The Rhetoric of Argumentation in a Poem by ‘Ubaydullah bin Qays al-Ruqayyat.

Abstract

This paper attempts to study the rhetoric of argumentation (ḥijāj) in an Umayyad, political poem by ʿUbaydullah bin Qays al-Ruqayyat, which he recited to the fifth Umayyad caliph, ʿAbd al-Malik bin Marwān bin al-Ḥakam. The researcher argues that poetry does not simply possess an aesthetic quality only, but it transcends this quality to achieve pragmatic and argumentative features as well. The study aims not merely to discuss the theory of poetical argumentation, but to also show how al-Ruqayyat’s poem (bāʾiyya) is a perfect example of argumentation (ḥijāj).