بِنْيَةُ الصُّورَةِ الفَنِّيَّةِ فِي رَسَائِلِ ابْنِ نُبَاتَةَ المِصْرِيِّ دراسة أسلوبيَّة دلاليَّة

The Structure of Artistic Imagery in the Epistles of Ibn Nubata al-MisriA Stylistic and Semantic Study

Abstract

This study examines the structure of the artistic image in the epistles of Ibn Nubata al-Misri (686–768 AH) as a stylistic and semantic system that produces meaning, shapes attitude, and regulates the relationship between sender and recipient. Using a stylistic-semantic approach informed by classical Arabic rhetoric and modern stylistics, it analyzes selected fraternal and literary epistles preserved in Sajʿ al-Mutawwaq and al-Safadi’s Alhan al-Sawajiʿ, together with The Debate between the Sword and the Pen. The study shows that simile, metaphor, metonymy, personification, and intertextuality interact with rhythmic devices such as parallelism, rhyme, antithesis, and repetition. Ibn Nubata draws his imagery from the human body, nature, place, and religious and cultural memory, turning abstract meanings such as longing, merit, reproach, and estrangement into sensory scenes. The image consequently performs aesthetic, argumentative, psychological, and social functions and reveals the vitality of Mamluk artistic prose.