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Abu Tamman and the Poetics of the Abbasid Age [Review of: S. Pinckney Stetkevych (1995) -]

Schippers, A.

Publication date 1995 Document Version Final published version Published in Unknown

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Citation for published version (APA): Schippers, A. (1995). Abu Tamman and the Poetics of the Abbasid Age [Review of: S. Pinckney Stetkevych (1995) -]. In S. Pinckney Stetkevych (Ed.), Unknown E.J. Brill.

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Download date:28 Sep 2021 193 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — ARABICA-ISLAM 194 the narration of the battle events; coda is used for the final which are 'hsed. We know the historical setting of the poems part with often gnomic remarks; and cadence, as a "type of from the bobk by Blachere'). From my new book on the utterance used for stops along the way; to mark the end of a relationship betWen Arabic and Hebrew Andalusian poetry, theme, to provide a treshold before the next". The author one can see al-Mbtanabbi's war thetnes. I used a lot of al- defines a'^ntactic attacca [an Italian imperative used as a Mutanabbi's war pofetjis to show/the influence of the Say­ musical terro, meaning "connect immediately with the pre­ fiyydt of this poet on th^Svar pp^ms by the Hebrew Andalu­ ceding passage, go on immediately with a new theme" A.S.] sian poet and statesman Sahjuel han-Nagid-). The influence as certain devices introducing a new theme. These attacca^ apparently was limited to th/tl^matic domain and my study are syntactic devices such as an imperative, an interrogative was restricted to thematicjr: In hnMreatment of the structure particle, a vocarive, etc. Among the formal criteria which of al-Mutanabbi's war aClassical Arabic poetry. which can also consis\ of the utterancaof a universal truth of which Sayf al-Dawlan is the excep/ion: a beautiful com­ Amsterdam/Leiden, January 1994 A. SCHIPPERS parison or simile [tasnbih malih, sometimes introduced by ka-anna or mithl]; a wisnom sentence or proverb [hikmah or mathal] working well inVlosure; dr a taqsim [which seems * to be a kind of parallel syntactic division of the line: "We get no medieval help", Hamori Affirms, A.S.]. The excep­ tions to the rule are called hs Ha/nori "special cases". STETKEVYCH, Suzanne Pinckney - Abu Tammdm and the The author also devotes a chapter to closures, and how Poetics of the 'Ahhdsid Age. Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1991 (24 the battle narration comes to\au end in the closure. Certain cm, xv[ + 404) - Studies in Arabic Literature, supple­ concepts such as Majd (glorV/, Allah (God), Dahr (Time, ments to the Journal of Arabic Literature XIII. ISBN i.e., Fate), Layali (Nights, iJb. Fate), Ayydm (Days, i.e., 90-04-09340-0. HFL 180,- ; $ 100.00. Fate), Zamdn (Time, i.e., Fat/eX Mandyd (Fate), mention of This book devoted to Abu Tammam's poetry, as well as ancestry and the use of anaphora of anta (You) often occur the poetics of his time, contains the translations of five odes in those final parts of such a batlle qastdah. by this poet, and an extensive introduction on his Poetics In the appendices diagrams are given which demonstrate borrowed from the well-known sources about the reception how the different parts oy those Rattle qasidahf, are linked of this poet such as al-Suli's Akhhdr Abi Tammdm, al- together. Amidi's Muwdzanah, and Jurjani's Wasdtah. The extensive My first remark aboul^this studV is the following: from quotations from these works are very usefull for those who the title one could easily/imagine tflat Hamori wants to deal want to orientate themselves more on Arabic poetry, from with the Sayfiyydt in to/o. This is not the ca.se: he selected those whom we (A.S.) could call the Classical poets of Ara­ the long war poems which are undoubtedly the most impor­ bic literature (Stetkevych, however uses the term Classical tant part of this collection. The collection, which is usually in the sense of traditional. A.S.). At that time however, the presented as part of alf-Mutanabbi's t^tal Diwdn, comprises poets were called Modems, in contrast with the Ancient 79 pieces of different length, among Ihem panegyrics