al-Darura al-Shi'riyya wa Mafhumuha lada al-Nahwiyyin Dirasa ala Alfiyyat Ibn Malik
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al-Darura al-Shi'riyya wa Mafhumuha lada al-Nahwiyyin: Dirasa Tatbiqiyya ala Alfiyyat Ibn Malik (Poetic License and Its Concept Among Grammarians: An Applied Study on Ibn Malik's Alfiyya) is a grammatical study by the Saudi scholar Ibrahim bin Salih al-Handud, examining the theory of poetic license in Arabic grammatical thought and analyzing its occurrences within the didactic grammatical poem al-Alfiyya of Ibn Malik (d. 672 AH / 1274 CE).
Background and Purpose
The study investigates poetic license (al-darura al-shi'riyya), a phenomenon arising at the intersection of lexicography and syntax when metrical constraints compel poets to alter word forms or diverge from grammatical analogy (qiyas). The author chose to apply this inquiry to Alfiyyat Ibn Malik because it is a metrical composition in which poetic licenses naturally occur, and because Ibn Malik famously adhered to a restrictive definition of poetic license—maintaining that it refers only to what a poet has no possible alternative to avoid. The author completed the study while serving as the head of the Department of Grammar, Morphology, and Philology at the College of Arabic and Social Sciences in al-Qasim, a branch of Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University.
Structure and Contents
The work is organized into an introduction, a preliminary overview, two core chapters, and a conclusion:
- Preliminary Overview (al-Tamhid): Addresses the nature of Arabic verse and its connection to poetic license, surveying how grammarians historically categorized poetic departures. It traces the development from sevenfold classifications to fivefold divisions (addition, omission, fronting/backing, and substitution) used by Ibn Usfur, al-Qasim al-Saffar al-Batalyawsi, and Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati, and later threefold divisions (addition, omission, and alteration) adopted by al-Athari and Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi. It also identifies Ma yajuz lil-sha'ir fi al-darura by Abu Ja'far al-Qazzaz (d. 412 AH) as the earliest extant standalone treatise on the subject.
- Chapter One (Mafhum al-Darura lada al-Nahwiyyin): Examines the conceptual definition of poetic license across grammatical schools. It highlights differing viewpoints, contrasting the strict unavoidable criterion associated with Sibawayh and Ibn Malik with the broader definition held by Ibn Jinni and other grammarians who considered any departure occurring in verse to constitute poetic license regardless of necessity, as well as the position of al-Akhfash al-Awsat.
- Chapter Two (al-Darurat al-Shi'riyya fi Alfiyyat Ibn Malik): An applied grammatical analysis surveying poetic licenses occurring throughout the sections of the Alfiyya. While primarily focused on morphological and syntactic licenses—such as the appending of alif al-itlaq to verb endings and the omission of conditional particles—it also briefly documents prosodic defects (uyub al-shi'r) found in the text, such as rhyming repetition (ita') and syntactic enjambment (tadmin).
- Conclusion (al-Khatima): Summarizes the findings of the study, noting that Ibn al-Sarraj laid the initial historical foundation for systematic writing on poetic license, while Abu Sa'id al-Sirafi first carried out its comprehensive scholarly cataloging. It also observes that Ibn Malik's stringent stance on poetic license drew substantial critique from later grammarians such as al-Shatibi, Abu Hayyan, Ibn Hisham al-Ansari, Khalid al-Azhari, and Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi.
Publication
The study was published in the Journal of the Islamic University of Medina (Majallat al-Jami'a al-Islamiyya bi-al-Madina al-Munawwara) in its 111th issue (1423 AH / 2002 CE).
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