Karnataka II PUC Arabic (KSEAB) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Nasr

Arabic for prose. It covers short stories, essays, speeches, letters and biographies, and in the KSEAB reader each prose lesson is studied for author, theme, vocabulary and moral.

Maqama

A genre of rhymed Arabic prose invented by al-Hamadhani and perfected by al-Hariri. Its episodes feature a witty wandering rogue and are written in saj', rhymed prose.

Kalila wa Dimna

A collection of animal fables translated from Persian into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa'. The stories teach political wisdom and moral conduct through talking animals.

Al-Jahiz

A ninth-century Basran master of Arabic prose, author of al-Bukhala (The Misers) and Kitab al-Hayawan (The Book of Animals). His style is ironic, digressive and richly lexical.

Saj'

Rhymed, rhythmic Arabic prose without metre. The ends of its clauses share a final letter, and it is used in sermons, maqamat and pre-Islamic oratory.

Sira

The Arabic biography genre, above all the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Sira works combine genealogy, narrative and poetry, and are a main source for early Islamic history.

Qasida

A monorhymed Arabic ode of usually seven to ten or more lines. Classical qasidas open with a nasib, move to a rahil and often end in madih, praise.

Matla'

The opening line of an Arabic qasida. In it both hemistichs rhyme, setting the qafiya that the rest of the poem follows.

Tashbih

Arabic simile: the comparison of two things using a particle such as ka, mithl or ka'anna. Its four parts are the compared, the compared-to, the particle and the point of similarity.

Isti'ara

Arabic metaphor, formed by deleting one element of a simile. Tasrihiyya states the borrowed image openly; makniyya hides it, as in 'the lion fought' for a brave man.

Bahr

The metre of an Arabic poem. Classical prosody, codified by al-Khalil ibn Ahmad, recognises sixteen metres built from repeated feet of sabab and watad.

Ritha'

The Arabic elegy, a poem mourning a dead person and praising his or her virtues. It is one of the classical poetic themes alongside madih, hija' and fakhr.

Mubtada' and khabar

The subject and predicate of an Arabic nominal sentence, jumla ismiyya. Both are marfu', and the khabar agrees with the mubtada' in gender and number.

Inna and her sisters

The particles inna, anna, ka'anna, la'alla and layta. They make the following noun mansub and the predicate khabar marfu', as in inna al-ilma nurun.

Kana and her sisters

Verbs such as kana, amsa, asbaha, zalla and laysa. They govern a nominal sentence, leaving the ism marfu' and making the khabar mansub.

Idafa construction

An Arabic possessive phrase of two nouns. The first, the mudaf, takes no tanwin and no al-, while the second, the mudaf ilayh, is always majrur.

Mudari' mansub

A present-tense verb made accusative after particles such as an, lan, kay, li, hatta and aw. Its final vowel becomes fatha, as in lan nadhhaba.

Mudari' majzum

A present-tense verb made jussive after lam, la, in, man, ma, ayna or mata. Its final vowel becomes sukun, or a final weak letter drops.

Jam' mu'annath salim

The feminine sound plural, formed by adding -at to a singular, as in mu'allima to mu'allimat. Its alif may drop when the word is a mudaf.

Ism fa'il

The active participle in Arabic, naming the doer of an action. Triliteral patterns are fa'il, as in katib, and muf'il, as in mukrim; it behaves like an adjective.

VSO to SVO

Arabic normally begins a verbal sentence with the verb, as in kataba al-talibu al-darsa. English requires the subject first: 'The student wrote the lesson.'

Idafa word order

Arabic kitab al-talib means literally 'book the student'. In English the possessor comes first: 'the student's book', not 'the book the student'.

Definite article al-

Usually translated 'the', but with abstract or generic nouns it is left untranslated: al-ilm means 'knowledge' and al-sabr means 'patience'.

Future markers

Arabic marks future tense with sa- prefixed to the verb or the separate word sawfa before it. Both are translated into English with 'will'.

Arabic passive

Formed by changing the vowels of the past verb, as in kataba to kutiba, or of the present, yaktubu to yuktabu. English uses 'was' or 'were' plus a past participle.

Essay connectives

Arabic linking words for essays: awwalan (firstly), thumma (then), ba'da dhalika (after that), li-dhalika (therefore) and fi al-khatimah (in conclusion). They make arguments flow.

Formal letter opening

Arabic formal letters begin with the addressee, for example ila al-mudir al-muhtarama, 'to the respected principal', then the subject line al-mawdu', then the body.

Arabic question words

Interrogatives used in comprehension: man (who), ma (what), ayna (where), mata (when), kayfa (how), limadha (why) and kam (how many). Each expects a matching answer type.

Comprehension answering

Answer unseen-passage questions in complete Arabic sentences, reusing the tense and person of the question and echoing the passage's own key words rather than inventing synonyms.

Formal address terms

Arabic uses hadrat or sa'ada plus a title for respect, as in hadrat al-ustadh. The plural hadarat is used for groups, and colloquial forms are avoided in KSEAB writing.

Essay plan

A safe structure for the Arabic essay: a one-sentence introduction, two or three body points each with an example, then a conclusion repeating the main idea.

Dialect in writing

KSEAB Arabic composition expects Modern Standard Arabic. Avoid regional words such as the Egyptian kida or Gulf shu, and use classical vocabulary with full case endings.