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Israel Oriental Studies XI, Studies in Medieval Arabic and Hebrew Poetics [Review of: S. Somekh (1995) -]

Schippers, A.

Publication date 1995 Document Version Final published version Published in Unknown

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Citation for published version (APA): Schippers, A. (1995). Israel Oriental Studies XI, Studies in Medieval Arabic and Hebrew Poetics [Review of: S. Somekh (1995) -]. In S. Somekh (Ed.), Unknown E.J. Brill.

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Download date:26 Sep 2021 199 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LII N° 1/2, Januari-Maart 1995 200

Julius Caesar and Pope Boniface VIII), is found in the first van Gelder's book Beyond the Line, in 1982 (E.J. Brill, century A.D. (Valerianus Maximus, Plutarch), then, through Leiden). "How systematic were medieval Arab poeticians, Macrobius, Erasmus, and Agricola, in many European col­ rhetoricians and commentators (on Koran, poetry, etc.) in lections. In Arabic sources from the ninth century onwards, discerning relationships between the different parts of a it may"B^ found as a anecdote involving the poets Kuthayyir literary text? And what was the terminology devised by and al-FaMzdaq. This illustrates what should be obvious, but them in these pursuits?" (p. 9). was, it seems, surprisingly often ignored by many who The collection of articles has been divided into two parts: traced the origin of an anecdote on the basis of personal or the first part is entitled Elements of Medieval Poetics; the geographicaKnames occurring in it: adopting goes hand in second part. Prosody and the Structure of Poetic Texts. hand with adiipting; jokes are borrowed and almost auto­ In the first part Andras Hamori deals with "Some matically adjusted to one's own familia/ surroundings by a Schemes of Reading in al-Marzuqi, Al-Iskafi, and Fakhr Al- process that MWzolph calls narrativJ Akkidturation and Din al-Razi", discussing some instances of al-Marzuqi's which he illustrates with many examplas. comment on the poems of Abu Tammam's Hamdsah- The extraordinary migratory capaaities of jokes (their anthology, confronting his ideas with some Koranic analysis Wandergeschwindigkeit) are due to OTal and written chan­ by al-Iskafi and al-Razi. It is a reaction to van Gelder's nels. The former arA of course, elusive and largely hypo­ statement about the non-relevance of the commentators' thetical for the early stages, but witM written sources one is application of badi' schemata to the Koran, because "in on much safer ground.V^ne might be tempted to think that much of it it was not the study of poetry that led the way, oral transmission of jokeB is by farihe more important chan­ but Koranic studies aided by speculative theology, aided in nel, and the written maferial marely a reflection of what turn by logical and philosophical studies. (Beyond the Line, went around by word of mouth/playing a subsidiary role. 165)". Yet Hamori demonstrates some overlapping on cer­ One of the interesting results ojMarzolph's research is that tain points in the two fields. He investigates in his comment he is able to show the maio/ role of written collections, on certain Hamd.sah fragments, the occurrence of "Sequence especially in intercultural or^terlingual transfer. Often one and Direction", and "Relations between non-contiguous particular book was diligentmculled and, where necessary, Elements" in the cases of amplification and irony. The article adapted by a subsequent ilutlTor. A case in point is The by George Kanazi discusses the literary theory of Abu Hilal Laughable Stories, a collection in Syriac by the 13th-century al-'Askari, arguing that the Kitdb al-Sana'atayn originally Bar Hebraeus. often thoi^ht to nave been compiled from a was called Kitah San'at al-Kalam, and that in the mind of large variety of sources/in Arabia Syriac and Greek. As it the author Rhetorical and Poetical devices in prose and turns out. however, mir Hebraeus chiefly depended on poetry belonged to one and the same science, the san'ah. merely one source. al-AbT"s Nathr di-diirr, adroitly changing The article by Matityahu Pclcd is devoted to the concept of placenames (the Hejaz_ becomiiW Palestine), persons literary influence in Classical Arabic criticism. Here the dis­ (Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and 'A'isha turning into Mar Jacob and tinction of lafz (utterance, form) and ma'nd (meaning, Pope Leo, respectiv^y), and other elamenls (Koranic verses theme) is important in the writings of the Arabic theorists being exchanged fof Biblical passage*). while Abd al-Qadir al-Jurjani also uses the term siirah Marzolph's Arabocentric approach is a much-needed (image, conceit). Khalil Athamina investigates the history of counterpart of the many Europoceuntric studies: both the term lafz with reference to Arabic poetry. Joseph Sadan approaches are biased, but theirs unconsciously, through deals with the history and evaluation of certain poetic ignorance, and his consciously, for the sake of fruitful com­ themes, such as Maiden's Hair and Starry Skys. basing him­ parative research. Within Arabic and IstBmic studies, too, self on. until then unpublished, manuscripts such as al-Sari' Arabia Ridens will be a very helpful tool. noKonly for students al-Raffa"s al-Miihibb wa-l-Mahhiib and al-Raghib al-Isba- of literature studies, but also for historians, in view of the hani's Majma' al-halaghah. The problematics of ma'na and role of the ubiquitous anecdotes that serve as the smallest lafz is also discussed here. units of history in Arabic biographical and annalistic works. The second part of the book is entitled "Prosody and the Structure of Poetic Texts" and contains four articles: David University of Groningen, February 1994 Semah's "Poetry and Audience According to Medieval GEERT JAN VAN GELDER Arab poeticians", Albert Arazi's "Metrique et Langage Poe- tique", David Gil's "The Muwa.ssah". and Jacqueline Genot-Bismuth's "La revolution prosodique d'Immanuel * de Rome". In his article, David Semah pays attention to problems such as the poetician's position, the poet and his audience, parallel patterns, and the rupture of symmetry. ISRAEL ORIENTAL STUDIES. XT. Studies in Medieval Albert Arazi's article with the subtitle "The case of Khalid Arabic and Hebrew Poetics edited by Sassoon Somekh. al-Katib and the muwas.sah poets" deals with the apprecia­ Leiden/New York/Koln. Brill. 1991 (25 cm. 186). ISBN tion of metre and rythm. In the Jahiliyyah. poets seem to 90-04-09368-0. S 50.26. have recited their poems with an extremely fast rythm com­ This book consists of nine studies on Medieval Arabic pared with to-days customs of recital. Dealing with Hazim and Hebrew Poetics, which were originally papers at two al-Qartajanni"s theory about the relationship between long conferences held at Tel-Aviv University in 1983, and 1984. and short metres and certain poetic genres, he comes to the The participants of the conferences tried to find the answer conclusion that Q"s thesis is partly true — only for the long to problems in medieval Arabic Poetics such as the sequence metres. The increasing use of short metres in Abbasid times. of poetic lines and the unity of the poem, especially after often called a "revolution", has less significance than people studies that recently had been published, such as Geert Jan always thought. In his article, David Gil approaches the 201 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — ARABICA-ISLAM 202 muwassah as an universal artistic phenoumenon, comparing a means of correspondence in courtly circles and among it with related phenoumena in other literatures and daily life. friends. One of the first poets, who made a living out of Jacqueline Bismuth investigates the influence of the Italian poetry, by travelling around and singing the araise of Jewish dolce stil novo poets, such as Dante Alighieri, in contrast viziers and Maecenates, was the poet Ibn KRalfun (ca. 970- with that of the Arabic and Hebrew Andalusian tradition, on ca. 1020). The Hebrew Andalusian poets wanted to demon­ the Medieval Italo-Hebrew poet Immanuel of Rome [1270- strate that Classical Hebrew had the -same- possibilities as 1328]. This poet was well versed in composing Hebrew Classical Arabic for writing secular poetry. The Golden Age poetry in the Andalusian manner, as well as Hebrew sonnets of Hebrew Andalusian poetry did not last very long. It with Italian endecasillabi. He participated in the Italian started under the caliphate in the tenth century, and reached poetic climate, and also wrote sonnets in Italian. its peak during the period of the party kiags in the eleventh All in all, the book is a very useful and rewarding study century, when Muslim Spain was divided into several Mus­ of Arabic poetics. The subtitle "Studies in Medieval Arabic lim kingdoms lead by ethnic Arabs/Berbers, Slavs, or and Hebrew Poetics" is somewhat misleading, since only Negroes. The eleventh century had a/ch cultural life at the the last article deals with Medieval Hebrew literature. courts, whose inhabitants competed^ith each other in wine drinking and poetry parties. Hebre\/ Andalusian poetry took Amsterdam/Leiden, February 1994 ARIE SCfflPPERS over the main themes of Arabic TOetry such as poetry dedi­ cated to wine, love, nature de;«;riptions, war descriptions * * and praise of the patron or ki/ig. Among the themes were * also elegiac themes around D/eath and Perdition.

