AN HARGA IN AN ANONYMOUS HEBREW MUW AŠŠAHA

Y. Schirmann's collection of anonymous Hebrew muwaššabät 1 is extremely important for the study of the entire field of strophic poetry in Al-Andalus, and particularly for the understanding of the development of the harga-element, i.e. the final verse-lines of the 17Juwaššaba with common rhymes.2 We know from Arabic sources 3 that the harga is considered a significant part of the muwaš šaba, inasmuch as it constitutes the "essence", literally and metrically, being, in Ibn Sana' al-Mulk's words, the seal, and at the same time the beginning, of the muwaššaba.44 There is reason to believe that these anonymous Hebrew muwaššabät 5 represent a link between the oral, unwritten stage of the strophic forms, which according to ,6 were "invented" in Cabra in Al-Andalus, and the literary stage, which culminated in the llth and 12th centuries. In his various studies of Mozarabic lyrics, S. M. Stern has shown the close relationship between the Arabic and the Hebrew nzu2wallabdt through the art of "imitation", widely practised by the Jews, as well as by the themselves, during the period when strophic poetry had acquired literary status.7 Less, however, is known about the practice of imitation in the preceding 9th and 10th centuries. Through application of the "fixed terminology" patterns, suggested by S. M. Stern,8 as they appear in the barajit in the strophic poetry of both periods, a fuller understanding of the mucäratja technique as regards the baragit and of the "invention" of strophic poetry as a whole may be obtained. The following harga from Schirmann's collection, no. 167, is an interesting example of a type in which elements of Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew influences coincide. It is truly "Mozarabic" in tone, and reads: (in Schirmann's transcrip- . tion)

1 Y. Schirmann, New HebrewPoems fromthe Geniza, Jerusalem 1965. 2 simt, pl. asm�t. 3 Ibn Sana' al-Mulk, D�rat-Tir �z,Damascus 1949, p. 30 sq. 4 Ibid., p. 32. 5 Hebrew: Šir�'ezor. 6Ibn Bassam, al-Dahira fi mahasin ahl al-Gazira, Cairo 1942, vol. II, pp. 1-2. Ibn Hald�n, al-Muqaddima(ed. Quatremère), edn. publ. 1970, vol. III, p. 390 sq. 7 S. M. Stern, Chansons Mozarabes, Oxford 1953; "Studies on Ibn Quzman", A/-Kndalus, 1951. 8 S. M. Stern, "Four famous MuwaŠŠah�tfrom Ibn BuŠra's Anthology", Al-Andalus, 1958, p. 356. 25

md (dd) iva md dd £ar3 li ( )bth fa muq dalili wa 'qitälï.

The opening line complies with the barla rules as they are stipulated by Ibn Sana' al-Mulk.9 The speaker expresses inquietude, which is usually done in Romance haragdt through a question or sudden exclamation, rhetorically : "What is the matter with me, and what has happened to me?"

The second line is puzzling as it stands, owing to the quality of the manuscript. We may, according to the "rules", expect one of two conventional themes: 1. Lament over separation from the beloved. 2. Allusion to a pungent theme or subject. (The possibility of its being a panegyric need not be considered in this case.) Y. Schirmann has refrained from attempting to restore the second line of the parga. By applying the above-mentioned fixed terminology from other parga patterns, the second theme, however, suggests itself. The following parga from an anony- mous Arabic muwaššaba belongs to a series of erotic haraidt, some of which S. M. Stern has referred to elsewhere i° : 11IabbÜbIkassar nahdajja 2vahabbal daljl7 lva yalza11l fIšafatayya (a11lda1-nakdli.11 The words nahd, dalal and šafa signify the breast, the locks and the lips of the girl, and 'awda 1-nakil may allude either to the physical subjugation or to the 12 inner affiction, 'amda being probably an error for 'inda and nakdl having the double signification of "torment" and "subjugation".13 This theme appears in an elaborated arrangement in a mtlwaš šaba by Ibn Labbana 14 and one by Abu Bakr Yahya al-Sayrafi.15 The almost identical phrasing in these two haragat points towards a written transmission. We have, moreover, two samples of a parga from the culmination of strophic poetry in the "literary stage", in a zagal by Ibn Quzmdn and a muwaššaba by Ibn Baqi.16 These two haragit correspond with the parga of the anonymous Hebrew muwaš šaba: 9 The harga is, preferably, pronounced by "a girl, a drunkard or a dove". D�r at-Tir�z, p. 30. See also E. Garcia Gomez, Toto Ben Quzman, Madrid 1972, II, p. 639; III, p. 231. 10 S. M. Stern, "Four famous MuwaŠŠah�t...", p. 356. 11 S. M. Stern, opp. cit., and 'Udda al-Galis. 12 'inda = "malgré", Dozy, Supplément. 13 S. M. Stern, "Four famous MuwaŠŠah�t...", p. 353. The twofold signification may be an intentional feature of the haragat, which other examples perhaps also suggest. 14 GaiŠ at-TawŠ�h;,Anthology no. 44. 15 ibid., no. 92. 16 Ibn Quzm�n, 1080-1160. Ibn Baqi, d. 1145.