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“Epigram”. the Reason for This Lack Is Perhaps, Rather Than the Absence of Epigrams in Arabic Literature, Their Ubiquity

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“Epigram”. the Reason for This Lack Is Perhaps, Rather Than the Absence of Epigrams in Arabic Literature, Their Ubiquity POINTED AND WELL-ROUNDED ARABIC ENCOMIASTIC AND ELEGIAC EPIGRAMS There is no Arabic word for “epigram”. The reason for this lack is perhaps, rather than the absence of epigrams in Arabic literature, their ubiquity. Not only is there a great abundance of short poems from all periods that may be described as epigrams in the usual meaning of this term, but longer poems are often composed, as it were, of a series of epigrams, be they single lines or short passages. Most Arabic poems are either epigrams or epigrammatic1. Of the traditional modes of Arabic poetry some are especially associ- ated with the epigram: invective and satirical verse, gnomic verse and descriptive, epideictic (or ecphrastic) verse. The vehicle for these modes may be a lengthy poem, it is true; they may combine with other modes in a qaÒida. But the typical poem of hija}, Ìikma, zuhd or waÒf is short and pointed — the two basic characteristics of the epigram. Other modes, notably panegyric and elegiac verse, seem to thrive mainly through longer poems, even after the innovative early {Abbasid period, when a number of “shorter forms” are said to have come into being. In a recent and authoritative survey of the history of Arabic poetry, it is said that shorter genres came into being, besides the panegyric qaÒida and the elegy; these two modes are not included in the shorter forms, as if short poems were never panegyric or elegiac2. Judging by the hand- books and histories of Arabic literature, one would be led to believe that “the encomiastic epigram” is an almost paradoxical term for something non-existent. In the present study I intend to investigate precisely this genre, and its elegiac counterpart. There is certainly no lack of material: from numerous anthologies and diwans one may cull an enormous quantity of pieces of madiÌ or ritha} that answer to the description of the epigram. Here two questions arise: firstly, how do we know if they were conceived and composed as epigrams, rather than being the sur- viving fragments of a larger poem? And secondly, does this matter? 1 This does not necessarily imply a lack of unity or coherence: think, for instance, of Alexander Pope's poetry which is highly epigrammatic but by no means lacking in unity. 2 Renate Jacobi, in the chapter “Abbasidische Dichtung” in Grundriss der Arabischen Philologie, Band II: Literaturwissenschaft, hrsg. von Helmut Gätje, Wiesbaden, 1987, p. 46. 102 G.J. VAN GELDER Elsewhere3 I have argued at some length that it may be wrong to think of an Arabic poem as something static, of fixed proportions once the poet composed it. It lives on, in different shapes, in quotations through the ages. Favourite passages or even single lines may acquire a life of their own and become poems in their own right. In the following I shall mainly concentrate on those poems that seem to be, as far as can be known, original epigrams; but the other kind will not be wholly excluded. Let us consider, for instance, a passage from the chapter on panegyric in Naqd al-shi{r by Qudama Ibn Ja{far (early 10th century). Having explained the various aspects for which the poet may praise a patron (the four “cardinal virtues” and their various combinations into secondary virtues), he continues4: Then there are poets who summarize (yujmil) the panegyric, which is also a good type, by which one reaches one's goal free from long-windedness and far from prolixity, through brevity. Of this kind are the lines by al- Îu†ay}a: You (?) visit a man who gives his wealth away for the sake of praise: whoever pays the price of glorious deeds will be praised. He sees that stinginess will not preserve one's wealth: and he knows that wealth will not last forever. Gaining much and spending much: when you ask something from him, he rejoices and shakes [from enthusiasm] like an Indian sword. When you come to him, arriving at the light of his fire in the evening, you will find the best fire with the best fire-lighter. In the first lines he presents the various categories of panegyric that were discussed before; then, in the last line he offers a comprehensive descrip- tion and a summary of the panegyric, by way of brevity. The four lines could be thought of as an independent epigram, of which the first lines dwell on the patron's generosity, while the last line rounds it off nicely by being capable of a literal interpretation (the Bedouin camp-fire) and a metaphorical one (fire standing for prominent good deeds). Because no name is mentioned it cannot, merely by itself, 3 G.J.H. VAN GELDER, Beyond the line. Classical Arabic literary critics on the coher- ence and unity of the poem, Leiden, 1982. 