Islamic roots of the poetic syllogism, The

College Literature, Feb 1996 by Ludescher, Tanyss

We can illustrate the differing ways in which takhyil and the poetic syllogism operate on the human subject by applying them to examples of Arabic poetry. In the following poem, Al-Khansa, the great pre-Islamic Arab poetess, laments the murder of her brother Sakhr. The poem is in the form of a eulogy and as such, presents us with an effective example of the workings of takhyil, for, according to the Arab commentators, eulogy, along with satire formed the two major categories into which poetry could be divided (Hogan 13).

I was sleepless, and I passed the night keeping vigil, as if

my eyes had been anointed with pus,

Watching the stars--and I had not been charged to watch them-

and anon wrapping myself in the ends of ragged robes.

For I had heard--and it was not news to rejoice me--one making

report, who had come repeating intelligence,

Saying, "Sakhr is dwelling there in a tomb, struck to the

ground beside the grave, between certain stones."

Depart then, and may God not keep you far (from Him), being

a man who eschewed injustice, and ever sought after bloodwit.

You used to carry a heart that brooked no wrong, compounded

in a nature that was never cowardly,

Like the spear-point whose (bright) shape lights up the night,

(a man) bitter in resolution, free and the son of free-men.

So I shall weep for you, so long as ringdove laments and the

night stars shine for the traveler,

And I shall never make my peace with a people with whom you

were at war, not till the black cooking-pot of the (good)

host becomes white]

(Ashberry 38).

Although Al-Khansa is speaking of a real person, we may assume that her description of her brother is not a literal representation of reality but, rather, an idealized description of her dead sibling. It can thus, according to the principles of takhyil, be viewed as an imaginative creation of the poet's mind, which is divorced from Reality or Nature. According to Arab literary theory, we may also argue that the essential aim of the poem is moral. But we must not confuse this aim with the moral tradition in Western literary criticism which found its full expression in such critics as Sir Philip Sidney and Samuel Johnson. The poem does not invite the reader to emulate the much praised and virtuous brother. Rather, the poem strongly appeals to the reader's emotions, arousing, in particular, the feeling of pity. According to the principles of takhyil, the poem works on the involuntary will of the reader, subtlely training the sensibility in such a way that the reader will be repelled by vice and attracted to virtue. Later, when the reader is faced with a moral choice in life, s/he will automatically make the right decision.

The poetic syllogism, on the other hand, operates on the rational faculties of the reader and involves the voluntary exercise of the human will. In his book Qiyas, Avicenna gives us the following metaphor:

"So and so is a moon, for he is handsome,"(10)

According to Avicenna, the metaphor can be seen as an elliptically stated conclusion of a syllogistic process in which both the premises are suppressed. He reconstructs the logical process involved in the metaphor by laying out the syllogism in full(11)