¹ The third condition usually added is the existence of intention (gaṣd or niyya) to compose poetry. In this way the prosodists were able to exclude certain verses of the Qur'ān which may be scanned into one of the Arabic metres from being poetry.

² cf. 'al-Ṭayyib, Abd Allāh, al-Murshid ilā fahm ash'dr al-'Arab wa-ṣinā'atihā, Cairo, [1955], I, 22–3.Google Scholar

³ See Shi'r, the magazine for Arabic poetry, III, 12, 1959, 90–5, edited by Dr. Muḥsin Mandī.

⁴ ibid., 92.

⁵ ibid., 91. Cf. also, the definition of Ḥāzim al-Qarṭājannī in his Kitāb al-manāhij al-adabiyya. The third chapter of this book whose original title is supposed to be Minhāj la-bulaghā wa-sirāj al-udabā' was edited and published by 'Abd al-Raḥmān Badawī, separately as a reprint from: Husain, Mélanges Taha, offerts par ses amis et sea disciples à l'occasion de son 70iàme. anniversaire, publigs par Abdurrahman Badawi, Le Caire, 1962, 85–146. (The Arabic title of the book is: Ilā Taka Husayn fī 'īd mīlāih al-sab'īn.)Google Scholar

⁶ See 'ilm al-müsīgā, Jawāmi', ed. Zakariyyā Yūsuf, Cairo, 1956, 122–3.Google Scholar Cf. also al-Ahwānī, Muḥammad, Ibn Sīnā;, Cairo, 1962, 85–6.Google Scholar

⁷ The Arabic title is: Ilyādhat Hūmīrūs, mu'arraba naẓman… followed by a French title: L'lliade d'Homàre, traduite en vers arabes avec une introduction historique et littéraire sur l'auteur et son oeuvre en regard de la littérature arabe et des usages de l'orient. Le texte est accompagné de notes et suivi d'un vocabulaire par Sulaïman al-Bustâny, Cairo, 1904.Google Scholar On Bustānī see Gibb, H. A. R., ‘Studies in contemporary Arabic literature’, BSOS, IV, 4, 1928, 751.Google Scholar

⁸ Ilyādha, 94.

⁹ ibid., 95.

¹⁰ ibid., 101–2.

¹¹ ibid., 99–100.

¹² This tendency among the Egyptian poets to experiment on ‘blank verse’ and not only on strophic verse is demonstrated in the following phrase written by 'Abd al-Fattaḥ Farḥāt in his critical notes to Shādī's dīwān, Ahmad ZakĪ Abū, Anīn wa-ranīn, Cairo, 1925, 157:Google Scholar

¹³ From Zahāwī's article ‘Ḥawl al-nathr wa 'l-shi'r’ ‘On prose and poetry’, in al-Siyāsa al- Usbū'iyya, II, 78, 1927, 18, reprinted in the appendix of Hilāl Nājī's book al-Zahāwī wa-dīwānuh al-mafqūd, Cairo, [1963], 361–71 (see 364). Cf. also Zahāwī's introduction to Shu‘arā’ al-'asr, by Muhammad ṣabrī, II, Cairo, 1330/1912, 11–12.Google Scholar

¹⁴ See al-Kātib al-Misrī, IV, 15, 1946, 459, 465.

¹⁵ Cairo, 1374/1954, 84. See 'Abbās Maḥmūd al-'Aqqād's preface to Dīwān al-Māzinī, [Cairo, 1913], pp. m-n; Muḥammad 'al-Mun'im Khafājī, Abd;, Madhdhib al-adab, Cairo, 1953, 46–7.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Cairo, 1343/1924–5, 19–20. See Khafājī, op. cit., 47, and Ḥusayn al-Zarīfī'sarticle ‘ Majma' al-buḥūr’, al-Risāla, I, 7, 1933, 13–14.Google Scholar

¹⁷ cf. Bustānī, Ilyādha, 163–4; Khafāji, op. cit., 41, 60; Ḥasan Fahmī, Māhir, Taṭawwur al-shi'r al-'Arabi al-ḥadith fī Miṣr 1900–1950, [Cairo], 1958, 93.Google Scholar See also the criticism of this approach in al-Risāla, , I, 14, 1933, 20.Google Scholar

¹⁸ However, Bustānī did not argue that the Arabs did not write epics, but that their epics were not in verse only but in verse and prose; op. cit., 171–2.