with poets with their archaic language which took its origin from battle-descriptions, aiorter laudatory\ pieces and elegies pre-Islamic and early times. The main stylistic devices, [with laudatory secmons on Sayf alnDawlah], and three which were consciously u.sed by the Modems are covered pieces written before or after al-Matanabbi's Sayf al- with the technical term hadl'. This style, according to Dawlah period. Al-Mutanabbi began to write for Sayf al- Stetkevych's theory, is inspired by the mutakallimun and the Dawlah, the Hamdanid prince, at the agepf 35 being already Mu'tazilah. Stetkevych reveals the fundamental paradox at a poet of considerable fame, when he was in Antioch in the basis of classical Arabic critical thought: it establishes 337/948 where he obmposed three poemspn his new patron. the Ancient poetry as a model to be imitated by "Modem" In al-Wahidi's and al-Yaziji's more or less chronologically poets, but at the same time the cultural-historical factors ren­ arranged editions the second part of the poet's Diwan begins dered the Ancient poetry virtually inimitable. Stetkevych with the Sayfiyydt, when the poet had already composed at argues that Arab critics were unaware of these factors. This least 159 pieces (which are the contents of me first volume). had to do, according to Stetkevych, with the transition from Al-Mutanabbi stayed in the service of Saynal-Dawlah nine a predominantly oral to a predominantly written poetic tra­ years, after which he came to court with the black ruler dition. It has also to do with the radical change in the role of Kafur in Egypt in the year 346/957. Hamoril deals with 22 poetry. In the pre-Islamic oral tradition poetry served for poems of the Sayfiyydt, whose original Arabia texts we find preserving information. Formal and rhetorical aspects had a in one of the appendices of Hamori's book. Sometimes mnemonic function. The new functions of the rhetorical ?iasJh-passages are left out, such as the famous nasih pas­ devices of the Modems were not their mnemonic qualities sage of the first poem of the Sayfiyydt. Al-'^utanabbi's nasihs are famous because of their peculiar character. As ') See Regis Blachere, Un poete arahe du IV' siecle de I'hegire X'' sie- said, Hamori's book deals with the Sayfiyydt as far as the cle de J.C., Ahou 't-Tayyih al-Molamihhi, Paris (Adrien-Maisonneuve), longer battle-poems are concerned. 193.5. However, Blachere did not have much appreciation for al-Mutan­ This study by Hamori is a very useful one, it is an eye- abbi's poetry. -) See Arie Schippers, Spanish Hebrew Poetry and the Arabic Literary opener for those who have studied the Sayfiyydt in a limited Tradition. Arabic flumes in Hebrew Andalusian Poetry, Leiden (E.J. way, only looking for the historical setting or the themes Brill), 1944, pp. 217-243. 195 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LII N° 1/2, Januari-Maart 1995 196 but ritual and exegetical qualities. They used archaic rhetor­ in them. The chapter on elegies and the one about the weep­ ical forms to express their cultural identity, their pledge of ing on the deserted encampment are interrelated. The hierar­ allegiance to Arabism. The effect of hadJ' poetry with its chy expressed in the poems is reflected in the stmcture of madhhab kalami [stylistic device taken from the muta­ the Hamdsah: it starts with the praising of noble manhood, kallimun] is exegetical, because of its manipulation of ab­ and ends with the vituperation of womanhood. Abu stractions, which deserves ta'wll (exegesis). Tammam's Hamdsah is at the same time a poetic and The present author deals with five panegyric odes, from metapoetic work, which is clear from its metaphorical and which she quotes a typical Abu-Tammamian rhetorical antithetical interconnection. The Hamdsah of al-Buhturi, expression in the chapter heads; Time's Beardless Youth (in with its 174 chapters, is totally different. It looks like the a panegyric on the Caliph al-Ma'mun), The Tragacanth's musannaf type of hadith collection arranged on subject and Fruit (in a panegyric devoted to Abu Sa'id al-Thaghri), a with poems adduced at every subject. Abu Tammam's cate­ Morsel in Destruction's Hand (in a panegyric to al-Mu'tasim gories embrace an entire system