[6] One famous composer of saj' was said to have been the bishop of Najran, Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi.
[10] In Umayyad times, saj' was discredited as an artistic style for resembling the speech of soothsayers.
Saj' in the style of pre-Islamic Arabia was still being written in Abbasid times, and was being invoked in the same situations, like in speeches before battle, the cursing of one's killers before their own death, derision, and argument.
Saj' was attributed to Muhammad's companions, like Abu Bakr, and prominent figures in early Islamic history, like Ibn al-Zubayr and Al-Hajjaj.
After the image of saj' had been rehabilitated, in large part thanks to the effort of Al-Jahiz, it became a major form of Arabic literary prose and was used in genres like the māqama.
According to Devin J. Stewart:[15]In its simplest form, sajʿ consists of groups of consecutive cola sharing a common rhyme and meter.Stewart has also offered a more elaborate definition.
Iafaẓāt), and not the syllable or the tafʿīlah.Angelika Neuwirth has defined saj' as:[17]short units rhyming in frequently changing sound patterns reiterating the last consonant and based on a common rhythmA single clause in saj' is called a sajʿah (pl.
[3] Traditionally, saj' has been defined as prose (nathr, manthūr) divided into phrases or clauses, each of which end in a common rhyme.
We have shown that the Arabs blame any sajʿ which deviates from the balance of parts (ajzāʾ) so that some of its hemistichs are made of two words, and others of many words; they consider this weakness not eloquence.Another common feature of saj' writing, also found in the Quran, is the presence of an introductory formula to the rest of the text that does not itself follow the ordinary structure of saj'.
Ibn al-Athir produces an example containing nineteen words per clause (Quran 8:43–44).
[24] Robert Hoyland identifies three similar cases: was-sana wad-dahri war-riyâḥi wa-l-faṭri la-qad khaba’tum lî juththata nasri fi ‘ikmin min sha‘ri ma‘a l-fatâ min banî Nasri by the lightning flash and by fate by the winds and the cleaving You have hidden for me a vulture’s corpse in a bundle of hair in the possession of the youth from the Banu Nasr bi-lamma‘ati qafri yarudna bayna silmin wa-sidri inna sana’ al-majdi thumma l-fakhri la-fî ‘A’idh ilâ âkhiri d-dahri in mirage-glinting deserts roaming among thorn-trees and lote-trees The highest degree of glory and honour is ever to be found in ‘A’idh wa-l-qamari idhâ talâ-hâ wan-nahâri idhâ jallâ-hâ wal-layli idhâ yaghshâ-hâ was-samâ’i wa-mâ banâ-hâ wa-l-arḍi wa-mâ ṭaḥâ-hâ wa-nafsin wa-mâ sawwâ-hâ fa-alhama-hâ fujûra-hâ wa-taqwâ-hâ qad aflaḥa man zakkâ-hâ wa-qad khâba man dassâ-hâ) By the moon which rises after it By the day which reveals its splendour By the night which veils it By the heaven and Him that built it By the earth and Him that spread it By a soul and Him that moulded it And gave it knowledge of sin and piety Blessed shall be the man who has kept it pure And ruined he that has corrupted it
Another famous example is a piece attributed to Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi:[27]O People!
A dark night…a bright day…a sky that has zodiacal sign…stars that shine…seas [whose waters] roar…mountains firmly anchored...an earth spread out…rivers made to flow.
When I looked at the watering holes of death, from which there is no returning—[When] I saw my people towards them going, young and old—The one who passed not coming back to me and not from those who remain, he who goes.
In Arabic manuals describing saj', the vast majority of listed examples are from the Quran.
Therefore, although 86% of the Quran has end-rhyme (series of lines where the final word rhymes), but a smaller proportion of it will be saj' as it will rhythmical parallelism.
[33] Devin J. Stewart has classified five main structural patterns of saj' units in the Quran.
For Ibn Sinān al-Khafājī, the mode of Arabic in the Quran was consistent with existing custom and usage.
[36] For example, Abu Hilal al-Askari argued:[37]Qur'anic discourse which assumes the form of sajʿ and izdiwāj is contrary to human discourse which assumes this form in its ability to convey the meaning, its clarity of expression, its sweetness and musicality.In effect, al-Askari argued that unlike human saj', the Quran applies saj' and achieves the greatest possible elegance and meaning, even as it took on the literary limitations and formal constraints of saj'.
One participant of the dispute suddenly begins using saj' as a rhetorical technique, and Muhammad condemns him for doing so.