¹⁹ Bustānī, Ilyādha, 165–7, and Amīn, Aḥmad, Fayd al-khāṭir, Cairo, 1940, II, 246.Google Scholar The problem which attracted the attention of the modern Arab poets and critics is why the Arabs translated Greek writings on philosophy, logic, and medicine while ignoring Greek literaturethe importance of the fact that most of the actions in these epics are under the influence of the Greek gods which the Arabs rejected and considered as childish legends, and also of the pride which the Arabs enjoyed in their poetry. Other scholars who discussed this subject are: Gibb, H. A. R. in ‘Studies in contemporary Arabic literature’, BSOS, v, 3, 1929, 455Google Scholar; Tawfiq al-Haklm in al-Malik Uwdīb, Cairo, [1949], 9–54Google Scholar; 'al-Raḥmān, Abd al-Dāyinīin al-Adīb al-'Irāqī, I, 2, 1961, 32–9Google Scholar; Ḥasan Fahmī, Māhir, Tatawwur al-shi'r al-'Arabī al-ḥadīth fī Miṣr 1900–1950, [Cairo], 1958, 93–6Google Scholar (a brief survey of the problem with valuable references to articles and books which discussed it); and Ḍayf, Shawqī, Dirāsāt fi 'l-shi¯r al-¯Arab al-mu'āṣir, second ed., Cairo, [1955], 44–7.Google Scholar

²⁰ On the argument of modern Arab poets that rhyme is not essential in poetry see Zahāwi in Dīwān al-Zahawi, Cairo, 1924Google Scholar, p.b, al-shi'r, Siḥr, ed. Rufā'il Butti, Cairo, 1922, I, 56–8Google Scholar, al-Hilāl, xxxv, 8, 1927, 913Google Scholar, and p. 484, n. 13 above; Naimy, , al-Ghirbāl, Cairo, [1923], 87Google Scholar; al-Malā'ika, Nāzik, Shaẓāyā wa-ramād, second ed., Beirut, [1959], 12–13Google Scholar; 'Aqqād, preface to Dīwān al-Māzinī, p. m; Nizar Qabbānī in al-Shi'r qindīl akhdar, Beirut, 1963, 36–9Google Scholar; al-Dīn, Jamalal-AlūsĪ, , ‘al-M-utawwalāt aw shi'r al-malāḥim’, al-Aqlam (Baghdad), I, 4–6, 1964–1965, 34–44; 71-78, 84–98; 89–98.Google Scholar

²¹ See for instance the article by Muḥammad Farīd Abū Ḥadīd in al-Risāla, I, 9, 1933, 10; Bustani, op. cit., 101; p. 484, n. 12, and above, n. 20.Google Scholar

²² XI, 540, 1943.

²³ On Shukrī see GAL, Suppl., III, 125.

²⁴ Cairo, 1946, 64.

²⁵ On Bakrī see Dasūqī, , Fi 'l-adab al-ḥadith, third ed., n, [Cairo, 1959], 401–36; GAL, Suppl., III, 81–2.Google Scholar

²⁶ Ḥasan al-Ẓarlfī stated that Zahāwī was the first (al-Risala, I, 7, 1933, 13), while Aḥmad Zakī Abū Shādī (see Adabi, , I, 7–9, 1936, 366),Google Scholar and 'Abd al-'Azīz al-Dasūqī (Jamā'at Apollo, [Cairo], 1960, p. 86, n. 1) considered Shukrī to be the first poet to write blank verse in modern Arabic literature in Egypt, and Muḥammad 'Abd al-Ghafūr considered him to be the first who wrote blank verse in Arabic (Apollo, n, 9, 1934, 874). An anonymous writer of a letter to al-Ādāb (n, 4, 1954, 69) said that Abu Hadld was the first. It is worth while noting here that 'Aqqad ignored in all his discussion on shi'r mursal the activities of Abū Shādī, probably because of the latter's criticism of his poetry in Apollo (see for instance I, 7, 1933, 707–9; n, 5, 1934, 364–5; n, 6, 1934, 471–3; n, 7, 1934, 583–7).Google Scholar

