Homer: an Arabic Portrait1
Edin Muftić Homer: An Arabic portrait1 Homer is rightfully seen as the first teacher of Hellenism, the poet who educated the Greek, who in turn educated Europe. But, as is well known, Europe doesn’t have a monopoly on Greek heritage. It was also present in the Islamic tradition, where it manifested itself differently. Apart from phi- losophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine and pharmacology, Greek poetry, even if usually not translated, was also widely read among the Arab-Islamic intellectual elite. The author analyses the extent to which Homer’s works circulated, how well known were his poetics, and the influence his verses exerted during the heyday of Classical Arab-Islamic civilization. Keywords: Homer; translation movement; Al-Biruni; arabic poetry; Al-Farabi; Averroes INTRODUCTION The Greek and Arab epic tradition have much in common. Themes of tribal enmity, invasions and plunder, abduction of women, revenge, heroism, chivalry and love feature prom- inently in both traditions. While the Greeks have Hercules, Perseus, Theseus, Odysseus, Jason or Achilles, the Arabs have ʻAntar bin Šaddād (the “Arab Achilles”), Sayf bin ī Yazan, Az-Zīr Sālim and many others. When it comes to the actual performance of poetry, similarities be- Ḏ tween the two traditions are even greater. Homeric aoidos playing his lyre has a direct coun- terpart in Arab rawin playing his rababa. The Arab wandering poet often shares the fate of his Greek colleague (Imruʼ al-Qays, arafa and Al-Aʻšá, and Abū Nuwās and Al-Mutanabbī are the most famous examples). Greek tyrants who were famous for hosting poets like Ibycus, Anacre- Ṭ on, Simonides, Bacchylides or Pindar, while expelling others like Alcaeus, have a royal counter- part in An-Nuʻmān bin al-Mun ir, the ruler of Hira.
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