The Art of Lebanese Verbal Dueling: the Battle of Beit Mery and Beyond
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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 8-2014 The Art of Lebanese Verbal Dueling: The aB ttle of Beit Mery and Beyond Paula Marie Haydar University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, Folklore Commons, and the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons Recommended Citation Haydar, Paula Marie, "The Art of Lebanese Verbal Dueling: The aB ttle of Beit eM ry and Beyond" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 2210. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2210 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Art of Lebanese Verbal Dueling: The Battle of Beit Mery and Beyond The Art of Lebanese Verbal Dueling: The Battle of Beit Mery and Beyond A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies by Paula Haydar University of Massachusetts Bachelor of Science in Physics, 1987 University of Massachusetts Master of Education in Secondary Level Physics, 1991 University of Arkansas Master of Fine Arts in Translation, 1998 August 2014 University of Arkansas This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. _______________________________ Dr. John DuVal Dissertation Director _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Mounir Farah Dr. Joel Gordon Committee Member Committee Member ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the living and vibrant oral tradition of verbal dueling in Lebanon, also known as Lebanese zajal. The introductory chapter explores the historical, sociolinguistic, and musical-metrical roots of today’s Lebanese zajal contests and festivals, which feature teams of up to four poets who compete against each other in improvised, sung verse in colloquial Lebanese, carrying a sort of dialogue within which they argue opposing sides of universal themes and topics of current social interest. Though time, tradition, and culture in the Lebanese mountainside have nurtured the development of sung oral poetry into its current form and status as a national pastime, very little has been written about it in English. In the second and third chapters, the dissertation takes an inside-out approach to making the art of Lebanese zajal accessible to an English-speaking audience via a close-up view of a celebrated verbal duel that took place in 1971at the mountain resort village of Beit Mery, Lebanon, before an audience of 40,000 enthusiasts. Following a description of the setting, the individual performers, and previous rivalries building tension before this contest, a bout-by-bout written record is laid out with running commentary and explanatory notes. Each exchange is transcribed from a taped recording obtained in Lebanon and is followed by transliterations, literal translations, and poetic translations. In the fourth and final chapter, the dissertation provides an analysis of the oral-formulaic composition strategies used by the poets and the effectiveness and interplay of prosodic and semantic features of the poetry. The final chapter also comments on current trends in the zajal tradition in Lebanon and what effects recent developments might have on its future. In addition, a side-by-side Arabic-English poetic translation and a glossary of terms are appended along with the audio recording. ©2014 by Paula Haydar All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my dissertation committee members John DuVal, Mounir Farah, and Joel Gordon, for all their guidance, encouragement, and support, as well as my original doctoral committee member Kay Pritchett for her enthusiasm and willingness to supervise and guide my readings and research, and program directors Luis Restrepo and Keith Booker for bringing me into the program and advising me along the way. A special thanks goes to my parents for instilling in me a thirst for knowledge and for always encouraging me to pursue my wide range of interests, and to my children for inspiring me to never stop learning, and to all my colleagues and friends who supported me and pushed me along when it all seemed impossible. I would like to thank my departmental chair Joan Turner for her guidance and constant encouragement and for using every annual review conference as an opportunity to urge me to finish my degree. A special thanks to the poets of zajal, especially Antoine Saadeh and Elias Khalil for sharing not only their art but also their experience and expertise in numerous conversations and interviews over the past years. Special thanks also go to the University of Arkansas’ King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies for its generous support of my research in the form of travel and research grants and the sponsorship of numerous zajal performances in Lebanon, Italy, and in Fayetteville. Most of all, I wish to thank and acknowledge my husband, colleague, and teacher, Adnan Haydar, without whom my research simply would not have been possible. DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my husband Adnan, my children Nadia and Kikko, my parents, and to all Lebanese zajal poets, past, present, and future. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………1 1.1. Lebanese Zajal: Background and Historical Development……………………………….….3 1.1.1. Arabic Roots………………………………………………………………………………..4 1.1.2. The Lebanese Tradition…………………………………………………………………….7 1.2. Ḥaflit Zajal: Format and Structure………………….………………………………………10 1.3. The Battle of Beit Mery: Setting……………………………..………………………….….15 1.3.1. Zaghloul and Mousa…………………………………………………………………...….19 1.3.1.1. Zaghloul al-Damour………………...……………...……………………………………20 1.3.1.2. Mousa Zoghayb…………………...…………………………………………………….21 1.4. Orality and Improvisation…………………………………………………………….……..22 CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………...…..26 2.1. Transcription and Transliteration.....................................................................................…...27 2.2. Trot Translation……………...……….………………………………………………...…...29 2.3. Second Translation………………………………………………………………………….29 2.4. Side-by-Side Arabic-English Translation…………………………………………….......…30 CHAPTER THREE: THE BATTLE OF BEIT MERY...............................................................32 3.1. Iftitāḥiyyi: Introductory Odes................................................................................................32 3.1.1. Qaṣīd Form: Rhyme and Meter..........................................................................................34 3.1.2. The Iftitāḥiyyi of Mousa Zoghayb: Background...............................................................38 3.1.3. Iftitāḥiyyi of Mousa Zoghayb: Transcript, Transliteration, Trot, and Translation………40 First Stanza [0:00 – 02:19]……………………………………………………………………..40 Second Stanza [2:21- 4:13]…………………………………………………………………….46 Third Stanza [4:14 – 7:00]……………………………………………………………………...52 Fourth Stanza [07:01 - 08:12]…………………………………………………………………..63 Fifth Stanza [08:15 - 09:50]…………………………………………………………………….67 Sixth Stanza [09:51 - 10:49]……………………………………………………………………72 Seventh Stanza [10:50 – 11:53]…………………………………………………….…………..75 3.1.4. Iftitāḥiyyi of Mousa Zoghayb: Summary and Analysis.....………………………………78 3.1.5. Iftitāḥiyyi of Zaghloul al-Damour: Background…………………………………………83 3.1.6. Iftitāḥiyyi of Zaghloul al-Damour: Transcript, Transliteration, Trot, and Translation…..84 First Stanza [12:48-13:53]………………………………………………………………………84 Second Stanza [13:58-15:07]…………………………………………………………….……..87 Third Stanza [15:09-16:13]………………………………………………………………….…..91 Fourth Stanza [16:16- 17:16]……………………………………………………………………95 Fifth Stanza [17:19- 18:39]……………………………………………………………..……….99 Sixth Stanza [18:40-21:07]……………………………………………………………………..103 3.1.7. Iftitāḥiyyi of Zaghloul al-Damour: Summary and Analysis....…………………………..111 3.2. Taḥaddī: Verbal Duel Segment……………………………………………………………114 3.2.1. Verbal Duel: Formal Features……………………………………………………………114 3.2.2. Verbal Duel Summary: Edouard Harb versus Butrus Deeb..............................................118 3.2.3. Verbal Duel Summary: Jiryis al-Bustani versus Talic Hamdan.........................................119 3.2.4. Verbal Duel Summary: Zayn Shcayb versus Anis al-Faghali............................................120 3.3. Verbal Duel between Zaghloul al-Damour and Mousa Zoghayb: Transcript, Transliteration, Trot, and Translation..................................................................................................................124 3.3.1. First Exchange..................................................................................................................124 3.3.1.1. Zaghloul.........................................................................................................................124 3.3.1.2. Mousa.............................................................................................................................126 3.3.1.3. Summary and Explication: First Exchange [21:12 – 23:32]..........................................129 3.3.2. Second Exchange..............................................................................................................132 3.3.2.1. Zaghloul..........................................................................................................................132 3.3.2.2. Mousa..............................................................................................................................135