²⁷ See Dāghir, Yūsuf As'ad, Maṣādir al-dirāsa al-adabiyya, Beirut, [1956], II, 315–17; GAL, Suppl., 11, 757–8.Google Scholar

²⁸ Beirut, 1870, 31–3. The first edition was printed in London, 1869, entitled Poem of poems, with an English preface and dedicated to ‘His Imperial Majesty Alexander II, Emperor of all the Russians’.

²⁹ ibid., 3.

³⁰ Cairo, 1898, x, 490.

³¹ Published in Paris, 1855, 369. The verses are:

³² Cairo, 1906–7, 341–50.

³³ See art.‘Blank verse’ in Oxford dictionary of English literature; Enid Hamer, The metres of English poetry, London, 1930, 61Google Scholar; and article ‘Couplet’ in Steinberg, S. H. (ed.), Cassell's encyclopaedia of literature, I, 121.Google Scholar'Aqqad, in his book Shu'arā' Misr, Cairo, 1937, 62, was reserved in his statement that Bakrī's poem was in blank verse when he said:Google Scholar

³⁴ al-Shafaq al-bākī, Cairo, 1926–[1927], p. 14, n. 1.Google Scholar

³⁵ ibid., 535.

³⁶ Cairo, 1925, 20.

³⁷ Musṭafā, 'Abd al-Laṭif al-Saḥartī in his book al-Shi'r al-mu'āṣir 'aid Ḍaw' al-naqd al-ḥadīth, [Cairo], 1948, 177Google Scholar, considered Abū Shādī's poem Ilā al-marsam in his anthology 'Awdat al-Rā'ī, Alexandria, 1942, 99–100, which is in fact an urjūza muzdawija, as blank verse.Google Scholar

³⁸ See Mazāṃīr wa-tasābīh wa-aghānī rūḥiyya, Beirut, 1867, 215, 242, 271.Google Scholar

³⁹ On al-Yāzijī see Gibb, , BSOS, IV, 4, 1928, 750; GAL, II, 494, SuppL, I, 140, 142, II, 765.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Siḥr al-shi'r, 58.

⁴¹ See al-Hilāl, xxxv, 8, 1927, 913, quoted also by Hilāl Nājī, op. cit., 193–4.Google Scholar

⁴² We were not able to trace this poem in al-Mu'ayyad or the exact date of its publication because the issues of this newspaper in the British Museum are of the year 1900 only.

⁴³ Beirut, 1327/1909, 171–5.

⁴⁴ Dīwān al-Zahāwī, p. b.

⁴⁵ See t h e comments of Zahāwī cited in p. 487, n. 20 above. Hilāl Nājī in his comprehensive work on Zahāwī (al-Zahāun wa-dīwānuh al-mafqūd, 187–8), gave a summary of Zahāwī'sintroduction to the second volume of Muḥammad, Sabri's book Shu'ard' al-'asr, Cairo, 1912, 3–15, where he defended blank verse.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ See Zahāwī's introduction to his poem Ba'd alf 'ām ‘After a thousand years’ in 100 verses of blank verse published in al-Hilāl, xxxv, 8, 1927, 913–17. Cf.Google Scholar also al-Siyäsa al-Usbū'iyya, II, 78, 1927, 18,Google Scholar and Hilāl Nājī, op. cit., 194, 365. On the difficulty of the enjambement (taḌmīn) in Arabic blank verse see Māzinī's article on the translation of The merchant of Venice into Arabic in his book ḥaṣād al-hashīm, Cairo, 1924, 23–4.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ cf. Hilāl Nājī, op. cit., 366–7, and al-Siyāsa al-Usbū'iyya, II, 78, 1927, 18.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ al-Kalim al-manẓūm, Beirut, 1327/1909, 171, reprinted in Dīwān al-Zahāwī, 31, and in Shu‘arā’ al-'aṣr, by Muḥammad, Ṣabrī, II, Cairo, 1330/1912, 33–5. In this poem in shi'r mursal, Zahāwī allowed himself to vary the type of foot in the darb (the last foot in the line), a technique which is forbidden in Arabic prosody.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Zahāwī admitted this, in his letters published in al-Kātib al-Miṣrī, IV, 15, 1946, 459.

