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Volume :28 Issue : 110 2010
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An Arabic Origin of the Persian RubÁÝÐ?
Auther : Tilman Seidensticker
The Persian RubAYD appeared in the first half of the 4th /10th century, displaying a peculiar metre and two rhyme
schemes. According to indigenous literary history, the RubAYD was simply “invented” in Persia. Western philologists have either accepted this view and tried to find earlier Persian quatrains as forerunners, or they have pointed to an alleged tradition of Turkish four-liners that could have influenced the emergence of the genre. A third view is that Arabic poetry could have played a role, as it is the case in some other instances. The article tries to advance this latter hypothesis, building mainly on the DDwAn of KhAlid Ibn YazDd al-KAtib (d. c. 270/884) that almost exclusively consists of four-liners.