Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa al-Naqd inda Abd al-Qadir al-Jurjani

Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa al-Naqd inda Abd al-Qadir al-Jurjani (Issues of Rhetoric and Criticism in the Thought of Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani) is a scholarly monograph by the Egyptian professor of rhetoric Hasan Ismail Abd al-Raziq (d. 1429 AH / 2008 CE), examining the rhetorical and literary critical heritage of the classical theorist Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani (d. 471 AH / 1078 CE) Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa …+1.

Background and Purpose

The author completed the work in al-Zaytoun, Cairo, on Friday, 1 Safar 1402 AH (27 November 1981 CE) Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa …. The book arose from a critique of the methodology of later rhetoricians (al-muta'akhkhirun)—such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, al-Sakkaki, and al-Khatib al-Qazwini—who relied heavily on abridgments, commentaries, and logical classifications that fragmented rhetoric into dry dialectics rather than cultivating literary taste (al-dhawq al-balaghi) Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa …+1. Abd al-Raziq set out to reconnect later rhetorical formulations with their original foundations in al-Jurjani's two masterworks, Dala'il al-I'jaz (Signs of Inimitability) and Asrar al-Balagha (Secrets of Rhetoric), highlighting the divergence between al-Jurjani's holistic view of rhetoric as a unified discipline and the later division of rhetoric into three rigid sciences: meanings (al-ma'ani), figures (al-bayan), and embellishments (al-badi') Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa …+1.

Methodological Framework

Abd al-Raziq outlines three core principles required for analyzing al-Jurjani's thought:

1. Tracing critical precursors: Identifying the early intellectual seeds from classical critics and scholars—such as al-Khattabi, al-Qadi al-Jurjani, al-Qadi Abd al-Jabbar, and Abu Sa'id al-Sirafi—that inspired al-Jurjani's formulation of the theory of construction (nazm) Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa …+1.
2. Chronological development: Examining how rhetorical concepts matured across al-Jurjani's lifetime from Asrar al-Balagha to Dala'il al-I'jaz Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa …+1. The author notes, for instance, that definitions of metaphor (isti'ara), figurative representation (tamthil), and metonymy (kinaya) underwent clear refinement between the two works, and that al-Jurjani's explicit definition of nazm as "pursuing the meanings of grammar among words" (tawakhkhi ma'ani al-nahw fi-ma bayna al-kalim) only appeared in Dala'il al-I'jaz Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa …+1.
3. Reconstructing al-Jurjani's overarching view: Recovering how al-Jurjani conceived rhetoric as a unified discipline centered on literary taste and syntactic relations, contrasting it with later scholastic compartmentalization Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa …+1.

Structure and Contents

The monograph explores several major critical and rhetorical issues, including:

• The Question of Composition (Qadiyyat al-Nazm): Investigates the origins of the concept of nazm, its formulation in al-Jurjani's writing, its foundational principles and degrees, and its subsequent reception and systematization by later scholars Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa ….
• The Question of Word and Meaning (al-Lafz wa-l-Ma'na): Examines al-Jurjani's position on whether eloquence resides in wording or meaning, addressing perceived contradictions discussed by commentators such as al-Khatib al-Qazwini and demonstrating that aesthetic virtue is rooted in structural meaning rather than isolated lexical items Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa ….
• Fronting and Backing (Qadiyyat al-Taqdim wa-l-Ta'khir): Critiques early accounts that treated word order shifts as mere stylistic variety or vague "special concern" (al-'inaya wa-l-ihtimam), analyzing how al-Jurjani established semantic and structural rules for fronting in interrogative constructions, negations, affirmative statements, and the positioning of indefinite nouns with verbs Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa ….
• Figurative and Rhetorical Imagery: Details the structural role of metaphor, simile, representation, and rhetorical embellishments, arguing that their beauty stems from their functional integration into syntactic meaning rather than from superficial verbal adornment Min Qadaya al-Balagha wa …+1.