⁵⁰ See for instance the article by Najīb al-Haddād (1867–99) on the comparison between Arabic and European poetry in Mukhtārāt al-Manfalūtī, second ed., Cairo, 1937, 126–46Google Scholar; Shāhīn's, Najībarticle in al-Muqtaṭaf, XXVII, 1, 1902, 24–5; Bustani, op. cit., 5–200. Cf. also Zahāwī's letters in al-Kātib al-Miṣrī, IV, 15, 1946.Google Scholar

⁵¹ A type of ‘free verse’ introduced by Aḥjmad ZakĪ Abū Shādī under tbe influence of American free verse. It is based on the principle of applying various Arabic metres in one poem. The change in metre should be according to the demand of the poetic experience. Cf. al-Shafaq al-bākī, 535; Apollo, I, 8, 1933, 846–7.Google Scholar See also the first manifesto of Abū Shādī on al-shi'r al-ḥurr and the second manifesto by Muṣṭafā, 'Abd al-Laṭīf al-Saḥartī in Adabī, I, 7–9, 10–12, 1936, 366, 415.Google Scholar

⁵² See Shādī, Abū, al-Shu'la, Cairo, 1933, 101–3Google Scholar, and Masraḥ al-adab, Cairo, [1928], 191.Google Scholar

⁵³ See his article in al-Muqtaṭaf, xcv, 2, 1939, 172–3.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Second ed., Alexandria, 1913, 71.

⁵⁵ Alexandria, 1913, 305.

⁵⁷ His book Dhikrā Shakespeare was written at the invitation of the Poetry Society in London on the occasion of the inauguration of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre on Shakespeare's anniversary. It contains a sonnet, a quatrain, and three odes in praise of Shakespeare. See also Apollo, I, 8, 1933, 846, and his articles on Shakespeare's sonnets in Masraḥ al-adab, 138–56.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ See his article ‘Thomas Hardy the poet of humanity’, in Masraḥ al-adab, 120.

⁵⁸ See for instance the article by al-Ḥaṭīm, ḥasan ‘Apollo fi 'l-mizan’, Apollo, I, 10, 1933, 1225–7,Google Scholar attacking Abū Shādī's school for his activities in introducing new forms in Arabic poetry including blank verse: Cf. also the article by al-Bishbīshī, Muḥammadin al-Risāla, I, 11, 1933, 14–15.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ al-Shafaq al-bākī, 626–39.

⁶⁰ ibid., 721–2.

⁶¹ ibid., 726–7.

⁶² ibid., 923–5, 1001–2.

⁶³ ibid., 1014–15.

⁶⁴ ibid., 658–68.

⁶⁵ ibid., 1023–34.

⁶⁶ ibid., 625.

⁶⁷ Apollo, I, 10, 1933, 1228.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ See Adabī, I, 7–9, 1936, 327–9, 353–4.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ I, 5, 1933, 10. See the reply of Abū Shādī in Apollo, I, 8, 1933, 845–7.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ See al-Risāla, , I, 9, 1933, 10–12. The translation of Khaliī Muṭrān was published in Cairo, 1950, under the title 'Uṭayl.Google Scholar

⁷¹ al-Risāla, I, 12, 1933, 8–10. The translation was published in Cairo, 1928, entitled Riwāyat Yūlyūs Qaysar.Google Scholar Besides these Abū Ḥadīd wrote in rhymeless verse his dramas Sayyidinā, Maqtal 'Uthmān, Cairo, 1927; Khusrū wa-Shirin; Maysūn al-Ghajariyya, 1928; and Zuhrāb wa-Rustum. Cf. GAL, Suppl., III, 227. Unfortunatel, I was not able to get hold of the last three dramas.Google Scholar

⁷² I, 14, 1933, 16.

