# Madīd (metre)

The Madīd (مَدِيد, "protracted") metre is one of the metres used in classical Arabic poetry. The theoretical pattern of the metre is as follows, where u = a short syllable, – a long syllable, and x = anceps (either long or short):
    فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلُنْ فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلُنْ
    Fāʿilātun Fāʿilun Fāʿilātun Fāʿilun
    | x u – x | x u – | x u – – | x u – |
However, more usually the metre is found in a trimeter version. The full version of the trimeter is as follows:
    فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلُنْ فَاعِلَاتُنْ
    Fāʿilātun Fāʿilun Fāʿilātun
    | x u – x | x u – | x u – – |
In two of the examples below, the metre is used in a catalectic trimeter version (i.e. shortened by one syllable), as follows:
    فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلُنْ فَاعِلُنْ
    Fāʿilātun Fāʿilun Fāʿilun
    | x u – x | x u – | x u – |
In the above catalectic trimeter version, the 2nd and 3rd anceps syllables (x) are usually long (never both short), and the 3rd is almost always short. The final foot | u u – | may become | – – |.
The Madīd metre is only rarely used. Only 0.43% of Vadet's corpus of 1st–3rd century AD poetry are in this metre. It does not occur at all in Stoetzer's corpus of 8th-century poems or in the 10th-century poet al-Mutanabbi. The tetrameter version is rarely found in practice except in prosodists' examples.

## Examples
### Tetrameter

The longer tetrameter version of this metre is rare. The following line, a mother's lament for her son, is found in the Ḥamāsa, an anthology of poems compiled in the 9th century by Abū Tammām:
    ليت قلبي ساعةً صبرهُ عنكَ مَلَك * ليت نفسي قُدِّمت للمنايا بدلك
    layta qalb-ī sāʿatan * ṣabra-hū ʿanka malak
    layta nafs-ī quddimat * li-l-manāyā badalak
    | – u – – | – u – || – u – – | u u – |
    "Would that my heart for an hour * could control its grief for you;
    Would that my soul could be sacrificed * to Fate instead of you."
In this version, there is a clear break between the two halves of the hemistich.

### Trimeter

The trimeter is more common than the tetrameter. The following line is by the 8th-century Iraqi poet Abu-l-ʿAtahiya:
    إنّما أنتَ بوادي ٱلمنايا * إن رماكَ ٱلموت فيه أصابا
    ʼinnamā ʼanta bi-wādi l-manāyā
    ʼin ramāka l-mawtu fīhi ʼaṣābā
    | – u – – | u u – | – u – – |
    | – u – – | – u – | u u – – |
    "Lo, you are dwelling in Fate's vale;
    when Death strikes you, it will not fail."

### Trimeter catalectic

More often the trimeter is used in a catalectic version, that is, with the final syllable missing. A well known poem in this catalectic version is the following by the Baghdadi Sufi poet Sumnūn al-Muḥibb (also known as Samnūn, died c. 910 AD):
    كان لى قلب أعيش به * ضــــــاع منى فى تقلبه
    رب فاردده عليّ فقد * ضاق صدري في تطلبه
    وأغث ما دام بي رمقٌ * يا غياثَ المستغيثِ به
    kāna lī qalbun ’aʿīšu bihī
    ḍāʿa minnī fī taqallubihī
    rabbi fardudhu ʿalayya fa-qad
    ḍāqa ṣadrī fī taṭallubihī
    wa-ʼaḡiṯ mā dāma bī ramaqun
    yā ḡiyāṯa l-mustaḡīṯi bihī
    – u – – | – u – | u u –
    – u – – | – u – | u u –
    – u – – | u u – | u u –
    – u – – | – u – | u u –
    – u – – | – u – | u u –
    – u – – | – u – | u u –
    "I had a heart which I lived with;
    I lost it in its turning.
    Lord, return it to me, since
    my breast has become narrow in searching for it.
    And succour me as long as life remains,
    O succour of him who seeks assistance."
Another version of the metre is used by the Arabian poet Baha' al-din Zuhair (1186–1258) in the love ode which begins:
    کل شیء منک مقبول * وعلی العینین محمول
    والاذی یرضیک من تلفی * هین عندی ومبذول
    kullu šayʼin minka maqbūlū
    wa ʿala l-ʿaynayni maḥmūlū
    wa-l-laḏī yurḍīka min talafī
    hayyinun ʿindī wa mabḏūlū
    – u – – | – u – | – –
    u u – – | – u – | – –
    – u – – | – u – | u u –
    – u – – | – u – | – –
    "Everything from you is acceptable
    and bearable in my eyes;
    And what pleases you of my destruction
    is easy for me and (readily) bestowed."
In this version of the metre, the final u u – is optionally changed to – –. This variation, affecting the last three syllables of the line, is also found in the Basīṭ metre, and is also common in Persian poetry.

### Medieval Hebrew poetry

This metre is almost never used in medieval Hebrew poetry. However, Halper quotes a piyyut written by the 12th-century Spanish scholar Abraham ibn Ezra in the trimeter version of the metre, which runs as follows:
    אֶשְׂמְחָה כִּי אֶפְתְּחָה פִּי לְהוֹדוֹת‎
    אֶעֱנֶה טוּב מַעֲנֶה שִׁיר יְדִידוֹת‎
    ’esmĕchah ki ’eftĕchah pi lĕhodot
    ’e‘ĕneh tuv ma‘ăneh shir yĕdidot
    | – u – – | – u – | – u – – |
Because of the rarity of short syllables in Hebrew, Ibn Izra chooses the long alternative of each anceps.