After the twelfth century; not only did Hebrew Andalu­ BRANN, Ross - The Compimctuous Poet. Cultural Ambi­ sian poetry decline, but ajio its model. Arabic poetry does guity and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain, Baltimore, not develop as much as ifi earlier times. However, as far as The John Hopkins Un^ersity Press, 1991 (24 cm, xiv + Hebrew Andalusian poe^y is concerned, this decay is some­ 228) = John HopkinsNgwish Studies. ISBN 0-8018- times denied, because ifi later ages, poets like Todros Abul- 4073-2. $ 42.00. 'Aflyah (1247-after f298), and a metrical theorist-poet Hebrew Andulasian secular po^ry appears from the tenth Sa'adyah Ibn Dannan'(d. after 1505) still have a poetic pro­ century onwards as a new phenomehon in Hebrew literature. duction of high quality, not consisting merely of imitations. Literature until then was confined t\religious topics. The But they were ejjceptions: the successive arrival of the "emancipation" of Hebrew literature m. Muslim Spain (al- Berber dynasties/from Morocco, of The Almoravids and Andalus) was largely due to the position?\certain Jews then Almohads had been disastrous for the cultural climate, espe­ occupied, which made the community rich ajid prosperous, cially for the Jews who fled over the frontier into Christian also intellectually. Spain and P/ovence, while others made their way to the Under Muslim rule the Jewish community ofsSpain had more tolerafht Muslim east (e.g. Egypt). In Provence, many possibilities for development, because of it\special Hebrew rhyme-prose in the style of the Arabs continued to social position in that diaspora: the Jews had estaoiished flower along with Judeo-Arabic culture. Even in Italy, themselves on the Iberian peninsula as early as the first cen­ Hebrevypoetry was written according to the principles of the tury. They were there before the arrival of the Visigoths Hebre/' Andalusian school. The impact of Hebrew Andalu­ the end of the fifth centrury, and when the Visigoths became^ sian/oetry was also quite conspicuous even in the Ottoman hostile towards them, they saw the Arabs as their liberators Ernpire. when they (the Arabs) conquered the majority of the Iberian le religious poems (the piyyutim) in Al-Andalus, and peninsula in 711. According to historical sources they even fterwards elsewhere, were also influenced by secular helped the Arabs in their conquest. Furthermore, the Jews Drew Andalusian poetry, especially in their form, metres were to be found in all walks of life, landowners, merchants, ana\rhymes. The importance of the Hebrew Andalusian artisans, and labourers; from the highest to the lowest poetrydies not only in the fact that this poetry is deliberately classes. They had their own cities, such as Lucena and/ secularV- a fact which probably could exist only in the Granada. In wealthy Muslim Spain, Jewish science and cul rich and privileged diaspora on the Iberian peninsula —, it ture were greatly stimulated, thanks to Jewish functionaries also gives a^i idea of how Arabic poetry was received in at the courts of Muslim kings. Under the influence of Araoic Andalusia'). grammar, Hebrew grammatical studies flourished, although Hebrew had already disappeared as a spoken language/in the The book star"!* with an introduction about the Jews on second century CE, and in Spain first Romance, laler ver­ the Iberian peninsula and their deteriorating relationship nacular Arabic, had taken its place. The focus of/Hebrew with the Visigoths\with the description of the changes grammatical studies was on the Classical Hebraw of the brought about by theNArabo-Islamic conquest; and the im­ Holy Writ. Secular Hebrew Andalusian poetry/tame into pact of arabization whicb, for the Jews, led to an increasing being under the influence of the study of Hebrew grammar urbanization. It gives arv ov^view of the several ethic following the methods of the Arab grammariaris. This study groups of al-Andalus and tlV^ferent reigns and periods. It was much encouraged by the famous Meacones and Cor- describes the role of the famous JewLsh courtiers in promo­ doban vizier, Hasday ibn Shaprut (ca. 910-9'Z/O). ting Jewish cultural life, such as Hasday ibn Shaprut (d. c. The study of the Biblical Hebrew inspined the Hebrew poets to use that language for their new rorms of secular ') See Arie Schippers, Spanish Hebrew Poetry and the Arabic Literary poetry. They used Arabic metres and themefe. The first poets Tradition. Arabic Themes in Hebrew Andalusian Poelrw Leiden (E.J. of the new Hebrew Andalusian school made use of poetry as Brill), 1994.