Rhymed prose is a literary form and literary genre, written in unmetrical rhymes. This form has been known in many different cultures. In some cases the rhymed prose is a distinctive, well-defined style of writing. In modern literary traditions the boundaries of poetry are very broad (free verse, prose poetry, etc.), and some works may be described both as prose and poetry.
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In classic Arabic literature, a famous form of rhymed prose is known as saj' . Saj' is considered by many to be the earliest form of artistic speech in Arabic dating to pre-Islamic times, and some reconstructions make it out to be a predecessor of metered poetic verse in Arabic. Rajaz may have been an intermediary for this process. [1]
An elaborate Arabic kind of rhymed prose is maqama . It influenced other cultures of the Muslim world, such as Persian (as exemplified by Saadi's Gulestan ) and Turkish (tr:Seci). [2] Maqama also influenced the medieval Hebrew literature, a significant amount of which was produced by Jews of the Muslim world. It influenced the style of Yehuda Alharizi, Ibn Zabara, Ibn Hasdai (Abraham ben Samuel ha-Levi ibn Hasdai), Ibn Sahula, Jacob ben Eleazer. The corresponding works were called maqamat or mahbarot (mahberot, e.g., Mahbarot Emmanuel , by Immanuel the Roman).
Arabic rhymed prose was used not only for entertainment or eulogy.
A Chinese form of elaborate rhymed prose called fu developed as the major literary form particularly associated with the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). Generally, the fu type of rhymed prose describes an object, feeling, or other particular subject, using an exhaustive catalog of details and associated vocabulary, and characteristically used both rhyme and prose, variable line lengths, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and some parallelism. Topics of fu rhymed prose could vary from the exalted to the everyday: it was sometimes used to eloquently glorify the emperors; but, other topics of well-known fu included encyclopedic catalogs of minerals, types of pasta, and the species of plants a poet might expect to encounter during an exile due to political disfavor. The style of the National Anthem of the Republic of China follows that of a four-character poem (四言詩), also called a four-character rhymed prose (四言韻文), which first appeared during the Zhou dynasty. The fu literary form was at first classed with poetry, but later bibliographies classified fu at the head of prose works. [3]
Rhymed prose was common in early Khariboli [ which? ] Hindi texts, such as Premsagar (Prem Sagur) by Lallu Lal [4] and Naasiketopaakhyan by Sadal Mishra, in early 19th century but gradually fell into disuse. [5] The paper traces possible origins of the Hindi rhyming prose in Islamic and Sanskrit literature.
Rhymed prose was a characteristic feature of the Divine Office until the end of the 12th century. A type of the "rhymed office" were offices in rhymed prose, i.e., in irregular rhythm. Later it was gradually replaced by rhythmical office. [6] They were popular in France and Germany, and a number of prominent composers of rhymed offices are known.
A kind of jesting rhymed prose in Russian culture is known as rayok .
Rhymed prose is present in many books for small children.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to literature:
Poetry is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, literal or surface-level meanings. Any particular instance of poetry is called a poem and is written by a poet.
Arabic literature is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is Adab, which comes from a meaning of etiquette, and which implies politeness, culture and enrichment.
The maqāma is an (originally) Arabic prosimetric literary genre of picaresque short stories originating in the tenth century C.E. The maqāmāt are anecdotes told by a fictitious narrator which typically follow the escapades of a roguish protagonist as the two repeatedly encounter each other in their travels. The genre is known for its literary and rhetorical complexity, as well as its alternating use of rhymed verse with a form of Arabic rhymed prose known as saj. The two most well-known authors within the genre are Badī' al-Zaman al-Hamadhāni, one of its earliest exponents, and al-Harīrī of Basra, whose maqāmāt are commonly held responsible for the genre's rise in popularity from the eleventh century onward. Interest in al-Hariri's Maqāmāt spread throughout much of the Islamic Empire, with translations and original works appearing in Hebrew, Syriac and Persian. Many authors still contribute to and draw inspiration from the literary genre of Maqāma to this day.
Badi' al-Zamān al-Hamadānī or al-Hamadhānī was a medieval Arab poet and man of letters. He is best known for his work the Maqamat Badi' az-Zaman al-Hamadhani, a collection of 52 episodic stories of a rogue, Abu al-Fath al-Iskandari, as recounted by a narrator, 'Isa b. Hisham. His Persian name, Hamedani, translates to "from the city of Hamedan." His Arabic name translates into "The Wonder of the Age".
Dunash ha-Levi ben Labrat was a medieval Jewish commentator, poet, and grammarian of the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. He is known for his philological commentary, Teshuvot Dunash, and for his liturgical poems D'ror Yiqra and D'vai Haser.
Arabic poetry is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existed in Arabic writing in material as early as the 1st century BCE, with oral poetry likely being much older still.
