[seqfan] Re: Arabic Poetry Sequences

[M. F. Hasler]

Dear SeqFans,

I find this topic very interesting and IMHO there is clearly an aspect of
discrete mathematics in considering words on that alphabet, be it
{0,1} or {o,/}
or whatever, subject to specific rules.

I imagine it could be equally well interesting to study the pattern of
consonants/vowels (and/or accented/unaccented syllabi) in poetry in other
languages (Latin, Greek, ...), and maybe/probably/certainly this is already
done to some extend.

Remains to see whether significant mathematical pattern can be found there.
(If it's just "recording/listing" with no mathematical relations or
results, then it might be not more appropriate for OEIS than other
sequences which are just encoding of music or literature, some of which
exist in OEIS for historical reasons, but are "depreciated" in the sense
their existence should not encourage to add others.
In order to be politically correct, we could or even should, though, try
our best so that Eastern* and Western* (and northern and southern) culture
is equally* well represented in OEIS (* whatever these mean)...)

To come back to the subject, two observations and or questions:

It appears that all of the "sequences" (= verses) start with the symbol
"1". If this is true, then each such line is in a very natural way
equivalent to one single number (which has this sequence as base 2
expansion), and we can treat these verse/sequences as numbers rather than
as sequence of zeros and ones. Would that make sense?
With a different point of view, this could also suggest that these
"sequences" shouldn't be submitted as sequences since that are actually
single numbers, one should rather list all possible such numbers in one
sequence (or in a few sequences, if it makes sense to separate them into a
few groups).

Does the given order (1 = The Long, 2 = The Extended etc) of these
sequences (= verses = binary numbers) has a meaning, or did you (or other
scholars) just number them in some "random" order?

Some of the patterns have only one, some have two, some even three lines.
Could it make sense to group them together by number of lines/verses ?

Is there any way to consider the list(s) you gave as exhaustive, or could
there be more than those you give in one of the groups?
If so, is there some selection criterion or could there in principle be any
sequence of 1's and 0's ? If there is /are well defined criteria, then one
could consider the sequence of all numbers which (= whose base 2 expansion)
could possibly be a candidate to represent such a verse (according to the
considered criteria).

One could also consider just the length of these verses: what can be said
about the possible lengths?

Even if in principle "anything" is possible in poetry, it could be
reasonable to consider some classical "corpus" to make well defined
nontrivial sequences. (in analogy to, e.g, hexameters, pentameters,
Alexandrines etc ... in classical Greek and Roman and other "Western"(sigh)
poetry.)
Within these, some 0-1 patterns could be excluded and others (a priori)
allowed, which could lead to well defined sequences (subsets of the
positive integers).

--
Maximilian

On Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 05:06 Ali Sada via SeqFan <seqfan at list.seqfan.eu>
wrote:

>  Hi Antti,
> Thank you for your response. Yes, I meant the sequences at the end of the
> email. I put them here again in OEIS format. And yes, they are periodic.
> The poem can go up to hundreds of verses, and each one is with the same
> format.
> I have no idea if there is any mathematical interest in them. As far as I
> know, I might be the first one to replace the "/" and the "o" with "1" and
> "0", respectively. This system could be used in cryptography, for
> example.Also, it might be interesting to compare these rhythms with rhythms
> from other cultures, like Farsi poetry as you mentioned. Maybe someone can
> check English rhythms replacing C,V, #, etc. with numbers.
> In any case, this was just a suggestion.
> Best,
> Ali
>
> 1.      Al-Taweel-The Long
>
>
>
>
> 1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>
> 2.      Al-Madid-The Extended
>
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
> 3.      Al-Baseet-Plain
>
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0
>
>
>
> 4.      Al-Wafer- The Abundant
>
>
>
>
> 1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
> 1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
> 5.      Al-Kamel-The Perfect
>
>
>
>
> 1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>
> 6.      Al-Hazaj- The Lilt
>
>
>
>
> 1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0
>
> 1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
>
>
> 7.      Al-Rajaz- The Wind Vibration
>
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 8.      Al-Raml- The Sand
>
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
> 9.      Al-Saree’-The Fast
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>
> 10.  Al-Munsareh- TheSloping (water goes down on aslope)
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,0
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1
>
>
>
> 11.  Al-Khafif- The Light(light weight)
>
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
>
>
> 12.  Al-Mudhare’- TheSimilar
>
>
>
>
> 1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
> 1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
> 13.  Al-Muqtadhab- The Brief
>
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>
> 14.  Al-Mujtath- TheDeducted
>
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
> 15.  Al-Mutaqareb- TheConverged
>
>
>
>
> 1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
>
> 1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
> 16.  Al-Khabab- The Trot
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1,0
>
>
>
> 1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,1,1,0
>
>
>