⁷³ loc. cit. See also the criticism of Luṭfī, Qadrī, al-Risāla, I, 15, 1933, 18,Google Scholar and the reply of Qalamāwī, ibid., I,17, 1933, 11. An appreciation of Qalamāwi's article was published in Apollo, II, 2, 1933, 90.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ See Bākathīr, , MuḥāḌarāt fī fann al-masraḥiyya, [Cairo], 1958, 4. This drama was published in Cairo in 1946, after it had awaited publication for 10 years as Bakathir stated in his preface, [3]). In June 1945, Bākathīr published a poem under the title Namūdhaj min al-shi'r al-mursal al-ḥurr ‘A sample of blank-free verse’ in 76 verses of irregular rhyme scheme with an irregular number of mutaqārib feet in each line without using enjambement (see al-Risāla, XII, 625,1945, 680–1). In a later issue of al-Risāla (XIII, 628,1945, 752–4) Ḥusayn Ghannām criticized Bākathīr's experiment on the ground that it robs poetry of its music and that it is dull and prosaic. As an example of a successful type of what he defined as shi'r mursal min awzān mutaqāriba ‘blank verse of similar metres’ he presented his translation of H. W. Longfellow's (1807–1882) poem Hiawatha (1855), written originally in trochaic dimeter, in al-wāfir metre with an irregular number of feet and an irregular rhyme scheme, a method which was termed shi'r ḥurr by Abū Shādī and not shi'r mursal.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ See al-Shafaq al-bākī, 801–4.

⁷⁶ See MuḥāḌarāt fī fann al-masraḥiyya, 11.

⁷⁷ From a letter sent to me by Dr. Muḥammad, Muṣṭafā Badawī, from Oxford, dated 2203 1965.Google Scholar Cf. also the preface to his anthology Rasā'il min London, Alexandria, [ 1956], and, 109–10.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Beirut, 1958, 49–62, 65–78.

⁷⁹ Ash'ar al-shi'r, 3.

⁸⁰ op. cit., 95. The term al-shi'r al-mawzūn ghayr al-muqaffā was also used by Shaḥādah, Būlusin his article on blank verse in al-Hilāla, XIV, 4, 1906, 214–16.Google Scholar

⁸¹ See Mukhtārāt al-Manfalūtī, 140.

⁸² Beirut, 1926, 41. This term was also used by Māzinī in ḥaṣād al-hashīm, 34.

⁸³ P. 174.

⁸⁴ See al-Ādāb, II, 6, 1954, 27. It seems that by this term 'Urayyid meant poetry in prose.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Cairo, 1955, 19. Ibn Khaldūn, in al-Miiqaddima, Beirut, 1900, 567, used the term nathr mursal to denote unrhymed prose, and defined it: wa-huwa al-ladhī yutlaq fihi al-kalām iṭlāqan wa-lā yuqaṭṭa‘ ajzā’an bal yursal irsālan min ghayr taqyid bi-qāfiya wa-lā ghayrihā. It seems that the modern Arab poets used the t e rm shi'r mursal under the influence of Ibn Khaldūn's term.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ In Tāj al- ‘arūs minjawāhir al-qāmūs by MurtaḌā al-Zabīdī, Cairo, 1306–7/1889–90, VII, 344: al-irsāl… (al-iṭlāq) wa 'l-takhliya … wa'l-irsālayḌan (al-ihmāl) wahuwa qarīb min al-itlāq wa ’l-takhliya. In Lisān al-‘Arab, by ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad, Beirut, 1956, XI,Google Scholar 285: arsal al-shay’: atlaqahu tva-ahmalahu; and in Lane's, Arabic-English lexicon, London, I, 3, 1081: ‘Irsāl: the act of setting loose or free’.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Beside the Egyptian poets and critics whom we mentioned above see also Durrinī Khashaba's article on European blank verse in al-Risāla, XI, 538, 1943, 847Google Scholar; Muḥammad, 'Atā, Ba'y fī adabinā al-mu'āṣir, [Cairo, 1958], 29–30Google Scholar; 'Umar al-Dasūqī, Fī 'l-adab al-ḥadīth, II, 237; 'Aqqad in al-Risdla, XI, 538–40, 1943Google Scholar; 'Alī al-ฤillī in al-Ādāb, II, 4, 1954, 67.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ See his article ‘The future of Arabic literature’,Revue de, l'Acade'mie Arabe de Damns, XXXIX, 3, 1964, 440–1.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ See Madhāhib al-adab, 19.

