caliphs.

From the beginning of the ‘Umayyad dynasty, the sponsorship of the caliphs was an important factor in the production of texts, both literary and administrative. According to some sources as early as Mu’aawiya’s (r. 41/661-60/680) reign, the caliph had some kind of library in which he deposited written versions of Hadeeths, some of which had been collected at his request. His grandson Khaalid ibn Yazeed ibn Mu’aawiya had a keen interest in alchemy and may have commissioned the first translations from Greek into Arabic. Certainly there are enough reports about the later ‘Umayyads requesting translations of Greek or Syriac books, mostly on medicine, to warrant the conclusion that a depository ( khizaana ) of books belonged to the normal appurtenances of the caliphal court. Although the ‘Abbaasids, did their best to suppress any favourable report about the ‘Umayyads, it is fairly certain that the ‘Umayyad caliphs actively supported the activities of scholars such as az-Zuhree in the field of Hadeeth -collecting.

The development of a written Arabic style went hand in hand with the development of a literary prose corpus consisting of translations from Persian, including the Kitaab fee s-siyaasa al-’aammiyya mufa S Salan ‘Treatise on general administration, with full particulars’ that is sometimes attributed to Hishaam’s secretary ‘Aboo l-’Alaa’ Saalim. The epistolary style was perfected by his successor ‘Abd al-Hameed ibn Ya Hyaa (d. after 132/750), secretary of Marwaan II (r. 127/744-132/750), who used this style in treatises, some of which have been preserved, such as his Risaala ‘ilaa l-kuttaab ‘Letter to the scribes’. He used an ornate style, with an extensive eulogy at the beginning of the treatise, ample use of parallelism, in a quantitative rhythm, sometimes in rhymed prose ( saj’ ), sometimes in a loose parallel structure of patterns. On the other hand, his style does not include the use of intricate rhetorical figures or rare vocabulary.

The first sermons and epistles such as those by al- Hasan al-Ba Sree (d. 110/728) adopted the form of the epistolary genre by addressing them to the caliph, but adapted the epistolary style to the topic at hand. Because of their religious contents, these texts borrow much more from the Qur’aan than ‘Abd al- Hameed did.

For the Book of God Almighty is life amid all death and light amid all darkness and knowledge amid all ignorance. God has left for his servants after the Book and the Messenger no other proof and He has said ‘so that those who perished, perished after a clear sign, and so that those who lived, lived after a clear sign, for God is all-hearing and all-knowing’ [ Qur’aan 8/42). Reflect, Commander of the Believers on the word of God Almighty ‘To each of you who wishes to go forward or go backwards, his soul is a pawn for what it has earned’ [ Qur’aan 74/38]. ( fa-kitaabu llaahi ta’aalaa Hayaatun ‘inda kulli mawtin wa-noorun ‘inda kulli D ulmatin wa-’ilmun ‘inda kulli jahlin, fa-maa taraka llaahu li-l-’ibaadi ba’da l-kitaabi wa-r-rasooli Hujjatan wa-qaala ‘azza wa-jalla ‘li-yahlika man halaka ‘an bayyinatin, wa-ya Hyaa man Hayya ‘an bayyinatin wa-’inna llaaha la-samee’un ‘aleem fa-fakkir ‘ameera l-mu’mineena fee qawli llaahi ta’aalaa ‘fa-man shaa’a minkum ‘an yataqaddama ‘aw yata’akhkhara kullu nafsin bi-maa kasabat raheena’, Hasan al-Ba Sree, Risaala fee l-qadar, ed. ‘Amara, Beirut, 1987, p. 113.5-9)

The tradition of caliphal sponsporship of bookwriting that was initiated by the ‘Umayyad caliphs was continued under the ‘Abbaasid dynasty. At the request of some of the caliphs, books were composed, mostly by foreigners that were to acquaint the intellectual elite with the achievements of other cultures. Scholars such as the Persian Ibn al-Muqaffa’ (d. ±142/759), a near-contemporary of ‘Abd al-Hameed, produced literary translations from Pahlavi. His most famous translation was that of the Indian fables of Kaleela wa-Dimna, but he also composed new original treatises, such as the Kitaab al-’adab al-kabeer and the Risaala fee S- Sa Haaba . These treatises were mostly concerned with court etiquette and the behavioural code in the relations between rulers and ruled.

