From Literatur to Adab: the Literary Renaissance in Aleppo Around 1700*

Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 58(3-4), 195-220. doi: 10.2143/JECS.58.3.2020828 T©HE 2006 LITERARY by Journal RENAISSANCE of Eastern INChristian ALEPPO Studies. AROUND All 1700rights reserved. 195

FROM LITERATUR TO ADAB: THE LITERARY RENAISSANCE IN ALEPPO AROUND 1700*

HILARY KILPATRICK

THE “GESCHICHTE DER CHRISTLICHEN ARABISCHEN LITERATUR” AND THE STUDY OF ARABIC LITERATURE

For the student of Arabic literature, Georg Graf’s Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur (GCAL) would seem on first sight to be an essential reference work, since it treats one tradition of Arabic literature. Today, however, “literature” is generally understood to consist of works in poetry and prose in which a concern with artistic expression accompanies the conveying of information, whereas the “Literatur” of the Geschichte’s title in principle embraces anything written.1 As the preface explains, however, the book’s scope is limited to those Arabic works in whose content and purpose the religious traits of Christianity dominate; other writings by Arab Christians belong to a general history of Arabic literature. “Christian Arabic literature” is thus approached as an expression of Eastern Christianity, along with writings in Syriac, Coptic, Armenian and other languages.2 And even now, 60 years after the first volume appeared, the Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur remains an essential and generally unique point of reference for investigations into writing in Arabic on subjects connected with

* I am most grateful to Dr. Carsten Walbiner for several suggestions and corrections and for some bibliographical references. 1 “Literature” and “Literatur” do not have exactly the same connotations. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary (10th ed., 2001) gives the first sense of “literature” as “written works, especially those regarded as having artistic merit”; the Duden Universalwörterbuch (2nd ed., 1989) defines “Literatur” first as “gesamtes Schrifttum”, with related meanings, and only afterwards as “künstlerisches Schrifttum”. English has no separate term corre- sponding to “Dichtung” in the sense of “sprachliches Kunstwerk”; “literature” covers this too. The tendency to define “Literatur” inclusively is still influential in the field of Arabic studies, as can be seen, for instance, from Wiebke Walther’s recent Kleine Geschichte der arabischen Literatur (Munich: Beck, 2004), which includes brief mentions of Ìadi† collections, early fiqh and asbab al-nuzul.

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Christianity – including literature, in the narrow sense, when it has an expressly Christian character.3 But to use the Geschichte for research into literature is not simple. It is chiefly concerned with theological topics: Biblical studies, liturgy, dogmat- ics, Church history and spirituality. It does contain information about some works of literature (in the narrow sense) which were written by Christians, but this information is not always easy to find. To give one example: there exists a poem composed by Bishop ¨Isa of Îamah on the visit he made together with Patriarch Yuwakim (Joachim) Δaw to Moscow in 1586-7. This appears to be the one surviving example of Bishop ¨Isa’s literary composi- tions; no diwan of his is mentioned. In the Geschichte the poem and its author are appended to the paragraph dealing with Patriarch Yuwakim V, who appears in the section on 16th century polemical writings among the “melchitischen Schriftsteller”.4 As will be explained below, this poem has a significance for the history of Arabic literature far beyond its mediocre artistic value – and it has nothing polemical about it.5

2 Georg Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur (henceforth GCAL). Vol. I: Die Übersetzungen (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944), pp. 2-3. For further discussion of the aims and scope of the Geschichte as a literary history, see Hilary Kilpatrick, ‘Brockelmann, KaÌÌala & Co: Reference works on the Arabic literature of early Ottoman Syria’, Middle Eastern Literatures, 7 (2004), pp. 36-40. 3 For the Byzantine Christian tradition Joseph Nasrallah’s Histoire du mouvement littéraire dans l’église melchite du Ve au XXe siècle. Vols. II-IV (Louvain: Peeters, 1979-1989), which covers the period 750-1800, is an indispensable supplement to the Geschichte. I am not aware of similar reference works for the Maronite, Coptic and Syrian traditions. The volumes of the Histoire (abbreviated to HMLEM) are as follows, in chronological order of appearance: IV (1) Période ottomane. 1516-1724 (1979); III (2) Domination mamelûke [sic] 1250-1516 (1981); III (1) Reconquête byzantine. Croisades. Epoques aiyû- bide et fâtimide (1983); II (2) Première période abbassîde. 750-Xe siècle (1988); IV (2) Période ottomane 1724-1800 (1989). 4 GCAL III: Die Schriftsteller von der Mitte des 15. bis zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts. Melchiten, Maroniten (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1949), p. 89. An additional reference is on p. 155, under the heading “Topographien und Reisebeschreib- ungen”. Yuwakim Δaw’s only text mentioned in GCAL is not polemical but disciplinary – a robust restatement of the traditional Orthodox position forbidding the remarriage of widowed clergy, with a threat of sanctions against priests who disobey this rule. 5 A version of the poem has been published by Joseph Nasrallah (Chronologie des Patriarches melchites d’Antioche de 1500 à 1634 [Paris 1959], pp. 86-87). Perhaps because the Geschichte classifies it first under “polemische Schriften”, Nasrallah understands the term with which it denotes the Poles, “alaÌ”, as pejorative (p. 86, fn. 4). In fact this is the

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Two principles of arrangement are followed in the Geschichte. In the first volume, devoted to translations, the information is arranged according to works translated. In the subsequent three volumes the organization is first and foremost by Churches,6 an arrangement which implies that each Church’s written production developed independently. Some fields, such as dogmatic theology, exegesis or canon law, are indeed likely to have evolved separately in the various Churches. But in others, for instance ethics, asceti- cism or mysticism, influences and borrowings between Churches may well have occurred; writers such as St. John Climacus, St. Ephrem the Syrian and St. Isaac of Nineveh belong to the common Christian heritage and were read and drawn on by the different Eastern Churches.7 Contacts between writers belonging to different Churches (and even different religions) are even more probable where literature in the narrow sense is concerned. The Geschichte is not planned in such a way as to bring out such ecumenical and inter-religious literary interaction. When the Geschichte was being prepared, the writing of literary history was still dominated by the positivist approach, particularly in the study of non-European literatures. Carl Brockelmann’s Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL),8 to which the Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur often refers,9 is a signal example of this tradition. Both GAL and GCAL have many strengths and shortcomings. The strengths are evident; they are, and will continue to be, indispensable tools of reference thanks to the wealth of information they contain. Where GCAL is concerned, moreo-

standard old Ottoman name, usually written as lah, which derives ultimately from the Polish tribal name Lech (EI 2, art. “Leh” [Z. Abrahamowicz]). 6 The complete GCAL consists of five volumes. As well as volumes I and III, for which see notes 2 and 4 above, the others are: II: Die Schriftsteller bis zur Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts (1947); IV: Die Schriftsteller von der Mitte des 15. bis zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts. Syrer, Armenier, Kopten, Missionsliteratur, Profanliteratur, 1951; V: Register (1953). They were all published in Vatican City by the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. 7 Cf. the entries on them in the index, GCAL V (see n. 6). The ecumenical appeal of writings on these subjects is recognized in GCAL I (see n. 2), pp. 299, 301. 8 Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur [1898-1902], 2nd ed., Vols. I-II, 1943, 1949; Supplements I-III, 1937-1943 (Leiden: E.J. Brill). 9 While the Introduction to GCAL (I [see n. 2], p. 10) mentions Brockelmann’s Die christlich-arabische Litteratur (in Die Litteraturen des Ostens in Einzeldarstellungen), it says nothing about GAL providing a possible model for the writing of literary history.

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ver, the characterizations of religious poetry may betray a considerable aes- thetic sensitivity and attention to form; at times, it approaches a literary history in the strict sense.10 Among the Geschichte’s shortcomings, seen from the vantage point of the beginning of the 21st century, are the verdicts which it pronounces on many writers and works from the mid-15th century on; “originality”, in particular, is something which it looks for and often does not find in the texts it presents.11 In connection with literature, however, the “originality” it refers to appeared in European texts and criticism with the Romantic movement. In the sense in which GCAL understands it, it is not a value in pre-modern literatures, either non-European or European, as 20th century research into these literatures has shown. Another shortcoming of the Geschichte, from the standpoint of present- day research, is its understanding of the state of Arabic culture in the Otto- man period. In the conventional view, the period starting with the Ottoman conquest of 1516-1517 was a time of unrelieved cultural decline and stagna- tion, ¨aÒr al-inÌi†a†,12 only ended with Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and the reforms introduced by MuÌammad ¨Ali.13 The Geschichte, by contrast, rec- ognizes that changes occurred then and documents them; in this it was far ahead of its time. But it introduces a novel – and revealing – type of periodization for Christian Arabic literature. Rather than a political event, it identifies the Council of Florence (1439) as the point after which changes started to occur. Hence the division between writers “bis zur Mitte des 15.

