Dating-In-Verse: Shiite Theologian's Superiority of Talent in Last Two Centuries

Dating- in- verse is a rhetorical art which-according to the most reliable documents- appeared during the period of decline in Arabic literature, although some authors believed that Pre-Islamic poets also wrote some kinds of it.Dating-in-verse is the versification of a date written by use of ABJD alphabetical order, in which each letter marks or equals a number, e.g. A=1, B=2, J=3 etc.To versify a date, the poet makes a phrase or a sentence whose letters –if summed up- equal the date of an event, like the date of someone's birth or death and so on.Having harmony, rhythm and rhyme, the versified date can be memorized easier than a date made of mere a number.This art has been popular in traditional literary circles during last two centuries and Shiite theologians have created numerous verses of this poetic type.This paper deals with the introduction of this rhetoric art and the poetic samples written by Shiite theologians during two last centuries.