Because of the scarcity of preserved texts from the ‘Umayyad period, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact model for the style of early ‘Abbaasid writings. The language of the Qur’aan gained in influence during the ‘Abbaasid period, but it cannot be regarded as a direct model for the prose style. Ibn al-Muqaffa’s work abounds with antithetic statements and parallelisms formulated in a syntactically complicated language, full of participles and infinitives, which, however, always remains lucid and easy to follow, as in the following fragment:

Know that the receiver of praise is as someone who praises himself. It is fitting that a man’s love of praise should induce him to reject it, since the one who rejects it is praised, but the one who accepts it is blamed. ( wa-’lam ‘anna qaabila l-mad Hi ka-maadi Hi nafsihi, wa-l-mar’u jadeerun ‘an yakoona Hubbuhu l-mad Ha huwa lla th ee ya Hmiluhu ‘alaa raddihi, fa-’inna r-raadda lahu ma Hmoodun, wa-l-qaabila lahu ma’eebun, Ibn al-Muqaffa’, ‘Adab, ed. Beirut, 1964, p. 69)

The ‘Umayyad trend of commissioning translations of scientific writings reached its apogee under the ‘Abbaasid caliphs. The Arabic translations of (Syriac versions of) Greek writings that were produced before al-Ma’moon’s establishment of the translators’ academy, the Bayt al- Hikma, were written in a clumsy style that betrays its Greek origin in every line. One example from a translation of Hippocrates’ On the Nature of Man should suffice (an attempt has been made to imitate the style in English!):

When spring comes, it is necessary to add to the drinking, and it must be broken with water, and you must cut down bit by bit on food, and you must choose of it that which is less nourishing and fresher and you must adopt instead of the use of much bread the use of much barley meal. ( wa-‘i th aa jaa’a r-rabee’ fa-yanbaghee ‘an yuzaad fee sh-sharaab wa-yuksar bi-l-maa’ wa-tanqu Smin a T- Ta’aam qaleelan qaleelan wa-takhtaar minhu maa huwa ‘aqall gha th aa’ wa-’ar Tab wa-tasta’mil makaana l-istikthaar min al-khubz al-istikthaar min as-saweeq, Kitaab Buqraa Tfee Tabee’at al-’insaan, ed. J. N. Mattock and M. C. Lyons, Cambridge, 1968, pp. 27-8)

The thoughtless reference to the Greek custom of mixing wine with water is as inappropriate in an Islamic context as the style of the entire text. In the writings of the greatest of all translators, Hunayn ibn ‘Is Haaq (d. 260/873), there is no trace of such translated language. He explicitly rejects the literal translations of his predecessors and uses a businesslike, terse style that makes full use of the syntactic possibilities of Arabic and shuns the ornate epistolary style. His preference for complicated infinitival and participial constructions may reflect the structure of the Greek original:

I wrote for him a book in Syriac, in which I took the direction he had indicated to me when he requested me to write it [lit.: in his requesting its composition from me]. ( fa-katabtu lahu kitaaban bi-s-Suryaaniyya na Hawtu feehi n-na Hwa lla th ee qa Sada ‘ilayhi fee mas’alatihi ‘iyyaaya wa D’ahu, Hunayn ibn ‘Is Haaq, Risaala Hunayn ibn ‘Is Haaq ‘ilaa ‘Alee ibn Ya Hyaa fee th ikr maa turjima min kutub Jaaleenoos bi-’ilmihi wa-ba’ Dmaa lam yutarjam, ed. G. Bergsträsser, Leipzig, 1925, p. 1)

Both Ibn al-Muqaffa’s treatises and the translations of Greek logical, medical and philosophical writings were publications in the real sense of the word. They were public books, not restricted to the court, but intended to be read by individuals. With respect to Islamic writing, i.e. writing on legal matters ( fiqh ), traditions of the Prophet ( Hadeeth ), history, Islamic campaigns ( maghaazee ) and Qur’aanic exegesis ( tafseer ), things were different. When the ‘Abbaasid caliphs requested scholars to write down their information in the form of actual books for the benefit of the heirs to the throne, who needed such information for their education, they did so partially in reaction to the ‘Umayyads. The ‘Umayyad caliphs did support the scholarly work of individual Hadeeth -collectors, but the ‘Abbaasid propaganda emphasised their worldly interests and minimised their role in the collection of Islamic writing. One of the earliest court scholars was Ibn ‘Ishaaq (d. 150/767). He had collected materials about the history of the Arabs and Islam in order to use them in his instruction. At the special request of the Caliph al-Man Soor (r. 136/754-158/775), he presented them in a structured form at court and deposited them as a permanent text in the caliphal library (Kha Teeb al-Baghdaadee, Ta’reekh Bajdaad I, 220f.).

Although there are no copies of this or similar limited publications, Ibn ‘Is Haaq’s activities mark the beginning of historical writing and to a large degree determined its literary form and style. We may assume that the accounts of what happened during the Prophet’s life and the early conquests were written in the kind of narrative prose that we find in all early (and even later) historians, all of which grew out of the simple contextless ‘akhbaar of the storytellers. The emphasis is on the liveliness of the story, which does not depend on literary decoration and uses simple words in a preponderantly paratactic construction, preferably in dialogue form. The following example illustrates this style and shows the division of the story into two parts, a chain of informants ( ‘isnaad ) and the actual contents ( matn ):.

