Copyright by Reema Barakat 2015

The Report Committee for Reema Barakat Certifies that this is the approved version of the following report:

The Resurrection of the Caliphate in ISIS’ Discourse

APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE:

Kristen Brustad, Supervisor Mahmoud Al-Batal, Co-Supervisor

The Resurrection of the Caliphate in ISIS’ Discourse

by Reema Barakat, B.A.

Report Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts

The University of Texas at Austin May, 2015

Abstract

The Resurrection of the Caliphate in ISIS’ Discourse Reema Barakat, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2015 Supervisors: Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-Batal

The phenomenon of the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria, ISIS, purports to be a resurrection of the caliphate. This paper investigates the linguistic and rhetorical performance of this caliphate by analyzing the only two public speeches given by the selfproclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The first appearance is his sermon in Mosul in July 2014, in which he formally announces his caliphate (khilafa), and the second is a recorded statement from November 2014. My analysis of these speeches focuses on their performative aspects; that is, the features not normally found in unmarked speech that appear to be deliberately chosen for their extralinguistic meanings. By investigating these features, I aim to uncover these extralinguistic, performative messages, and show how they represent a linguistic “performance” of this caliphate.

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Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Who is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi? ...............................................................................2 Overview ..................................................................................................................3 Quranic Recitation ...................................................................................................4 Phonetic Merging (idghām) ............................................................................4 Qalqalah mechanism (Parting of the two components of the articulating parts) ................................................................................................................5 Speaking in the Voice of God and Early Islamic Figures ........................................7 Reference to Abu Bakr al-Siddiq ....................................................................7 Reference to God ............................................................................................8 Tone .......................................................................................................................10 Intonation ......................................................................................................10 Intonation in the sermon ......................................................................11 Intonation in the Political Speech at the Word Level ..........................17 Intonation in the political Speech at the sentence and word levels ......20 Rising Intonation with Lengthening .............................................................26 Loudness/ Volume ........................................................................................26 v

Lexical Choices......................................................................................................30 Literary Devices .....................................................................................................35 Synonyms and Parallelism ............................................................................35 Metaphor and Tamyiiz ..................................................................................36 Stance .....................................................................................................................38 Conclusion .............................................................................................................40 References ..............................................................................................................41 Electronic Resources:.............................................................................................43

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Introduction The phenomenon of the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria, ISIS, purports to be a resurrection of the caliphate. This paper investigates the linguistic and rhetorical performance of this caliphate by analyzing the only two public speeches given by the selfproclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The first appearance is his sermon in Mosul in July 2014, in which he formally announces his caliphate (khilaafa), and the second is a recorded statement from November 2014. My analysis of these speeches focuses on their performative aspects; that is, the features not normally found in unmarked speech that appear to be deliberately chosen for their extralinguistic meanings. By investigating these features, I aim to uncover these extralinguistic, performative messages, and show how they represent a linguistic “performance” of this caliphate.

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Who is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi? It is important to note at the outset that there are no reliable studies on Al Baghdadi, only sketchy and sometimes contradictory information circulated on the internet. Additionally, most of the internet resources that talk about him seem to have different agendas about who he is. In spite of that, these internet resources are the only source of information about Al Baghdadi at this point. Consequently, all the following information are collected and gathered from these two resoursec (al-Khani & Gebeily, 2014) and from (Abu Bakr, 2015). Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Qurashi, is known to his supporters as Amir al-Mu'minin “Prince of Believers”. on June 29th, 2014he was proclaimed Caliph of the self-described “Islamic State” currently based in western Iraq and northeastern Syria. He is believed to have been born near Samarra, Iraq in 1971. Additionally, he obtained a BA, MA and PhD in Islamic studies from the Islamic University of Baghdad. Some believe that he was already a militant (jihadist) during the rule of Saddam Hussein. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, al-Baghdadi helped to found the militant group Jamaa’at Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamaa’ah which means the united group of Sunnis. In 2006, he became the general supervisor of the Islamic State of Iraq’s shari’a committee. al-Baghdadi was announced as leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in May 2010, after the death of the previous leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. After the death of the head of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, in May 2011, al-Baghdadi released a statement praising bin Laden and threatening violent revenge for his death. After the expansion of al-Qaeda into Syria in 2013, he announced the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS, and consequently In February 2014, al-Qaeda announced that they would cut relations relation with ISIS. Baghdadi in his 2

first appearance played the role of a preacher by giving the sermon, and the role of an Imam by leading the Friday prayers in the mosque.

Overview This study will analyze the linguistic and rhetorical features in al-Baghdadi’s two speeches. First, I will examine the Qur’anic recitation techniques and particularly tajweed rules, and I will investigate the way he applies them to his own words. Also, I will provide a definition of tajweed rules. Second, I will explain how al-Baghdadi uses quotations from early Islamic figures or from the Qur’an without referring to them as quotations, and how he incorporates them as his words. In the third section of this paper I will analyze the marked patterns of rising and falling intonation, the volume changes, and the vowel lengthening that accompanies the rising intonation. After that, there will be a section that investigates the origin and the connotations of the lexical choices used by al-Baghdadi. The fifth section will introduce the literary devices that we find in Al-Baghdadi’s two speeches. Finally, there will be an analysis of the stance markers in al-Baghdadi’s verbal performance.

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Quranic Recitation One of the most marked elements of Al-Baghdadi’s linguistic performance is his use of tajweed rules in the sermon. Tajweed refers to the rules governing pronunciation during recitation of the Qur'an. The term is derived from the triliteral root j-w-d meaning "to make well, make better, improve". Tajweed is a fard or religious duty when reciting the Qur'an to the best of one's ability (Czerepinski, 2000). Bateson (1972) found that any message which either explicitly or implicitly defines a frame “keys” the performance and gives the receiver instructions or aids in his attempt to understand the message included within the frame. Additionally, Bauman presented the same point of Bateson when he said “All framing then including performance, is accomplished through the employment of culturally conventionalized meta-communication” (Bauman, 1984, p. 295). When any preacher uses tajweed rules, then it is culturally conventionalized that he is quoting from the Qur’an. Further, of course, al-Baghdadi has to convince the audience and prove himself to be a talented speaker and a learned religious scholar (faqīh) by means of a particular linguistic performance features. Al-Baghdadi doesn’t only use tajweed rules when he mentions quotations from the Qura’an, but also he occasionally applies them to the unquoted parts of his speech. PHONETIC MERGING (IDGHĀM) The term idghām refers to the merging of two linguistically similar sounds. By definition, it is the meeting of non-voweled letter with a voweled letter, so that the two letters become one emphasized letter of the second type (Czerepinski, 2000). When Al Baghdadi announces his caliphate, he addresses the audience saying “If you see me upon 4

truth, then assist me, and if you see me upon falsehood, then advise me and correct me and guide me and obey me as long as I obey Allah in you.” When he says “if you see me” in Arabic he pronounces it “‫ ”إرّأيتموني‬instead of “.‫ ”إن رأيتموني‬which means if you see me In other words, he applies Ahkam Al Tajweed and particularly Al-idghaam on his normal speech. That is to say, he utilizes particular linguistic aspects of God’s discourse and ascribes them to himself and to his words QALQALAH MECHANISM (PARTING OF THE TWO COMPONENTS OF THE ARTICULATING PARTS)

