The Taste Methodology in the Rhetorical Rulings of Al-Sa'd Al-Taftazaani in His Book Al-Mutawwal

Abstract

This study researched into the rhetorical tool used in forming rhetorical rulings, and analysing the proofs -which is the taste, from the book Al-Mutawwal by al-Sa’d al-Taftazānī. The study of the determinant of taste in the mentioned book seeks to clarify the following: the importance of taste in the Arabic Rhetoric, and the status of using it as benchmark, and the position of taste to al-Sa’d in al-Mutawwal, and the places where he called for the use of taste as benchmark, with study and categorization.

Based on these objectives, the question of the research are: what is the approach of al-Sa’d in relating with taste in studying the rhetorical aims? And how did al-Sa’d correlate between taste and principle in solving rhetorical issues? Also, what extent did he call for the use of taste in rhetorical rulings?

The researcher followed the inductive method, and the division followed the topics of Rhetorics mentioned, so that the analysis and the study are according to the extant methodology, which mirrors the precision of the research findings and their clarity.

The nature of the research necessitated dividing it into: an introduction, a preface, and four chapters. The introduction includes the rationale for the topic, and the research question, and the method followed, and its plan, then the preface includes a discussion about taste, by definition, and its place in Arabic Rhetorics, followed by the four chapters, which vary according to al-Sakākī’s division of Rhetorics, in the following order: Chapter 1: the determinant of taste in explaining the status of the science of Rhetorics, Chapter 2: the determinant of taste in explaining the meaning of fluency and rhetoric, Chapter 3: the determinant of taste on the issues of the science of Semantics, and it includes three sub-chapters, Sub-Chapter 1: mention and ellipsis, Sub-Chapter 2: forwarding and delaying, Sub-Chapter 3: demand composition, Sub-Chapter 4: the determinant of taste in the reading of texts.