ʿIlm al-Bayân before and after Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr

This thesis deals with the development of literary theory as a discipline in the classical Arab-Islamic world, defines a turning point within the framework of ''good stylistic science'' the ilm al-bayân that emerged in the 13th century in the Cizre region in the south of today's Turkey, formerly known as Greater Syria, and in the Eastern Arab region called Cezire, which includes today's Northern Syria and Egypt. Dealing with a range of poetic, rhetorical, and literary-critical issues that had been studied under various disciplinary titles since the ninth century, the discipline was now consciously accepted as having an underlying theory and an established canon. In the study, after the standard rhetoric principle (ilm al-balâga) that emerged within the madrasa institution, we trace this development that started with Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr), a scholar from Cizre and a statesman who served as a vizier to the Ayyubids, and follow its progress through Greater Syria and Egypt until the end of the 14th century. Then, we analyze in depth a test case for literary-theoretical thought, that is, metaphorical language, which appears to be the difference Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr put forward in ilm- al-bayân and includes those who contributed to this branch of science. We argue that although linguistic theories of trope, inspired by Islamic legal theory, have become a hallmark of literary studies, literary scholars have tacitly adopted a non-linguistic understanding of the concept, similar to kathib ''lie''. Our analysis shows that ilm al-bayân is essentially the latter, despite the tensions between being a science dealing with hermeneutics (interpretation, criticism) and being a science dealing with poetics. In our study, we see that Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr harmonizes both of his groundbreaking literary-theoretical works, which were accepted by the authorities, with the scientific framework of ilm al-bayân, a discipline definition that was little or not known at the beginning of the seventh/thirteenth century. Inspired by legal theory and logic, and especially the works of al-Ghazali, Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr makes an obligatory attempt to vouch for the scientificity of his subject, in an effort to connect old style discussions with rational or scientific rules. This appears to be a novelty in literary theory. Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr, in his attempt to consolidate the field of literary theory, also presents a kind of canon to the reader in this field by reflecting back the previous studies on criticism, rhetoric, poetry and many more under the title of ilm al-bayân. In a progression from his previous works to his later works, we see that the authorities he tried to establish were limited to his locality, Cezire, and ultimately to himself. Despite the increasing hegemony of standard rhetorical theory, we can detect traces of a widely recognized discipline called ilm al-bayân until the late eighth/fourteenth century. An important point of differentiation between this ilm al-bayân and Standard Theory lies in the function of literary production: the practical side of composing poetry and ornate prose is a feature of ilm al-bayân, while in Standard Theory it is marginal. Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr's primary innovation in al-Mathal al-sâ'ir lies in his conceptualization of majâz as encompassing two major categories; these categories are tawassû "the imaginary (fictional) extension of reality" and tashbîh "metaphorical comparison including metaphor and analogy (simile)". Regarding the various subcategories of tasbih and tawassu, Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr considers literary phenomena not commonly targeted in classical Arabic literary theory, namely personification, modifier metaphors, and verb metaphors. Despite the innovation introduced by Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr, his underlying theory of tawassu and tasbîh reflected an implicit metaphorical notion of metaphor, probably prevalent since the earliest literary works, namely that it contains an incorrect proposition (kadhib). At the time of Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr's writing, a theory of word transmission began to be widely used in legal theory and appeared regularly in literary theory as well. We will discuss how the concept of legal majâz took place in Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr's work and how he did not feel at home with this theory despite including it in his analysis. We will also look at his other influences on majâz theory and how his thought developed from his previous work to the next. Then, we will examine Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr's own understanding of tawassu and simile and the place of allusion in this scheme. In short, the science of declaration emerged as a result of Islamic rhetoric studies and Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr was the first scholar to treat the statement as a science and a separate discipline. Although he did not accept it, he was inspired by Jurjâni and his ideas when he accepted the statement as a science and examined it. However, Jurjâni and many other scholars saw the science of declaration not as a separate discipline, but as one of the parts of the science of rhetoric. In the next century, al-Sakkâkî was a fundamental figure in Arabic rhetoric, and he first clearly divided him into the categories of ilm al-ma'ânî and ilm al-bayân. Although his close contemporary Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr arranged his major works under a different scheme, he was also extremely influential on the later developments in the field of rhetoric and it is seen that he was quoted more than al-Sakkâkî. One reason is that Ibn al-Athir's two works together are larger and more comprehensive than al-Sakkâkî's single book. Ibn al-Athir's work seems to contain a great deal of original thought and exegesis, so it has been frequently cited by later writers, and examples in his work have been cited. While he dealt with more or less the same aspects of the language discussed under the three branches of rhetoric, he discussed all of them under the title of declaration. He divided the science of al-bayân into a craft based on words (sinâ'a lafẓiyya) and a craft based on meaning (sinâ'a ma'naviyya), respectively. After Ibn al-Athir, rhetoric studies gradually began to adopt a more stable approach. When we examine Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr's great work al-Mathal al-sâ'ir, we examine the region where the author wrote, namely the southeastern Anatolia region called al-Cezire, where Cizre is located, and the region that includes the northern Syria, Iraq and Egypt (Eastern Arabian) regions. We observe that he created a work that reveals his local patriotism. With these works, Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr, who was seen as a category of the science of rhetoric by previous scholars and who stated that the whole of rhetoric is actually the science of declaration, dealt with the science of declaration in detail. With Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr, ilm al-bayân refers to the science of beautiful style or the science of rhetoric, and it has begun to be accepted as a rational science dependent on rational rules, it was handled as a separate discipline by many scholars and Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr was the first scholar we know to talk about in these terms. Therefore, in our study, the birth and development of ilm al-bayân with Diyâʾ al-Dîn Ibn al-Athîr, before and after, is explained by considering the works of many scholars, and a large section is reserved for the understanding of majâz that brings difference to this discipline.