When al-Baghdadi talks about the importance of announcing a caliph for the Muslims, he says that this is a duty that has been abandoned for years. When he says “ ‫قد‬ ‫“ضيع‬has

been abandoned, he applies the lesser qalqalah mechanism )‫(القلقلة الصغرى‬, which is

another tajweed rules. It occurs in the middle of the word, or at the end of the word, where there is no stopping on that word, but an immediate proceeding to the next letter or word (Czerepinski, 2000). Taking into consideration that al-Baghdadi is not quoting from the Qur’an when applying the lesser qalqalah at this point. This phenomenon of applying tajweed rules on al-Baghdadi’s own words is not only in the sermon, but also in his political speech. These examples show that it is conventional for tajweed rules to indicate a quotation from the Qur’an, from God’s words. Consequently, the application of these rules on AlBaghdadi’s own words is a way to key his performance to that of the God. As long as the caliph is a representative of the God on Earth, this keying seems related to Al-Baghdadi’s attempt to performing the caliph. Additionally, when Al Baghdadi uses tajweed rules, he

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shows his mastery of the Islamic religion as a science with its rules like tajweed. This mastery is an important aspect of the caliph which al-Baghdadi tries to perform.

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Speaking in the Voice of God and Early Islamic Figures In this section, I will discuss the tadmiin phenomenon in al-Baghdadi’s two speeches. In the Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, tadmiin is explained as an incorporation of an existing line of poetry, or part thereof, into one’s own poetry (Meisami & Starkey, 1998). In other words it is the use of some religious figure’s words without indicating that they are quoted. REFERENCE TO ABU BAKR AL-SIDDIQ When al-Baghdadi announces his caliphate in the sermon, he says “ ‫فوليت عليكم ولست‬ ‫بخيركم وال أفضل منكم فإن رأيتموني على حق فأعينوني وإن رأيتموني على باطل فانصحوني وسددوني وأطيعوني‬ ‫”ما أطعت هللا فيكم‬. This means I was announced as a leader for you although I am not the best of you, nor am I better than you. Therefore, if you see me upon truth, then aid me. And if you see me upon falsehood, then advise me. And obey me as long as I obey Allah in your regards. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (the first of the Rightly Guided Caliphs) made the same statement in his first sermon in 11 Hijri after the death of the Prophet Muhammed (Farfur, 2006). Al-Baghdadi incorporates this statement when he announces his caliphate in the middle of his sermon and he uses it as part of his sermon without indicating that it is a quotation. He tries to make a connection between himself and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq through incorporating al-Siddiq’s statement in his own words. The same statement mentioned above in his first sermon after the death of the prophet Mouhammed when he was announced as the first rightly guided caliph in 11 Hijri (Farfur, 2006). Baghdadi incorporates this statement when he announces his caliphate in the middle of his sermon. Al-Baghdadi uses it as a part of his sermon without indicating that it is a quotation. He tries 7

to make a connection between himself and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq through incorporating alSiddiq’s statement in his own words. REFERENCE TO GOD

It is important to notice which quotations from the Qur’an al-Baghdadi uses in his sermon and what meanings are included in them .For instance, he includes particular quotation from the Quran which means that there will be a caliphate, and which confirms that the caliphate will continue. Not only that, but also he employs another quotation that implies that there will be a caliph after him as follows: Allah has promised those who have believed among you and done righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession [to authority] upon the earth just as He granted it to those before them and that He will surely establish for them [therein] their religion which He has preferred for them and that He will surely substitute for them, after their fear, security, [for] they worship Me, not associating anything with Me. But whoever disbelieves after that - then those are the defiantly disobedient." (Ali, 1978, Surat Al-Nur 55) In addition, when al-Baghdadi mentions this quotation from the Qur’an, he does not follow the speech acts conventions, because he doesn’t say bismi llaahi rraHmaani rrahiim. This makes the pronoun “me” in the sentence “they worship me” in the above quotation refer to al-Baghdadi himself and not to God. Baghdadi does not follow the speech acts conventions here, and quotes from the Qur’an without starting the quote with the conventional start (He the most high says). This confuses the audience between his speech and the Qur’anic quotes. Bauman (1984) identified a list of performance frames like joking, imitation, translation, and quotation. For him, in the quotation the words spoken are to be interpreted as the words of someone other than the speaker. However, in the above 8

quotation from the Qur’an, al-Baghdadi does not clarify that the performance frame is quotation, because of the absence of particular speech acts conventions. This is similar to the incorporation phenomenon that is mentioned at the beginning of this section. Also, both of the above-mentioned incorporation examples from the Qur’an and from al-Siddiq, present a high level of crossing. The concept of crossing refers to the use of the language which is not generally thought to belong to the speaker, and of its role in creating a new self (Rampton, 1995). When al-Baghdadi incorporates the God’s words from the Qur’an, or Al-Siddiq’s statement, he tries to create the new self that has aspects from both of them. Bakhtin (1981) considered that language carries with it the taste of all its uses in previous contexts. Al-Baghdadi uses references from the Qur’an and the Prophet Mouhammed’s speeches that help him ascribe some aspects of God and Prophet Mouhammed to himself. In other words, there is crossing between Baghdadi’s sermon and both the quote from the Qur’an and the statement of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. At the beginning of his political speech, al-Baghdadi chooses a set of the prophet’s speeches and Qur’anic quotations to support his argument. In the political speech he is free to use any quotations and not restricted to religious references like the case of the sermon, but he sticks to the Qur’an and the prophet Mouhammed’s speeches. This is to show that the political content of his speech is in the name of Islam and in the name of God and the prophet, i.e., to legitimize the content of his speech and to justify himself as a caliph who employs religion even when making a political decision.

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Tone In this part I talk about intonation including the rising and the falling tones at the word level and at the sentence level. Also, I examine loudness, speed and lengthening in both al-Baghdadi’s sermon and political speech.

INTONATION It must be emphasized that the current knowledge of intonation of Arabic in general is still very scanty (El Zarka, 2011). No patterns or rules for intonation have been proposed. In this situation, I can only describe and observe the detectable features in a holistic approach rather it would be beyond the scope of this study to carry out phonetic studies of these phenomena. 1. The first pattern is the falling tone, which has another branch that is rise-fall, and it is considered more intensified than the falling. In terms of the meaning, both the falling and the rise-fall tones means that the person is proclaiming and bringing new information (Brazil, 1997). 2. The second pattern is the fall- rise tone which has a more intensified version as well, which is the rise tone. In terms of the meaning, using it means that there is reference to already known information for the hearers (Brazil, 1997). In my analysis of the tone in the sermon I noticed the repeated existence of the rise tone which is pattern (2). I refer to it in the transcription with the following illustration (↖). In the coming part I will analyze only the intonation of al-Baghdadi’s words and not that

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of the quotations that he employs from the Qur’an or the Prophet Muhammed’s speeches. I will start with the sermon then, I will move to the political speech. Intonation in the sermon There is no marked intonation in the first part of the sermon where al-Baghdadi is talking about fasting. When he comes closer to the main topic of his sermon which is announcing himself as a caliph, there is a preliminary marked intonation. When alBaghdadi shifts from the topic of fasting to the topic of jihad, he connects them in a story about the prophet Mouhammed. At that point, we notice the onset of slightly marked rising tone which can be described as a very low rate rise tone. After that, when he starts his main topic about the caliphate, we notice the start of the marked rising tone which is symbolized by this arrow (↖) in the following excerpt from the sermon as follows: ‫ فهذا قوام الدين‬.1 ↖ ↖ ‫ كتابٌ يهدي وسيفٌ ينصر‬.2 ↖ ‫ وإنٌ اخوانكم المجاهدين قد منٌ هللا عليهم بنصرٌ وفتح‬.3 ↖ ↖ ↖

