Hispano-Arabic Literature and the Early Provencal Lyrics

J. A. Abu-Haidar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136808845
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

As the distinctive contribution of Islamic Spain to Arabic literature, the strophic muwashshahand zajal are still viewed by some as a development from putative Romance prototypes. No less than seven theories of origin of the Provençal lyrics have been proffered, foremost among them being the Arabic origins theory. This book lets the strophic muwashshah tell its own tale of a natural development in the context of classical Arabic literature.

Part I

POPULAR LITERATURE

Chapter One

THE LANGUAGE AND FUNCTION OF THE HISPANO-ARABIC ZAJAL

It has often been remarked that the printed word is an object of reverence. A striking example of this is the received opinion handed down on the authority of medieval Arabic scholars, that the Hispano-Arabic zajal is written in the vernacular or vulgar Hispano-Arabic dialect. This theory, initiated, it would seem, by the medieval literary historian Ibn Sa^cīd (1214–86), was subsequently given the sanction and authority of the great historian Ibn Khaldūn (1322–1406), and has, in modern times, been accepted by all students of the zajal, both Western and Arab, without being adequately examined or even questioned. To take only a few examples, G. S. Colin asserted in 1933 that “the zajal is purely and simply a muwashshaḥ. written in the Hispanic dialect instead of the classical language.”¹ Likewise, S. M. Stern wrote in 1951 that what he described as muwashshaḥ-like zajals “came into being by the transposition of the muwashshaḥ into vulgar Arabic” (1951: 378; 1974: 170). Emilio García Gómez also defines the zajal in terms of its relationship to the cognate muwashshaḥ and repeats the statement that it “differs from the muwashshaḥ in being written in its entirety in dialectal Arabic, without i^crāb” (1956: 318; 1952: 77). Ihsan Abbas is just as categorical. He describes the language of the zajal as “entirely colloquial, but interspersed at times with Romance terms” (1962: 264). In fact, this idea of the vernacular nature of the language of the zajal had become an article of faith with some Arab scholars and the use or occurrence of a word in the zajal had become the criterion by which it was decided whether it was of classical Arabic or of a vernacular origin.²

However, the seemingly axiomatic statements quoted above came gradually to be expressed in a less assertive or clear-cut tone. In an article in the new edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam, Colin describes the language used by Ibn Quzmān in his zajals as “the Arabic dialect of southern Spain as it was spoken by the educated people of his time, that is to say with a vocabulary much enriched with borrowings from the classical language, but always deprived of grammatical inflections, i^crāb” (art. Ibn Ḳuzmān, III, 1971: 852).

In his three-volume work, Todo Ben Quzmān, published in Madrid in 1972, García Gómez expresses more explicit reservations about the language of the zajal being entirely colloquial. “In actual fact”, he says, “there is no doubt that Ibn Quzmān employs i^crāb on occasions, and we dare say that this use (of i^crāb) was perhaps necessary, as the vulgarismo of Ibn Quzmān has to be understood cum mica salis” (II: 875). “Colloquial Arabic”, the author says, “rejects, in principle, i^crāb, or the final desinential vowels, but it could still have it. It eliminates or suppresses a lot of tanwīn, or marks of indefiniteness, but not all, and it does that in a capricious manner” (III: 17).³ García Gómez also speaks of the oscillation of the language of Ibn Quzmān between classicism and stylized vulgarism (III: 19).

It is still possible, however, to come across definitions of the zajal as “the popular poetry written in the vernacular of Muslim Spain”, or references to “the formal language’ of a poet like Ibn Zaydūn in contradistinction to “Ibn Quzmān’s colloquial” (Corré, 1977: 19).

The simple point to be made in the following pages is that while the zajal was indeed a popular art, it was not uncultured, and those who wrote it did not view it as plebeian or unstudied. Zajal writers, as the surviving literature attests, were well-versed in the “classics” of Arabic literature, and could string together long passages of rhymed prose like any contemporary coryphaeus of the art. Ibn Quzmān’s introduction to his dīwān is written in impeccable rhymed prose.

It is also hoped in the course of this chapter to show why the zajal came to be designated as hazl, or adab hazlī, a term literally meaning ‘jesting’ or ‘jocularity’, and how this hazl literature, while basically corresponding in its function to the mujūn in the Arab East, represented a new approach to writing. It was a form of free composition, a capriccio, at a time when literary composition was being subjected to the most rigorous and inflexible patterns.

It is common knowledge that the study of the zajal has suffered from the puritan approach of medieval Arabic scholars and their disregard of any popular form of literature, or any literary productions which did not seem to conform to the acceptable norms. The notable literary historian of Islamic Spain, Ibn Bassām (d. 1147), considered even the muwashshaḥs, written in impeccable classical Arabic, unworthy of inclusion in his well known work, al-Dhakhīra, because their metres deviated at times from the classical Arabic meters (al-Dhakhīra, I, vol. 1: 470). The celebrated al-Maqqarī, likewise, writing about the Andalusi author, poet and zajal writer ^cUmar al-Zajjāl, makes the familiar apology for not reproducing much of al-Zajjāl’s works in his literary history and anthology, Azhār al-Riyāḍ. He says that al-Zajjāl is the author of many compilations most of which are in the hazl style or manner (hazliyyah), and “for that reason I did not reproduce much of his work”. “This”, he adds, “is in keeping with the qualities of literary originality and excellence in al-Andalus which we set out to portray” (Azhār, I: 132). He ma...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• What this Work is About
• Part I Popular Literature
• The Muwashshaḥāt An Integral Part of Classical Arabic Literature
• No Arabic Echoes in the Provençal Lyrics
• References
• Index