Basit

Basīṭ (Arabic: بسيط‎), or al-basīṭ (البسيط), is a metre used in classical Arabic poetry. The word literally means "extended" or "spread out" in Arabic.[1] Along with the ṭawīl, kāmil, and wāfir, it is one of the four commonest metres used in pre-Islamic and classical Arabic poetry.[2] The metrical form is often as follows (where "–" is a long syllable, "u" is a short syllable, and "x" a syllable which can be either long or short):[3][4]

| x – u – | x u – | – – u – | u u – |

This article is about the metre used in classical Arabic poetry. For other uses, see Basit (disambiguation).

The mnemonic words (tafāʿīl) used by Arab prosodists to describe this metre are: Mustafʿilun Fāʿilun Mustafʿilun Faʿilun (مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ فَاعِلُنْ مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ فَعِلُنْ).

Very rarely (in less than 1% of lines) the 3rd foot can be | u – u – |.[5]

The metre is usually used in couplets of eight feet each. An example is the 38-couplet qasīda by al-Mutanabbi (915-965): “The poet reproaches Sayf al-Dawla” (king of Aleppo), from which comes the verse:

إذا رَأيْـتَ نُيُـوبَ اللّيْـثِ بـارِزَةً * فَـلا تَظُـنّـنّ أنّ اللّيْـثَ يَبْتَسِـمُ

’idā ra’ayta nuyūba l-layti bārizatan

falā taẓunnanna ’anna l-layta yabtasimū

| u – u – | u u – | – – u – | u u – |

| u – u – | – u – | – – u – | u u – |

"If you see the lion’s fangs displayed,

do not imagine for a moment that the lion is smiling."

Variations

Although in the poem of al-Mutanabbi quoted above, the last foot of each half-verse is always | u u – |, other poets use the metre in the following form, where "uu" represents a biceps element, i.e. one where the two short syllables can optionally be replaced by one long one.

| x – u – | x u – | – – u – | uu – |

An example is the following drinking-song by Abu Nuwas which begins:

دَعْ عَنْكَ لَوْمي فإنّ اللّوْمَ إغْرَاءُ * ودَاوني بالّتي كانَتْ هيَ الدّاءُ

daʿ ʿanka lawmī fa-’inna l-lawma ’iḡrā’u

wa-dāwinī bil-latī kānat hiya d-dā’u

| – – u – | – u – | – – u – | – – |

| u – u – | – u – | – – u – | – – |

"Censure me not, for censure but tempts me;

cure me rather with the cause of my ill—"[6]

The metre also exists in a trimeter form of which the half-verse is as follows:

| x – u – | – u – | x – u – |

There is also a catalectic trimeter form:

| x – u – | – u – | x – – |

Occasionally the first foot of each half-verse can be | – u u – |.

In a musical context

The term basīṭ is also used in a musical context; in the Andalusi nubah, or classical suites, of Morocco, each nubah, or suite, is divided into five main movements (called mīzān (ميزان; plural: mawāzīn, موازين)) each of which uses a different rhythm, as follows:

1. Basīṭ (6/4)
2. Qāim wa nusf (8/4)
3. Btāyhī (8/4)
4. Darj (4/4)
5. Quddām (3/4 or 6/8)

References

1. Edward W. Lane (1863) Arabic-English Lexicon Archived 2015-04-08 at the Wayback Machine.
2. Golston, Chris & Riad, Tomas (1997). "The Phonology of classical Arabic meter". Linguistics 35 (1997), 111-132; p. 120.
3. McCarus, Ernest N. (1983). "Identifying the Meters of Arabic Poetry", Al-'Arabiyya vol 16. no. 1/2, pp. 57-83. (Georgetown University Press).
4. Wright, W. (1951). A Grammar of the Arabic Language, vol. II, Cambridge University Press; pp. 350-390.
5. Stoetzer, Willem (1982) "Some Observations on Quantity in Arabic Metrics". Journal of Arabic Literature Vol. 13 (1982), pp. 66-75
6. Translation from Kennedy, Philip F. (1997). The wine song in classical Arabic poetry: Abu Nuwas and the literary tradition. Oxford University Press.)

See also

• Arabic prosody
• Tawil

External links

• A recitation in Arabic of al-Mutanabbi's line
• Chanted version of al-Mutannabi's poem. The quoted line is at 2:31.
• Recitation of the Abu Nuwas poem by Bashar Al-Roumi
• Version of the Abu Nuwas poem sung to a lute