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By Izar F. Hermes ‘IFRAJALISM’: THE [EUROPEA] OTHER I MEDIEVAL ARABIC LITERATURE AD CULTURE, 9 th -12 th CETURY (A.D.) by izar F. Hermes A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto Copyright by izar F. Hermes (2009) Abstract of Thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2009 Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto ‘Ifranjalism’: The [European] Other in Medieval Arabic Literature and Culture, 9th -12 th Century (A.D.) by Nizar F. Hermes Many western scholars of the Middle East such as Bernard Lewis have too often claimed that medieval Arabs/Muslims did not exhibit any significant desire to discover the cultures, literatures and religions of non-Muslim peoples. Perhaps no less troubling is their assertion that only Europeans are endowed with the gift of studying foreign cultures and traveling into alien lands. In the same connection, without intending to ‘add fire’ to the already fiery polemic over Edward Said’s Orientalism , it must be said that very few of Said’s critics and defenders alike have discussed the counter, or reverse, tradition of Orientalism especially as found in the rich corpus of Classical Arabic Literature. Through introducing and exploring a cross-generic selection of non-religious Arabic prose and poetic texts such as the geo-cosmographical literature, récits de voyages , diplomatic memoirs, captivity narratives, pre-Crusade and Crusade poetry, all of which were written from the 9 th to the 12 th century(A.D.), this dissertation will present both an argument for and a demonstration of the proposition that there was no shortage of medieval Muslims who cast curious eyes and minds towards the Other and that more than a handful of them were textually and physically interested in Europe and the Euro- Christians they encountered inside and outside dār al-Islām. Contrary to the monolithic impression left by postcolonial theories of Orientalism, this thesis also makes a strong case that Orientals did not exist solely to be gazed at. Before this came to be so, they too iii had directed their gaze toward the European Other(s) in a way that mirrored in reverse the subject/object relationship described as Orientalism. iv Acknowledgements This thesis owes many thanks to many people. I am particularly grateful to my co-supervisors Professors Roland LeHuenen and John Fleming for their flattering trust constant encouragements, and perspicasious comments. The dissertation might have never been finished without their insights and guidance. Equal thanks go to the members of my committee Professors Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Walid Saleh for their invaluable input and generous support. I am also indebted to Professor Jill Ross for replacing Professor Walid Saleh during the defence and, mostly, for her meticulous proofreading of the final copy. I would like to extend my thanks to my external appraiser Professor Thabit Abdullah for his constructive feedback and useful suggestions. Warm thanks are also due to Aphrodite Gardner and Bao Nguyen for their kindness and help throughout the years I have spent at the Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto. They have always welcomed me with open arms and obliged my numerous requests. I will be ever appreciative of all the help I received from my dear friends in Gabès, Tunis, Toronto, Québec City and Montreal. There are too many to mention all by name. I am, however, most grateful to Makram Boulbaba Jemai, Gnaoui Rajah, Sadiq Kamal Nasfi, Sofien ben Aoun, Faisal Bouallag, Omar Abboud, Imed Sassi, Faisal Abdi, Rida Wahrani, Khaled Shayeb, Hashi Mohamed, Haythem Kouki, Wissem Mbarek, Mahjoub Langar, Amir Bouaskar, and Ibrahim Sbai for all their help and generosity. Indeed they are more than friends in need. Last but not least, I am most grateful for the faith, love, and patience of my mother Fatima ben Hassan and all members of my family in Tunisia whom I have not v seen for the last five years. And most of all, my wife Rafa Kouki whom I wholeheartedly thank for her unflinching love, perseverance and help throughout the years. اﶵﺪاﶵﺪاﶵﺪ اي ﺑﺑﺑ ﻨﻌﻤﻨﻌﻤﻨﻌﻤﺘﻪ ﺗﱲ اﻟﺼﺎﳊﺎت vi Dedication For my family, friends and professors Here and There! vii Table of Contents Introduction: Be(yond)fore Orientalism: Medieval Muslims and the Other: Re-Drawing the Essentialist Boundaries 1 Chapter I: Translation, Travel, and the Other: the Fascination with Greek and Oriental Cultures 29 A. The Curious Minds and Eyes of Medieval Muslims: Translation and Travel for Study 30 B. The Orient’s Medieval ‘Orient(alism)’: The Riḥla of Sulayman al-Tajir 51 Chapter II: European Barbarity and Civilization in some Medieval Arabic Geographical Sources: Al-Masʿudi and al-Bekri as Two Case Studies 77 A. Earliest References to ʾUrūfa (Europe) in Medieval Arabic Sources: Brief Survey 78 B. Transcending the Stereotypes: the Barbarian Ahl al-Shamāl (People of the North) versus the Civilized Ifranj (Franks) in al-Masʿudi’s Account of Medieval Europe 85 C. The Wrongs of the Galicians and the Tongues of the Prussians: European Barbarity and Civilization through al-Bekri’s Andalucentric Eyes 105 Chapter III: Writing the North: Europe and Europeans in Medieval Arabic Travel Literature 119 A. Captives and Emissaries from the Mashriq 120 1. Mirabilia Urbis Romæ through the Eyes of a Ninth Century Arab Captive 120 viii 2. Utter Alterity or Pure Humanity: Barbarian Turks, Bulgars and Rus (Vikings) in the Remarkable Risāla of Ibn Fadlan 135 B. Medieval-Andalusians in/and the Heartland of Europe 164 1. The Moor’s First Sight: An Arab Poet in a Ninth-Century Viking Court 164 2. From Real Prague to the Fabulous "Town of Women": Northern Facts and Fables in the Remarkable Account of Ibn Yaʿqub 184 3. Skiing, Giants, and Hungarian Maghribis: Marvelous Europe in the ‘Tall Tales’ of Abu Hamid al-Gharnati 203 Chapter IV: Poetry, Frontiers, and Alterity: Views and Perceptions of al-Rūm (Byzantines) and al-Ifranja (Crusaders) 220 A. Byzantium and the Byzantines in Medieval Arabic Poetry: Abu Firas’ Al- Rumiyyat and the Poetic Responses of al-Qaffal and Ibn Hazm to Nicephore Phocas’ Al-Qasida al-Arminiyya al-Mal ʿuna (The Armenian Cursed Ode) 221 1. Abu Firas’ Al-Rumiyyat : or the Byzantines Are Coming! 229 2. The Impure Scourge of God: the Byzantines in the Poetic Responses of al- Qaffal and Ibn Hazm to Al-Qasida al-Arminiyya al-Malʿuna 242 B. Ifranjalism: Crusades and Crusaders in Arabic Medieval Poetry: Stereotypes and Ruptures: Ibn al-Qaysarani as a Case Study 256 Conclusion 280 Works Consulted 290 Appendix of Translated Works 309 ix ote on Transliteration For the purpose of consistency, I have used the system of Arabic transliteration adopted by the International Journal of Middle East Studies . x ote on the Translation of Arabic Poetry In light of the variety of approaches to the translation of classical Arabic poetry, I think it proper to clarify my own stance. In the present book, I have aimed not at producing a literal translation, which at best would serve some instructional purposes, but rather at capturing in the English literary idiom, the meaning and, above all, the poeticality of the Arabic originals. Jaroslav Stetkevych , The Zephyrs of ajd: The Poetics of ostalgia in The Classical Arabic asib Translating the idiosyncratically rhymed and metered classical Arabic poetry into modern western languages is notoriously difficult, to say the least. One spends hours and hours to decide what to keep and what to sacrifice especially amidst the seemingly never ending debate between the ‘literal’, or ‘word-for-word’, translation and ‘interpretive’, or ‘sense- for sense’, translation (France 16). Briefly stated, while I have done my best to capture ‘quite literally’ a number of the most essential keywords of a particular poem, I have somehow leaned to the second approach especially as, of course in my personal view, masterfully laid out and practiced by Professor Jaroslav Stetkevych and a number of his ‘students’ such as Michael Sells and Emil Homerin. In the present dissertation, I do share the concern that what we need most in translating classical Arabic poetry are translations that “stand on their own as poems that can be enjoyed and appreciated” (2), to quote Emil Homerin. In short, I struggled to be ‘faithful’ not only to the what but also to the how famous poets such as Abu Dulaf, Abu Firas, Ibn Hazm, and Ibn al-Qaysarani said, but at the same time, I have to acknowledge that I strove, perhaps more, to translate those poets in, hopefully, enjoyable English poems that stand on their own. For readers of Arabic, the original Arabic poems appear in the Appendix of Translated Works. xi . Introduction: Be(yond)fore Orientalism: Medieval Muslims and the Other: Redrawing the Essentialist Boundaries Casting one’s curious eye toward the Other in the view of a number of western scholars of the Middle East is a distinctively European virtue, a gift of Europeans to humanity at large. It is the ultimate result of an "intellectual curiosity," which is, as Bernard Lewis once put it in Islam and the West (1993), "still peculiar to western Europe, and to the inheritors and emulators of the European scholarly tradition in countries such as the United States and Japan" (124). In Lewis’ view, it is not surprising that the world had to wait until the European Renaissance to see "a human society for the first time [that] developed the sophistication, the detachment and, above all, the curiosity to study and appreciate the cultures of alien and even hostile societies" ( The Muslim Discovery of Europe 301). Understandably, contrary to Edward Said’s contention in Orientalism : Western Conceptions of the Orient (1978), it is this very "curiosity to study and appreciate the cultures of alien and even hostile societies," that has been the impetus behind the phenomenal interest of Europeans in the Orient.
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