‫ ومكن لهم‬.4

‫ بعد سنين طويلةٌ من الجهاد والصبر‬.5 ↖ ‫ ومجالدة أعداء هللا‬.6 ↖ ↖ ↖ ‫ ووفقهم ومكنهم لتحقيق غايتهم‬.7

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falling tone at the sentence levelٌ‫ فسارعوا إلى إعالن الخالفة وتنصيبي إماما‬.8 ↖ ‫ وهذا واجبٌ على المسلمين‬.9 ↖ ↖ ‫ واجبٌ قد ضيع لقرون‬.10 ↖ ‫ وغاب عن واقع األرض‬.11 falling tone at the sentence level ‫ فجهله كثيرٌ من المسلمين‬.12 ↖ ↖ ‫ والذين يأثمون‬.13 ‫ أي يأثم المسلمون بتضييعه وتغييبه‬.14 ↖ ↖ ↖ ‫ وعليهم أن يسعوا دائماٌ إلقامته‬.15 falling tone at the sentence levelٌٌ‫ وهاهم قد أقاموه وهلل الحمد والمنة‬.16 ‫ ولقد ابتليت بهذا األمر العظيم‬.17 ↖ ↖ ‫ لقد ابتليت بهذه األمانة‬.18 ↖ ↖ ‫ أمانةٌ ثقيلة‬.19

The whole sentence in line (8), is a falling tone. What helps in putting this falling tone in view, is the preceding lines (4-5-6-7), which are full of rising tones at the word level. Although, the rise tone is at the word level and not at the sentence level in the lines (4-5-6-7), their rising tone makes them look like sentences with a rising tone in a holistic way. That is to say, the fall of the tone of the sentence in line (8) is noticed because of the 12

rise tones at the word level in line (7). This pattern of falling tone at sentence level after the rise tone at the word level is repeated through the sermon. In line (12) again there is a falling tone at the sentence level after the rising tone at the word level in the preceding sentences. Also, in line (16) we notice the same phenomenon. Actually, the information in the sentences with the falling tone in lines (8-12-16) are all proclaiming new information presented by al-Baghdadi. For instance in Lines (8 and 12) when he informs the audience that the Mujaahidiin have chosen him as a caliph, this is a new piece of information. This applies to the falling tone in Brazil’s (1997). The falling tone is the proclaiming tone. And the rise-fall tone is the intensified proclaiming tone (Brazil, 1997). Here, it is as if the previous rising tones in the lines before each falling tone sentence aim at introducing this sentence with its falling proclaiming tone. Especially, these falling tone sentences include the main topic of the speaker which is announcing the caliphate. In addition to the role of the rising tone at the sentence level, it has a particular meaning if we look at it at the word level. Brazil (1997) mentioned that the rising tone means referring to something known for the audience and not new. In the sermon, and as shown in the data above, there is a repeated pattern of rising tone at the word level. The sermon is usually full of information or traditional topics that are known to the audience. Usually the audience that attends a sermon is expected to be made up of religious people, otherwise, they will not attend a religious Islamic sermon. It is logical for the sermon to be full of rising tones because of the expected shared religious knowledge and shared Islamic aspects between the audience and the speaker. In lines (9-10-11) words like “‫ضيّع‬ ُ ” which means has been lost, and “‫”غاب‬ which means has been abandoned with a rising intonation indicate already known ideas or 13

concepts to the audience, because it is expected that the audience of al-Baghdadi already believe that caliphate existence is a duty or “‫”واجب‬. Also, the use of the past tense in these two verbs “‫”غاب‬, “‫ضيّع‬ ُ ” indicates things that happened in the past and as a results became very clear and present in the audience minds especially that the audience is made up of Muslims who named al-Baghdadi as a caliph and as a result already believe and agree that the caliphate is a duty that has been forgotten i.e. “‫ضيّع‬ ُ ” and “‫”غاب‬. These two verbs are marked with a rising intonation that indicates referring to an already known information. Through the language of al-Baghdadi, words with rising tone merely make reference to concepts which he takes to be already present in the interpreting worlds of the hearers. The same applies to the words with rising tones in the line number (2). For instance, the rise in “‫”كتابٌ يهدي‬, which means a book that leads, is a reference to an already known and understood idea in the audience mind which the Qur’an. Finally, we could say that there is a fixed choice of intonation either rising at the word level or falling at the sentence level. For Bloch (1957), formalized speech as opposed to everyday speech acts have limited choice of Intonation. In every day speech acts a variety of intonation can be applied. In contrast, the sermon as a formalized performance includes a fixed choice of two patterns as mentioned above. In the sermon, al-Baghdadi is giving a speech of an already known form called religious sermon which is comprised of ready formulas with restricted choice of topics and references or quotations. That is why the Islamic sermons in Arabic tend to share certain features. Also, that is why there are many books about the rules of the Islamic sermons and their conventions. Usually sermons are about particular topics like theological ones. For example, death, the night of the divine decree, Laylat al-qadr. It can also be about ritual 14

obligations e.g., pilgrimage and fasting or religious history e.g., Muhammed’s prophecy and struggle, the night journey and ascent al israa’ wa al mi’raaj or ethical issues like piety, the necessity of mutual aid among co-religionists. Additionally the sermons might have a political content (Richard, 1989). For the Muslims audience, all of the above mentioned topics are already known topics. Even if it happened that members of the audience do not remember all the details, they are still aware of all the above-mentioned aspects. Also, alBaghdadi is not much free in choosing the topic in his sermon in Mosul, because he is presenting a sermon where he has to follow the rules and conventions in terms of the topic and the options of the topic as the examples above illustrate. A good preacher should be aware of the shared understanding between himself and his audience. This knowledge helps him convince the audience by means of playing with words at some points of the sermon, and applying tones at other points. If the tone is applied at a particular point and on a specific context that refers to shared understanding between the audience and the preacher, this might create a dramatic effect that helps the preacher to convince people. For example, when al-Baghdadi talks about the importance of finding a caliph for the Muslims, he says this is a duty or “ ٌ‫”واجب‬. As illustrated in lines (9-10), al-Baghdadi applies a rising tone on this word. Of course, he is referring to a shared concept when he rises the tone at this word. That is to say, he utilizes the shared understanding and his knowledge about it to create a dramatic effect. When the audience listen to the word “duty” repeated, and accompanied with a rise tone, this will create a sense of duty in them. Taking into consideration that alBaghdadi’s audience in this sermon are Muslims who are expected to be extremists. They believe in the fact that naming a caliph is a duty and part of their being good Muslims. Again, this information about the audience is clear in the mind of al-Baghdadi, and he is 15

