Abstract

Statement of the Problem and Purpose: Arabic literature during the Mamluk period, particularly in Egypt and the Levant, witnessed profound and complex transformations at both intellectual and artistic levels. The decline of the Ayyubid dynasty and the establishment of Mamluk authority created a new socio-cultural milieu that facilitated the flourishing of rhetorical techniques and literary devices, which became prominent hallmarks of the literature of this period. Among these rhetorical arts, “tawriyah” emerged as a sophisticated rhetorical device that, by employing two or more meanings in a single word or phrase, enabled the poet to embed multiple layers of meaning and prompted reader to engage actively in interpretation and the discovery of hidden levels of meanings. Although tawriyah had existed in the Arabic rhetorical tradition, it reached its peak in the Mamluk period and became a distinctive feature of both poetry and prose. Its significance lies not only in its aesthetic dimensions but also in its communicative role between text and reader. Tawriyah allows the poet to convey implicit, multiple, and even critical meanings with artistic subtlety, reflecting the poet’s skill to combine literary taste with rhetorical competence. Recent studies have indicated that tawriyah is one of the principal factors distinguishing Mamluk poets from their predecessors, since it provides semantic richness and rhetorical complexity. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, a prominent jurist and hadith scholar of the ninth century AH, is a paradigmatic example of the interaction between scholarship and poetry. In addition to his scholarly and religious stature, he possessed notable poetic talent, and his Diwan, particularly the section al‑Maqāṭīʿ, abounds with diverse and intricate instances of tawriyah. This study aims to analyze the rhetorical and semantic functions of tawriyah in Ibn Hajar’s poetry and to demonstrate how he used this artistic device to deepen meaning, broaden the reader’s reception horizon, and contribute to the enrichment of Mamluk-period literature.
Methodology: This research adopts a meticulous descriptive-analytical method that combines textual analysis of the poems with consideration of their historical and cultural contexts. In the first phase, the theoretical foundations of tawriyah—including its definition, historical development and various typology in classical rhetorical sources—were studied. This framework makes it possible to identify and classify the instances accurately and to analyze the characteristics of different types of tawriyah (lexical, semantic, and composite) as well as their roles in enhancing reader engagement and fostering critical thinking. In the second phase, Ibn Hajar’s Diwan, with a specific focus on al-Maqātiʿ, was systematically studied. Prominent examples of tawriyah were extracted and analyzed according to rigorous rhetorical and aesthetic criteria, with attention to their interaction with other literary devices such as antithesis (ṭibāq), paronomasia (jinās), and metaphor (istiʿāra). The impact of tawriyah on the overall structure of text and semantic flow of the poems was also assessed. In addition, the socio-cultural context of the Mamluk period was taken into account in order to clarify the role of the literary milieu and prevailing tendencies in Ibn Hajar’s use of tawriyah. Comparative studies with contemporary poets were conducted in order to evaluate the degree of innovation in his poetry and its conformity with the dominant trends of Mamluk poetic.
Discussion and Analysis: The findings indicate that Ibn Hajar viewed tawriyah not merely as a wordplay device but rather as a device for generating meaning and deepening the poetic experience. Tawriyah enables him to create multilayered texts and to move away from univocality, so that the reader participates actively in process of discovering hidden meanings. It contributed to the production of a text that is rich intellectually and emotionally, establishing a balance between aesthetic contemplation and cognitive understanding. At times, tawriyah is employed for the purpose of conciseness, allowing the maximum amount of meaning to be conveyed with the fewest words; at other times, it highlighted key terms and assumed an organizing role in the structure of the poem. From a musical perspective, tawriyah reinforces the rhythm and cadence of the text and reduce monotony. The research shows that Ibn Hajar also introduces certain innovations, selecting precise or remote meanings in light of his religious and scholarly background, thereby creating a balance between juridical/ Sharīʿa-based knowledge and poetic sensibility. This feature is particularly evident in his maqāṭīʿ, where he generates a duality of meaning between the religious and the aesthetic dimensions through concision and calculated ambiguity and thereby enhances the interaction between text and reader. Culturally, the widespread use of tawriyah reflects a general tendency in the Mamluk period toward the display of rhetorical skill and artistic competition among poets, where poetry served more as a field for exhibiting intellectual and artistic capacities than as a mere vehicle for the expressing of emotion. Nevertheless, Ibn Hajar succeeds in maintaining a balance between verbal beauty and semantic depth and avoids excessive artificiality, which makes his works a distinguished and exemplary model of Mamluk poetry.
Finding: The study demonstrates that tawriyah in Ibn Hajar’s Diwan is extensive and multifunctional applications and significantly contributes to the semantic richness and the formation of his personal poetic style. The different types of tawriyah (lexical, semantic, and composite) create networks of subtle, multilayered meanings that not only enhance the aesthetic quality of the text but also stimulate active reader engagement. Tawriyah functions as a device for conciseness, for foregrounding key concepts, and linking explicit and implicit meanings; moreover, it harmonizes with other rhetorical devices to produce a cohesive and multidimensional text. The examination of the “al‑Maqāṭiʿ” section shows that tawriya is not merely a linguistic ornament but a fundamental component of Ibn Ḥajar’s style and a reflection of the intellectual and cultural milieu of the Mamluk period. Analyzing the functions of tawriyah clarifies Ibn Hajar’s literary position among contemporaries and offers deeper insight into the role of rhetorical devices in the literature of this period, while also highlighting his contribution to the development of Arabic poetic techniques and expressive richness.