(A.  E.).  Besides being majzuah, the second ’Aruz is sahihah (perfect) consisting of the normal foot Mustaf’ilun.  It has three Azrub:  1.  Mustaf’ilan (- — U -’, with an overlong final syllable, see supra p. 238), produced by the ’Illah Tazyil, i.e. addition of a quiescent letter at the end (Mustaf’ilunn, by substitution Mustaf’ilan); 2.  Mustaf’ilun, like the ’Aruz; 3.  Maf’ulun (- — -), produced by the ‘Illah Kat’ (see the preceding page; Mustaf’ilun, by dropping the final n and making the l quiescent becomes Mustaf’il and by substitution Maf’ulun).  Hence the formula is: 

Mustaf’ilun Fa’ilun Mustaf’ilun
{ Mustaf’il n
Mustaf’ilun Fa’ilun{ Mustaf’ilun
{ Maf’uulun,

which, with its allowable licenses, may be represented by the scheme: 

U U     | U     |
— — U — | — U — | — — U —

{ U U
U U | U { — — U —
— — U — | — U — { — — U —
{ U
{ — — —

The above will suffice to illustrate the general method of the Prosodists, and we must refer the reader for the remaining classes and subdivisions of the Basit as well as the other metres to more special treatises on the subject, to which this Essay is intended merely as an introduction, with a view to facilitate the first steps of the student in an important, but I fear somewhat neglected, field of Arabic learning.

If we now turn to the poetical pieces contained in The Nights, we find that out of the fifteen metres, known to al-Khalil, or the sixteen of later Prosodists, instances of thirteen occur in the Mac.  N. edition, but in vastly different proportions.  The total number amounts to 1,385 pieces (some, however, repeated several times), out of which 1,128 belong to the first two circles, leaving only 257 for the remaining three.  The same disproportionality obtains with regard to the metres of each circle.  The Mukhtalif is represented by 331 instances of Tawil and 330 of Basit against 3 of Madid; the Mutalif by 321 instances of Kamil against 143 of Wafir; the Mujtalab by 32 instances of Ramal and 30 of Rajaz against 1 of Hazaj; the Mushtabih by 72 instances of Khafif and 52 of Sari’ against 18 of Munsarih and 15 of Mujtass; and lastly the Muttafik by 37 instances of Mutakarib.  Neither the Mutadarak (E. 2), nor the Muzari’ and Muktazib (D. 4.5) are met with.

Finally it remains for me to quote a couplet of each metre, showing how to scan them, and what relation they bear to the theoretical formulas exhibited on p. 242 to p. 247.

It is characteristic for the preponderance of the Tawil over all the other metres, that the first four lines, with which my alphabetical list begins, are written in it.  One of these belongs to a poem which has for its author Baha al-Din Zuhayr (born A.D. 1186 at Mekkah or in its vicinity, ob. 1249 at Cairo), and is to be found in full in Professor Palmer’s edition of his works, p. 164.  Sir Richard Burton translates the first Bayt (vol. i. 290):