Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences

Abstract

Classical Arabic literature, with its linguistic and literary structure, offers a wide range of opportunities to convey emotions most beautifully. The vocabulary and the world of meanings in its mahfūzāt indicate that it is not a language composed of mere phrases and words. In the Arabic language, the meaning in the minds can be conveyed to the addressee audience through silence and concrete indicators. The concept that meets this situation is expressed as "Samt." One cannot speak of absolute silence in the world of the human mind. Because human beings were created to transform existence into meaning, and all systems of belief, language and philosophy emphasize the quality of "nātıka" that distinguishes human beings from other beings. However, this speech is not a type of speech that includes only the inventory necessary for speech. As in many other languages, the Arabic language has accepted listening and silence as one of the elements of communication within the scope of eloquence. This is because in both meaningful silence and effective listening, the whole self of the human being comes into play and gives some messages according to the situation of the interlocutor. In fact, this situation, which starts with the ear, sometimes takes the form of a word and sometimes silence. It seems that silence is the connection between the words siyak and sibak. For silence to be of literary value, it must appear in a context. At this point, it can be said that all fields of rhetoric, especially "meānī," are the largest fields of science that examine the concept of samt because samt has a literary identity hidden in the depths of language. Although many other words in Arabic culture carry the meaning of "silence" within them, it is one of the most important literary aspects to be able to determine the balance between communication and silence that these concepts indicate. This is because silence is sometimes accepted as a part of communication and used as a way of deepening thought or emotional expression, while sometimes it reveals the state of being devoid of a simple voice. Therefore, the etymology of silence is important to understand the forms of communication and expression in Arabic society. In terms of conceptual analysis, the first word corresponding to the act of silence in the Arabic language is "samt". It is followed by concepts such as "sukūt," "insāt," "hudū'," "isāha"... respectively. These concepts, each of which has an independent meaning value, have different areas of use according to the situation. In addition, when the human state of mind is taken into consideration, it is seen that there are centers of meaning from which samt is nourished. The first of them is the center of "sorrow and thought." As a matter of fact, especially in the ignorance culture, poets used silence to express their feelings more effectively when words were insufficient. Secondly, it is a fact that silence points to the "importance of knowledge." Indeed, silence at a time when knowledge needs to be taught or shared emphasizes that this knowledge is special and valuable. Another load of meaning in the content of the samt is "reverence and affection". Although at first glance, the conversation is understood as chatting with words, in Anatolian lore, the source of conversation is actually silence, as per the maxim "There is a path from heart to heart that is invisible." Samt has been analyzed in many different genres in Arabic literature in verse and prose. While the basic meanings of the concept of samt, its linguistic analysis and rhetorical aspects were evaluated in the classical sources mentioned in the research, the semantic features of silence were evidenced with poems, stories, anecdotes and sayings. It is observed that the subject is examined sensitively in works written in the fields of science such as Islamic sciences, philosophy and history, which are in close contact with the field of literature. The conclusion reached about samt in all these branches of science is that a person who has control over his language can control his self. Essentially, samt occupies a place between speaking at every opportunity and total silence. Based on the aforementioned literary depth, in this study, the meaning dimensions of the concept of samt / silence, which is an important element of communication methods, have been tried to be discussed from the perspective of Arabic Language and Rhetoric.