The use of proverbs in Al-Hariri’s Maqamat: A Descriptive and Analytical Study

Sadiq Hashemi Amjad , Dr. Mehdi Kharmi Sarhoudaki , Dr. Hassan Majidi , Dr. Sayyed Mehdi Nouri Qaydhaqani 264-293

Abstract

    The Maqama emerged in the mid-third century AH as a form of prose literature aimed at enhancing linguistic prowess and teaching young people composition. This education was initially limited to language and rhetoric. Then it encompassed various common types of knowledge such as stories, anecdotes, and proverbs. It also incorporates historical, philosophical, and literary aspects. This article, which relies on a descriptive-analytical approach, attempts to study the use of proverbs in al-Hariri›s Maqamat in a descriptive-analytical manner, referring to some of their stories and events, and to whom they are told. It also indicates the locations of their use and the reasons for Al-Hariri›s resorting to them in his Maqamat. This research targets two topics: identifying the proverbs in Al-Hariri›s Maqamat, which contain more than 140 eloquent Arabic proverbs, through which he achieved his goals. ...artistic, social connotations, or other, and to demonstrate the role of these proverbs in conveying useful messages to the recipient, clarifying their truth through what is stated in their texts, and supplying the literary world with another of its components. The motive for studying this article is the necessity of returning to the heritage and its collection of interesting points and the outstanding brilliance it contained, which requires study and the revival of its cultural and historical significance. Al-Hariri, in order to facilitate the content of his texts, which are full of decorations and verbal beauties, tried to make the recipient not bored with his speech, but completely attracted to him. He relies on more than a few proverbs to increase the attractiveness of his Maqamat, a style we rarely see - except in other writers. The results of the research reveal that Al-Hariri employed proverbs on five levels: a) clarifying complexity and ambiguity, b) transferring rational concepts to concrete and tangible ones, c) explaining the cause and reasons, d) Alluding to traditional stories to gain attention, e) Persuasive methods for the audience, namely: repelling by revealing aspects of ugliness, sharpening the audience›s mind, and mobilizing their intellectual energies. 
Keywords: Abbasid era, rhetorical analysis, descriptive-analytical study, allusion, Maqamat al-Hariri.