4 Qudama Ibn Ja{far, Naqd al-shi{r, ed. S.A. BONEBAKKER, Leiden, 1956, p. 37, quoted (and wrongly attributed to al-Mubarrad) by al-Îatimi, Îilyat al-muÌa∂ara, ed. JA{FAR AL-KATTANI, Baghdad, 1979, i, 340-41 and Ibn Rashiq, {Umda, ed. MUÎAMMAD MUÎYI L-DIN {ABD AL-ÎAMID, Cairo, 1955, ii, 137. POINTED AND WELL-ROUNDED 103 function as praise of a particular person; but that makes it all the more useful and quotable whenever someone has to be praised or when gen- erosity in general is to be extolled. It is not certain whether Qudama or, after him, al-Îatimi (d. 998) and Ibn Rashiq (d. 1065 or 1071) considered these lines as forming a poten- tially independent whole; judging by Qudama's comment, the “summa- rizing” is illustrated not so much by the quotation as a whole as by the last line only. In any case, the four lines were not made separately by the poet, for they are part of a qaÒida of forty-three lines, in praise of Baghi∂ Ibn {Amir Ibn Shammas5. It turns out that the subject of tazuru (which opens Qudama's quotation) is not “you”, which seems to be the more obvious reading to those who do not know the qaÒida, but “the crook- backed (camels)” of the preceding line. We may assume that Qudama was aware of the fact that the lines are part of a larger whole. Qudama gives two more examples, one by al-Shammakh: I have seen {Araba al-Awsi rise towards good deeds, peerless: Whenever a banner is raised for the sake of glory, {Araba takes it in his right hand. This, though again taken from a longer piece, works well as an epi- gram. Like the previous example it has a final line that allows of a literal as well as a figurative interpretation. It ensures {Araba's reputation since he is mentioned by name. The two lines are very often quoted, before Qudama and after him6. The last example provided by Qudama, two lines in praise of SharaÌil Ibn Ma{n Ibn Za}ida by Marwan Ibn Abi ÎafÒa, are said to contain “a nice and succinct allusion which contains much praise with concision”: I have seen that the generosity of Ma{n's son makes people talk, so that it forces the speechless to make poetry; And with his justice he has made weapons cheap in our land: an Indian sword does not fetch a dirham7. 5 al-Îu†ay}a, Diwan ed. GOLDZIHER, ZDMG, 46 (1892) 203-205 (= Gesammelte Schriften, iii, 133-35). The quoted lines are nos. 36-39. 6 Tha{lab, Qawa{id al-shi{r ed. RAMADAN {ABD AL-TAWWAB, Cairo, 1966, p. 37 (illus- trating madÌ, “panegyric”, in his list of poetic modes), IBN {ABD RABBIH, al-{Iqd al-farid, Cairo, 1948-53, ii, 288, ABU L-FARAJ AL-I∑FAHANI, al-Aghani, Cairo, 1927-74, ix, 106 (as the lyrics of a song, Òawt), al-Qali, al-Amali, Cairo, 1926, i, 274, and many others. For the qaÒida, see AL-SHAMMAKH, Diwan, Cairo, 1968, 319-41 (29 lines). 7 Qudama, Naqd al-shi{r, pp. 37-38; cf. MARWAN IBN ABI ÎAF∑A, Shi{r, Cairo, 1973, 101 (from Qudama). 104 G.J. VAN GELDER Here the epigrammatic effect is achieved by means of the balance between the two chief virtues, by the hyperbole in both lines, and by the necessary mental leap — not a very difficult one — between justice that prevails and weapons that are cheap. It is not known whether these two lines were once part of a longer poem. To Qudama this was irrelevant. In the section on elegy Qudama gives similar illustrations: the first three lines of a poem on the death of Fa∂ala Ibn Kalada by Aws Ibn Îajar summarize all the virtues of the deceased; five other lines by the same poet (part of a qaÒida, as Qudama says) “resemble the conciseness of motifs and brevity of diction as found in panegyric”8. Qudama's main preoccupation in these passages is to find poems and fragments that may underpin his system of virtues that are the basis of panegyric and elegy. In his presentation any poetic fragment is a “complete” whole when it comprises all the cardinal virtues; and if this is done succinctly, the result may be called an epigram. Ibn Rashiq follows Qudama in his discussion of “summary” (mujmal) panegyric and elegy9. For the latter, he does not adopt Qudama's examples but provides two others, by Ibn al-Mu{tazz. One describes the funeral of the caliph al-Mu{ta∂id (d. 289/902): They performed for him the necessary rites. Then they set an imam in front of them, with the bier before him, And prayed for him, humbly, as if they were standing in ranks in order to greet him10.
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