Munazara Adabiyya bayn al-Muallimi wa al-Sha'ir al-Adib Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sanusi - ضمن "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ
Munazara Adabiyya bayn al-Muallimi wa al-Sha'ir al-Adib Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sanusi (A Literary Debate Between al-Muallimi and the Poet-Literatus Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sanusi) is a treatise by Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE) documenting a poetic and linguistic dispute between himself and the poet Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sanusi (d. 1363 AH / 1944 CE) in 1337 AH (1919 CE) .
Background and Context
The debate took place shortly after Eid al-Fitr in 1337 AH (1919 CE) at the court of Muhammad ibn Ali al-Idrisi (d. 1341 AH / 1923 CE), the founder of the Idrisi state in Sabya and Asir . It was customary for poets, scholars, and orators to deliver congratulatory poems and speeches before the ruler on that day . During the gathering, al-Sanusi recited an Eid congratulatory ode of roughly sixty verses, which prompted immediate oral criticisms from al-Muallimi and developed into an exchange of written polemics .
Debated Issues
Prosody and Style
Al-Muallimi raised several objections against al-Sanusi's poem:
- Metrical form: Al-Sanusi composed his poem on the madid meter using a four-part structure (tarbi': fa'ilatun fa'ilun fa'ilun four times) . Al-Muallimi argued that classical Arabic usage only employs madid in truncated form (majzu'), whereas quadrupling it was an innovation of later figures like al-Tikriti and al-Bura'i, properly categorized among strophic genres (muwashshahat or musammatat) .
- Rime and thematic decorum: He criticized al-Sanusi for artificially binding every stanza's closing rhyme to the words "Ibn Ali" or "Ali", as well as mentioning complaints about local hunger and famine in a celebratory royal audience .
Linguistic Dispute over the Verb 'Ada
The central controversy arose over the supplication in al-Sanusi's poem: la 'adaka al-su' ("may evil not bypass you") .
- Al-Muallimi asserted that the particle la was redundant or misapplied, because the verb 'ada ('adahu ya'duhu 'adwan) means "to bypass" or "pass over" (jawazahu), rendering 'adaka al-su' as "may evil bypass you" (a proper blessing); thus adding the negative la inverted the meaning into an unintentional curse ("may evil not bypass you") .
- Al-Sanusi maintained that la was negating and that 'ada carried the meaning of "to strike" or "afflict" (asaba), attempting to derive it from 'ady or contagion ('adwa) . He supported his position with quotations attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib from Nahj al-Balagha and commentaries attributed to al-Sharif al-Radi .
- Al-Muallimi refuted these derivations on morphological and lexicographical grounds using classical dictionaries, pointing out root distinctions between the triliteral forms .
Conclusion and Transmission
The dispute extended through multiple written exchanges until a third scholar, Sayyid Salih ibn Muhsin al-Saylami, intervened and appeared to judge in favor of al-Muallimi . Al-Sanusi concluded the debate by sending an apologetic poem to al-Muallimi, requesting him to amend any remaining defects in it, to which al-Muallimi replied with a ten-verse poem .
Al-Muallimi did not assign an original title to the autograph text, which was preserved in his personal notebook (kashkul, pages 19–27) . It was published as the eleventh treatise in volume 20 of his collected works (Athar al-Mu'allimi) under the editorial title Munazara Adabiyya bayn al-Mu'allimi wa-l-Sha'ir al-Adib Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sanusi . It was also published separately by Abu Dahish under the title al-Mu'allimi wa-l-Sanusi fi Majlis al-Idrisi: Suwar min al-Majalis al-Adabiyya fi Tihama .
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