Journal of Al Azhar University-Gaza 2004, Vol. 7, No. 1 P1 – 20 TROUBADOUR POETRY: AN INTERCULTURAL EXPERIENCE Said I. Abdelwahed Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Al-Azhar University – Gaza
[email protected] P.O.Box 1110 Gaza ABSTRACT: This is a reading of the intercultural experience of the medieval poetry known as the Troubadour poetry. It’s a study of the origin, meaning, music and structure of the lyric love poetry which appeared in medieval Spain, in the period from (3rd to 7th centuries A.H / 9th to 13th centuries AD), with special reference to the Muwwashah and the Kharja. It expanded to southern France, then to northern France. The early troubadour was a wondering singer or minstrel who traveled from place to place singing for gaining his living. But the French troubadours were mostly of noble birth that wrote and sang for the upper-class audience. The troubadours wrote their songs and poems of a metrical form mainly on themes of courtly love. Their poetry was influenced by Arabic poetry and it became a literary phenomenon that historians of Western literature and culture could not ignore. This paper highlights the primary role played by the Arabs in medieval poetry issues and it alludes to some salient elements of intercultural communication between the East and the West. INTRODUCTION Generally speaking, scholars and historians of medieval Arabic literature divided the Arabic and Islamic culture and literature of medieval Spain into three major components. Scholars made divisions of that culture but Gerard Wiegers made the clearest division as follows: I.