aware of how to make use of it. This knowledge and the way of utilizing it through tones and dramatic effects to legitimize the content, shows al-Baghdadi as a good caliph who is aware of his people, and who is able to lead them ,and make an effect on their way of thinking. Al-Baghdadi presented the sermon in the Mosul mosque on the 6th of Ramadan. This setting of the sermon provides al-Baghdadi with a ready topic and content to perform it in his sermon. Any sermon that happens at the beginning of Ramadan is expected to talk about the rules and rituals of this sacred month. This reminds us of Bauman’s idea of the “institutionalized performance event” (as cited in Coupland, 2007, p. 148), which means that the performance is expected to take a particular shape and to follow a set of expected conventions, because of the particular shape and content that is expected to be performed in it. Ramadan as a topic in the sermon intensifies the existence of shared understanding and concepts in both the preacher’s words and the audience minds. Most of the fasting benefits and rules that are mentioned by al-Baghdadi are known for the audience. The shared understanding or concept between the audience and al-Baghdadi which is Ramadan explains the existence of the rise tone at the beginning of the sermon during the talk about the topic of Ramadan. What is of a great value here is the fact that the rising tone happens with a low pitch at the beginning of the sermon when the topic is about Ramadan. AlBaghdadi does not raise the tone at every word that conveys a shared understanding. “The actual prosodic strategy employed ultimately depends on the speaker’s choice” (El Zarka, 2011). Similarly, he employs his knowledge of the shared understanding only at particular points that are important to him. That is why al- Baghdadi raises the pitch of the rise tone when the topic is shifted from Ramadan to the caliphate. 16

The sermon should include a topic that is derived from the religious context of the date in which it is performed. Additionally it starts and ends in a conventional way with certain prayers and quotations. Moreover, the sermon is known for being divided into two parts with a break in the middle that helps in organizing the content of every sermon in a particular way. At the same time, this division makes the sermons look similar in form. All that makes the sermon a kind of restricted playground for the show that al-Baghdadi is performing. The political speech, if compared to the sermon, is less restricted in its form. That is to say, when al- Baghdadi presents the political speech, he is freer to choose any topic and deliver it in any style of his choice than in the sermon. In the political speech, whether al-Baghdadi starts from (Z) and ends in (A), it doesn’t matter, because there is no particular shape that he has to follow as in the case of the sermon. Once it comes to the sermon, he has to start with (A) and pass by (B) in order to reach (C) in a conventional way as all sermons are organized.

Intonation in the Political Speech at the Word Level

The fact that the political speech is less formal than sermon gives the possibility of having more variety of intonation. Taking into consideration that some political speeches are full of a variety of intonation and loudness choices that fits the context and in order to best convey the meaning. For instance, in the speech of Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi, there is a noticeable fixed choice of intonation (or repeated pattern) as mentioned above. However, the political speech of al-Baghdadi has a variety of intonation

17

‫‪choices in comparison to his sermon. The following data is taken from al-Baghdadi’s‬‬ ‫‪political speech where he addresses Muslims and promises them of the expansion of the‬‬ ‫‪Islamic State, and invites Muslims from all over the Arab world to join his state.‬‬ ‫↖‬ ‫‪ .1‬وأبشروا أيها المسلمون‬ ‫‪ .2‬فإننا نبشركم بإعالن تمدد الدولة اإلسالمية إلى بلدانٌ جديدة‬

‫↖‬ ‫‪ .3‬إلى بالد الحرمين واليمن وإلى مصر وليبيا والجزائر‬ ‫‪ .4‬ونعلن قبول بيعة من بايعنا من اخواننا في تلك البلدان‬ ‫↖‬ ‫‪ .5‬وإلغاء اسم الجماعات فيها‬ ‫‪ .6‬وإعالنها والياتٌ جديدةٌ للدولة اإلسالمية‬ ‫↖‬ ‫‪ .7‬وتعيين والةٌ عليها‬ ‫‪ .8‬ويا أجناد اليمن‬ ‫‪ .9‬يا أهل النصرة والمدد‬ ‫↖‬ ‫‪ .10‬شدوا على الروافض الحوثة‬ ‫↖‬ ‫‪ .11‬فإنهم كفارٌ مرتدون‬ ‫↖‬ ‫‪ .12‬قارعوهم وغالبوهم‬ ‫‪18‬‬

↖ ↖ ‫ وكونوا على يقينٌ انٌ الدائرة ستدور لكم عليهم‬.13 ↖ ‫ وسوف يفيء هللا عليكم بأموالهم وأسلحتهم‬.14 ‫ تنتزعونها من أيديهم غنائم تنصرون بها دين هللا‬.15 ↖ ‫ وتبقون إنشاءهللا أهل المدد‬.16

There is a repeated pattern of intonation that happens in a range of every other sentence through the whole speech, which is a rise tone at the word level. According to Brazil (1997), the rise tone is an intensified form of the fall-rise tone. When it happens at the word level it indicates reference to a shared understanding between the speaker and the audience. In line (3),the word “‫ ”الحرمين‬is a reference to an already known place for the audience. The same for the word “‫ ”الجماعات‬in line (5(, which indicates the Islamic groups like Jabhat al-Nusra. Again, this is another shared concept between the speaker and the audience. The noun phrase “‫ ”الروافض الحوثة‬in line (10), is also a known concept and as a result it is a reference to a shared understanding between the speaker and the audience. The rise tone in some lines of the sermon doesn’t only play the role of referring to a known concept, but also has further implications. For instance, in Line (3), the word “‫ ”الحرمين‬is a reference to a known country which is Saudi Arabia. The rise tone on this word shows a reference to the known country (KSA), and an emphasis by al-Baghdadi. This emphasis is to attract his followers’ attention to the importance of controlling this area. Furthermore, in lines (1), and line (13), the words translate“‫ ”أبشروا‬or be ready for the good news,”‫ ”كونوا على يقين‬or be sure and “‫ ”لكم‬or yours show a kind of confidence by al- Baghdadi. He is not only giving 19

these promises, but also accompanies his promise with rising tones. As a result, the rise tone here can be read as confidence by al-Baghdadi. In relation to line (12), there is a combination of imperative verb and rise tone at the same time on this verb “ ‫”قارعوهم‬. The use of the rise tone in this example gives a sense of authority by al-Baghdadi, because he is ordering with a rise tone. In general, this rising tone at the word level occur at different locations of the sentence; sometimes at the beginning as in line (1) and in line (12). Other times it occurs in the middle as in lines (3, 5, 7, 10, 11, and 14). Additionally, it occurs sometimes more than once in the same sentence as in line (13).