10 E.g. GCAL IV (see n. 6), p. 6 (Syrian Orthodox poetry); p. 17 (Ïsa al-Hazar), p. 124 (Coptic poetry). 11 E.g. GCAL III (see n. 4), p. 6 (general character of Greek Orthodox writings in the Ottoman period), p. 96 (Makariyus ibn al-Zaïm), p. 152 (MiÌaîl Burayk), p. 408 (Garmanus FarÌat); GCAL IV (see n. 6), p. 319 (NaÒif al-Yazigi). 12 See, for an early use of the term, Gurgi Zaydan, Ta’r iÌ adab al-luga al-ärabiya. Al-guzˆ al-†ali† [1911] (reprint Beirut: Mansurat Dar maktabat al-Îayat, 1983). Vol. II, p. 284. This view is widespread in Arabic and older European surveys of Arabic literature. The dissenting voice of Marun Äbbud, who regarded the 18th century writers Äbd al-Gani al- Nabulusi, Garmanus FarÌat, Niqula al-∑aîg and Äbd al-RaÌman al-NaÌlawi as the “old pioneers” (al-ruwwad al-ïtaq) of the nah∂a (Ruwwad al-nah∂a al-Ìadi†a [Beirut: Dar al- ïlm li-l-malayin 1952], pp. 27-35) found few echoes until very recently. 13 See, for example, Ch. Pellat, Langue et littérature arabes. 2nd ed. (Paris: Armand Colin, 1970), pp. 173-4; M.M. Badawi, ‘Introduction’ in Modern Arabic Literature [The Cam- bridge History of Arabic Literature] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 3; Francesco Gabrieli, La letteratura araba. 4th ed. (Florence-Milan: Sansoni-Edizioni Acca- demia, 1970), pp. 233, 255.

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Jahrhunderts” in volume II and writers “von der Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts bis zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts” in volumes III and IV. In other words, it defines literary developments in the Ottoman period in terms of an event which occurred outside the Arab world, did not concern all the Eastern Churches immediately,14 and was not directly connected with literature in a narrow sense. This is not to deny the significance for Christian Arabic intellectual and literary history of the activities of the Roman Catholic missionaries who during the Ottoman period sought to strengthen the Maronite Church’s ties with Rome and secure the other Eastern Churches’ acceptance of the Union of Florence. But periodization in literary history should be determined by the evolution of the literature itself, and this seldom parallels political or, in the Geschichte’s case, dogmatic developments exactly. Al- though it is too early to propose a periodization of Christian Arabic literature based on the texts themselves, to set the Council of Florence as the marker par excellence delimiting two periods is hardly convincing.15

A TIME OF CHANGE IN LITERATURE: THE EARLY OTTOMAN PERIOD

In the last half century, researchers have begun to work on the various aspects of the Ottoman period of Arab history more intensively, and this has led to a growing critique of the ¨aÒr al-inÌi†a† view. The unbiased study of Arabic literature in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries is still in its cradle,16 but

14 Being already in union with the Roman Catholic Church, the Maronites did not play any part in the Council. Unions between the Copts and the Latins, and the Syrians and the Latins were celebrated a few years later, in 1443 and 1444 respectively. 15 Nasrallah’s Histoire du mouvement littéraire dans l’Eglise melchite (see n. 3) ignores the Council of Florence in its periodization, which follows political events except for the schism of 1724. In the eyes of the Eastern Churches, the Council of Florence “embittered the division” between East and West and became “the model of how not to attempt to heal the breach” between them (Joseph Gill, The Council of Florence [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961], p. 411). 16 Two recent diachronical studies of genres which provide insights into this period are Dwight F. Reynolds (ed.), Interpreting the Self. Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradi- tion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001) and Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, Maqama. A History of a Genre (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2002). Thomas Bauer’s ‘Vom Sinn der Zeit. Aus der Geschichte des arabischen Chronogramms’, (Arabica, L (2003), pp. 501-531) examines a genre introduced into Arabic literature from Turkish in the Ottoman period. Important for the literary sociology of the period are Nelly

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one of the significant features of the period is already clear: the reintegration of Christian writers into the mainstream of Arabic literature. The Geschichte is a mine of information on this subject. In what follows, I will sketch some factors contributing to this process during the 16th and 17th centuries and then discuss Garmanus (Germanos) Gibraˆil FarÌat, Maronite Archbishop of Aleppo in the early 18th century and two writers contemporary with him. The Ottoman conquest resulted in Syria’s incorporation into a world empire. This had important consequences for Christian communities in the country.17 The Byzantine Orthodox of the Arab world were reunited with their fellow-believers of Anatolia and the Balkans. And as the Ottomans gradually extended their domination in the Eastern Mediterranean, they in- corporated Greek communities strongly marked by Venetian and Genoese culture; among the members of these communities some established themselves in Syria.18 Opportunities for travel opened up before the Orthodox of Syria to the Balkans and further afield in Eastern Europe. The Roman Catholic clergy who came to serve the European merchants, increasingly present in important trading centres of the Empire, gradually extended their activities to the Christians of Syria. Promising young Maronites were en- couraged to study in the Maronite College in Rome, which was founded in 1584, and some journeyed on to other parts of Italy, France and Spain. Jesu- its, Capuchins and members of other orders engaged in missionary work among the other Eastern Christian communities.19 The prosperity of Da- mascus and in particular Aleppo attracted immigration; in the Maronites’ case this meant that for the first time they had a presence in traditional cen-

Hanna’s studies focussing mainly on Egypt, notably her In Praise of Books. A Cultural His- tory of Cairo’s Middle Class, Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003). 17 Thomas Philipp, ‘Bilad al-Sam in the Modern Period: Integration into the Ottoman Empire and New Relations with Europe’, Arabica, LI (2004), pp. 401-418, especially pp. 403-404, 412-414. The Christian communities are the focus of Carsten-Michael Walbiner, ‘Die Christen Aleppos im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert’, Sharqiyyat, 14/1 (2002), pp. 61-78, a lucid survey with useful bibliographical indications. 18 Chios (∑aqız) was conquered in 1566 and Cyprus in 1570; Crete was only completely occupied in 1666. A notable example of an immigrant to Syria from the islands was If†imiyus (Euthymios) al-∑aqizi, icon-painter and Patriarch of Antioch from 1635 to 1647. 19 See the thorough study of Bernard Heyberger, Les chrétiens du Proche-Orient au temps de la réforme catholique (Rome: Ecole française de Rome, 1994).

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tres of Arabic culture with a cosmopolitan character.20 Moreover, in the late 17th century the Maronite Archbishop of Aleppo, Gibraîl al-Blawzani, reor- ganised the community’s school on the lines of the Maronite College in Rome; it made a considerable contribution to improving the level of learning among Aleppo’s Christians.21 An early, if not the earliest, strictly literary reflection of this mobility, so far as I know, is to be found in the poem by Bishop Ïsa mentioned above. Other known poems in Arabic by Christians in the late Mamluk and earliest Ottoman periods use the strophic forms of dialect poetry. The best- known example, Gibraîl ibn al-Qilaï’s MadiÌa äla Gabal Lubnan (Eulogy of Mount Lebanon), composed at the end of the 15th century to record a legendary Maronite past in an epic mode, uses the rhyme-scheme aaab cccb dddb; moreover it employs a syllabic metre found in Syriac hymnography. Its language is Lebanese dialect incorporating some Syriac.22 Bishop Ïsa’s poem, by contrast, is in monorhyme (-ati). It has other problematic features, however; its metre, while apparently intended to be basi†, transgresses the rules of prosody so often as to be scarcely recognisable,23 and its language is strongly marked by dialect features. Its 52 verses24 start with a form

