The Diachronic Transformation of Hyperbole: From the Abbasid Era to the Digital Age

Mubālagha (hyperbole) is widely recognized as one of the most powerful rhetorical devices in Arabic rhetorical traditions, with widespread use spanning from the pre-Islamic (Jahiliyya) era to contemporary digital media. This study examines the historical evolution of mubālagha in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) texts, tracing its transformation from the Abbasid period to the digital age. The primary objective of this study is to demonstrate that mubālagha functions not merely as a stylistic embellishment but as an ideological and persuasive discourse strategy. To this end, a large text sample of approximately 2,530,000 words of digital textual data were analyzed, comprising diverse genres such as classical poetry, Friday sermons, makāmāt (assemblies), journalistic writings, political speeches, and social media content. The identification of mubālagha instances utilized morpho-syntactic markers alongside Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools, specifically BERT-based models. The findings indicate that while mubālagha has retained its core rhetorical function of intensifying meaning and dramatization, it has undergone significant formal and pragmatic shifts. In the classical periods, it was primarily associated with themes of divine power and moral absolutes. The Nahda (Renaissance) period saw its reinterpretation within nationalist and reformist discourses. In the digital age, usage has increased; however, its semantic depth has diminished due to the rapid and surface-level nature of communication on digital platforms, transforming it into a tool for emotional and social engagement. In conclusion, this research presents an innovative model that integrates classical Arabic rhetorical theory with contemporary NLP techniques, offering an interdisciplinary contribution to the fields of Arabic language, rhetoric, and digital linguistics.