Intonation in the political Speech at the sentence and word levels

In the political speech, there is a particular part of the sentence where the rising tone at the word level causes a particular tonic pattern at the sentence level. I will call this new tonic pattern the “pyramid pattern,” as it occurs in the sentence with a rising tone in a particular location. This pyramid pattern will be explained in the following lines (below) from the political speech of al-Baghdadi. In these lines, al-Baghdadi talks about the United States’ air strikes campaign against ISIS positions. He tries to encourage his members saying that the Islamic State is still strong and will keep expanding by underestimating the power of ISIS’ enemies who are the West and its allies from the Arab governments. It should be noted that he does not explicitly mention the United States, but refers to it through the word “Crusaders.” The coming lines are in the same order as they are in the political speech, but they do not occur right after the other in the political speech. In the

20

first line, al-Baghdadi says that the support of the allies of the United States is just a lie. For him, the US does not need the aircraft of the Gulf. In the second line, he says that the western powers and their allies are in a weak situation. In lines (3, 4, and 5), al-Baghdadi encourages his followers saying that the US involvement in ISIS positions will not stop the expansion of the IS. ↖ ‫( التي لم تكن قصة مشاركتها في الحملة الصليبية‬A) .1

‫( سوى مسرحية إعالمية‬B)

↖ ‫( وبين هذا الضعف والخوف والعجز‬A) .2

‫( نراهم بالفشل يتخبطون‬B) ‫( فإن ضربات الصليبيين الجوية وقصفهم المستمر ليالا‬A) .3 ‫نهارعلى مواقع‬ ٍ ↖ ‫الدولة اإلسالمية‬

↖ ‫( لم يوقف زحفها ولم يفت من عزمها‬B) ↖ ‫( وإن عمالء اليهود والصليبيين وعبيدهم وأذنابهم وكالبهم على األرض‬A) .4 21

‫( لم يصمدوا في وجه الدولة اإلسالمية‬B) ↖ ‫( وسيستمر زحف المجاهدين‬A) .5 ↖ ‫(حتى يصلوا روما بإذن هللا‬B)

In the sentence, Sarah is in Austin today, Sarah is a known figure/concept and refers to information that is already present in the listeners’ minds. However, is in Austin today is a new piece of information. In the data above, lines (1 A, 2A, 3A, 4A) are parallel to the concept of Sarah in that they are the known part of the sentence. Lines (1B, 2B, 3B, 4B) are parallel to the example, is in Austin today, in that they are the new information in the sentence. It should be noted that that Line (2) is a special case, because it is a fronted predicate. Yet, the point remains that there is a separation between the two parts of the sentence: the new and the known information. In my analysis, lines (1B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B) above are descending in terms of tone, although not exactly a ‘falling tone,’ because the B lines are part of a sentence and not a complete sentence. For this reason, it cannot be said that there is a falling tone at the sentence level. Additionally, some of the B lines contain a rising tone at the word level in the middle as in (4B, 2B). That is, it does not involve a complete falling tone. As such, I refer to it as a descending, and not falling, tone. It should be noted that the rising tones that sometimes take place in the above (B) lines are marked with a low pitch. The low pitched, rising tones are symbolized by a green arrow (↖) to

22

differentiate from the high pitched, rising tone at the end of the (A) lines. At last, through the speech there is a repeated tonic pattern that takes the shape of the pyramid as follows: ____ ____ ↗ (High pitch rising tone at the word level at the end of lines A)

_____ _____ ↗ (possible existence of low pitch rising tone at the word level in the middle of B lines)

_____ _____

______ ______

_____ _____

(Ascending pre-tonic group i.e. in the A lines before the rise)

(Descending post-tonic group I.e. in the B lines after the rise)

The lines above are but a few examples of the pyramid tonic pattern, and the above mentioned pyramid pattern is repeated in different times through the political speech. For Brazil (1997), the falling tone is associated with proclaiming, while the rising tone is associated with references (to some entity). In my data I found that the descending tone at the partial-sentence level is paralleled in meaning with the falling tone at the (whole) sentence level. In other words, both of them denote a proclamation of sort. All the descending parts of the sentence in the data above in the B lines are proclamations in their meanings. On the other hand, all the A lines in the data above with ascending tones at the part of a sentence level are referential. That said, the ascending tone have the same function of the rising tone, and both types of tone are referential in terms of referring to a known information. For instance line (A 3) is the reference part of the sentence, because it is a shared understanding between the al-Baghdadi and his audience that the United States 23

bombs the positions of the Islamic State. While line (B1) is the new piece of information delivered to the audience. It is new, because it is a message from the leader of ISIS, alBaghdadi, to his followers to continue the battle. The focal point is that the rising and falling tones which occur either at the word level or at the sentence level might take place at the partial-sentence level as well, and with the same implications. When these two kinds of tone occur at the partial-sentence level, they are not in the shape of rising and falling tones, but rather in the shape of ascending and descending tones. It is possible to identify rising contours that carry the function of opening a discourse or leading to a climax, or offering the turn to an interlocutor, and closing contours that terminate a discourse unit or part of it and convey a sense of finality. Leading tones are thus associated with linguistic material that poses a question or a problem or identifies a starting point; hence they represent the proper intonation for questions and topics, but it may also signal continuation and connectedness … Closing contours are associated with assertions and express finality and separateness, thus characterizing focal constituents (El Zarka, 2011) The above quotation can be applied to the pyramid tonic pattern by considering the ascending tone as the leading or rising one, and the descending tone as the closing contour. The rising tone at the end of every (A) line in the data above, is an intensified rising tone. In my data I noticed that this rising tone does not only refer to but sometimes emphasizes the idea of the words in which it occurs. For instance, the words “ ‫ ”الصليبية‬in line (A1), “‫ ”اإلسالمية‬in line (A3), and “‫ ”المجاهدين‬in line (A5) contain a rising tone. These are key words to the context at hand, which centers on the war between the Islamic state and the Crusaders. The word “‫ ”األرض‬in line (A4) refers to another key point related to the context which is the location or ground of the battle where Islamic State members or Al Mujahidin will fight the Crusaders and their allies.

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To conclude, the political speech includes a larger variety of intonations than the sermon does. However, there is a fixed choice of intonations in the political speech that varies between rising tones at the word level or the pyramid tonic group. These intonation choices employed by al-Baghdadi demonstrate his high level of performance with a complete intonation system applied through the speech and the sermon. Whether in the sermon or in the political speech, al-Baghdadi is able to attract the attention of his audience, play with his voice, create dramatic effects, apply suitable tones, and deliver his thoughts in engaging, persuasive manners. Asif Agha, in his article “The Social Life of Cultural Value” (2003), talked about the process of enregisterment “through which a linguistic repertoire becomes differentiable within a language as a socially recognized register of forms” (P. 231). The repetition of this particular intonation pattern with a rising tone with the same implications in both the political speech and the sermon suggests that Al Baghdadi’s language represents the beginning of a process of enregisterment. Agha (2003) mentioned how the Queen’s English recalls a Victorian cosmic polity in which differences in rank appear. It is possible to say that this effect of the Queen’s English helps keep her image as the Queen regardless of the situation or the setting. In other words, the Queen is still the Queen whether she is delivering a speech, visiting a hospital, or doing some of her social duties. Similarly, Al Baghdadi’s employment of particular features in his language, whether in terms of intonation or lexicon, plays a central role in the enregisterment of this style, and in indexing his social character in the public mind with that of the caliph. For these reasons, one would expect him to perform the caliph not only in a sermon or political speech, but also in any other performance context or setting.

