The Rhythmic Structure in the Poetry of Mustafa Jamal al-Din: A Reading of the Theoretical Conceptions

Abstract

Mustafa Jamal al-Din’s conception of modern Arabic poetry can be understood as a critical perspective grounded in a profound awareness of the classical Arabic prosodic tradition (ʿarūḍ) and its historical development. Within this framework, he approaches modern poetry as an aesthetic phenomenon that remains connected to the historical continuum of Arabic poetic practice rather than representing a radical rupture with it. In his view, the transformation introduced by modern poetry does not lie in the abolition of poetic meter, but rather in the modification of the system of metrical feet within the poetic line. Consequently, modern poetry appears, in his analysis, as an extension of the classical Khalilian prosodic system rather than a decisive departure from it. This position reflects a reformist critical vision that seeks to reconcile the historical precedence of classical poetic texts, regarded as the foundational model, with the new aesthetic realization embodied in modern poetic experience, while preserving the essential principles of the inherited tradition.

This perspective is closely related to the debates that emerged between Jamal al-Din and Nazik al-Malaika concerning free verse. His critical stance remains largely aligned with the early theoretical formulations that sought to legitimize free verse within the framework of traditional prosody. Although Jamal al-Din demonstrates extensive knowledge of the Arabic literary heritage and consistently draws upon its conceptual apparatus in reading modern poetry, he shows limited inclination toward adopting later modernist approaches that reconceptualize rhythm itself as a complex linguistic and semantic structure.

His critical position also corresponds to his own poetic practice. Jamal al-Din remained committed to the classical bipartite structure of the Arabic verse line and did not substantially engage in free-verse experimentation. As a result, his theoretical discussion of the poetic line appears less as a radical reconfiguration of the Khalilian system and more as a reinterpretation or variation within its established framework. For this reason, his critical project may be viewed as representing a transitional stage in modern Arabic poetic criticism: one that preserves a deep loyalty to the classical prosodic heritage while attempting to accommodate the transformations introduced by early modern Arabic poetry, without fully embracing the more radical critical perspectives that later redefined the concept of poetic rhythm.