Ibn ‘Is Haaq said: ‘Ā Sim ibn ‘Umar ibn Qataada told me on the authority of ‘Anas ibn Maalik. He said: I saw the cloak of ‘Ukaydir when it was brought to the Messenger of God―may God bless him and protect him!―and the Muslims started to touch it with their hands and they admired it. The messenger of God―may God bless him and protect him!―said: ‘Do you admire this? In the name of Him in whose hands my soul is, the kerchiefs of Sa’d ibn Mu’aad in paradise are more beautiful than this!’ ( qaala Ibn Maalik: fa- Haddatanee ‘A Sim ibn ‘Umar ibn Qataada ‘an ‘Anas ibn Maalik, qaala: ra’aytu qubaa’a ‘Ukaydir Heena qudima bihi ‘alaa rasooli llaah― Sallaa llaahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam―fa-ja’ala l-Muslimoona yalmisoonahu bi-’aydeehim wa-yata’ajjaboona minhu, fa-qaala rasoolu llaah― Sallaa llaahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam―’a-ta’jiboona min haadaa? fa-wa-lla th ee nafsee bi-yadihi, la-manaadeelu Sa’d ibn Mu’aa th fee l-jannati ‘a Hsanu min haa th aa!, Ibn Hishaam, as-Seera an-Nabawiyya IV, ed as-Saqaa, al-’Ibyaaree and Shalabee, Cairo, 1936, pp. 169-70)

By their nature, texts of this type did not have the same kind of literary pretensions as, for instance, poetry. Doubtless, later historians such as a T- Tabaree (d. 310/923) did not content themselves always with simply copying the stories which they transmitted from their predecessors, but they attempted to structure and stylise them. Compared to poetry, however, there was so much freedom in this kind of prose and so few restrictions with regard to the form that the Arab literary critics could not be expected to devote much time to them, except perhaps to deplore the many ‘mistakes’ against grammar that crept in. The literary critic Qudaama ibn Ja’far (d. 337/958) in his Naqd an-nathr ‘Criticism of prose’ distinguishes between two styles, the one low ( sakheef ), the other elevated ( jazl ), and he gives precise instructions on when to use the one and when the other.

What Qudama designates ‘elevated style’ is the kind of Arabic prose which we find in official correspondence, which is written in a florid style with a heavy emphasis on the form. In this kind of writing, we find the rhymed sequences that became so characteristic of Arabic style. Even non-literary works traditionally begin with an introduction in which this kind of prose is used. In the debate among literary critics on the question of whether ‘expression’ ( laf D ) or ‘meaning’ ( ma’naa ) is more important in a literary work, the prevalent opinion was that a literary work should be evaluated according to its expression, its form, since the meaning expressed by the writer is universal and accessible to everyone, whereas the form is something that only an accomplished writer can handle. Such an attitude could and did easily lead to a formulaic style. Form came to be seen as the most important dimension of style, whereas content was of secondary importance. In the literary genre of the maqaamaat, this tendency reached its apogee, and the production of writers such as al- Hareeree (d. 516/1122) contains pieces that are pure exercises in form.

There is another kind of writing in Arabic, corresponding to what Qudaama calls the ‘lower style’. It is found in private letters and in nonliterary writing, such as geographical works, historiography, biographical dictionaries, handbooks of Islamic law and theology, and even in grammatical treatises. In such writings, we find a relaxation of the strict standards, the introduction of colloquialisms and a businesslike style. Some of these authors went even further and used a kind of prose language that had freed itself from the bonds of Classical Arabic and came a long way down to the vernacular of their time. But even when these authors used vernacular constructions or lexical items, they never stopped writing within the framework of Classical Arabic. From the point of view of historical linguistics, texts like the memoirs of ‘Usaama ibn Munqi th (d. 584/1188), or Ibn ‘Abee ‘U Saybi’a’s (d. 668/1270) biographical dictionary, belong to the category of ‘Middle Arabic’ (cf. below, p.120). There is a vast difference between this genre, in which intellectuals strove after a simple style, and the large quantity of documents written in faulty language that are normally subsumed under the same label of ‘Middle Arabic’.

The coexistence of and the conflict between a high and a low variety of the language in Islamic culture made its presence felt from the time of the earliest papyri. Through the Middle Arabic texts, this diglossia was introduced in the domain of literary and semi-literary products. We shall see below (Chapter 12) that this conflict has never disappeared since. In Modern Arabic literature, just like in that of the Classical age, authors have to choose the level of speech in which they wish to write. But the main constraint for all written production in Arabic is the position of Classical Arabic as the language of prestige. Whether in an ‘elevated’ or in a ‘lower’ style, the ultimate model remains the standard language, and even when an author deliberately sets out to write in the vernacular, in the end he can never escape the framework of the written language.

From The Arabic Language
© 1997 Kees Versteegh
Used by permission of the Edinburgh University Press.