The rhetoric of the arts of rhetoric in Ibn al-Mu'tazz

Abstract

There are many rhetorical arts, including the arts of Badi’, which added a magical touch and a strong and clear influence on Arabic rhetoric in general. The need to know these arts increased after the advent of the Islamic religion and the great challenge that faced the Arabs, the masters of rhetoric and speech, as their eloquence was incapable of facing the miracle of the Qur’an. After that, the study of these methods began to delve deeper into knowing the Qur’anic rhetoric. The science of Badi’ is part of the sciences of rhetoric, the first of which is the science of meanings, the second is rhetoric, and the third came Badi’, which occupied the people of rhetoric in studying and knowing its divisions and parts. It is a science that identifies the aspects of improving speech in wording and meaning, and it is considered to consider the conformity of this speech to the subject, the appropriateness, and the clarity of its indication of its meaning. Al-Badi’ is divided into two parts: the first has to do with the meaning and its indications and everything related to this aspect. Under this part are a group of arts of al-Badi’, including antithesis, delusion of the addressee, contrast, parallelism, consideration of the counterpart, similarity of the sides, definition, similarity, reference, digression, and punning is included in this part, as well as illusion, twisting, spreading, and many others. Then comes the second part, which is related to the word or verbal improvement, and under this part are many related arts of al-Badi’, including alliteration in its types, returning the first half to the second half, rhyme, explicitness, division, balance, procrastination, and inversion. The types of al-Badi’ in some eras reached one hundred types. All of these arts participated in showing the aesthetic quality, and giving speech more impact through the use of these arts within the poetic or prose text in the speech of the Arabs. The beginnings were in some of these arts that do not exceed five. Arts that were known to the ancients of Arabic rhetoric, then branched out and many arts of rhetoric were born from them, and their diversity came with the diversity of Arab culture, especially after the widespread spread of the Islamic state and the entry of new cultures into it, in addition to the diversity of living reality, urbanization, and the change of the state to civilized urbanism. All of these factors had a direct impact on the arts of rhetoric, in addition to its widespread use in all Arabic arts. In addition to the continuous change throughout the ages to our present era, it also had a great impact on the diversity of the emergence of the arts of rhetoric.