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RISING INTONATION WITH LENGTHENING

There are other variables related to intonation of these variables like loudness, speed and lengthening. What is of great importance is examples of the co-occurrence of these variables. The vowel lengthening happens rarely in both the political speech and the sermon. For instance, when al-Baghdadi explains to his audience in the political speech about the weak point of the crusaders he says: “‫”فهذا سر خوف اليهود والصليبيين وهنا يكمن ضعفهم‬ In the example above, there is a co-occurrence of the lengthening and the low speed rate. The above line has a low speed rate In comparison to the other lines that come before or after it. Also, there is a vowel lengthening on the letters that are in blue. The lengthening is applied either in the long vowel like the word “ ‫”هنا‬, or in the short vowel like the word “‫”فهذا‬. A good and only clear example about this co-occurrence between the rising tone and vowel lengthening in the sermon is when al-Baghdadi describes naming a caliph as a duty saying “ ٌ‫ ”واجب‬in line (10) in part (1). Another clear and only example about this cooccurrence in the political speech is when al-Baghdadi encourages the Muslims in Yemen to fight al-Huthiyyūn in line (9) part (3). The co-occurrence appears on the word “‫”إنشاءهللا‬. Here, there is a co-occurrence of the rising tone and the vowel lengthening on the middle long vowel. LOUDNESS/ VOLUME

26

Brazil (1997) described two systems of phonological variation. One of them is tone which demands attention to the pitch change which characterizes the tonic segment of the tone group. The other is the key which partly refers to the pitch level of the tone group as a whole. Loudness represents enthusiasm, and it is associated with the prophet enthusiasm. Actually, al-Baghdadi does not reach this point till he starts talking about the topic of Caliphate. Then he continues this choice of loudness till the end. So, he starts with no marked loudness and keeps it this way till the start of the caliphate topic, where he announces himself as a caliph and at that point he raises the loudness and keep it loud till the end of the sermon. At the beginning of the sermon, al-Baghdadi is performing all what he said about Ramadan and the great value of fasting, because it is the conventional part of the content. Ramadan topic is in the sermon, because of the context and the date of this sermon, and not totally because it is his choice as a speaker. This might mean that when he is talking about Ramadan and its rituals, he is not interested in the topic itself, but he is using it to perform himself as a good speaker and a preacher and of course a caliph. He has to follow the conventions of the sermon as he presents it, and has to move step by step and in an implied way from the topic of Ramadan to the topic of Jihad till he reaches his focal point about the caliphate where he applies a higher choice of loudness. Loudness here means the Level of the key of the pitch (Brazil, 1997). When he is talking about the Ramadan, loudness is not marked. When he shifts from talking about Rmadan to talking about Jihad against polytheists and infidels, there is no marked loudness even though the topic itself is very enthusiastic. Once he starts talking about the caliphate, which he needs to legitimize, there is a marked loudness in his speech. It is interesting that Jihad is not less enthusiastic than the topic of announcing the Caliphate. Nevertheless, he doesn’t apply a 27

marked choice of loudness in it. His application of loudness on the topic of the caliphate shows his main goal in the sermon which is to prove himself right as a caliph. Does loudness indicates enthusiasm or convincing strategy? In my opinion if this feature of loudness is related to enthusiasm it should have been applied when al- Baghdadi talks about Jihad. However, it looks like it has more convincing role of the political goal of the speaker i.e. to convince people of al-Baghdadi’s caliphate of the Islamic state. He wants to legitimize himself as a caliph not only by supporting his words by quotations from the Qur’an and the prophet Mouhammed’s speeches, but also through the dramatic effects created by his application of loudness choices at certain points. “The fact that large and strong creatures by virtue of their size are conceived as threatening and small as nonthreatening has given rise to a number of secondary meanings of high and low frequencies, both paralinguistic and linguistic. Thus high pitch is associated with friendliness, uncertainty, and incredulity, which can be conventionalized to express modal and informational or discoursal meanings like questioning, opening a topic, and continuation” (El Zarka, 2011). Definitely, when al-Baghdadi talks about the caliphate, he starts a new topic as the quotation includes. Also, he might be uncertain deep inside and that is why applying the loud choice as a way to legitimize. According to Bloch (1957), formalized speech as opposed to everyday speech acts are having limited choice of loudness. This is true in the sermon, because of the lack of the variety of loudness patterns through the sermon. There is no marked loudness at the beginning of the sermon, then from the topic of announcing the caliphate onwards there is a marked loudness that continues till the end of the sermon. The application of marked choice of loudness at some point of the sermon reflects the great value of the topic at that point for the speaker. Baghdadi doesn’t apply 28

the marked loudness but in the caliphate topic. This is because his main point in the sermon is to legitimize himself as a caliph. Consequently, at the beginning al-Baghdadi is performing all what he said. He is not interested in what he said bout fasting, but because he chooses to present a sermon, he needs to move according to the conventions of the sermon from the topic of fasting till Jihad till he reaches his focal point where he applies a higher choice of loudness. To conclude this part, it is important to note that my method of analyzing intonation is based on the following quotation by Dwight Bolinger “in the gradient world of intonation, everything that is detectable is potentially significant” (cited in El Zarka, 2001, p. 72).

29

Lexical Choices In this section I will talk about the lexical choices embedded by al-Baghdadi in both his sermon and the political speech. I will talk about the relation between the use of particular lexical choices and the main topic of this study which is the performance of caliph. In his sermon, al-Baghdadi uses particular phrases of either the Prophet Muhammed or Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. When al-Baghdadi talks about fasting in Ramadan, he uses phrases from different speeches by the prophet Mouhamed and employs them in different parts of his statement about Ramadan. For example, “‫”صفّدت الشياطين‬, “‫”غلّقت أبواب النار‬, and “ ‫عتقاء من‬ ‫”النار‬. al-Baghdadi mentions the first two phrases when describing the spiritual benefits of undertaking the fast during the month of Ramadan. The two phrases “‫”صفّدت الشياطين‬and “‫ ”غلّقت أبواب النار‬are taken from a speech for the prophet Mouhammed about Ramadan that talks about the value of Ramadan. (Bukhari, 1998, p. 361). Bearing in mind that “ ‫صفّدت‬ ‫ ”الشياطين‬means that the devils are not around, and “ ‫ ”غلّقت أبواب النار‬means that the doors of Hell are closed. Al-Baghdadi mentions the third phrase “‫”عتقاء من النار‬, which means away from Hell, when he explains how the Muslims are away from Hell during this sacred month. This phrase is taken from another speech by the prophet Mouhammed which talks about Ramadan and Fasting (Bukhari, 1998, 362). It is clear now that al-Baghdadi does not say the whole speeches that include the above phrases. That is why he does not indicate that he is quoting them; rather, he talks about the great value of fasting in Ramadan using these phrases from the speeches of the prophet Mouhammed as if they are his words. For Bakhtin, “our speech is filled with others’ words, varying degrees of otherness or varying degrees of our-own-ness, varying degrees of awareness and detachment” (as cited in Coupland, 2007, p. 150). The connection between Bakhtin’s quotation and the 30

example I cite, is that al- Baghdadi applies stylization when he uses the prophet Mouhammed’s words, because he wants to associate himself with his figure. He wants to perform the caliph and of course the best module of the caliph is the prophet Mouhammed or the first rightly guided Caliph Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. At the same time his association with Abu Bakr al-Siddiq through using his words as mentioned above in the references to early Islamic figures part, reflects prejudice against Shia. In the Speaking in the voice of God and early Islamic figures section, al-Baghdadi uses not only the same phrase, but also the whole sentence by al-Siddiq. According to the way media and newspapers talk describe ISIS, Their agenda is known as Slafi. For Salafis, Shia are atheists as they do not recognize Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman as being legitimate successors of Muhammed (alSururi, 2014). Consequently, al-Baghdadi’s attempt to be associated with Abu Bakr alSiddiq has prejudicial implications against Shia Muslims. This association with al-Siddiq can be noticed even in the nick name of al-Baghdadi which is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that is very parallel to Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. Thus, it is possible to say that some of the lexical choices in al-Baghdadi’s sermons aim at connecting al-Baghdadi with early Islamic figures like the prophet Mouhammed and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. While the lexical choices in the political speech aim at delivering the ideology of ISIS as a new institution. This reminds us of Bauman’s idea of the “institutionalized performance” (as cited in Coupland, 2007, p. 148), which means that the performance is expected to take a particular shape and to follow a set of expected conventions. The sermon is an institutionalized performance, because it has to follow particular organization and conventions in the way it is introduced, the way it is presented, the topic in includes, and the quotations it has, and so on. Obviously, the sermon is expected 31

