Poetic Language between Arbitrariness and Intentionality: A Study in the Poetry of the Abbasid Muwalladun

Abstract

This research scrutinizes the relation between "Muwallad" generative poetry and the disciplines of Arabic rhetoric, considering it a foundational correlation that shaped the nature of poetic language, which is substantiated in deviation (displacement), metaphor, and the expansion of semantics. The research traces the evolution of Arabic poetry from the pre-Islamic era and the early Islamic period, where the association between the signifier (lafẓ) and signified (maʿnā) was organic and closely tied to reality, to the Abbasid era, which catalyzed the emergence of the poetry of the Muwalladūn. Furthermore, it highlights the role of ʿIlm al-Badīʿ (the science of rhetorical figures) in codifying the poetics of this "generative" movement and in contributing to formulating the concept of arbitrariness in Islamic heritage, a concept that later extended into modern linguistics with Ferdinand de Saussure. The study concludes by reaffirming the epistemological and cultural value of the organic bond between expression and meaning in the Arabic linguistic tradition.