⁹⁰ al-Khayyāt, Jalāl, al-Ādāb, II, 5, 1954, 58, in a letter from Baghdad, said, hinting at this confusion of terms, and trying to give a clear definition of them:Google Scholar

⁹¹ See his poem cited p. 491, n. 48 above, and Ba'd alf'am in al-HiM, xxxv, 8, 1927, 913–17.Google Scholar

⁹² Diwān al-Māzinī, Cairo, 1917, II, 170–2.Google Scholar

⁹³ See for instance p. 494, n. 58 above.

⁹⁴ See Dīwān al-Zahāwī, p. b; Ḥadid, Abūin al-Risāla, I, 9, 1933, 10; 'Aqqād, preface to Dīwān al-Māzinī, p. m; Saḥartī, al-Shi'r al-mu'āṣir, 122.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ See Shu‘ard’ al-'aṣr, II, 11; al-Siyāsa al-Usbū'iyya, II, 78, 1927; Siḥr al-shi'r, 57.

⁹⁶ Yas'alūnak, 65.

⁹⁷ al-Risāla, I, 9, 1933, 10.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ al-Risāla, I, 17, 1933, 11–12.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Apollo, I, 8, 1933, 847.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ See Zahāwī, Siḥr al-shi'r, 57: …See ‘Aqqād, Yas’alunak, 64–5. Cf. also Bākathīr, Muḥādarāt fī fann al-masraḥiyya, 9–10.

¹⁰¹ Khafājī, op. eit., 43, 'al-Tayyib, Abd Allāh, al-Murshid ilā fahm ash'ār al-'Arab waṣinā'atihā, Cairo, [1955], I, 25Google Scholar; Muhammad, 'AwaḌ Muḥammad, al-Risāla, I, 5, 1933, 10.Google Scholar

¹⁰² ṭayyib, loc. cit.

¹⁰³ Ṭayyib, op. cit., I, 7–8, 25; Khafājī, op. cit., 50.

¹⁰⁴ Ṭayyib, op. cit., I, 23, Khafājī, op. cit., 46.

¹⁰⁵ Ṭayyib, loc. cit.; Khafaji, op. cit., 45.

¹⁰⁶ Khafājī, op. cit., 49–50.

¹⁰⁷ Ṭayyib, op. cit., I, 25–6.

¹⁰⁸ Dīwān al-Māzinī, p. m, and Sibr al-shi'r, 65.

¹⁰⁹ Yas'alūnak, 65.

¹¹⁰ loc. cit. However, Bākathīr gave up using shi'r mursal in drama because he found that prose is more suitable and sounds ‘more realistic’. (See MuḥāḌarāt fī fann, al-masraḥiyya, 8.) This is mainly due to the fact that Arab poets, unlike prose writers in their own field, were not able to develop a new poetic diction which resembles everyday speech. On this problem see Taha Husayn's article in al-Siyāsa al-Usbū'iyya, II, 74, 1927, 10–11, and that of Muḥammad Ḥusayn Haykal, II, 75, 1927, 10–11.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ See Paradise lost, ed. A. W. Verity, Cambridge, 1952, 4.

¹¹² See Hamer, , The metres of English poetry, 67–8.Google Scholar

¹¹³ Vers irrégulier stemmed from the Cowleyan ode named after Abraham Cowley (1618–67); see Shipley, J. T. (ed.), Dictionary of world literature. New revised ed., Paterson, N.J., 1960, 290. For this reason the Arabic shi'r hurr has a completely different characteristic from Western free verse or vers libre which is generally unrhymed verse without the conventional metrical pattern.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ See his anthology al-Nās fī bilādī, Beirut, [1957], 55–8.Google Scholar