to be full of Islamic quotations and particular religious topics. As a result, the lexicon used in the sermon is expected to represent the conventional Islamic context like the reference to early Islamic figure. Obviously, this happens through the use of the above mentioned phrases and words of Abu Bakr al-Sidddiq and the prophet Mouhammed. Furthermore, this association with early Islamic figures is another aspect that demonstrates al-Baghdadi as a caliph. He associates himself with two of the most legitimized modules of the caliphs in the history of Islam who are the prophet Mouhammed and the first rightly guided caliph Abu Bakr al-SIddiq. Once it comes to the political speech, al-Baghdadi describes al-Ḥūthiyyūn in Yemen as “Al Rawāfiḍ Al Hūthah”.”Rawāfiḍ” is an Islamic term which refers to those who, in the opinion of the person using the term, reject legitimate Islamic authority and leadership (Ibn Manzur, 1993). The term is used today in a derogatory manner by Sunni Muslims, especially Salafis, to refer to Shia Muslims as they do not recognize Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman as being legitimate successors of Muhammed. Nowadays people call them either al-Ḥūthiyyūn or al-Harrabah, but the use of the word “‫ ”روافض‬reflects a prejudicial ideology which aims at killing anybody or group of people who are considered kuffar. Van Dijd, in his book, Prejudice in Discourse, talked about the implied prejudice that can be understood not directly but through the use particular features in the discourse. For Dijk, “Prejudiced topics cluster in different overall prejudice categories such as: culture, mentality etc” (1984, p. 70). The prejudice category that is implied in al-Baghdadi’s lexical choice is religious and particularly extremist. There are many other examples of this lexical choices that reflect a particular prejudice against the Kuffar. For example, the use of the word “‫ ”طواغيط‬or “tyrants” to refer to the people in 32

Egypt who are Kuffar in ISIS’ eyes, and the use of the word “‫ ”مرتدين‬or “apostates” to refer to al-Ḥūthiyyūn in Yemen as Kuffar, and the use of the word “‫ ”الصليبيين‬or “crusaders” to refer to the western Powers in the world and especially the United States. Obviously, the lexical choices “‫ صليبيين‬,‫ طواغيت‬,‫ مرتدين‬,‫ ”روافض‬refer to a prejudiced attitude against any group that is not considered real Muslim in the point of view of al-Baghdadi and his group. There is a prejudicial terminology in the categorization of governments, political parties, religious groups and people used in al-Baghdadi’s lexical choices that shows al-Baghdadi and ISIS siding against whom they deem to be Mushrikiin or “polytheists” or Kuffaar or “infidels”. This terminology also reveals the way al-Baghdadi and his followers look at themselves as the paradigm of authentic Muslims. Considering that the above-mentioned terms are not used very much nowadays in everyday speech, their use by al-Baghdadi would seem to demonstrate his mastery over the Islamic lexicon. This mastery is an important aspect of the caliph and is demonstrated by al- Baghdadi through his lexical choices. There are many other examples about this point in the political speech like the use of the word “‫ ”بيعة‬to refer to the act of swearing allegiance to him as a caliph, and “‫ ”فتاوى‬to refer to some other Islamic groups’ religious rulings, and “‫ ”واليات‬to refer to the areas that will be under the control of ISIS, and “ ‫ ”والة‬to refer to the rulers of the areas that are under the control of ISIS. Additionally, he addresses the Berbers in the political speech as “ ‫أحفاد‬ ‫”ابن تاشفين‬. He could use the word Amazigh, but he wants to show his mastery over the history

of the Islamic world by using these words, because Ibn Tashfeen is an important Islamic leader in the history of the Berbers. If the sermon is an institutionalized performance as mentioned above, then the political speech is an institutionalizing performance. That is because the conventions that control and shape the political speech are less strict than those 33

of the sermon. The political speech is a stage for al-Baghdadi to deliver the rules, principles and ideologies of his group ISIS and to name the enemies and the allies of ISIS. These principles and ideologies are reflected through the particular lexical choices embedded by al-Baghdadi in the political speech which are mentioned above with their implications like “‫ صليبيين‬,‫ طواغيت‬,‫ مرتدين‬,‫”روافض‬. I the political speech, al-Baghdadi uses a particular lexical choices that reflect the freedom of presenting a political speech in comparison to presenting a sermon. For instance, when he talks about the regimes in the Arab world who are the Allies of the western powers. He describes these Arabic regimes as “‫ ”أذنابهم‬and “‫ ”كالبهم‬to mean the allies of the West. This lexical choice is a kind of impolite and attacking. In the sermon there is no similar level of the lexicon. There are many other examples through the political speech that are similar to this level of lexical choices like the use of the word “‫ ”المخنثين‬to describe the Gulf pilots who support the west in bombing ISIS’ positions. These examples support the fact that the political speech is an institutionalizing performance that al-Baghdadi exploits to set the principles of his caliphate and to name his allies as well as his enemies. Part of the caliph’s role is to name the enemies of his “Wilayah” and to name his allies as well to make the members of his state follow him in that. In other words these examples of the lexicon reflect the ideology of ISIS. Additionally, al-Baghdadi presents the sermon in a very successful way and follows all the expected conventions of the sermon way. Also, he presents the political speech in a different way from the sermon that fits a political situation. This performance proves him as a good example of a caliph who knows the suitable register for each kind of performance event.

34

Literary Devices SYNONYMS AND PARALLELISM In his political speech, Al Baghdadi often uses synonyms in order to convey one idea. For instance, when he talks about the West and particularly about Europe, Australia and the United States and their try to plan the war against his group ISIS, he describes how these western powers planned and decided to send a military power to bomb the areas under the control of ISIS, saying “fakkarū wa qaddarū wa khaṭṭaṭū wa dabbarū”.All of these words convey the same idea, that of plotting. Then, he talks about the plan details in which the West trained a number of soldiers to fight his group saying: “taslīh wa tajnīd wa tadrīb”. Again, all of these words have the same meaning. Additionally, there is a great deal of repetition in the political speech. For instance, when he talks about the “mujahidin” who fight in his group he repeats this phrase “lan yatrukū al qitāl abadan”, which means they will never stop fighting, four times in order to confirm that the “mujahidin” will never stop fighting. Similarly, when he describes how the West is afraid of the power of the Islamic State, he repeats the word “‫”يخافون‬, which means they are afraid, seven times in different sentences after one another “‫ يخافون من عودة المسلمين‬,‫ يخافون من ثورات شعوبنا‬,‫”يخافون على اقتصادهم‬. The meaning of this quotation in is that they are worried about the future of their economy, their safety, and they are afraid from the effects of the revolutions in the Muslim world, and from the return of the Islamic power. Actually, the political speech is full of many examples about this kind of repetition of either phrases or words. As mentioned before, the political speech is institutionalizing performance and not institutionalized performance like the sermon. In other words it is not controlled by a particular shape or critical conventions

35

as the case in the sermon. This kind of repletion is a way to deliver the confirmation sense of the topics presented by the repeated words. The repeated words confirm the fact that the political speech is an institutionalizing performance, because they help in setting the principles and rules of the Islamic State. The repetition of the above-mentioned example “‫”لن يتركوا القتال أبدا‬, which means they will never stop fighting, is a means by al-Baghdadi to confirm one of the important principles of his state which is the continuous fight. As mentioned above, there are many synonyms in the political speech like “ ‫فكروا وقدروا وخططوا‬ ‫”ودبروا‬.

