Classical Arabic Literature

A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology

Geert Jan Van Gelder

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780814771204
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Collections littéraires du Moyen-Orient

A major achievement in the field of translation, this anthology presents a rich assortment of classical Arabic poems and literary prose, from pre-Islamic times until the 18th century, with short introductions to guide non-specialist students and informative endnotes and bibliography for advanced scholars. Like many pre-modern Arabic anthologies it aims at being both entertaining and informative. It ranges from the early Bedouin poems with their evocation of desert life to refined urban lyrical verse, from tender love poetry to sonorous eulogy or vicious lampoons, and from the heights of mystical rapture to the frivolity of comic verse. The prose contains anecdotes, entertaining or edifying tales and parables, a fairy-tale, a bawdy story, samples of literary criticism, and much more. With this anthology, distinguished Arabist Geert Jan van Gelder brings together well-known texts as well as less familiar pieces that will be new even to scholars in the field. Many recent studies and anthologies of Middle Eastern literatures are primarily interested in Islam and religious matters—an emphasis that leads to the common misconception that almost everything in the region was and is dominated by religion. Classical Arabic Literature instead brings to life the rich variety of pre-modern Arabic social and cultural life, where secular texts happily coexisted with religious ones. This masterful anthology, in English only, will introduce this vibrant literary heritage to a wide spectrum of new readers.

PROSE

Examples of Early Rhymed Prose (Saj‘)

Not everything that rhymes is verse: only metrical, rhymed speech is considered poetry according to traditional Arabic opinion. Non-metrical, rhymed prose is called saj‘. In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times it was used for special occasions and genres: pithy sayings, maxims, proverbs, speeches of heightened emotion or for solemn occasions, and for the oracular, often enigmatic, mantic utterances of soothsayers and diviners (kuhhān, sg. kāhin). The early suras of the Qur’an also use rhyme or assonance that resembles the soothsayers’ saj‘, and the Prophet took pains to make it understood that he was neither a poet (shā‘ir) nor a soothsayer (kāhin). In the course of the Abbasid period polished and artful kinds of saj‘ were used by epistolographers, chancery scribes, and increasingly in other prose genres, notably the maqāmah; it is also widely used in book titles.

In Arabic editions rhyming segments are often separated by full stops, even when the sentence runs on. This does not work in English, so I have used asterisks instead to mark these divisions in the pieces below where the saj‘ is imitated in translation.

The mother of the pre-Islamic poet-brigand Ta’abbaṭa Sharrā, lamenting her son:³³⁰

wā-bnāh wa-bna l-layl * laysa bi-zummayl * sharūbun lil-qayl * raqūdun bil-layl * wa-wādin dhī hawl * ’ajazta bil-layl * taḍribu bidh-dhayl * bi-rajlin ka-th-thawl

O son, son of the night * he is no coward taking flight * who drinks at noon bright * or sleeps at night * many a wadi full of fright * you crossed at night * shaking your coat’s hem (?)³³¹ * with men like bees in a swarm.

Quss Ibn Sā‘idah (legendary pre-Islamic orator), preaching, and apparently foretelling the coming of Islam:³³²

’ayyuhā n-nāsu sma‘ū * wa-‘ū * man ‘āsha māt * wa-man māta fāt * wa-kullu mā huwa ’ātin ’āt *…

O people, hear * and be aware! * Whoever lives will die * whoever dies will disappear * and everything that will come to pass will come near! * A dark night * Constellations in the sky * Seas that rise * Stars that shine * Light and darkness * Piety and sins * Eating and drinking * Clothing and mounts for riding * How is it that I see people pass away * and not return? * Are they pleased to stay so they stayed away? * Or have they been abandoned so they went to sleep? * By the God of Quss ibn Sā‘idah: there is on the face of the earth no religion better than a religion the time of which has come, with its shade to protect you * and its moment has reached you * Blessed he who reaches it and follows it * Woe to him who opposes it *

A prophecy about the ruler of Kindah (Central Arabia), Ḥujr ibn al-Ḥārith (father of the poet Imru’ al-Qays) by ‘Awf ibn Rabī‘ah, a pre-Islamic kāhin (soothsayer; first half of the sixth century):³³³

mani l-maliku l-’aṣhab * al-ghallābu ghayru l-mughallab * fī l-’ibili ka-’annahā r-rabrab * lā ya‘laqu ra’sahu ṣ-ṣakhab * hādhā damuhū yantha‘ib * wa-hādhā ghadan ’awwalu man yuslab *

Who is the fair-haired king * unvanquished, vanquishing * amidst camels like a herd advancing * his head unaffected by the clamoring * this one’s blood will be gushing * and this one will tomorrow be the first for plundering.

