Section on the Addition of the Connecting Hamza (hamzat al-waṣl)
فَصْلٌ فِي زِيَادَةِ هَمْزَةِ الْوَصْلِ
Verses 938–942 · chapter 74 of 78
This section defines hamzat al-waṣl as a hamza added at the start of a word that is pronounced only when speech begins with that word and drops when the word follows other speech. It lists where the hamza occurs: in verbs of more than four letters and their imperatives and verbal nouns, in the imperative of triliteral verbs, in a fixed set of nouns, in the oath word aymun, and in the article al. It ends with how the hamza of al is treated after the interrogative hamza. AI
Topic:The ten verb Forms
- 938
الرَّجَزal-rajaz––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ
Ibn Jinnī on al-rajaz, “the trembling”
وهو على ستة أجزاء مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن
It has six feet: mustafʿilun, six times. Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, lines 842–843 (p. 101) ↗
Scanned by rule, not by a model. The vowelled text is read as it is pronounced, as Ibn Jinnī says scansion must be: doubled letters count twice, tanwīn adds an n, long vowels lengthen, the connecting alif drops inside the line, the article's l merges into a sun letter, and the last vowel of a line is drawn out. The syllables, long (–) and short (∪), are then fitted to each metre's feet with the common licences (zihāfāt) and line-endings. A poem has one metre: the one that fits most of its verses. A verse that does not fit it is marked 'not scanned'; nothing is guessed. Vowels scanned: AI vowelling (no vowelled edition is available to us).
Scanned by rule English: AI translation AI
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, ed. Aḥmad Fawzī al-Hayb (Kuwait: Dār al-Qalam, 1407/1987). Digital text: 0392IbnJinniMawsili.Carud.JK000956-ara1 (OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (OpenITI digital text); the classical text is public domain, the modern edition is not.
For connection [in speech] there is a prefixed hamza that is not kept [in pronunciation] except when one begins with it, as in istathbitū ('make sure'). [Said at the start of speech it is pronounced: istathbitū. Said after another word it drops: qultu stathbitū.]
Ibn ʿAqīl on verse 938Arabic
لا يبتدأ بساكن كما لا يوقف على متحرك فإذا كان أول الكلمة ساكنا وجب الإتيان بهمزة متحركة توصلا للنطق بالساكن وتسمى هذه الهمزة همزة وصل وشأنها أنها تثبت في الابتداء وتسقط في الدرج نحو استثبتوا أمر للجماعة بالاستثبات
Ibn ʿAqīl, OpenITI line 8102 · vol. 4, p. 206 ↗ - 939
الرَّجَزal-rajaz–∪∪–مُفْتَعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ–∪∪–مُفْتَعِلُنْ–∪∪–مُفْتَعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ
Ibn Jinnī on al-rajaz, “the trembling”
وهو على ستة أجزاء مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن
It has six feet: mustafʿilun, six times. Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, lines 842–843 (p. 101) ↗
Scanned by rule, not by a model. The vowelled text is read as it is pronounced, as Ibn Jinnī says scansion must be: doubled letters count twice, tanwīn adds an n, long vowels lengthen, the connecting alif drops inside the line, the article's l merges into a sun letter, and the last vowel of a line is drawn out. The syllables, long (–) and short (∪), are then fitted to each metre's feet with the common licences (zihāfāt) and line-endings. A poem has one metre: the one that fits most of its verses. A verse that does not fit it is marked 'not scanned'; nothing is guessed. Vowels scanned: AI vowelling (no vowelled edition is available to us).
Scanned by rule English: AI translation AI
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, ed. Aḥmad Fawzī al-Hayb (Kuwait: Dār al-Qalam, 1407/1987). Digital text: 0392IbnJinniMawsili.Carud.JK000956-ara1 (OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (OpenITI digital text); the classical text is public domain, the modern edition is not.
It belongs to a past-tense verb that contains more than four [letters], such as injalā ('it became clear'). [Other examples: inṭalaqa, iqtadara, istakhraja.]
- 940
الرَّجَزal-rajaz––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ–∪∪–مُفْتَعِلُنْ∪∪∪–فَعِلَتُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ
Ibn Jinnī on al-rajaz, “the trembling”
وهو على ستة أجزاء مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن
It has six feet: mustafʿilun, six times. Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, lines 842–843 (p. 101) ↗
Scanned by rule, not by a model. The vowelled text is read as it is pronounced, as Ibn Jinnī says scansion must be: doubled letters count twice, tanwīn adds an n, long vowels lengthen, the connecting alif drops inside the line, the article's l merges into a sun letter, and the last vowel of a line is drawn out. The syllables, long (–) and short (∪), are then fitted to each metre's feet with the common licences (zihāfāt) and line-endings. A poem has one metre: the one that fits most of its verses. A verse that does not fit it is marked 'not scanned'; nothing is guessed. Vowels scanned: AI vowelling (no vowelled edition is available to us).
Scanned by rule English: AI translation AI
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, ed. Aḥmad Fawzī al-Hayb (Kuwait: Dār al-Qalam, 1407/1987). Digital text: 0392IbnJinniMawsili.Carud.JK000956-ara1 (OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (OpenITI digital text); the classical text is public domain, the modern edition is not.
[It also belongs] to the imperative and the verbal noun of such a verb [injali, injilāʾ; istakhrij, istikhrāj]. Likewise the imperative of the triliteral verb [whose second letter is vowelless in the imperfect], as in ikhsha ('fear'), imḍi ('go on'), and unfudhā ('pass through'). [The final alif of unfudhā is the light energetic nūn, unfudhan, turned into alif at the pause.]