20 Mariam de Ghantuz Cubbe, I Maroniti d’Aleppo nel XVII secolo attraverso i racconti dei missionari europei (Rome: Jaca Book, 1996), pp. 46, 97-101. The Lebanese mountain- dwellers’ ignorance of Arabic literary culture was still widespread enough in the 19th century for AÌmad Faris al-Sidyaq to poke fun at it in his Al-saq äla l-saq fima huwa l- Faryaq. There he has his hero’s friend confuse grammar (al-naÌw) with literature (al- adab), a mistake corrected by their host, who observes that it is frequent among those who had had their education in the Mountain (Al-saq äla l-saq fima huwa l-Faryaq [Bei- rut: Dar Maktabat al-Îayat, 1966], p. 263). 21 Sarbil Abi Îalil, Al-Ba†riyark Gibraîl al-Blawzani (1630-1705) (Beirut: Al-ma†baä al- ärabiya, 1996) brings out the achievement of this relatively little-known Patriarch, according to the review by Carsten Walbiner in Oriens Christianus, 82 (1998). I have not been able to consult the book itself. 22 Bu†rus al-Gumayyil, Zagaliyat Gibraîl Ibn al-Qilaï. Dirasa wa-taÌqiq (Beirut: Mansurat LaÌd Îa†ir, 1982). Syriac features of the language are mentioned on pp. 54-56 and in some notes following the text. The metres are discussed on pp. 58-59, 65-66. The madiÌa is given on pp. 88-130. See also GCAL III, pp. 328-330 for comments on the poem’s historical value. 23 I am grateful to Professor G. Schoeler (Basel) for his observations on this point. 24 In the version published by Nasrallah (see n. 5) vv. 5 and 6 should perhaps be reversed; as they stand they depict the travellers arriving first in Poland and then in Moldavia. It may be doubted whether this gives the complete text, despite Nasrallah’s affirmation (HMLEM IV (1) [see n. 3], p. 232). Among the mss. containing the text which Nasrallah

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of bismillah and profession of faith and an announcement of the subject. By v. 8 the poet has reached Moscow and its Kremlin. He describes successively the church bells (vv. 10-17), the Sultan’s (i.e. Tsar’s) church with its gilded domes (vv. 18-26), and its interior, with relics of saints, icons, crosses, pro- cessional Bibles and tombs of kings (vv. 27-36). He then calls down blessings on the ruler and the Orthodox people (vv. 37-38) before portraying the scene during an unspecified religious festival, with the ruler and his court, the assembled clergy, and the soldiers, all holding candles (vv. 39-48). The poem concludes by invoking blessings on Moscow, Russia and the Russian people (vv. 49-52). Bishop ¨Isa makes a very modest use of imagery. The great bell in the Kremlin “resembles a pitched tent” (v. 14), the domes of the Tsar’s church can be seen “at a distance of two days’ journey, shining like the noonday sun” (v. 22), the silver of the gospel bindings is “white as snow” (v. 32), the soldiers “resemble the Nile, throwing up waves when they surge forward” (v. 47). Much of the description is factual. Yet while it is no great artistic achievement, this poem is memorable in other respects. It introduces a new subject in Arabic poetry, the theme of description and eulogy of a city outside the Muslim world. Poems about cities are found in classical Arabic literature; in particular elegies were devoted to cities which were devastated.25 The capture of enemy-held cities in war could also inspire poets, as Abu Tammam’s famous celebration of the conquest of ¨Ammuriya (223/838) shows. Even when not associated with dramatic events, the description of cities is generally tinged with nostalgia, as the poet recalls a place where he

mentions is Ma¨luf 175, pp. 252-262. According to the description (Joseph Nasrallah, Catalogue des manuscrits du Liban. Vol. IV. [Beirut: 1970], pp. 135-142), this ms. has 13 lines to a page, which would lead one to expect some 130 verses. In the Safrat al-ba†riyark Makariyus, Bulus Ibn al-Zaïm makes passing references to Ïsa’s poem including his pre- diction of the destruction of the Tatars, which does not exist in Nasrallah’s edition; see The Travels of Macarius, tr. Francis C. Belfour, 2 vols. (London: J. Murray for the Oriental Translations Fund, 1829-1836), vol. I, p. 394; vol. II, p. 70. The 18 lines from the text in Ma¨luf 175 which Ïsa Ma¨luf published in Al-risala al- muÌalliÒiya, 8 (1941), pp. 30-31 diverge considerably from the Bibliothèque Orientale manuscript which Nasrallah used. I thank the American University of Beirut/Library Ar- chives for making this version available to me. 25 The earliest example of ri†aˆ al-mudun is Ibn al-Rumi’s lament over Basra when it was devastated by the Zang in 257/871.

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was happy and had good friends.26 Only geographers and travellers described non-Muslim cities, and they did so in prose. To compose a poem in praise of a city presupposes an emotional involvement with it, and Arabic poets did not develop such ties with cities outside the Muslim world in the mediaeval period.27 In singing the praises of distant Moscow, Bishop ¨Isa is an innovator. At the same time he chooses the classical form – monorhyme and a qari∂ metre – for his poem, and is true to tradition in focussing on the city’s principal monuments, expressions of splendid beauty, and on the grandeur of the dignitaries who inhabit them.28 His verses are a remarkable early example in the Ottoman period of a poem in Arabic in the classical form whose theme has unmistakeable Christian overtones. From the linguistic point of view, the early Ottoman period was the time when Arabic affirmed itself as the liturgical language of most Arabic-speaking Christians in Syria. In the Maronite Church, the movement of liturgical translations from Syriac is associated mainly with Patriarch IÒ†ifanus (Stephan) al-Duwayhi (1670-1704).29 Among the Greek Orthodox, Arabic versions of liturgical texts already existed, but Malatiyus (Meletios) Karma, Archbishop of Aleppo from 1612, undertook an extensive programme of revision of them, collating them mainly with Greek books printed in Ven- ice.30 He and his later successor Makariyus (Makarios) ibn al-Za¨im also rendered into Arabic texts not previously translated from Greek. The translation movement went beyond liturgical works. Malatiyus Karma and his successors also rendered into Arabic Greek works chiefly on

26 Nearly contemporary with Bishop Ïsa’s poem is the Lebanese-Iranian scholar Bahaˆ al- Din al-Ämili’s (d. 1030/1621) 100-line urguza praising Herat and its various attractions and nostalgically recalling the time he spent there with his father (Bahaˆ al-Din al-Ämili, Al-kaskul, ed. al-™ahir AÌmad al-Zawi [Cairo: Ïsa al-Babi al-Îalabi, 1961], vol. I, pp. 147-153). Descriptions of cities and palaces free from nostalgia are found somewhat more often in Andalusian literature; see Henri Pérès, La Poésie andalouse en arabe classique au XIe siècle. Ses aspects généraux, ses principaux thèmes et sa valeur documentaire. 2d ed. (Paris: Librairie Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1953), pp. 119-153. 27 Although Ibn al-Qilaï’s MadiÌa äla Gabal Lubnan includes an account of Patriarch Irimiya al-Ämsi†i’s journey to Rome and his stay there from 1209 to 1215, the passage (Zagaliyat Gibraîl ibn al-Qilaï [see n. 22], pp. 97-98 = vv. 89-106) concentrates on his meeting with the Pope and efforts to have the excommunication of the Maronites lifted. Apart from the Pope’s presence, there is nothing specifically Roman in these lines. 28 Cf. Pérès, La Poésie andalouse (see n. 26), p. 157. 29 GCAL I (see n. 2), pp. 654-655. 30 Ibid., pp. 631-632.

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theological but also on historical, geographical and other subjects. The Maronites in Rome and Paris translated Latin Catholic writings into Arabic and Arabic ecclesiastical texts into Latin; they also composed grammars and dictionaries, mainly for the use of European scholars. The Latin Catholic missionaries in Syria engaged in the translation and writing of theological texts, sometimes turning to local Christians for stylistic editing. All these activities of revision and translation cannot but have stimulated reflection on the use of language among those engaged in them.31 One may also wonder whether the ordinary faithful had their interest aroused in questions of usage by hearing the new versions of the services they attended, but information on that subject is unlikely to be found. The partially published anonymous poem by an eyewitness on the siege of Aleppo in 1654-55, while formally belonging to dialect poetry (it has a strophic rhyme-scheme and a syllabic metre), illustrates a growing familiarity among Christians with the classical Arabic language and also with its literary tradition.32 Rifaat Ebeid, who discovered it, describes its language as “in general classical Arabic”; he notes, however, some divergent features of orthography and syntax.33 The poem’s language may be judged further from fusÌa than this characterisation suggests, but it is also a long way from the

31 In the case of the Greek Orthodox, the notes on the meaning of non-Arabic words left by Patriarch Makariyus ibn al-Za¨im reflect an interest in lexicographical questions; see St. Petersburg MS B 1227 (20), (30), (37-39) and (41), and Nikolaj Serikoff, ‘Understanding of the Scriptures. Patriarch Makariyus ibn al-Za¨im and his Arab Orthodox Flock’, ARAM, 11/12 (1999-2000), pp. 523-531. Archbishop Malatiyus Karma, in his memo- randum to the Vatican on the printing of Arabic liturgical texts, remarks on the difference in word order between Arabic and Greek (Malatiyus Karma, Bayan †ab¨ al-kutub kayfa yakun (Rome: Archivio storico della Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli o “de Propaganda Fide”. Lettere di lingue straniere dall’Anno 1631 sino al 1645), vol. 180, fol. 41; translation in Carsten-Michael Walbiner, ‘Und um Jesu willen, schickt sie nicht ungebunden! Die Bemühungen des Meletius Kama (1572-1635) um den Druck arabischer Bücher in Rom’, in Rifaat Ebeid and Herman Teule (eds.), Studies on the Chris- tian Arabic Heritage, in Honour of Father Prof. Dr. Samir Khalil Samir, S.J. at the Occasion of his Sixty-fifth Birthday (Leuven: Peeters, 2004), pp. 171-173. 32 Rifaat Ebeid, ‘An Unknown Poem on the Siege of Aleppo and the Violent Events of A.H. 1065-66/A.D. 1654-55’, ARAM, 9-10 (1997-1998), pp. 365-375. This poem has 276 lines. The 83 verses quoted in the course of the article are not numbered, so it is not clear whether the strophic scheme is adhered to throughout. The article does not address the poem’s form. 33 Ibid., p. 374.

