Various definitions of balāḡat were attempted but none of them can be said to have reached the status of a standard formulation. The eminent place of the study of good style in Muslim education, as well as its close link with the study of the Arabic language, were also based on this doctrine. To be familiar with their rules was therefore a prerequisite to the understanding of the meaning of the Revelation in the Koran. The text of the Koran was considered to possess the characteristics of eʿjāz in the most perfect form.
A justification for the study of balāḡat was found in the doctrine of the eʿjāz (inimitability) of the Koran. In the Arabic works on literary theory, eloquence was mainly discussed with regard to written works, both in prose and in poetry. Jāḥeẓ even quotes prescriptions concerning eloquence from a ṣaḥīfa which was brought to Baghdad by Indian scholars during the vizierate of the Barmakid Yaḥyā b. Foreign traditions-of the Persians, the ancient Greeks, the Byzantines, and the Indians-provided some of the many definitions which became current in Muslim literature. At the same time eloquence was recognized as an ideal familiar to other nations as well. One of the points discussed was whether the orator might use gesticulations to add force to his words or not. Early adab works reflect this emphasis on the good style of the spoken word. In pre-Islamic Arab society, eloquence was important to the orator ( ḵaṭīb) as well as to the oral Bedouin poet.
#Definition of eloquent words free
Nevertheless the two remained closely related to each other: an utterance could never be said to be balīḡ if it was not at the same time faṣīḥ, i.e., free from any faults of pronunciation, grammar, or lexicon. The prevailing opinion was, however, that the latter referred to the wording ( lafẓ) and the former to the semantics ( maʿnā) of speech. Sometimes they were regarded as synonyms or at least as largely overlapping concepts. The delimitation of balāḡat and faṣāḥat was often discussed in Arabic literary theory. To single words the cognate concept of faṣāḥat (purity of language) should be applied. This predicate is more properly used to qualify speech ( kalām) but, according to the classical theory, only at the level of syntactic units. A person of whom this can be said is called balīḡ (plur. Therefore baloḡa “to be eloquent” is taken to mean: to be able “to convey” the intended meaning effectively, and in an attractive manner, to the mind of a listener or a reader. Its etymology is usually based on the meaning “to reach” of the verb balaḡa. BALĀḠAT (Arabic balāḡa), one of the most general terms to denote eloquence in speech and writing.
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