UPMSP Intermediate Arabic - Code 125 flashcards

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

Nasr

Arabic term for literary prose, covering the essay, short story and maqamah. In the syllabus it is studied for theme, characterisation and rhetorical style, contrasted with shi'r (poetry).

Saj'

Rhymed, rhythmic prose used in classical Arabic oratory and the maqamat. Recognisable by matching end-sounds in successive short phrases rather than metre, and often cited in prose style questions.

Maqamah

A short narrative prose genre associated with al-Hamadhani and al-Hariri, featuring a witty rogue hero and ornate rhymed prose. Exam questions link it to adab and to stylistic imitation of classical rhetoric.

Qafiyah

The rhyme ending of a line of Arabic poetry, consisting of the final consonant and the vowel before it. Both hemistiches of a bayt share the qafiyah in monorhyme qasidah.

Sadr and 'ajuz

The two halves of a bayt: sadr is the first hemistich, 'ajuz the second. Explanation questions often quote only one half and require completion of the sense.

Isti'arah

Arabic metaphor, a figure in which a word is used for something other than its literal sense through an implied comparison. Distinguished from tashbih, which states the comparison explicitly with a particle.

Tibaq

Antithesis in Arabic rhetoric: joining two opposites in one line, such as layl/nahar (night/day) or hayat/mawt (life/death), to sharpen contrast and meaning.

Al-amud al-shi'ri

The traditional metrical system of Arabic poetry with sixteen metres and a single monorhyme. Neo-classical poets such as al-Barudi and Shawqi revived it against free-verse experimentation.

Mahjar poetry

Poetry by Arab émigré writers in the Americas, notably Jubran and Abu Madi, marked by spiritual themes, freer imagery and looser rhyme than classical qasidah.

Jumlah ismiyyah

A nominal sentence beginning with a noun: mubtada' (subject) plus khabar (predicate), both in raf'. Example: al-baytu kabirun - the house is big.

Jumlah fi'liyyah

A verbal sentence beginning with a verb, followed by fa'il (doer, marfu') and optionally maf'ul bihi (object, mansub). Word order is normally VSO in classical Arabic.

Inna and sisters

The particles inna, anna, ka'anna, la'alla, layta and lakinna. They put the following mubtada' in nasb while the khabar stays in raf'.

Kana and sisters

The verbs kana, asbaha, amsa, zalla, bata, sara and laysa. They govern a nominal sentence: the ism stays raf' and the khabar becomes mansub.

Idafah

Arabic possessive construction: mudaf plus mudaf ilayh. The mudaf loses tanwin and the definite article, and the mudaf ilayh is always majrur.

Huruf al-jarr

Prepositions such as min, ila, 'an, 'ala, fi, bi, li and ka. Each governs a following noun in the genitive case (jarr).

Maf'ul bihi

The direct object of a transitive verb, always in nasb. It follows the fa'il in a verbal sentence and may be explicit or an attached pronoun.

Verb Form II

Pattern fa''ala with a doubled middle root letter, usually intensive or causative: 'allama (to teach) from 'alima, and kattaba from kataba. Its masdar follows taf'il.

Verb Form X

Pattern istaf'ala, generally meaning to seek or consider something: istakhraja (to extract), istaqbala (to receive). Its masdar pattern is istif'al.

Ism fa'il

Active participle naming the doer of an action. Form I pattern is fa'il (katib); other forms replace the verb's first vowel with a prefixed mu- (mukhbir, mustakhrij).

Ism maf'ul

Passive participle naming the receiver of an action. Form I pattern is maf'ul (maktub); derived forms use mu- with a prefixed vowel, as in mustakhraj.

Broken plural

Arabic plural formed by internal vowel change rather than suffix, following patterns such as af'al, fu'ul, fi'al and mafa'il: qalam → aqlam, kitab → kutub.

Mu'tall root

A root containing waw or ya' as one of its letters, which causes changes in conjugation and derivation, e.g., qala from q-w-l and baa'a from b-y-'.

VSO to SOV shift

Core translation rule: Arabic places the verb first, Hindi and Urdu place it last. Reorder subject, object and verb before translating individual words.

Copula in translation

Arabic nominal sentences lack a present-tense 'to be'. Hindi and Urdu must supply hai, hain or tha; omitting it produces ungrammatical output.

Formal Arabic letter

Structure: sender, date, addressee, greeting, body and closing. Openings use as-salamu 'alaykum; closings use wa-l-lahu al-muwaffiq or ma'a at-tahiyyat.

Arabic connectors

Linking words for composition: wa (and), thumma (then), lakin (but), li-dhalika (therefore), wa-min jihatin ukhra (on the other hand), used to build coherent paragraphs.

Talb application

A formal request letter opening with ila al-mudir al-muhtarram and closing with al-'abd al-mukhlis plus the writer's name. Standard applied-writing task in the syllabus.

Root inference

Strategy for unseen vocabulary: strip prefixes and suffixes to recover the three root letters, then match a known pattern such as kataba → kitab, katib, maktab.

Antonym pairs

Frequently tested opposites: kabir/saghir, qadim/jadid, sahl/sa'b, gani/faqir, najah/rasub. Recognising them speeds up vocabulary-in-context items.

Mu'allaqat

The celebrated pre-Islamic qasidahs, including those of Imru' al-Qays and Zuhayr, regarded as the model of the classical ode and cited in Jahiliyyah questions.

Al-Jahiz

Abbasid prose master (d. 868), author of Kitab al-Hayawan and al-Bukhala'. His adab style, mixing wit and learning, is the standard reference for classical Arabic prose.

Al-Mutanabbi

Abbasid poet (d. 965), famous for ornate panegyric to Sayf al-Dawlah and for proverbial lines. He is the standard example of classical madih and poetic pride.