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unadulterated dialect of the MadiÌa äla Gabal Lubnan. Although the inci- dent had a happy ending (the siege was finally lifted and Aleppo did not have to suffer the oppressive rule of AÌmad Pasha), in the meantime the surroundings of the city had been ravaged and unruly elements had wrought destruction with its walls. The poet’s treatment of the events clearly situates his work as an elegy of Aleppo, akin to the classical genre of ri†aˆ al-mudun (elegies for cities) which has already been referred to. The phrase “Ìayf ‘alayki ya Îalab” (Alas for you, Aleppo) and its variants, which occur several times in the poem, inevitably recall Ibn al-Rumi’s “lahfa nafsi älayki ya BaÒra” (my heart bleeds for you, Basra) to anyone familiar with that lament for the Iraqi city.34 From the same period comes a Christian poet’s essay at an elite genre. ManÒur, a doctor in Damascus, composed a short poem to congratulate Shaykh Ismaïl ibn Tag al-Din al-MaÌasini on the circumcision of two sons of his.35 The piece is unexceptional, but the chronogram it contains left something to be desired, since the value of its letters only came to 1058, and ManÒur had to add the word “Ìamsa“ (five) to arrive at the correct date, 1063/1652.

REAPPROPRIATING THE CLASSICAL ARABIC HERITAGE: ADAB IN ALEPPO

By the end of the 17th century, Arab Christians in Syria had created a considerable corpus of writing on a variety of subjects, mostly religious but also more generally historical and geographical. Their command of literary Ara- bic varied,36 but some of them benefited from instruction by Muslim

34 Ibid., 374-375. A study of the complete text might well reveal other parallels. 35 For the obscure ManÒur al-muta†abbib see HMLEM IV (1) (see n. 3), pp. 239-40. Ismaïl ibn Tag al-Din al-MaÌasini (after 1020/1611-1102/1690) was a scholar, poet and preacher at the Umayyad Mosque (MuÌammad Îalil al-Muradi, Silk al-durar fi aÿan al- qarn al-†ani äsar, ed. MuÌammad Äbd al-Qadir Sahin [Beirut: Dar al-kutub al-ïlmiya, 1418/1997], vol. I, pp. 246-249). The poem (-anih; metre kamil) was published by Ïsa Ma¨luf in Al-risala al-muÌallaÒiya, 8 (1941), p. 31, as one of the excerpts from his ms. 175. 36 More systematic and detailed research needs to be undertaken on this subject, on the lines developed by Jérôme Lentin in Recherches sur l’histoire de la langue arabe au Proche- Orient à l’époque moderne (thèse pour le doctorat d’Etat 1998, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris III). To take one example, certain letters sent by Malatiyus Karma to the Vatican come closer to the norms of fuÒÌa than do the notes penned by Makariyus ibn al- Zaïm during his visit to Georgia.

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shaykhs; the name of Sulayman ibn al-NaÌwi occurs in this connection.37 Around 1700 a major development took place, the emergence of a group of writers (“literary circle” has misleading associations) associated with Aleppo, who were willing and able to essay composing poetry in the qari∂ metres, to reflect on the Arabic language in terms of the indigenous tradition, and to incorporate elements of the (Muslim) Arabic literary heritage into their own works. I will illustrate this with three examples, Garmanus (Germanos) FarÌat, Mikirdig (Mkrtic) al-KasiÌ and Niqula (Nikolaos) al-∑aîg. Garmanus Gibraîl FarÌat (1670-1732) is one of the leading figures of this group and one of the Maronites’ most important writers before the 19th century.38 He was born in Aleppo into a family originally from ÎaÒrun (North Lebanon). Like Äbdallah Qaraäli, he belonged to the first generation in his community to receive a solid education in his native city without attending the Maronite College in Rome.39 He joined Äbdallah Qaraäli and his companions, who had settled in the Monastery of Mart Mura (Ehden, North Lebanon) in 1695; apart from a journey to Rome and Spain in 1711-1712, he was to spend almost all of the following thirty years in Lebanon between Ehden, Zghorta and the Qadisha Valley, only returning to Aleppo as Maronite Archbishop in 1725. His main literary achievements are twofold. He was a noted poet,40 and he created materials on the Arabic language for the Christians of Mount Lebanon. Particularly in his early years in Lebanon, he devoted much time to teaching for, as he explains in the pref-

37 He was Sulayman ibn Îalid ibn Äbd al-Qadir (d. 1141/1728) (Usama Änuti, Al- Ìaraka l-adabiya fi bilad al-Sam Ìilal al-qarn al-†amin äsar [Beirut: Mansurat al-Gamiä al-Lubnaniya, 1970], p. 116). Earlier, around 1630, the Capuchin Bonaventura de Lude had lessons in Arabic from the Mufti of Aleppo (GCAL IV [see n. 6], p. 195). Edward Pococke, the chaplain of the Levant Company in Aleppo from 1630 to 1635, studied with a Muslim shaykh, FatÌallah, and also with one “darwis AÌmad”, who supplied him with manuscripts when he had returned to England (G.J. Toomer, Eastern Wisedome and Learning. The Study of Arabic in Seventeenth-Century England [Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1996], p. 121). 38 For his life see GCAL III (see n. 4), pp. 406-428; EI2, art. “FarÌat, Djarmanus” (I. Kratschkowsky-[A.G. Karam]); Nuhad Razzuq, Garmanus FarÌat: Îayatuh wa-a†aruh (Kaslik: Mansurat ma¨had al-ta’riÌ fi Gamiät al-RuÌ al-Quddus, 1998 [completed in 1972, according to the date of the preface]), pp. 27-53. 39 Among his teachers at the Maronite school were Bu†rus al-Tulawi and Yusuf al-Dibsi, who had studied in Rome, but also Sulayman ibn Îalid al-NaÌwi (see n. 37 above). 40 Garmanus FarÌat’s Diwan has been published: Diwan al-Mu†ran Garmanus FarÌat, ed. and com. Saïd al-Sartuni, 2nd ed. (Beirut: Ma†baät al-mursalin al-yasuïyin, 1866).

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ace to BaÌ† al-ma†alib, he saw that his fellow Maronites in the Mountain had no access to the tradition of Arabic lexicography and grammar main- tained in the cultural centres of Syria.41 His dictionary and the works he compiled on syntax and morphology were designed to overcome this problem. He was unique among his contemporaries in undertaking such a task, and it is this linguistic and educational contribution which I will concen- trate on here. FarÌat stands firmly in the Arabic linguistic tradition, as he shows with his versification of the 2nd/8th century grammarian Qu†rub’s Kitab al- mu†alla†at (On triplets of words which only differ in one vowel);42 his is one of the most recent of some twenty commentaries and metrical versions which start with the 4th/10th century Tunisian MuÌammad ibn Ga¨far al- Qazzaz’s commentary and originate in different parts of the Arabic-speaking world.43 FarÌat’s two main contributions to the study of Arabic are his grammar, BaÌ† al-ma†alib wa-Ìa†† al-†alib (The study of problems and prompting of students),44 and his dictionary, IÌkam bab al-i¨rab ¨an lugat al- a¨rab (Mastering modes of locution in the language of the Arab nation). In the preface to the grammar, he mentions the names of three scholars who have been termed “master grammarians”, Ibn Îagib (d. 646/1249), Ibn Malik (d. 672/1274) and Ibn Hisam (d. 761/1360),45 explaining that their books are too long-winded and obscure for students. His aim is to offer a simplified, clear account in a one-volume handbook, containing all the nec- essary information and drawing on the Holy Scripture for illustrations

41 Quoted in Razzuq, Garmanus FarÌat (see n. 38), p. 121. The BaÌ† al-ma†alib was completed in 1708 (Ibid., p. 119, n. 17). 42 Translated thus by C.H.M. Versteegh, ‘A Dissenting Grammarian: Qu†rub on Declen- sion’, in Cornelis H.M. Versteegh et al. (eds.), The History of Linguistics in the Near East, Studies in the History of Linguistics, 28 (Amsterdam – Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1983), p. 168. 43 They are listed in Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. vol. VIII: Lexicographie (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982), pp. 61-66. 44 The title of this work often appears as BaÌ† al-ma†alib or BaÌ† al-ma†alib fi ¨ilm al- ¨arabiya (cf. the list of editions in Razzuq, Garmanus FarÌat [see n. 38], pp. 60-61). FarÌat himself, in his preface quoted by Razzuq, gives the title as BaÌ† al-ma†alib wa-Ìa†† al-†alib (Ibid., p. 127). 45 This designation stems from M.G. Carter, ‘Arabic Grammar’, in M.J.L. Young et al. (eds.), Religion, Learning and Science in the ‘Abbasid Period, The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 134-136.