Additionally not only there are many synonyms but also there is parallelism in the

“‫ ”وزن‬or form of the words that al-Baghdadi uses. For instance, the above-mentioned three synonyms are form (2). Correspondingly, “‫ ”تسليح وتجنيد وتدريب‬are all the nouns or infinitive forms of the form (2) as well. This ability to come with these synonyms and parallelism shows the mastery of al-Baghdadi over the Arabic Language. Definitely, performing the caliph requires the mastery over the Arabic language which is the language of the Qur’an.

METAPHOR AND TAMYIIZ Additionally, there are particular grammatical forms related to style found in the political speech. For instance, when Al Baghdadi encourage his followers to fight the infidels, he says “mazziqūhum Eraba” which means kill them in a cruel way. Also, when he addresses the Islamic nation he says “ammeli khayran” which means be optimistic. The two grammatical forms “khayran &Eraba” are called tamyeez. This grammatical form is usually found in the high performance texts or speeches. The person who applies this grammatical form in his writing or statement must be at a good level of the Arabic language

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at its performing level. Moreover, Al Baghdadi employs some figures of speech only in the political speech. For instance, when he addresses the ‘Mujahidin” to thank them for their “jihad”, he says” laqad a7raqtum sufunakum”, which literally means you’ve burned your ships. This is a type of metaphor that is well known in classical Arabic literature. Also, when addresses his followers who are the mujahidin, asking them to fight straight from the heart and to forget the other aspects of life other than war, he says ‘Ala fa le tutalliqu al dunia”.Here the phrase “tutalliqu Al Dunia”, which means literally divorce the life, is also a type of metaphor. Definitely, the above-mentioned example are poetic tools that have a rhetorical effect on the speech and show the mastery of the speaker in classical Arabic rhetoric.

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Stance In this part I will talk about the existence of stance markers in both the political speech by al-Baghdadi. “Stance is defined as the expression of emotions, attitudes, value judgements and assessments” (Precht, 2000). There are different patterns of stance uses, but the marked stance examples in the political speech is the epistemic stance. “Epistemic stance includes a set of words which have the potential for showing certainty or doubt” (Precht, 2000, P. 74). When al-Baghdadi addresses the members of ISIS, he says “alā Fa letasellu Syufakom” and “alā Fa letotallequ al dounia”. To encourage the mujaahidin to fight against the infidels, he uses the structure “alā” and then a verb either preceded by “fa” or not preceded by anything. This “Ala” is a rhetorical structure in Arabic language that indicates encouragement and makes the meaning of the present tense verb imperative. The use of “alā” is an imperative verb form indicates extra imperative meaning of the verb with enthusiasm. This structure can be found in old Arabic poetry and in the Qur’an. For instance, it is in this quotation from Surat At-Tawbah. Would you not fight a people who broke their oaths and determined to expel the Messenger, and they had begun [the attack upon] you the first time? Do you fear them? But Allah has more right that you should fear Him, if you are [truly] believers” (Ali, 1978, Surat At-Tawbah 13). Would you not fight is expressed through the above mentioned form, “alā tuqātilu”. This structure is a kind if literary stance, because it shows certainty and authority that reach the point of indicating an imperative actions that the audience should do. When the speaker use this structure, this indicates certainty and no doubt. Similarly, when al-Baghdadi asks his followers to fight against “al-rawāfid” in Yemen i.e. al- Huthiyyūn, he says addressing his followers “3laykum bi-al-rawāfid al-Huthah”. “3laykum bi-” is a structure that

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indicates the imperative meaning in a rhetorical manner. As a result, the political speech includes particular literary stance markers that shows certainty. Moreover, the political speech and the sermon of al-Baghdadi are made up of only two kinds of either imperative sentences or descriptive ones. In other words,al-Baghdadi either deliver information or tells his followers what to do. In the political speech of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the president of Egypt in the past, where he recalls an Encounter with The Muslim Brotherhood in1966, there is a marked interaction with the audience through presenting questions in his speech that raise the critical thinking in the mind of the audience, and encourage interaction. In the speech and the sermon of al-Baghdadi, there are no examples of this kind of questions. At the same time the fact that the speech and the sermon are made up of imperative and descriptive sentences and has a marked absence of question is another epistemic stance marker that indicates certainty and no doubt on the behalf of al-Baghdadi. The absence of questions in the statements of al-Baghdadi is part of his performance of the caliph. The caliph is known for not being interactive with audience, and is expected to present to deliver his decisions and statements and expected to gain great satisfaction on the behalf of the audience for all what how says without negotiation. That is why alBaghdadi’s speech and sermon are made up of either imperative or descriptive sentences. To conclude, the epistemic stance markers found in the two statements by al-Baghdadi, i.e. the absence of questions and the existence of literary imperative forms, indicate certainty and authority which is another important aspect of the caliph’s persona.

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Conclusion I have argued in this paper that Al Baghdadi employs particular linguistic and rhetorical features like tone, Qur’anic recitation, literary devices, stance markers, and particular lexical choices and links them together to achieve his goal of performing the caliph. Each one of these features represents a particular aspect of the caliph, such as his mastery over Islamic history, his mastery over the Arabic language at its highest level which is the language of the Qur’an, his awareness of the shared understanding between him and his followers, his awareness of the conventions of the different performative events, and his skill in attracting the audience and convincing them by creating dramatic effects based on his knowledge of them. In addition, these features represent his ability to deliver and spread the ideology of his group, and to encourage his members and create enthusiasm in them. It is important to go back to Asif Agha’s idea of enregisterment, “the process through which a linguistic repertoire becomes differentiable within a language as a socially recognized register of forms” (2003. P. 231). This theory encourages us to think of alBaghdadi’s performance in the two speeches as a preliminary process of enregisterment. In other words, by amassing and employing this array of features, al-Baghdadi seems to be creating a particular register, which we may presume to be that of a caliph.

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Electronic Resources: “Abu

Bakr

al-Baghdadi.”

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from

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_al-Baghdadi. Date Accessed: May 8, 2015 al-Khani, O. & Gebeily, M. (2014, July 5). “Who is Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.” Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/19/who-isis-leader-abu-bakral-baghdadi-290081.html. Date Accessed: May 8, 2015 “ISIS Leader Caliph Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi First Appearance.” (Nov, 2014). [Video file]. Retrieved

from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMvKneiNwMc.

Date

Accessed: May 8, 2015 “Kalimet Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi walaw kareha al-kaferoon.” (Nov, 2014). [Video file].Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF7fw0MPvTI. Date Accessed: May 8, 2015

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