On the art of medieval Arabic literature

P r in c e t o n E ssays i n

L it e r a t u r e

A dvisory Committee-. Joseph Bauke, Robert Fagles, Claudio G uillén, Robert Maguire (F o r a lis t o f the other titles in this series, see page fo llo w in g index.)

O N T H E A R T O F M E D IE V A L A r a b ic

L it e r a t u r e

Andras H a m o ri

PRINCETON U N IVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, N E W JERSEY

Copyright © 1974 by Princeton University Press A ll Rights Reserved Publication o f this book has been aided by the A ndrew W . M ellon Foundation and the Department o f Near Eastern Studies o f Princeton University L ibra ry o f Congress Cataloging in Publication inform ation w ill be found on the last printed page o f this book. P R IN TE D I N T H E U N IT E D STATES OF A M E R IC A BY P R IN C E TO N U N IV E R S IT Y PRESS P R IN C E T O N , N E W

JERSEY

To my mother and father

Preface

T his book was w ritte n fo r the student o f literature as w ell as

fo r the specialist in Arabic. Its m ain concern is w ith the three aspects o f medieval A rabic literature that appear most alien to modern Western taste: the lim ita tio n o f themes, the sedi­ m entation w ith conventions, and the use o f redcent patterns o f composition. There are three parts and three approaches. T he first part (Chapters i-m ) is historical: i t takes fo r its theme the trans­ form ations in poetic genres and poetic attitudes (towards tim e and society) in the period beginning w ith the sixth cen­ tury

a .d

.

and ending w ith the tenth. T he second part (iv-v)

concentrates on some problems o f poetic technique: how poems were made to hang together, how conventions were handled. T he th ird part (vi-vn ) deals w ith methods of com­ position in prose, exam ining the orders and disorders in tw o tales fro m the Arabian N ights. T o help the non-specialist, there is a chronological table in the back. T he analysis o f literary works resembles linguistic analysis in one respect that some people fin d unpleasant: a single problem can often be solved in a num ber o f ways, and some riva l solutions cannot be ranked u n til a ll solutions to all prob­ lems are in —in other words, never. T he elim ination o f flaws that render a piece o f criticism triv ia l or in va lid —provincial psychology, anachronistic sociology— does not spell the end of m ultiple explanations. B ut such is the relation o f criticism to the m eaning o f the w ork,1 and certainly criticism is the more enjoyable fo r its p artial character. 1 Let me quote, as something of a motto, a passage o f M . Dufrenne’s, Esthétique et philosophie (Paris, 1967), 141: “ I l n ’y a pas une vérité de Racine, telle qu’à l’explorer le critique soit assujetti à la lo i du tout v ii

PREFACE

Parts o f this book have been published in the fo rm o f jou r­ nal articles. Chapter v i is based on an essay in BSOAS, x x x iv (1971); an essay in Studia īslamica, x x x (1969) is u tilize d in Chapter iv and in the last fe w pages o f Chapter 11; the m iddle secdon o f Chapter v is a new treatment o f a subject I wrote about in JSS,

x ii

(1967). I am grateful to the editors o f these

journals fo r permission to include in the book versions of w o rk that they first printed. I w ou ld like to thank Princeton U niversity, the Princeton U niversity Council on Regional Studies, and the Departm ent and Program in Near Eastern Studies fo r their financial sup­ port. I am also obliged to Princeton U niversity and to the D e­ partm ent o f N ear Eastern Studies fo r having generously grant­ ed the leaves d u rin g w hich m uch o f this book was w ritten. I w ish that m y own powers had been sufficient to keep me clear o f the many quicksands of sense and style fro m w hich m y friends and w ife had to p u ll me. F or such rescue opera­ tions—always time-consuming, often tedious, and at times conducted fo r the benefit o f one fla ilin g at his rescuers—as w ell as fo r m any helpful suggestions, I am grateful to Lewis Fleischner, Roy ' Mottahedeh, and Paul Oppenheimer, and most of a ll to R uth H am ori. W ith o u t her surveillance o f this w ork, I w ou ld have fared no better than E d m un d W a lle r’s poor son Benjamin, w ho (as Samuel Johnson relates) was dis­ inherited and sent to N e w

Jersey, as w a n tin g common

understanding. a

. h .,

N ovem ber 1 ^ 2 , Princeton, N.J.

ou rien; mais Racine est principe de vérité, i l rend vrais les S ur Racine les plus divers. Mais n’y en a-t-il po in t qu’il rende faux? Oui, tous ceux q u i ne sont pas vraim ent sur Racine, q u i ne procèdent point d’une lecture véritable; et peut-être apparaît-il du même coup que la diversité des autres est plus apparente que réelle, parce que c’est vers un même noyau inentamable de sens que convergent, sans jamais l ’investir dé­ finitivem ent, tous les itinéraires.”