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wherever possible.46 Only a systematic comparison can show how his approach to grammar differs from that of the predecessors he mentions.47 It is clear, however, that his substituting the Bible for the Qurân and pre-Islamic poetry, and replacing Zayd and Ämr with Bu†rus, Bulus and Maryam, is an innovation.48 FarÌat’s other major contribution, IÌkam bab al-i¨rab än lugat al-a¨rab, takes al-Firuzabadi’s (d. 817/1415) Al-qamus al-muÌi† as its starting point. This was the obvious choice; the Qamus, which runs to four volumes in standard editions, has been described as ‘the single most influential dictionary in both the Arab world and the West’.49 Al-Firuzabadi had already sought to eliminate superfluous information from his dictionary, but FarÌat went even further, cutting out explanations and mentions of regional variants. By contrast, he added typically Christian headwords, such as the originally Greek ka†uliki (catholic) and al-ma†aniya (prostration), and sometimes explained them at great length; the editor of IÌkam bab al-i¨rab admits to having shortened the entry on al-raÌma al-ruÌiya (spiritual compassion) and al-raÌma al-gasadiya (physical compassion), ‘because [FarÌat] called his book Bab al-i¨rab än lugat al-a¨rab, not Kitab al-ta¨lim al-masiÌi (the Book of Christian Teaching)’.50 In its edited and printed form, the IÌkam bab al- i¨rab runs to 723 pages.

46 Razzuq, Garmanus FarÌat (see n. 38), pp. 122-123, 126-127. 47 Criticism of one’s predecessors is a topos in prefaces to justify the existence of one’s own book. Carter describes Ibn Hisam as “an effective compiler of instructional manuals which are clear, precise and interesting” (‘Arabic Grammar’ [see n. 45], p. 136). 48 Razzuq, Garmanus FarÌat (see n. 38), p. 126. The wisdom of these choices may be questioned on scholarly grounds. The Arabic of the Bible (whichever translation FarÌat used) was far from perfect, as al-Sidyaq noted (cf. his examples drawn from the New Tes- tament in Al-saq äla l-saq [see n. 20], p. 264). And while Bu†rus and Bulus have the ad- vantage of being unmistakeably Christian, they suffer from the drawback of being diptote and thus less suitable for use in illustrations than the eternal (and not exclusively Muslim) Zayd and Ämr. 49 art. ‘al-Firuzabadi’ (M.G. Carter), in Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (eds.), Ency- clopedia of Arabic Literature (London: Routledge, 1998). 50 Garmanus FarÌat, Bab al-i¨rab än lugat al-a¨rab, ed. Rusayd al-DaÌdaÌ (Marseilles: Barras et Savornin, 1849); editor’s introduction, p. 10. Razzuq, who was using this edition, seems not to have realised the extent of al-DaÌdaÌ’s interventions, for he describes the additions about Christianity in the dictionary as not very long (Garmanus FarÌat [see n. 38], p. 160).

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Like the Qamus and very many other Arabic dictionaries, IÌkam bab al- i¨rab is arranged in alphabetical order according to the final radical. But FarÌat introduced some new features, notably a method of indicating the vowelling of first form trilateral verbs by means of letters, each one referring to a particular pattern (e.g. nun for the pattern naÒara – yanÒuru), rather than writing out the ma∂i and mu∂ari¨ of the verb concerned with the vowelling marked. Aspects of IÌkam bab al-i¨rab have been criticised, such as faulty repro- duction of information from the Qamus, incorrect vowelling of some words, proposing forms not recognised by lexicographers, and circular definitions.51 Some of these weaknesses may have resulted from mistakes by copy- ists; there may also be reflections of colloquial usage. In any case, FarÌat was compiling his dictionary in his spare time.52 But the IÌkam remained a fun- damental resource, at least among Christians, in part thanks to its one-volume size. In the 18th century the only other significant achievement in Ara- bic lexicography is al-Zabidi’s (1145/1732-1205/1791) Tag al-¨arus min gawahir al-qamus, which is the largest surviving Arabic dictionary; a comparison of these two very different and in some respects diametrically op- posed receptions of the Qamus would no doubt throw light on the intellectual and linguistic situation of the Arab world in the 18th century.53 Of the second author, Mikirdig al-KasiÌ, not much is known. He was Ar- menian by origin (“Mkrtic” means “Baptist”), and born in Killis, near Aleppo, probably in the late 1660s.54 He soon moved to Aleppo and seems to have spent his life there; at some point he was ordained deacon. His date of death is unknown, but he was still alive in 1732. Living in an Arabic- speaking milieu and having gravitated to Catholicism, he abandoned the language of his forefathers to write in Arabic. He is the author of a commentary on gospel passages, a Bible concordance for the use of preachers,

51 Ibid., pp. 161-165, quoting Rusayd al-DaÌdaÌ’s preface to his edition of the IÌkam. 52 Ibid., pp. 167-168, quoting al-DaÌdaÌ’s preface. 53 A thorough analysis of FarÌat’s textbooks and dictionary might show influence of Eu- ropean linguistic thinking; for instance, was his manner of designating the vowelling of first form verbs original, or was it a borrowing from a European textbook? Such an analysis has not yet been undertaken, to my knowledge. 54 Cf. GCAL IV (see n. 6), pp. 83-86 for his life and work. This calculation is based on the fact that his earliest dated work is from 1690.

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devotional works, refutations of Monophysite theology and Islam, a lexi- con55 and a collection of ascetical sayings in prose and poetry. This short book, entitled RayÌanat al-arwaÌ wa-sullam al-adab wa-l-ÒalaÌ (The soul’s fragrant flower and the scale of right conduct and culture),56 is a rare example of an expressly Christian adab compilation – admittedly of a very austere kind. Adab compilations, collections of maxims, anecdotes and verses illustrating ethical or other subjects, are a well-established genre in Arabic literature, going back to Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889). Characteristi- cally, they combine prose and poetry, and they are often, though not always, arranged by theme. They usually draw on the ancient Near Eastern tradition of ascetic and wisdom literature, while adding more modern texts reflecting the taste and interests of the compiler and pertinent to the subjects treated.57 Mikirdig situates his RayÌanat al-arwaÌ in the Arabic literary tradition at the outset by casting its preface in the conventional mould. It begins with a basmala and Ìamdala, and continues with praise of the Virgin Mary, mother of the Eternal Word – the natural Christian equivalent of the Prophet MuÌammad, the bearer of the Revelation in Islam, upon whom blessings are normally invoked in prefaces by Muslim authors of the pre-modern period. This last element in Mikirdig’s preface seems very unusual.58 He then explains what led him to compile the work: his desire to glorify God and awaken the heedless, and his acceding to a request expressed by Niqula al- ∑aˆig, of whose character and writings, including a treatise entitled Durrat

55 It bears the unusual title Kitab al-ahramat and is conceived as three pyramids, listing names of objects and phenomena from the domains of nature, crafts and warfare, and scholarship respectively (ibid., pp. 85-86). Its contents and relationship to other word-lists in Arabic or other languages have yet to be investigated. 56 Georg Graf (ibid., p. 84) translates the title as “Myrte der Wohlgerüche…”. 57 See art. ‘Anthologies, medieval’ (H. Kilpatrick), in Meisami-Starkey, Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature (see n. 49). 58 For instance, in the catalogue of the more than 80 St. Petersburg Christian Arabic manuscripts, many of which are convolutes, only nos. B 625(2) (Kitab tariÌ Ibn al- Ämid), B 920 (pseudo-Aristotle’s Kitab al-siyasa fi tadbir al-riyasa), B 1223 (Elias FaÌr’s Kitab al-munaÂara al-galiya fi da¨wat al-ruÌ al-qudsiya), B 1226 (Äbdallah ibn al-Fa∂l’s Bahgat al-muˆmin) may perhaps contain such praises, going on the information provided. An example of a taÒliya from a Muslim manuscript in the same collection is C 631(2), part II (Taqasim al-ïlal wa-l-amra∂ wa-l-asbab wa-l-a¨ra∂ wa-l-älamat wa-l-mabadi wa-l- gayat, ascribed to Hippocrates).

