Arabic Poetry Meters
The 16 classical metres with their feet, and a formatter for your own verse.
Classical Arabic poetry is written in metres called buhur (بحور, literally seas). Each metre is a fixed pattern of feet (tafail), and a verse (bayt) is two half-verses, the sadr (صدر) and the ajuz (عجز), each following the pattern. Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (d. 786) set out fifteen metres in five circles; his student al-Akhfash added a sixteenth, al-Mutadarik. Pick a metre to see its feet, or paste your own verse into the formatter: it lays the verse out as a proper bayt, first half on the right and second half on the left, the way Arabic poems are printed.
Feet for one half-verse
The pattern is shown for one half-verse; a full bayt repeats it twice. Real poems use licensed variations (zihafat) that shorten or alter feet, especially the last foot of a half-verse, so a real line will not always match the teaching pattern foot for foot.
First half (sadr)
Second half (ajuz)
| Metre (Arabic) | Name | Meaning | Feet (one half-verse) |
|---|---|---|---|
| الطويل | al-Tawil | the Long | فعولن مفاعيلن فعولن مفاعيلن |
| المديد | al-Madid | the Extended | فاعلاتن فاعلن فاعلاتن |
| البسيط | al-Basit | the Spread | مستفعلن فاعلن مستفعلن فاعلن |
| الوافر | al-Wafir | the Abundant | مفاعلتن مفاعلتن فعولن |
| الكامل | al-Kamil | the Perfect | متفاعلن متفاعلن متفاعلن |
| الهزج | al-Hazaj | the Trilling | مفاعيلن مفاعيلن |
| الرجز | al-Rajaz | the Trembling | مستفعلن مستفعلن مستفعلن |
| الرمل | al-Ramal | the Running | فاعلاتن فاعلاتن فاعلن |
| السريع | al-Sari | the Swift | مستفعلن مستفعلن فاعلن |
| المنسرح | al-Munsarih | the Flowing | مستفعلن مفعولات مستفعلن |
| الخفيف | al-Khafif | the Light | فاعلاتن مستفعلن فاعلاتن |
| المضارع | al-Mudari | the Analogous | مفاعيلن فاعلاتن مفاعيلن |
| المقتضب | al-Muqtadab | the Improvised | مفعولات مستفعلن |
| المجتث | al-Mujtathth | the Curtailed | مستفعلن فاعلاتن |
| المتقارب | al-Mutaqarib | the Approximative | فعولن فعولن فعولن فعولن |
| المتدارك | al-Mutadarik | the Consecutive | فاعلن فاعلن فاعلن فاعلن |
The example verse is the opening of Imru al-Qays's Muallaqa, in al-Tawil: qifa nabki min dhikra habibin wa manzili, bi siqt al-liwa bayna al-dukhuli fa hawmali. It is shown because it is the most famous Tawil line in Arabic poetry, not because the tool checked its scansion. This tool formats verses and teaches metres; it does not scan a verse automatically, because correct scansion needs the pronounced form of the words, with elisions and vowel lengths that plain text does not carry.
Feet, pegs and cords
A foot (tafila) is a fixed sequence of short and long syllables. Short syllables are open syllables with a short vowel; long syllables are closed syllables or open syllables with a long vowel. Al-Khalil described feet as pegs (awtad) and cords (asbab): a peg is a short syllable followed by a long one, and a cord is one or two short syllables. The sixteen metres are built from eight feet: faʿuulun, mafaaʿiilun, faaʿilaatun, mustafʿilun, mufaaʿalatun, mutafaaʿilun, faaʿilun and mafʿuulaat. Every classical metre is a repetition of one or two of these feet.
The five circles group metres that share feet. Tawil, Madid and Basit form one circle; Wafir and Kamil form another; Hazaj, Rajaz and Ramal a third; Sarīʿ, Munsarih, Khafif, Mudari, Muqtadab and Mujtathth a fourth; and Mutaqarib and Mutadarik a fifth. Knowing the circle helps a reader: a poem that starts in one metre of a circle will not drift into a metre of another circle, because the feet do not match.
Zihafat: the licensed variations
Real poems do not repeat the teaching pattern exactly. Poets are allowed certain changes, called zihafat: shortening a long syllable, dropping a syllable, or changing a vowel. The last foot of a half-verse changes most often: in Tawil, the last foot is usually mafaaʿilun, shortened from mafaaʿiilun. A learner who expects an exact match will think every real poem is broken; the variations are part of the system.
How to use the formatter
Paste the two halves of your verse into the two boxes, pick the metre, and copy the formatted result. The sadr goes on the right and the ajuz on the left, following Arabic reading order. The tool does not judge whether your verse fits the metre: that check needs a teacher or a scansion tool that works from pronounced syllables.
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