Two fragments attributed to Musaylimah, the “false prophet” in the time of Muḥammad, who was active in Eastern Arabia and was defeated shortly after Muḥammad’s death (the texts sound like a parody of the Qur’an):

ḍifda‘u bintu ḍifda‘ayn * niqqī mā taniqqīn * ’a‘lāki fī l-mā’i wa-’asfaluki fī ṭ-ṭīn * lā l-mā’a tukaddirīn * wa-lā sh-shāriba tamna‘īn *³³⁴

Frog, daughter of two frogs! * Croak! What are you croaking? * Your top half in the water soaking, * your lower half in the mud poking! * The drinker you rile not, * the water you soil not. * We have half the earth and Quraysh³³⁵ the other half, but Quraysh are a hostile lot.

wal-mubdiyāti zar‘ā * wal-ḥāṣidāti ḥaṣdā * wadh-dhāriyāti qamḥā * waṭ-ṭāḥināti ṭaḥnā * wal-khābizāti khubzā *wath-thāridāti thardā * wal-lāqimāti laqmā * ’ihālatan wa-samnā *³³⁶

By the seed-sowing women * and the crop-reaping women * and the wheat- winnowing women * and the flour-milling women * and the bread-baking women * and the bread-broth-sopping women * and the women gobbling morsels * of fat and butter: * You are better than the dwellers in tents of hair. * Nor do the village dwellers take precedence over you. * Your cultivated fields, defend them! * He who addresses you humbly, harbor him! * And the oppressor, oppose him!

Someone about to be beheaded is asked, “Are you scared (a-tajza‘)?” He replies:³³⁷

’in ’ajza‘ fa-qad ’arā kafanan manshūrā * wa-sayfan mashhūrā * wa-qabran maḥfūrā!

Wouldn’t I be scared seeing a shroud spread and aired, a sword bared, and a grave prepared!

A Pre-Islamic Tale: The Princess on the Myrtle Leaf (Three Versions)

Three different versions of the same tale are given; there are many more in Arabic.³³⁸

I. al-Bayhaqī (early fourth/tenth century).³³⁹

They say that al-Ḍayzan al-Ghassānī,³⁴⁰ the king of al-Ḥīrah, was attacked by Sābūr Dhū l-Aktāf.³⁴¹ Al-Ḍayzan fortified himself and was besieged for a month. They say that Mulaykah,³⁴² the daughter of al-Ḍayzan, looked at Sābūr from the city wall³⁴³ and fell in love with him. She sent a note³⁴⁴ to him, saying, “I have fallen in love with you and I shall point out to you how to conquer this town.” He replied, “Do that and I will be yours, and at your command!”

Then she got the guardians of the wall drunk and opened the gates.³⁴⁵ Sābūr entered the town, killed those he could lay his hands on, and took her father prisoner. The following morning Sābūr ordered that al-Ḍayzan be brought before him, while he sat on a golden throne with the girl at his side. When al-Ḍayzan saw her, he wrung his hands, stamped his feet, and fainted. When he came to his senses he said to her, “Why have you done this? May God blacken your face as you have blackened mine, and may He give him power over you!”

On the orders of Sābūr, he was beheaded. Sābūr and his followers captured many spoils and returned to his royal residence. He had a special apartment built for the girl and made her live there. He was much pleased with her and she stayed with him for a year. Then, one night, he called for her and she spent the night with him on a bed filled with feathers. But she was very restless, so he asked her, “What is the matter with you, my darling?”

“There is something rough in the bed that has made me feel uncomfortable.”

He searched the bed and found beneath the feathers a myrtle leaf, and see! This had left a mark on her side of precisely the size of the leaf, because her body was so soft³⁴⁶ and her skin so tender. He said to her, “What did your father give you to eat?”

“Marrow³⁴⁷ and bread of the finest wheat flour—meaning white bread³⁴⁸—with sugar candy.”³⁴⁹

The king said, “By God, I shall give you what you deserve!”

He gave orders for her plaits to be fastened to the tails of two horses. They were made to gallop and she was torn to pieces.³⁵⁰

II. Ibn Qutaybah (213/828–276/889).³⁵¹

I have read in the Histories of the Persians,³⁵² that Ardashīr³⁵³ marched against alḤaḍr (Hatra). The king of Babylonia³⁵⁴ had fortified himself there; he was one of the most powerful of the Successor Kings.³⁵⁵ So Ardashīr besieged him there for some time, unable to find a way to take the town. Then, one day, the daughter of the king of Mesopotamia climbed on the town wall and saw Ardashīr. She fell in love with him, went down, took an arrow and wrote on it: “If you promise to marry me I will show you a place from where you may conquer this town with the least effort and cost.” Then she shot the arrow toward Ardashīr, who wrote his reply on the arrow: “I promise to do what you have asked.” Then he cast it toward her. She wrote to him, pointing out the place. Ardashīr sent his men there, they breached the town, and he entered with his troops while the townspeople remained unaware. They killed the king and most of the garrison, and Ardashīr married her.

One night, while she was lying on his bed, she felt so uncomfortable that she was sleepless all night long. They searched the bed and found beneath the mattress a myrtle leaf which had left a mark on her body. Thereupon Ardashīr asked her on what food her father had raised her. She said, “My food was mostly honey, cream, and marrow.”

Ardashīr said, “Nobody has been as excessively generous and obliging to you as your father. Since his reward from you has been so evil, despite his great kindness, while being so closely related and deserving great respect, I cannot be sure that you will be not the source of something similar befalling me.”

Then he gave orders for her hair to be fastened to the tail of a very restive, untamable horse, and for it to be run. This was done, and she was torn limb from limb.

III. al-Akhfash al-Aṣghar (ca. 235/849–315/927).³⁵⁶

Al-Ḥaḍr was a town in al-Jazīrah.³⁵⁷ In the old days a king ruled there called Sāṭirūn. His rule was mild, and he was kind toward his subjects. He adhered to a religion in which he was...