al-Mala'ba takes the form of an epic poem in the zajal style. It took the name Mala'bat (playground) due to the al-Kafif's playing around with the qafiyas, or rhyme schemes. This kind of poetry flourished in the Marinid period, and Ibn Khaldun discusses the spread of zajal in the Muqaddimah: "إن أهل فاس وغيرهم استحسنوا هذا الفن، وولعوا به، ونظموا على طريقته، وتركوا الإعراب الذي ليس من شأنهم، وكثر سماعه بينهم، واستفحل فيه كثير منهم Indeed the people of Fes and others improved this art and gave themselves to it, and composed in this style, and abandoned the ʾiʿrab that they didn't care for, and it was heard more among them, and many of them thrived in it."[1] And he added, speaking specifically about al-Kafif az-Zarhuni and al-Mala'ba: "An outstanding poet in Zarhun, 1925 in the region of Meknes, close to the present time, was a man known as alKafif (the blind one).