The Maqāma as a Form of Literary Eloquence: Genre Evolution in 19th-Century Arabic Literature

The article examines the evolution of the maqāma genre in 19th-century Arabic literature in the context of the reconfiguration of the genre system and the transformation of rhetorical consciousness. The analysis focuses on Nāṣīf al-Yāzijī’s collection of maqāmāt Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn (The Confluence of the Two Seas), which played a significant role in debates concerning the relationship between medieval tradition and modern Arabic literature. Drawing on the works of Russian and other European Arabists (A.E. Krymsky, I.Yu. Krachkovsky, H.L. Fleischer, and others), the article explores the reasons for divergent assessments of al-Yāzijī’s oeuvre and of the maqāma genre itself. The author argues that the recourse to classical maqāma models in the mid 19th century should be understood not as epigonism, but as a form of “non-stylized imitation” grounded in the principle of rhetorical rivalry. An analysis of figurative and graphic devices, as well as the thematic content of the maqāmāt, reveals the persistence of a medieval type of rhetorical thinking in a transitional period and helps to clarify the place of the maqāma in the formation of modern Arabic literature.