Asalib Balaghiya
- Author died
- 1439 AH
- Editions
- Wikalat al-Matbu'at
Asalib Balaghiya (Rhetorical Styles, subtitled al-Fasāḥa wa-l-Balāgha wa-l-Maʿānī) is a work on Arabic rhetoric and syntax by the Iraqi scholar Ahmad Matlub (d. 1439 AH / 2018 CE), former professor of rhetoric and literary criticism at the College of Arts at the University of Baghdad .
Background and Purpose
The book originated as a series of university lectures prepared for undergraduate students of the Arabic language . Matlub conceived the work as a companion volume to complete his study Funūn Balāghiyya (Rhetorical Arts), which addressed figurative imagery (al-bayān) and rhetorical embellishment (al-badīʿ) .
In his methodology, Matlub adhered strictly to classical source material and traditional examples rather than introducing modern literary trends into the historical exposition . He maintained that preserving the authentic examples of early Arab grammarians and rhetoricians was necessary to keep the rules connected to the spirit of the language, and that an exhaustive mastery of classical models is an indispensable prerequisite for any sound modern reform in rhetorical studies .
Structure and Contents
The work is organized into two primary sections:
- Book One: Eloquence and Rhetoric (al-Faṣāḥa wa-l-Balāgha): Serves as a theoretical and historical foundation . It explores the linguistic and technical definitions of eloquence (faṣāḥa) in lexicography, the Quran, and Hadith, tracing how early authorities such as al-Jahiz treated eloquence and rhetoric interchangeably in early texts like al-Bayān wa-l-Tabyīn before later systematizers drew technical distinctions .
- Book Two: The Science of Meanings (ʿIlm al-Maʿānī): Focuses on sentence structure and expressive modes . Matlub traces the historical evolution of the discipline from early grammatical and exegetical works—such as Sibawayh's al-Kitāb, Abu Sa'id al-Sirafi's discourse on grammatical meanings (maʿānī al-naḥw), and Ibn Faris's al-Ṣāḥibī—culminating in the formal categorization established by Abu Ya'qub al-Sakkaki .
The topics examined in the second section encompass the core chapters of ʿilm al-maʿānī:
- Declarative and performative speech (al-khabar wa-l-inshāʾ)
- Definiteness and indefiniteness (al-taʿrīf wa-l-tankīr)
- Explicit mention and ellipsis (al-dhikr wa-l-ḥadhf)
- Word order and fronting (al-taqdīm wa-l-taʾkhīr)
- Semantic restriction (al-qaṣr)
- Conjunction and disjunction (al-faṣl wa-l-waṣl)
- Brevity, prolixity, and proportionality (al-ījāz wa-l-iṭnāb wa-l-musāwāh)
- Departure from apparent requirements (khurūj al-kalām ʿalā muqtaḍā al-ẓāhir)
Matlub noted that these topics inherently belonged to grammar (naḥw), but because later grammarians became overly preoccupied with formal parsing (iʿrāb) and governing operators (ʿawāmil), rhetoric preserved the vital stylistic dimensions of Arabic syntactic structures .
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