Al-Āmidī’s al-Muwāzana in the Lens Modern Criticism: A Reading in the Light of Structuralism, Formalism, and the Theory of Intertextuality in al-Muwāzana bayna Shiʿr Abī Tammām wa al-Buḥturī

Abstract

This paper offers a renewed reading of Abū al-Qāsim al-Āmidī’s al-Muwāzana bayna Shiʿr Abī Tammām wa al-Buḥturī, which is one of the most foundational works in the history of Arabic literary criticism. By employing modern critical perspectives that highlight dimensions often overlooked in traditional scholarship, Al-Āmidī’s meticulous classification of poetic material and his rigorous comparative standards reveal not only descriptive criticism but also an implicit methodology that resonates with structuralism, formalism, and intertextuality. The study proceeds through three major axes. First, it examines the systematic structure underlying al-Āmidī’s classification of his material, suggesting that his approach anticipates, in striking ways, certain principles of structural analysis centuries before their articulation in Western theory. Second, it reconsiders al-Āmidī’s treatment of ʿAmūd al-shiʿr (the poetic canon) and al-ṣunʿa (artifice), reinterpreting them through formalist notions such as “literariness” and “defamiliarization”. Thereby, this reveals a deep sensitivity to the specific aesthetic function of poetic form. Third, the study explores al-Āmidī’s engagement with the issue of poetic thefts, placing it in dialogue with modern theories of intertextuality. What medieval critics condemned as “theft” may today be reframed as creative textual interaction or intertextual dialogue.

The study concludes that al-Āmidī represents not only a transmitter of inherited critical traditions but also a pioneer of advanced analytical awareness whose insights remain profoundly relevant. Re-reading al-Muwāzana through the lens of contemporary theory thus affirms the possibility of a fruitful dialogue between Arabic critical heritage and modern literary thought, while simultaneously enriching our understanding of classical Arabic poetry and its critical reception.