al-Murshid ila Fahm Ashar al-Arab
- Author died
- 1424 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah - Ministry of Information
al-Murshid ila Fahm Ashʿar al-Arab wa-Sinaʿatiha (The Guide to Understanding the Poetry of the Arabs and Its Craft) is an extensive critical and analytical work on classical Arabic poetry and poetics by the Sudanese scholar Abd Allah al-Tayyib (d. 1424 AH / 2003 CE).
Composition and Publication History
The author began writing the first volume in April 1952 at Bakht al-Ruda in al-Duwaym, on the west bank of the White Nile, and completed it toward the end of that year despite scarce reference materials and official administrative duties. He commenced the second volume shortly after the first was printed, finishing it in Khartoum in 1955. Work on the project resumed in the early 1960s, and the third volume was completed on 18 January 1963. Parts of this volume were initially published as articles in the journal of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo before the complete third volume was published in Beirut in 1970 (1390 AH).
After completing the fourth volume, the author spent six years seeking a publisher amid unauthorized reprintings and excerpts of earlier volumes. The work was subsequently printed in Kuwait in 1990 (1410 AH) with the support of the Ministry of Information and Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah under the directorship of Sheikha Hussa al-Sabah.
Structure and Scope
The work is premised on the concept that the craft of Arabic poetry rests upon distinct structural and stylistic pillars: meter and versification (al-nazm), phonetic resonance (al-jars al-lafdhi), phrasing and rhetoric (al-siyaghah), and stylistic performance shaped by tradition, environment, and evolving ideas across time and place.
- Volume 1 (Versification): Examines the musicality of Arabic poetry, poetic meters, prosodic feet, rhyme schemes, and their aesthetic qualities and defects, deliberately avoiding excessive technical jargon where possible.
- Volume 2 (Phonetic Resonance and Composition): Focuses on verbal resonance, diction, rhetoric, and stylistic embellishments (al-bayan and al-badiʿ).
- Volume 3 (Symbols, Metonymies, and Imagery): Addresses figurative imagery, metaphors, metonymies, and symbolic motifs in classical poetry.
- Volume 4 (Purposes, Thematic Phases, and Styles): Divided into sections examining poetic genres, thematic evolution, and historical shifts in poetic expression from early Arabic poetry through later traditions.
Reception and Collaboration
The first volume appeared with an enthusiastic introduction by the Egyptian scholar Taha Hussein, who praised it as an exceptionally delightful and rare contribution to modern literary criticism, urged the hesitant author to publish it, and facilitated its printing in Egypt through the al-Halabi publishing house. In acknowledgment, al-Tayyib dedicated a poem of gratitude to Hussein at the opening of the second volume. The scholar Mustafa al-Saqqa assisted the publication of the second volume by volunteering to correct its printer's proofs, verify variant readings, and oversee its printing process.
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