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al-gawwaÒ wa-lawÌ al-ÌalaÒ (Pearl of the diver and tablet of the Saviour), he speaks in the most glowing terms. He addresses Niqula al-∑aˆig once as “qudsukum”(your Holiness), which, if it is taken literally, would mean that the text dates from the period after 1727 when the latter was elected Supe- rior of his Congregation.59 The RayÌanat al-arwaÌ’s twelve chapters circle round the themes of re- nunciation of the world, the recollection of death, the rooting out of bad habits, reading the world as a book and learning from experiences of all kinds. By far the longest chapter, the 9th, is a recommendation to avoid the company of one’s fellow-men and an exposition of their treachery and injustice (Ma∂munuh al-zuhd fi ÒuÌbat bani l-basar wa-i∂aÌ gadrihim wa- Âulmihim; ff. 126v-141r). The subsequent, much shorter, chapter qualifies this sombre view of mankind, setting out the value of association with people from whom one can learn. The last two chapters recommend renuncia- tion of founding a family and marriage – in that order; the last also ex- pounds the harm wrought by women.60 Each chapter falls into two parts, prose and then poetry; this is a common arrangement in Arabic compilations. The prose quotations are drawn from a variety of sources. The Old Testament is represented with passages from Genesis, Ecclesiasticus, the Wisdom of Ibn Sirach, the Psalms, Job, Jeremiah, Micah; the New Testament with passages from the Gospels, Epis- tles, and Revelation. There are references to Old Testament prophets and other figures (e.g. David, Absalom, Isaiah and Jezebel); to episodes from the life of Christ; to Church Fathers, such as St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Ephraim the Syrian, St. John Climacus, St. John Chrysostom and St. Augustine; to ascetics such as St. Serapion of Egypt; to Greek philosophers and historical figures including Socrates, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Alexander and Philip of Macedon; and to the modern Catho- lic saints and writers St. Francis Xavier, St. Luís de Granada, and Juan Eusebio Nieremberg. One much-quoted-from work is the Abatil al-¨alam of

59 Mikirdig al-KasiÌ, RayÌanat al-arwaÌ wa-sullam al-adab wa-l-ÒalaÌ. MS Vienna Orientalische Akademie 454 (magmu¨, mid-18th cent.), fol. 82v-84r. I thank the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek for making a microfilm of this work available to me. I have not seen any mention of Durrat al-gawwaÒ in accounts of Niqula al-∑aˆig’s works. 60 GCAL IV (see n. 6), p. 84, understands the themes somewhat differently, in particular the last two chapters, which it interprets as setting out “die christliche Auffassung von Ehe und Familie”. If this were so, Christians and Christianity would have died out.

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the 16th century Spanish Franciscan Diego de Estella.61 Arab history appears with a mention of the Barmakids. The Arabic linguistic heritage is represented with proverbs, which sometimes rhyme, and with the echo of at least one Qurânic phrase: Òummun, bukmun, ümyun (s. 2: 18, 171). Unlike other adab compilations, the RayÌanat al-arwaÌ is almost entirely lacking in anecdotes; this is its most striking departure from the usual form of the genre. Among the named poets the leading position is occupied by Abu l-Älaˆ al-Maärri (d. 449/1058), who is closely followed by Gibraîl (Garmanus) FarÌat. Others who are named far less often include the pre-Islamic al- Samawâl, Ibn Äbd Rabbih (d. 328/940), Ibn Sina (d. 428/1037), al-Razi (d. 313/925), the commissioner of the book, Niqula al-∑aîg, and Mikirdig himself. Frustratingly for the modern reader, very many quotations are ascribed to the immensely prolific gayruh (someone else) and aÌar (another [poet]). Some of them undoubtedly stem from Abu l-Ätahiya (d. 211/826), the poet who established zuhdiyat (ascetic poetry) as an independent genre. The contrast between the sources for prose and poetry is striking. Whereas the prose quotations are drawn from a variety of traditions, and earlier Arabic literature is sparsely represented by proverbs and elements as- similated from the Greek wisdom tradition, poetry is exclusively Arabic. And any poem which expresses the right sentiments is acceptable, whether composed by a Christian or a Muslim. Further analysis of the RayÌanat al-arwaÌ is needed to discover more about Mikirdig’s sources, notably for the poetry. And one may wonder whether there is any input from Armenian literature, or whether the native Arabic Christian tradition is more present than appears at first sight. But even this preliminary presentation makes clear that Christians writing in Arabic, as soon as they sought to express themselves in qari∂ poetry either originally or through quotations, were bound to turn to the great masters of the tradition, who were mainly Muslims.

61 The Libro de la vanidad del mundo (1562; revised version 1574) teaches contempt for everything terrestrial and seeks to direct the soul towards love of God alone. It was ex- tremely successful, being translated into many languages in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries (art. ‘Estella, Diego de San Cristóbal’ (Donat de Monleras), in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité). The Arabic version, begun by Raphael Ventayol and completed by Alonzo Miguel Corgiada, was published in Dayr al-Suwayr in 1740, under the title IÌtiqar aba†il al-¨alam, but parts of the book were already translated in the 17th century (GCAL IV [see n. 6], pp. 184-185). Mikirdig refers to the book by the title Aba†il al-¨alam.

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My final author is Niqula al-∑aîg.62 A generation younger than Gar- manus and Mikirdig, he was born in Aleppo in 1692 into an Orthodox family. He received a similar education to Garmanus, and like him left for Lebanon to become a monk – in his case entering the Melkite monastery at al-Suwayr. After occupying several positions of responsibility there, he was elected Superior of the Basilian Congregation of al-Suwayr in 1727 and remained so, apart from one interruption, until 1756. Although he left rules for his Congregation, sermons, devotional works and letters, he became famous because of his poetry, most of it on religious themes. It was enor- mously popular in Christian circles in Lebanon and Syria in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the number of manuscripts and printed editions of his Diwan shows.63 Niqula al-∑aîg is much more at home in the classical poetic tradition and the qari∂ metres than Garmanus FarÌat, and the scope of his poetry is far wider. For instance, whereas Garmanus FarÌat composes panegyrics exclusively on Christian subjects, chiefly Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints, and also a few of his own contemporaries,64 Niqula al-∑aîg eulogises not only Christian figures but also the Sunni Îaydar Shihab65 and emirs of the Druze Abi l-Lam¨ family;66 in so doing he is implicitly measur- ing himself against the Muslim panegyricists of these notables. He ex- changes poetry with a Shiï shaykh,67 and among the nearly thirty chronograms in his Diwan is one celebrating the completion of the Shiï emir Ismaïl al-Îarfus’s palace in Baalbek.68 This chronogram gives the year according to the Muslim calendar, whereas for the great majority Niqula al- ∑aîg uses the Christian calendar.69 But the clearest indication of his feeling

62 GCAL III (see n. 4), pp. 201-207, supplemented by HMLEM IV (2) (see n. 3), pp. 109-111 and, for his poetry, pp. 268-270. 63 Carsten-Michael Walbiner, ‘Monastic Reading and Learning in Eighteenth-Century Bilad al-Sam: Some evidence from the monastery of al-Suwayr (Mount Lebanon)’, Arabica, LI (2004), p. 472. 64 Razzuq, Garmanus FarÌat (see n. 38), pp. 255-271, lists the subjects of the panegyrics. Of FarÌat’s contemporaries, all were either fellow-monks or priests or relatives, except for a shaykh of the Maronite Khazin family. 65 [Niqula al-∑aîg,] Diwan al-Ìuri Niqulaûs al-∑aîg. 6th ed. (Beirut: Al-ma†baä al- ka†ulikiya, 1890), pp. 119-123. Here and in the following poems, the precise information is given in the introduction. The poem itself contains only allusions to the addressee. 66 Ibid., pp. 84-88. 67 Ibid., pp. 285-287. 68 Ibid., pp. 301-302. 69 For the chronograms see Ibid., pp. 300-304. Another Christian poet who composed chronograms with both miladi and higri dates is Ibrahim al-Yazigi (discussed in Bauer,