Contents

Preface v ii N ote on Translation and T ransliteration xi

Genres and. the Transform ation of Genres ONE

T he Pre-Islamic Qasīda : T he Poet as H ero 3 TW O

Ghazal and K h am riya : T he Poet as R itu a l C low n 31 THREE

W asf: T w o Views o f T im e 78

Technique FOUR

T he Poem and Its Parts 101 FIVE

A m biguities 119

The Construction of Tales six A n A llegory fro m the Arabian N ig h ts : T he C ity o f Brass I 45 SEVEN

The M usic of the Spheres : T he Porter and the Three Ladies o f Baghdad 164

Chronology o f People and Events 181

Bibliography 183 Index 195

x

Note on Translation and Transliteration

U nless otherw ise indicated, the translations are m y ow n .

The non-specialist can fo rm an approximate idea o f the transliterated sounds by consulting the fo llo w in g paragraph. T he vowels o f A rabic are approximately as in pat, pit, and put. Each vowel can be long or short. Dots under consonants (w h ich indicate pharyngealized pronunciation) may be dis­ regarded. /’ has its English sound; ‘ is a pharyngeal fricative, and ’ is a glottal stop. ’ is heard in German ge-antwortet, beobachten, etc. N o European language has

b u t since histori­

cally many Semitic languages have reduced this sound to

the

reader can afford to do likewise, q is a [ k ] sound made far back. \h , th, and dh stand fo r one sound each: counterparts are ch in Scottish loch, th in thin, and th in w ither. W here assimilation of the definite article occurs, I tran­ scribe the resulting sound. I do not use an apostrophe to m ark the hamzat al-wasl in bābu l-bayti, and the lik e : it is cum ­ bersome, confusing, and historically indefensible.1 W hen par­ ticles o f one consonant precede morphs that are never found after juncture, I use no hyphen: bil-, bihā, etc.; elsewhere I use one : bi-abl, etc. Orthography rather than sound is represented in tw o cases where the contrary practice confuses me, and I

suppose

others too. W h e n a fin a l long vowel is follow ed by a conso­ nant cluster, the vowel is shortened, b ut this sandhi remains nnmarked in the A ra bic orthography as w ell as in m y trans­ literation. In turn, at the end of a line o f verse, all vowels are sounded long, b ut I m arked this only when i t is signaled by 1 C f. T . O. Lam bdin, “ T he Junctural O rig in o f the W est Sem itic D efinite A rtic le ,” N ear Eastern Studies in H o n o r o f W. F . A lb rig h t, cd. H . Goedicke (B altim ore and London, 1971), 315-33. XI

NO TE O N TR A N S LA TIO N AND TR AN SLITER A TIO N

the orthography in the original. Anceps vowels I m arked as the prosody required. Classical prose is transliterated w ith case endings, modern w ithout. In transliterating H ebrew passages, I did not m ark the spirantization o f the letters b-g-d-\-p-t. T he

distribution o f

spirantized and unspirantized form s is nearly complementary, and such ambiguities as m ig h t occur are made up fo r by the corresponding d im in u tio n o f typographic clutter. T he trans­ literation o f H ebrew vowels is fa irly true to the orthography, b ut a fe w distinctions (segol/hatef segol, fo r example) remain unm arked. In transliterating poetry, I d id not transcribe fin a l -h used as a m ater lectionis. W ith no better justification than that o f convenience, in speech we usually deprive A ra b authors o f the articles pre­ fixed to their nisba names. I fo llo w this practice whenever the nisba alone appears, since to the non-Arabist the articles are so many exotic adjuncts. O n the other hand, many Am erican Arabists m ig h t say M ubarrad b ut none Khansa-, consequent­ ly, I kept articles before other than nisba names. T o make names less form idable looking, certain construct chains are transliterated as single units: ‘A bdalqāhir, Sayfaddawla, etc.

g e n re s