Muwashshah is the name for both an Arabic poetic form and a musical genre. The poetic form consists of a multi-lined strophic verse poem written in classical Arabic, usually consisting of five stanzas, alternating with a refrain with a running rhyme. It was customary to open with one or two lines which matched the second part of the poem in rhyme and meter; in North Africa poets ignore the strict rules of Arabic meter while the poets in the East follow them. The musical genre of the same name uses muwaššaḥ texts as lyrics, still in classical Arabic. This tradition can take two forms: the waṣla of the Mashriq and the Arab Andalusi nubah of the western part of the Arab world.
Yehuda Alharizi, also Judah ben Solomon Harizi or al-Harizi, was a rabbi, translator, poet, and traveler active in al-Andalus. He was supported by wealthy patrons, to whom he wrote poems and dedicated compositions.
Saj‘ is a form of rhymed prose understood by the way it uses end rhyme, meter, and parallelism. There are two types of parallelism in saj': iʿtidāl and muwāzana.
Jewish literature includes works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works written in Jewish languages on various themes, and literary works in any language written by Jewish writers. Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical literature and rabbinic literature. Medieval Jewish literature includes not only rabbinic literature but also ethical literature, philosophical literature, mystical literature, various other forms of prose including history and fiction, and various forms of poetry of both religious and secular varieties. The production of Jewish literature has flowered with the modern emergence of secular Jewish culture. Modern Jewish literature has included Yiddish literature, Judeo-Tat literature, Ladino literature, Hebrew literature, and Jewish American literature.
This glossary of literary terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in the discussion, classification, analysis, and criticism of all types of literature, such as poetry, novels, and picture books, as well as of grammar, syntax, and language techniques. For a more complete glossary of terms relating to poetry in particular, see Glossary of poetry terms.
James Thomas Monroe, or James T. Monroe, is an American scholar and translator of Arabic. He is emeritus professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, focusing on Classical Arabic Literature and Hispano-Arabic Literature. His doctorate was from Harvard University. Professor Monroe works in the areas of lyric poetry, the Middle Ages, and East-West relations with particular interest in the importance of the Arab-contribution to Spanish civilization."
The history of literature of the early modern period, or early modern literature, succeeds Medieval literature, and in Europe in particular Renaissance literature.
Classical Chinese poetry forms are poetry forms or modes which typify the traditional Chinese poems written in Literary Chinese or Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese poetry has various characteristic forms, some attested to as early as the publication of the Classic of Poetry, dating from a traditionally, and roughly, estimated time of around 10th–7th century BCE. The term "forms" refers to various formal and technical aspects applied to poems: this includes such poetic characteristics as meter, rhythm, and other considerations such as vocabulary and style. These forms and modes are generally, but not invariably, independent of the Classical Chinese poetry genres. Many or most of these were developed by the time of the Tang dynasty, and the use and development of Classical Chinese poetry and genres actively continued up until the May Fourth Movement, and still continues even today in the 21st century.
Regulated verse – also known as Jintishi – is a development within Classical Chinese poetry of the shi main formal type. Regulated verse is one of the most important of all Classical Chinese poetry types. Although often regarded as a Tang dynasty innovation, the origin of regulated verse within the Classical Chinese poetic tradition is associated with Shen Yue (441–513), based on his "four tones and eight defects" (四聲八病) theory regarding tonality. There are three types of regulated verse: the eight-lined lüshi, the four-lined jueju, and the linked couplets of indeterminate length pailu. All regulated verse forms are rhymed on the even lines, with one rhyme being used throughout the poem. Also, and definitionally, the tonal profile of the poem is controlled. Furthermore, semantic and tonal parallelism is generally required of certain interior couplets. During the Tang dynasty, the "Shen-Song" team of Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen greatly contributed to the development of this Classical Chinese verse form.
The instance that marked the shift in Arabic literature towards modern Arabic literature can be attributed to the contact between Arab world and the West during the 19th and early 20th century. This contact resulted in the gradual replacement of Classical Arabic forms with Western ones. Genres like plays, novels, and short stories were coming to the fore. Although the exact date in which this reformation in literary production occurred is unknown, the rise of modern Arabic literature was "inseparable" from the Nahda, also referred to as the Arab Renaissance.
Rajaz is a metre used in classical Arabic poetry. A poem composed in this metre is an urjūza. The metre accounts for about 3% of surviving ancient and classical Arabic verse. Some historians believe that rajaz evolved from saj'.
The literature of al-Andalus, also known as Andalusi literature, was produced in al-Andalus, or Islamic Iberia, from the Muslim conquest in 711 to either the Catholic conquest of Granada in 1492 or the expulsion of the Moors ending in 1614. Andalusi literature was written primarily in Arabic, but also in Hebrew, Latin, and Romance.
Ibn Nāqiyā al-Baghdādī was a noted Arabic-language litteratus.