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at ease with the conventions of elite poetry is that he composed a badiïya, the first Christian to do so.70 A badiïya71 is a poem praising the Prophet MuÌammad and at the same time integrating at least one rhetorical figure in each line. The genre goes back to the poet and critic ∑afi al-Din al-Îilli (667/1278-c.750/1349), who composed his ode in emulation of the Burda of al-BuÒiri (608/1212-c.694/ 1294); over 90 examples are known to have been produced over a period of 600 years. Poets who composed badiïyat demonstrated their extraordinary command of Arabic and their philological knowledge, and thus proved their qualification for a prestigious position in the world of learning. At the same time the badiïya combines different domains of Islamic culture; it is an “interdisciplinary” poem, exploiting as it does figures of speech, intertextuality and familiarity with Islamic history expressed in allusions. Such a combi- nation of disciplines was popular in the Mamluk period in which the genre arose. Finally, the role of the religious dimension, praise of the Prophet, should not be underestimated;72 in this connection parallels may be sought with other traditions where formal elaboration in poetry is combined with authentic and profound religious feeling. After this sketch, the significance of Niqula al-∑aîg’s composing a badiïya will be clear. Garmanus FarÌat had earlier used traditional Arabic genres to express Christian themes,73 and Niqula al-∑aîg now carried the process to its logical conclusion. Like other badiïyas, his, which runs to 156 verses, is in the basi† metre and rhymes in –mi, and each line includes at least one rhetorical figure with the indication of its name. Thus the formal relation of this poem to its Islamic model remains recognizable.74 But he al-

‘Vom Sinn der Zeit’ [see n. 16], pp. 513-515). One of Niqula al-∑aîg’s chronograms with a higra date (p. 301) is introduced as having been composed to celebrate the deposition of a leader of the “heretical ecclesiastics”, but the poem speaks only of the injustice and ignorance of a “raîs”, and with a higra date this could perhaps more likely be a Muslim gover- nor or other high official. 70 Diwan al-Ìuri (see n. 65), pp. 309-317. 71 The origins and history of this form are set out in Thomas Bauer, ‘Die badîïyya des NâÒîf al-Yâzigî und das Problem der spätosmanischen arabischen Literatur’, (unpublished study), pp. 1-7, from which the following information is drawn. I am most grateful to Prof. Bauer for making this study available to me. 72 This aspect is often played down; see, for instance, art. ‘badiïyyat’ (P. Cachia), in Meisami-Starkey, Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature (see n. 49). 73 EI2, art. ‘FarÌat, Djarmanus’ (see n. 38). 74 Cf. Bauer, ‘Die badîïyya des NâÒîf al-Yâzigî’ (see n. 71), p. 6.

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ters the badiïya’s thematic structure and its content significantly.75 Like the classical qaÒida, of which it is a sub-genre, the badiïya conventionally begins with a nasib, the evocation of a past love, a lost beloved and the poet’s sor- row and longing. Depending on the poet’s circumstances and aims, this opening to the qaÒida may contain a marked erotic element. In the badiïya, which goes on to praise the Prophet, however, the erotic element is played down and the beloved is hardly described; by contrast the nasib serves to illustrate the poet’s linguistic virtuosity and mastery of figures of speech, particularly those, such as irony, which would be inappropriate to praise of the Prophet. In most badiïyas this section occupies about one third of the poem. Niqula al-∑aîg moves away from the conventional scheme. He seizes on the motif of the travelling companions, whom the poet often addresses when he recalls his love affair, and straightway embarks on praise of them, before defending himself against critics and enviers and complaining of the unfaithfulness of former patrons – unfaithfulness which he requites with satire. Abandoning worldly passions and seeking refuge from his critics, he turns in repentance to Christ (v. 32). Praise of the Son, Healer and Re- deemer, and of the Father, Creator and merciful Judge, is followed by praise of the apostles and saints, tireless missionaries, preachers, miraculous healers and intercessors for mankind; these passages are interspersed with verses ex- pressing the poet’s love for them and intention to follow their example. Per- haps unusually in a badiïya, Niqula al-∑aîg takes the opportunity to express his opinion on a contemporary controversy, unequivocally affirming the primacy of Peter among the apostles (vv. 135-139). After a reference to the Old Testament prophets’ foretelling the coming of Christ, he returns to praise of the apostles and concludes with a self-reflective passage linking this praise to his own poem’s qualities. As can be seen from this summary, Niqula al-∑aîg departs from the established scheme of the badiïya in several respects. First, he has altered the cast. The Prophet MuÌammad and the Companions have been replaced by Christ, the Virgin Mary, the apostles and saints. Somewhat unexpectedly, the poet devotes twice as much attention to the apostles as to Christ, perhaps because they offer a more obvious parallel with the central figure of the Islamic badiïya.

75 The main lines of the thematic structure of a badi¨iya are set out in Bauer, ‘Die badî¨iyya des NâÒîf al-Yâzigî’ (see n. 71), pp. 14-15. The following remarks draw on these findings.

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Second, in the tropes which exploit intertextuality, he draws mainly on Christian material. Thus, for the figure of iqtibas,76 normally the introduction of words from the Qurân or prophetic Tradition, he includes an echo of the New Testament: “inna ay∂an Òalati fi masarratihim” (v. 19), presum- ably alluding to “wa-ata∂arraü masruran” (Philippians 1:4).77 His example of ida¨ (ta∂min), the trope of incorporating a verse or words from another poem, is “gada […] al-∂iˆbu qad yarä maä l-ganami” (v. 40), a conflation of Isaiah 11:6 and 8, “yaskunu l-∂iˆbu maä l-Ìarufi […] al-ïglu wa-l-dubbu yaräyani awladahuma gamiän”.78 As can be seen, his illustrations of these tropes leave something to be desired, since they are not exact quotations, while the phrase in which ay∂an follows inna directly is clumsy, to say the least. Third, he introduces Christian theological concepts. The figure of i††irad (flowing identification, i.e. the enumeration of a person’s genealogy) is the occasion for him to affirm that Jesus is both Son of God and descended from David and Abraham (v. 33). His example of the trope of tasbih sayâyn bi-sayâyn (double simile; because of the requirements of the metre, he calls it tasbih sayâyn fi sayâyn) is the earthly trinity (Jesus, Mary and Joseph) compared with the heavenly Trinity (v. 66).79 Not all references to the Islamic origin of the genre and its models have disappeared, however. There are echoes of the Qurân, for instance in the mention of sidrat al-muntaha and al-ärs (both in v. 144) and the pair yusrin-üsrin (v. 114).80 Expressions from the founding poem, al-BuÒiri’s

76 For the definitions of tropes, see Pierre Cachia’s invaluable The Arch Rhetorician, or The Schemer’s Skimmer. A Handbook of Late Arabic badi¨ drawn from Äbd al-Ghani an- Nabulsi’s NafaÌat al-Azhar äla Nasamat al-AÒÌar (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1998), which I have drawn on here. 77 Biblical quotations are from the Propaganda Fide translation of 1671, since it may well have been the one Niqula al-∑aîg was familiar with. 78 Further allusions to Biblical passages are found, for instance, in vv. 59-61 (Jonah, Elijah and the three young men in the furnace) and vv. 97-99 (the miracles performed by the apostles). Niqula al-∑aîg’s substitution of Biblical for Qurânic material in his badiïya parallels Garmanus FarÌat’s approach in his dictionary and linguistic writings. 79 Jesus, Mary and Joseph have been named in v. 65. This controversial parallel was probably dictated by the need to illustrate the trope rather than by sustained theological reflection. It nonetheless indicates how far Roman Catholic influence, as illustrated by the ven- eration of St. Joseph, had already penetrated Niqula al-∑aîg’s milieu. 80 The sidrat al-muntaha (the lote-tree beyond which none may pass) is mentioned in Qurân 53:14. Al-ärs, God’s throne, is mentioned 22 times in the Qurân. Although it is

