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Looking Back at Al-Andalus Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures Looking Back at al-Andalus Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures The Studies in Arabic Literature series, which was inaugurated in 1971 to publish monographic supplements to the Journal of Arabic Literature, has now expanded its purview to include other literatures (Persian, Turkish, etc.) of the Islamic Middle East. While preserving the same format as SAL, the title of the expanded series will be Brill Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures. As in the past, the series aims to publish literary critical and historical studies on a broad range of literary mate- rials: classical and modern, written and oral, poetry and prose. It will also publish scholarly translations of major literary works. Studies that seek to integrate Middle Eastern literatures into the broader discourses of the humanities and the social sciences will take their place alongside works of a more technical and specialized nature. We hope to announce shortly an advisory board for the expanded BSMEL series. Edited by Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych VOLUME XXXIV Looking Back at al-Andalus The Poetics of Loss and Nostalgia in Medieval Arabic and Hebrew Literature By Alexander E. Elinson LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 Cover illustration: Alhambra. Photograph by John Boccaccio. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Elinson, Alexander E. Looking back at al-Andalus : the poetics of loss and nostalgia in medieval Arabic and Hebrew literature / by Alexander E. Elinson. p. cm. — (Brill studies in Middle Eastern literatures) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-16680-6 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Arabic literature—History and criticism. 2. Hebrew literature—History and criticism. 3. Andalusia (Spain)—In literature. 4. Nostalgia in literature. I. Title. II. Series. PJ7519.A497E45 2009 892.7’09353—dc22 2008050877 ISSN 1571-5183 ISBN 978 90 05 16680 6 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands In memory of Magda M. al-Nowaihi CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................... ix Introduction The Poetics of Loss and Nostalgia in Muslim Spain ............................................................................................... 1 Chapter One Written in Stone: the Andalusī rithāʾ al-mudun in the Arabic Elegiac Tradition ................................................. 15 Chapter Two Weeping over the Poetic Past: Poetry into Prose in al-Saraqustī’ṣ Qayrawan Maqāma ............................. 51 Chapter Three Al-Andalus and Sefarad in the Hebrew Qasīdạ ............................................................................................. 81 Chapter Four The View from al-Andalus: Looking East, West, and South for Andalusī Identity .................................... 117 Conclusion A Final Look Back ................................................... 151 Appendix Select Arabic and Hebrew Texts .............................. 155 Works Cited ....................................................................................... 171 Index ................................................................................................... 181 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to give my special thanks to my colleagues and mentors for helping me during the many stages of this book’s journey. First and foremost, I thank Magda al-Nowaihi, under whose guidance I first began this project. She was instrumental in providing encouragement, insight, and focus every step of the way. She passed away before its completion but her inquisitive spirit and intellectual inspiration infuses it from beginning to end and for these reasons, I dedicate this book to her. Raymond Scheindlin provided much encouragement and gave graciously of his time to help me with important conceptual issues, as well as with translation questions in both the Arabic and Hebrew texts. This book owes a great deal to him. Muhsin al-Musawi provided invaluable assistance and advice, and I have benefited greatly from his vast expertise. Philip Kennedy’s wit, knowledge, and boundless curi- osity has served as a model for me and he has been instrumental in the development of my thinking. Special thanks also to George Saliba and Nader Sohrabi who read and commented upon this work at its various stages. I also would like to thank my friends and colleagues who, in discus- sions, arguments, and various fact-finding missions provided expertise and support, without which this book would not have been completed: Ammiel Alcalay, Abdullah Baali, Ross Brann, Ahmad Chahlane, Jona- than Decter, Terri DeYoung, Muhammad Ezroura, Arnold Franklin, Kenneth Garden, Teresa Garulo, Tamara Green, Abdelfattah Kilito, Scott Noegel, Ismail el-Outmani, Carmen Pozuelo Calero, Jonathan Shannon, Christopher Stone, Fatima Tahtah, and John Willis. I would like to thank the series editor Suzanne Stetkevych whose keen editorial eye and expertise helped immensely in completing the final version. Special thanks also to Trudy Kamperveen and Gera van Bedaf at Brill whose help and patience in terms of easing this book through the publication process has been greatly appreciated. For their assistance in preparing much of the Arabic and Hebrew texts, I would like to thank Melanie Clouser and Maayan Barkan. James Monroe was kind enough to give his permission to use his translation of al-Saraqustī’ṣ Qayrawan Maqāma, originally published in Al-Maqāmāt al-Luzūmīyah x acknowledgements by Abū l-Ṭāhir Muhammaḍ ibn Yūsuf al-Tamīmī al-Saraqustị̄ ibn al-Aštarkūwī (d. 538/1143) (Leiden; Boston; Köln: Brill, 2002). Chap- ter one is a revised version of “Loss Written in Stone: Ibn Shuhayd’s Rithaʾ for Cordoba, and its Place in the Arabic Elegiac Tradition” which appeared in Transforming Loss into Beauty: Essays on Arabic Literature and Culture in Memory of Magda Al-Nowaihi, eds. Marlé Hammond and Dana Sajdi (Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2008). Chapter two is a revised version of a previously published article entitled “Tears Shed Over the Poetic Past: The Prosification of Rithāʾ al-Mudun in al-Saraqustī’ṣ Maqāma Qayrawāniyya,” published in the Journal of Arabic Literature 36:1 (2005), 1–27. For funding support, I would like to acknowledge and thank Colum- bia University and the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, and the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York. None of this could have been done without the love and support of my family. Special thanks goes to my wife Amy whose support, encouragement, insight, and keen eye for detail were instrumental in the completion of this book. Finally, I must thank my sons Max and Zane who encouraged me to take frequent and much needed breaks from writing, to remind me that, although the past is a fascinating place, the present is a lot of fun too. Alexander E. Elinson New York, NY August, 2008 INTRODUCTION THE POETICS OF LOSS AND NOSTALGIA IN MUSLIM SPAIN On January 2, 1492 C.E., Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand took control of Granada’s Alhambra fortress, thus marking an end to Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula—a rule that had begun some eight hundred years before when a military force from North Africa had landed on the Iberian shore in 711. As the story goes, when the deposed ruler of Granada, Muhammad XII (known as Boabdil) left the city with his entourage, he took a final look back at the Alhambra, and wept. This, the famous Moor’s last sigh el( último suspiro del Moro) has come to symbolize the loss not only of this arguably very formidable and beautiful palace complex and its lovely Granada setting, but of all of Muslim Spain (al-Andalus)—a land and culture that had taken on an almost mythical status in the eyes of Andalusīs and foreigners alike well before it was finally lost to the Christians in 1492. At the peak of its power in the tenth and eleventh centuries, al- Andalus was an important military, political, and intellectual center in the Mediterranean world. During the period of the Umayyad Caliph- ate in Cordoba (929–1031), and also in the period that followed the break-up of that Caliphate into independent city-states (taifas, Ar. tawạ̄ ʾif, 1011–1091), the sciences, arts, and literature were supported by rulers who possessed the material wealth and desire to patronize scholarly endeavors in ways that rivaled and even exceeded those of the ʿAbbasid Caliphs in Baghdad or the Fatimids of North Africa. Translation projects of Greek medical and philosophical texts were commissioned by wealthy patrons, as were panegyric poems, literary treatises, grammatical texts, religious scholarly apparatus, etc. As well, architectural masterpieces were erected, and agricultural and scientific advances assured the place of al-Andalus as one of the richest cultures in the Mediterranean basin. On that January day in 1492, Boabdil wept
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