Ma Yajuz lil-Shair fi al-Darura
- Author died
- 412 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-ʿUrūbah
Ma Yajuz lil-Shair fi al-Darura (What Is Permissible for the Poet in Necessity) is a treatise on Arabic poetic license (al-darura al-shi'riyya) written by the North African grammarian and philologist al-Qazzaz al-Qayrawani (d. 412 AH / 1021 CE) . It is considered an early surviving independent monograph specifically dedicated to the study of poetic necessity .
Purpose and Methodology
In his introduction, al-Qazzaz explains that he composed the work because students of literature and grammar frequently criticized contemporary poets and their peers whenever they observed a deviation from standard grammatical rules, such as structural reordering, addition, omission, or vowel changes . He framed the subject as essential knowledge for poets, providing them with authoritative justifications when forced to alter linguistic forms to rectify poetic meter, maintain rhyme, or adjust inflection .
His analytical method involves establishing the permissibility of various poetic deviations, tracing these anomalous forms back to their underlying linguistic origins (usul), drawing analogies with parallel linguistic structures (qiyas), and presenting grammatical arguments (hujaj) supporting their usage .
Subject Matter and Scope
The work examines the spectrum of poetic licenses (al-rukhas al-shi'riyya) available to poets under metrical necessity . These include morphological addition (al-ziyada) and omission (al-nuqsan), broader syntactic flexibility such as fronting and postponing (al-taqdim wa-al-ta'khir), structural inversion (al-qalb), and phonological substitution (al-ibdal) .
Modern Editions
The work has been edited and published under its primary title as well as under the descriptive title Dara'ir al-Shi'r in several modern critical editions:
- An edition edited by Mongi Kaabi, published in Tunis by al-Dar al-Tunisiyya lil-Nashr (1971) .
- An edition edited by Muhammad Zaghloul Sallam and Muhammad Mustafa Haddara, published in Alexandria (1973) .
- An edition edited by Ramadan Abd al-Tawwab and Salah al-Din al-Hadi, published by Dar al-Uruba in Kuwait (1982) under the supervision of Dar al-Fusha in Cairo .
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