chapter 7 Medieval Arabic Shadow Plays: Ibn Dāniyāl and Others

Of the vast territories of the premodern Islamicate world, from Central Asia to Muslim Spain, is the only region that boasts an un-interrupted tradi- tion of shadow play production and performance. This chapter and the next two present an analytical documentation of all known Egyptian shadow plays. To begin: in many ways, the Mosul born and Cairo based Ibn Dāniyāl remains the sole representative figure of the entire history of Arabic shadow in the pre-Ottoman time. The study of Ibn Dāniyāl has also largely been the primary focal point of modern scholarship on Arabic shadow theatre and has been summarized in the previous part of this book (especially chapters 2 and 3). This chapter is devoted to the documentation of his texts. As far as medieval Arabic shadow plays are concerned, an unconfirmed self-claimed “Mamluk era play” that was published in the 1960s will be briefly mentioned just for the record.

1 Ibn Dāniyāl’s Three Plays

These plays depict the life and mores of Mamluk Cairo, with an outrageous comic flavor, featuring naïve storylines, caricatured characters, and foul lan- guage. A rare textual reservoir, they retain the special traits of the living lan- guage of the time, with elements of the so-called “tongue of the Banū Sāsān,” a hybrid of slangs and argot, a fusion of Arabic, Persian, and Turkic, attributed to a confederation of itinerant shysters. The title of each play contains the name(s) of the protagonist(s), and also alludes to the implied meanings of the words and the metaphorical significance of the subject of the play.

1.1 Ṭayf al-Khayāl, The Phantom 1.1.1 Introduction The first, and longest, play, Ṭayf al-Khayāl, or “The Phantom,” is a about a soldier named Amīr Wiṣāl, or “Emir Mating,” and his journey to redemption, with botched matchmaking as the central plot. His sidekick, Ṭayf al-Khayāl, or “The Phantom,” keeps urging him to reminisce about his hedonistic past. The historical background, as set forth by the protagonist, is the campaign against

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004436152_008 120 chapter 7 vice in Cairo undertaken by the sultan Baybars (r. 1260–77). However, some of the songs in the play turn out to be slightly re-worked poems, which al-Ṣafadī identified as having been composed during the reign of another sultan, Lājīn (r. 1296–9), whose crackdown on drinking and music had a direct impact on Ibn Dāniyāl and his circle. The fact that these semi-autobiographical materials were recycled into the fictionalized context of a play implies a much later dat- ing of the completion of the text and poses the question of art imitating life in Ibn Dāniyāl’s literary output.

1.1.2 Synopsis The protagonist Amīr Wiṣāl, a retired soldier, tells his confidant, Ṭayf al- Khayāl, that he is tired of his playboy lifestyle and is ready to settle down. He summons his secretary, al-Tāj Bābūj, or “Crown-N-Slipper,” and panegyrist, Ṣurra Baʿr, or “Pile-Up-Dung,” to put his finances in order and his mind at peace. The match- maker Umm Rashīd, or “Mother Guidance,” questions his sincerity by recount- ing some of his salacious activities that occurred not long ago. The matchmaker begins by reminding Ṭayf al- Khayāl, the Phantom, of “the good old days,” when the Emir “used to fancy boys.” She proceeds to recount a tall-tale about her “landlord” (a pimp), a teacher (actually her husband), and a pupil. The story told by the matchmaker runs like this: the pimp invited the “lovely lad” to his house for a “party, with sweets, candles, and wine.” But the teen said he could come only in the company of his teacher, who in turn explained that he must close his Qurʾan school first. The pimp sings a song encouraging him to come along. The song, in the strophic poetic form of muwashshaḥ, re- plete with puns, makes fun of an Animal House – like school scene: the teacher drinks, and the pupils learn too little; worse, they learn about things they are not supposed to. The teacher passes out, leaving the pimp to do “his thing with that lad.” The Emir reiterates his determination by renouncing (or recounting) all his past sins. In a languid speech, a verse of eighty-five lines – it is one of the longest poems in the play and a famous piece of in the history of Arabic poetry – that parodies the theme of repentance, the Emir recounts, among many in- cidents, a secret rendezvous with a girlfriend arranged by a go-between. The young woman lives in a crowded quarter amid neighbors’ watchful eyes, so the Emir, in his own words, resorts to “dressing myself like a woman, wearing a scarf / and hiding my beard under a veil.” When he arrives at the door of the woman’s house – for reasons unexplained – he makes a scene. Trying to cover it up, his girlfriend tells the folks gathering around, “This is the daughter of my neighbor, the butcher.” A catfight between the two “women” erupts, but they end up sleeping together.