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Burda, reappear, such as al-ürbi wa-l-ägami (v. 71) and narin äla älami (v. 77), or the slightly modified takadu tugamu minha l-usdu fi l-ägami (v. 84).81 Whatever Niqula al-∑aîg’s shortcomings in mastering poetic language and tropes, the significance of his composing a badiïya is evident. For a Christian to appropriate this form and adapt it to his own beliefs, while re- taining its characteristic style and rhetorical elaboration, was tantamount to proclaiming that some Christians felt they could compete with their Mus- lim fellow Arabic-speakers in the cultural domain mostly closely associated with Islam, the Arabic language, and in a genre which conveyed profound religious feeling. It is a sign of a new, or renewed, cultural self-confidence. Nor did this self-confidence end with Niqula al-∑aîg. He set an example with his badiïya which others followed – Ibrahim al-Îunaki and, in the next century, NaÒif al-Yazigi. Ibrahim al-Îunaki’s badiïya,82 which is dated 1735, is markedly more accomplished; he achieves a better balance between the different parts of the poem, his illustrations of the tropes are less forced, he has far more command of the language and resorts less often to poetic license. Like Niqula al-∑aîg’s, his poem is unmistakeably Christian, indeed his references to events in the life of Christ follow the order of the Creed. And he too affirms the primacy of the Pope. NaÒif al-Yazigi’s badiïya,83 the work of an acknowledged master of the Arabic language, is a memorable example of the genre. It is markedly inter-religious, or perhaps better supra- religious, since it avoids praising any revered religious figures, either Muslim or Christian, developing instead the theme of love and, at the end, of con-

not an exclusively Islamic concept, its Islamic character is brought out here by its juxtapo- sition with the lote-tree. The contrasted pair üsr-yusr, which has become commonplace, goes back to the Qurân, where it occurs 4 times. The demands of the metre have forced the poet to write üsurin. 81 In vv. 34, 88 and 135 of the Burda respectively. In the third example, the Burda’s text runs: ‘in talqahu l-usdu fi agamiha tagimi. 82 Published by Louis Cheikho in Al-Masriq, 12 (1909), pp. 337-344, with the poet’s name given as Ibrahim Îayki and the date as 1733. The correct form of the name is given in HMLEM IV (2) (see n. 3), pp. 271-273. The date, given according to the Christian calendar, can be calculated from v. 148 of the badiïya. 83 Published in Diwan NaÒif al-Yazigi, ed. NaÂir Äbbud (reprint Beirut, 1983), pp. 161- 167. It is discussed in Bauer, ‘Die badîïyya des NâÒîf al-Yâzigî’ (see n. 71), pp. 11-22, where it is qualified as “ökumenisch”.

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tempt for the world. The only sign of its author’s religious identity is that the chronogram gives a Christian date.

CONCLUSION AND PERSPECTIVES

The above remarks, sketchy as they are, are intended as a contribution to understanding the nature of the cultural revival among Christians in Aleppo and more generally in Bilad al-Sam in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Up till now, the emphasis has usually been laid on the role played by western Catholic missionaries in improving the educational level of Arab Christians and stimulating intellectual life among them. Recently, the contribution of Orthodox Patriarchs of Antioch and other hierarchs with post-Byzantine connections to the cultural revival in the 17th century has begun to attract attention. The re-appropriation of classical Arabic (Islamic) culture, which I have tried to illustrate here, is, I believe, a third strand in this revival.84 What aspects of older Arabic culture did these 17th and 18th century Chris- tian writers consider especially relevant to their situation? To understand this process of re-appropriation better, much more detailed analysis of the available texts is needed. Another question is how a writer like Mikirdig al-KasiÌ acquired his knowledge of Arabic literature. Was it enough to attend the classes of Sulayman al-NaÌwi and of Ya¨qub al-Dibsi?85 Or did he have other contacts with the surrounding Muslim society and access to the libraries of mosques and madrasas?86 This leads to another issue: where are there parallels be-

84 Georg Graf refers in passing to FarÌat’s choosing Islamic models for his linguistic works (GCAL III [see n. 4], p. 408). 85 Ya¨qub al-Dibsi (d. 1692) taught at the Maronite school in Aleppo. He is noted for his translation of the Gospels into elegant Arabic; his prologues to the Gospels use a recherché vocabulary and elaborate sag¨ (GCAL I [see n. 2], p. 166; GCAL III [see n. 4], p. 400). 86 The amount of cultural contact between Muslims and non-Muslims in Aleppo and more generally in Syria has probably been underestimated. An indication of this, from the beginning of the 17th century, are the inscriptions of the panelling of an Aleppan Chris- tian merchant’s salon known as the Aleppo-Zimmer, now in the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin. They include verses from the Psalms and strophes from a Sufi muwassaÌ, and also good wishes in Persian. The medallions portraying St. George and Biblical scenes are executed according to Islamic, probably Persian, canons (Julia Gonella, Ein christlich- orientalisches Wohnhaus des 17. Jahrhunderts aus Aleppo (Syrien). Das “Aleppo-Zimmer” im Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz [Mainz:

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tween Christian and Muslim writing in the period? And where is it useful to consider all Arabic writing of the time together?87 From another point of view, detailed study of the writings of Aleppo Christians can cast light on the relations between the various actors. Garmanus FarÌat has been portrayed as having “gathered round him a circle of poets and scholars” when he was Archbishop of Aleppo,88 but, as has been observed, he only returned to live in his native city for the last seven years of his adult life. A literary circle presupposes regular and frequent meetings and discussions between the members, but when Garmanus FarÌat arrived back in 1725, other important writers such as Niqula al-∑aîg, Äbdallah ZaÌir and Äbdallah Qaraäli, were living in various monasteries in Lebanon. Moreover, much intellectual and literary activity in Aleppo pre- dates 1725. Mikirdig’s preface to the RayÌanat al-arwaÌ shows that other people commissioned texts from each other, which suggests a model less of one patron with his following than of a number of writers interacting and exchanging ideas and texts between Aleppo and the Lebanese monasteries.89 The panegyric Garmanus FarÌat addressed to A†anasiyus al-Dabbas90 will also give a hint of the relations between the Maronite and the older Ortho- dox hierarch, with his very different educational background and experience of life. The texts may also reveal certain reactions of the Christian community to significant events of the time. For instance, one might imagine that they would refer somewhere to the arrival of a printing press in Aleppo in 1705

von Zabern, 1996], pp. 35-41, 68-69). Where Damascus is concerned, the fairly informal tone of ManÒur’s chronogram for the celebration of Shaykh Ismaïl’s sons suggests that he might have been the family doctor. 87 This is the starting point in Usama Änuti’s Al-Ìaraka al-adabiya (see n. 37) and, restricted to historiography, of Îayat Nasib al-Ïd Bu Älwan’s, MuârriÌu bilad al-Sam fi l-qarn al-†amin äsar (Beirut: Al-Furat, 2002). 88 EI2, art. ‘FarÌat, Djarmanus’ (see n. 38). 89 In his account of FarÌat’s life, Graf speaks of him being a shining example for his clergy, but he says nothing of a literary circle surrounding him (GCAL III [see n. 4], pp. 406-408). Elsewhere (GCAL IV [see n. 6], p. 83) Graf speaks simply of the “aleppinischen Literatenkreis […], der die literarische Renaissance unter den Christen begründet hat”, without suggesting it had a leader. Nasrallah refers to an “équipe” gathered round FarÌat, al-∑aîg, Äbdallah ZaÌir and others (HMLEM IV (2) [see n. 3], p. 20). The distance between Aleppo and Lebanon was felt to be considerable, at least by the Maronites (de Ghantus Cubbe, I Maroniti [see. n. 20], p. 115). 90 Mentioned by Razzuq, Garmanus FarÌat (see n. 38), p. 265.

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and its producing liturgical texts; it is hard to imagine that these developments was received with utter indifference. In pursuing these and other lines of literary research, the Geschichte will continue to be an indispensable work of reference – despite the drawbacks to which I have already referred. If a new version of the Geschichte is planned,91 it will hopefully correct them. First, as recent research has brought out and as has been shown above, the Christians of the different Churches did not necessarily act in isolation; the new-style Geschichte needs to bring out their interaction. Second, in some genres, such as poetry, it makes little sense to consider Christians separately according to their church affiliation. Cheikho realised this already in his Su¨araˆ al-naÒraniya ba¨d al- islam, which is organised (roughly) chronologically and by genre, not by the poets’ religious affiliations. If the organisation by Churches is retained, cross-references and intelligent indexing can make it easier to follow the evolution of such shared genres. Thirdly, some individual works (and writers) need to be reclassified; it is misleading to include Patriarch Yuwakim and Bishop ¨Isa in the section on controversies, so long as the only writings of theirs which have survived are a disciplinary letter to fellow-Orthodox and a poem about Moscow. Fourthly, the spirit of the Second Vatican Council and the ecumenical movement needs to be let in, so that the im- portance of the literature on controversies, which at present is given pride of place at least in vols. III and IV, is reassessed in relation to other genres, such as sermons and pastoral texts. If devotional works, for instance, turn out to be more numerous than treatises on theological differences in a given writer’s oeuvre, should they not be given precedence over them? Finally, the decision to use the Council of Florence as a marker of periodization needs to be reconsidered. A hundred years ago Georg Graf started to lay the foundations for the edifice of Christian Arabic studies. In the meantime other ideas about archi- tecture have developed, and so the building will not look exactly as he envis- aged. But his foundations will always underlie it, and his commitment to scholarship will continue to inspire researchers in the field.

91 In a recent article, Father Samir Khalil has made a plea for an Arabic translation of the Geschichte, with updating of the information it contains (Samir Khalil Samir, SJ, ‘Georg Graf [1875-1955], sa bibliographie et son rôle dans le renouveau des études arabes chrétiennes’, Oriens Christianus, 84 [2000], pp. 75-82).

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