Ibn ʿAqīl on verses 939–940Arabic
لما كان الفعل أصلا في التصريف اختص بكثرة مجيء أوله ساكنا فاحتاج إلى همزة الوصل فكل فعل ماض احتوى على أكثر من أربعة أحرف يجب الإتيان في أوله بهمزة الوصل نحو استخرج وانطلق وكذلك الأمر منه نحو استخرج وانطلق والمصدر نحو استخراج وانطلاق وكذلك تجب الهمزة في أمر الثلاثي نحو أخش وامض وانفذ من خشى ومضى ونفذ
Ibn ʿAqīl, OpenITI line 8108 · vol. 4, p. 207 ↗ - 941
الرَّجَزal-rajaz∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ
Ibn Jinnī on al-rajaz, “the trembling”
وهو على ستة أجزاء مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن
It has six feet: mustafʿilun, six times. Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, lines 842–843 (p. 101) ↗
Scanned by rule, not by a model. The vowelled text is read as it is pronounced, as Ibn Jinnī says scansion must be: doubled letters count twice, tanwīn adds an n, long vowels lengthen, the connecting alif drops inside the line, the article's l merges into a sun letter, and the last vowel of a line is drawn out. The syllables, long (–) and short (∪), are then fitted to each metre's feet with the common licences (zihāfāt) and line-endings. A poem has one metre: the one that fits most of its verses. A verse that does not fit it is marked 'not scanned'; nothing is guessed. Vowels scanned: AI vowelling (no vowelled edition is available to us).
Scanned by rule English: AI translation AI
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, ed. Aḥmad Fawzī al-Hayb (Kuwait: Dār al-Qalam, 1407/1987). Digital text: 0392IbnJinniMawsili.Carud.JK000956-ara1 (OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (OpenITI digital text); the classical text is public domain, the modern edition is not.
In nouns it is heard [only by transmission] in ism ('name'), ist ('buttocks'), ibn ('son'), ibnum ('son'), ithnān ('two'), and imruʾ ('man'), and the feminine [of these] follows them [ibna, ithnatān, imraʾa].
- 942
الرَّجَزal-rajaz–∪∪–مُفْتَعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ––∪–مُسْتَفْعِلُنْ∪–∪–مَفَاعِلُنْ
Ibn Jinnī on al-rajaz, “the trembling”
وهو على ستة أجزاء مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن
It has six feet: mustafʿilun, six times. Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, lines 842–843 (p. 101) ↗
Scanned by rule, not by a model. The vowelled text is read as it is pronounced, as Ibn Jinnī says scansion must be: doubled letters count twice, tanwīn adds an n, long vowels lengthen, the connecting alif drops inside the line, the article's l merges into a sun letter, and the last vowel of a line is drawn out. The syllables, long (–) and short (∪), are then fitted to each metre's feet with the common licences (zihāfāt) and line-endings. A poem has one metre: the one that fits most of its verses. A verse that does not fit it is marked 'not scanned'; nothing is guessed. Vowels scanned: AI vowelling (no vowelled edition is available to us).
Scanned by rule English: AI translation AI
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), Kitāb al-ʿArūḍ, ed. Aḥmad Fawzī al-Hayb (Kuwait: Dār al-Qalam, 1407/1987). Digital text: 0392IbnJinniMawsili.Carud.JK000956-ara1 (OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (OpenITI digital text); the classical text is public domain, the modern edition is not.
[The hamza of] aymun [in the oath aymunu llāhi] and the hamza of al are likewise [connecting hamzas]. In a question [when the interrogative a- comes before al] it is replaced by a long vowel [ā-l-amīru qāma? 'Did the emir stand?'] or it is softened [pronounced between hamza and alif], [so that the question is not confused with a statement].
Ibn ʿAqīl on verses 941–942Arabic
لم تحفظ همزة الوصل في الأسماء التي ليست مصادر لفعل زائد على أربعة إلا في عشرة أسماء اسم واست وابن وابنم واثنين وامرىء وامرأة وابنة واثنتين وايمن في القسم
Ibn ʿAqīl, OpenITI line 8115 · vol. 4, p. 207 ↗ولم تحفظ في الحروف إلا في أل ولما كانت الهمزة مع أل مفتوحة وكانت همزة الاستفهام مفتوحة لم يجز حذف همزة الاستفهام لئلا يلتبس الاستفهام بالخبر بل وجب إبدال همزة الوصل ألفا نحو آلأمير قائم أو تسهيلها ومنه قوله
358 ( أألحق إن دار الرباب تباعدت … أو انبت حبل أن قلبك طائر
- هَمْزَةُ الْوَصْلِ hamzat al-waṣl · connecting hamza: a hamza pronounced at the start of speech and dropped when the word follows other speech · وصل
- الِابْتِدَاءُ al-ibtidāʾ · beginning speech with a word (as opposed to reaching it in connected speech) · بدأ
- الْفِعْلُ الْمَاضِي al-fiʿl al-māḍī · the past-tense verb · مضي
- الْأَمْرُ al-amr · the imperative · أمر
- الْمَصْدَرُ al-maṣdar · the verbal noun · صدر
- الثُّلَاثِيُّ al-thulāthī · the triliteral verb (with three root letters) · ثلث
- الِاسْتِفْهَامُ al-istifhām · interrogation, asking a question · فهم
- الْإِبْدَالُ al-ibdāl · replacement of one sound by another (here, of the hamza by a long vowel) · بدل
- الْمَدُّ al-madd · lengthening; a long vowel · مدد
- التَّسْهِيلُ al-tashīl · softening of a hamza, pronounced between a full hamza and the letter of its vowel · سهل