Hazaj meter

Hazaj meter is a quantitative verse metric frequently found in the epic poetry of the Middle East and western Asia. A musical rhythmRef_label|iqa|a|none of the same nameRef_label|name|b|none is based on the literary meter.

Like the other meters of the "al-'arud" system of Arabic poetry, the basic rhyme unit of hazaj meter compositions is a closed couplet—a "bai't" "distich" (literally "tent")—of two hemistichs known as "misrá"s ("tent flaps"). When arranged in quatrains of two "bai't"s, verse in hazaj meter typically has an 'aa ba' rhyme scheme; the first, second and fourth half-lines must rhyme, while the third need not and generally does not. The two "bai't"s in hazaj meter then constitute a "ruba'i", [harvnb|Gail|1951|p=158.] plural "rubai'yat".

Characteristic of the hazaj meter (in relation to the other "al-'arud" meters) is its leading iamb, that is, the first two syllables of its prosodic feet are short-long.Ref_label|shortlong|c|none This syllable pair (the "watad", "peg") is then repeated at fixed points along the length of a line, and two variable syllables (the "sabab", "guy-wire"s) are "tied" to each instance of it. The hazaj measure is thus nominallyRef_label|scansion|d|none tetrasyllabic. Its two common variations are: [harvnb|Finch|1984|p=52.] The two variable syllables are subject to the substitution rules of the "al-'arud" system in which a long syllable is equal to two short syllables, and certain long syllables may be shortened under certain conditions. There are some five permutations—"zihafat" "relaxations"—predefined for the two variable syllables of the hazaj meter. Each line of a composition in the meter will have approximately the same number of syllables.

Although first codified in the "al-'arud" prosody system of the 8th century philologist and lexicographer Khalil ibn Ahmad, and thus formally a classical Arabic poetry meter, the hazaj meter is also represented in Hebrew-, Ottoman Turkish-, Persian and other Iranian-, Urdu- and other North Indian language epic poetry traditions.

By the 11th century, the hazaj meter had become "the most popular meter for romantic epics" in Iranian language compositions. [harvnb|De Blois|1998|loc=para. 19.] "The preference for Hazaǰ-type meters may be explained in terms of their relationship to folk verses and songs. The meter of hazaǰ and its variations are among the ones most frequently found in folk poetry such as "do-baytī" and lullabies ("lālā'ī"). The meter of "hazaǰ-e mosaddas-e maḥdūf e maqṣūr", which is the meter of "do-baytī" (or "čār-baytī" in regional dialects), is particularly often sung in the "āvāz-e Daštī", which is closely associated with Iranian folk tunes." [harvnb|Tsuge|1989|p=33.]

The hazaj meter is also among the three most commonly used metrics in Urdu verse, [harvnb|Bailey|1939|pp=970-971.] and it is one of the typical meters of the "ghazal" genre. The hazaj meter is perhaps also be the base metric of contemporary Arabic "band" compositions, but this is uncertain. [harvnb|Abdullah|2006|pp=90-91.] Particularly notable Persian language compositions in hazaj meter include the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam", Fakhr al-din Gurgani's "Vis u Ramin", and – for its length of 6,150 verses – Nezami's "Khusrow o Shirin".

Notes

* a) Note_label|iqa|a|none The hazaj "music" meter is part of the "iqa" ("rythm") system, which expresses the various meters of the literary "'arud" system in terms of rhythmic units. In terms of music meter, the hazaj has a 2/4 signature. Both the "iqa" and "'arud" systems are attributed to Khalil ibn Ahmad.
* b) Note_label|name|b|none The Arabic word literally means "trilling" or "rhythmical speech," or – as an infinitive – "to modulate one's voice."
* c) Note_label|shortlong|c|none The related "wafir" meter also has a short-long sequence on the first two beats. The "wafir" is however mora-timed.
* d) Note_label|scansion|d|none The smallest unit of the "al-'arud" meters is not the syllable but the "harf", the letter, and although the meters are quantitative, and can so also be described in terms of syllable count (and length), certain letters have to be ignored or mentally interpolated when determining the scansion of a line.

References

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