An early 10th-century Arabic critic defined poetry formally as "metrical, rhymed, meaningful speech". There are numerous studies of classical Arabic poetry, both pre-modern and modern, that deal with the themes and motifs of poems. Many of these pay scant attention to the formal aspects that distinguish Arabic poetry from prose: metre, rhyme, and other sound patterns. Likewise, there are many treatises and monographs on these formal aspects, but often...