ABSTRACT
The dramaturgic outline of the qaṣāʾid, traced in the preceding chapters, abounds with verbal ornament, performing a variety of functions. As in the rain motif of L191, these can be supportive or subversive, as the figures of speech may themselves be sparse or frequent. This chapter examines both single and complex figures that have more than a local impact, affecting the structure of passages. Accordingly, the first half is devoted to syntactic figures that supply the weft of a passage, such as anaphora and reprise. The second half treats semantic figures, or tropes, that support an argument within a passage, such as sententia and analogy, or that relate separate passages, such as the recurring motif. Tight-knit arrangements of figures, or phantasmagoria, which create an abstract action of their own, form another chapter. The following is a selection, not a survey, of Ibn al-Rūmī’s rhetorical figures and imagery with the purpose of illustrating functions they fulfilled in his praise qaṣāʾid.