of values, while al- on the Capture of Babak al-Khurrami), the Virgin whom the Buhturi's ones are discrete topics illustrated by literal exam­ Hand of fate had not deflowered (in a panegyric dedicated to ples without expansion into the tropical, metaphorical, al-Mu'tasim on the occasion of the conquest of 'Ammu- the archetypal, symbolic or ritual connections. Al-Buhturi's riyyah), and the brilliant gems set by the poet (dedicated to Hamdsah is not held together by any unifying concept al-Mu'tasim on the occasion of the immolation of al- of a literary tradition that expresses a coherent system of Afshln). It appears that Abu Tammam manipulates the tradi­ values. tional images and structures freely, abandoning, gradually, This is in contrast to Abu Tammam's dynamic concept of the traditional structure of the ode with its sequences. The the literary tradition as appears from the interrelationship author of the book apparently postulates a surface structure and organization of the poems in his Hamdsah. and a deep ritual structure in the odes of AbQ Tammam. The This book by Stetkevych is very stimulating and thought surface is old. the old traditional sequence, the deep struc­ provoking. Furthermore, it is useful for those who want to ture evens goes back to "the Ancient Near Eastern paradigm comprehend the change of function in the Arabic poetry of sacrifice". In ode no. 133, there is still the classical iiasih- from a Bedouin type to a sedentary type. The emergence rahJl-madJh surface structure, but as a vessel for new of the hadV style and the problem of the Ancient and the imagery. "The imagery and epithets of the Jahili madth are Modern is certainly linked with this change of function'). Islamicized; the mamdiVi is now the agent of Allah and the Finally it is useful to connect AbQ Tammam's selection in inexorable fate of the Jahiliyyah is replaced by a fore­ the Hamdsah with his opinions on poetics and poetry, as ordained Islamic teleology". In the other odes. Stetkevych Klein-Franke did earlier-). If one closes one's eyes for the notes that the na.sJb is no longer determined by the classical use of metaphorical expressions, such as "rite de passage" ode form but by the chronological and cosmological or for the transition between naslh and madJh. old fashioned mythic order of the historical events that are its subject. In structuralist terminology (surface structure, deep structure), one of the odes, the mamdiih (the praised person, in this case and too far-fetched associations such as the "sacerdotal the heir-apparent) is identified with the beloved (inah- kingship of Ancient Mesopotamia", then it is all in all a hi'ihah). "Contemporary events have been integrated into the very readable, interesting and useful book. Five difficult poetic tradition to create a unified Arab-Islamic vision of the poems are translated by the author herself, extensively com­ future as well as of the past". Abu Tammam reforges the mented upon while the original text can be consulted in the classical ode by means of transposition of the traditional appendices. Of course, this will not be the last book on Abu motifs through metaphor and antithesis. He progressively Tamman. who has written far more than five poems, but it uncovers "the deep sacrificial structure beneath the classical will be a useful contribution to scientific discussion. To my qa.sJdah-form". He recasts its form and motifs. By manipu­ knowledge, it is the first monograph about AbQ Tamman, lating metaphorically, logically and philologically the tradi­ written by an orientalist. A monograph on this poet deserved tional motifs, the poetic tradition is able to embrace new to be written much earlier. ideas. The experiment with hadJ' led to "uncovering the deep paradigmatical structure that had originally generated Leiden/Amsterdam, January 1994 A. SCHIPPERS the classical Arabic qasidad as the 'Abbasid critics con­ ceived it". The Arab-Islamic was reintegrated with the Ancient near Eastern, so that "the 'Abbasid concept of the Caliphate and the Ummah (...) could (...) go beyond the analogy to the chieftain and tribe of the Jahiliyyah. to the MARZOLRivLllrich - Arabia Ridens. p{e hwnoristische sacerdotal kingship of Ancient Mesopotamia". KurzprosaH