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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Shi'ah and Islamic Disciplines Chapter 12: The Precedence Of The Shi’ah In Prosody Section One: The Pioneer in This Field of Arabic Literature There is no doubt that Khalil ibn Ahmad al–Farahidi, the scholar previously–mentioned in the chapter on lexicology is the first to invent al–a’rud , prosody whereby he fortified Arab poetry, and as a result is known as al–A’rudi (the prosodian).

An attempt to count instances where the scholars declared this fact will no doubt lengthen our book. However, we have cited some in the original version of this book. There is a claim by Ibn Faris in Al–Sahibi that prosody was an ancient science forgotten over time so that its circulation among the people decreased. Later on, this discipline was revitalized by al–Khalil.

Ibn Faris cites the saying of al–Walid ibn al–Mughirah concerning the Holy Qur'an, ‘I have compared what Muhammad recites with the recitation of poetry, both its hajaz and its rajaz (two types of poetical metres) and found that its does not resemble it at all’. No historical document corroborates this allegation nor could it be backed by any plausible inference.

It appears that the assumption of Ibn Faris was nothing more than personal conjecture, which is not acceptable to those who are learned in historical reports. It will be noted that al–Walid was cognizant of poetic rhymes by mere natural disposition, the same way he knew the Arabic language itself. Obviously this is different from the discipline which al–Khalil has systematised and in which he classified the Arabic verse into five types ( da’irahs ) consisting of fifteen metres altogether.

In Kitab al–Tanbih , Hamzah ibn al–Hasan al–Isfahani was explicit on the matter: “The Islamic state has not produced the like of al–Khalil in inventing disciplines which were, hitherto unknown to Arab scholars. The best proof of this is the science of prosody which was the brain child of al–Khalil, for neither did he learn it from some sage nor did he emulate a preceding scholar...”. A full account of this issue is quoted in the original version of this book.