A GENERIC DEFINITION by MATTITYAHU PELED N His

AL-S�Q �AL� AL-S�Q - A GENERIC DEFINITION BY MATTITYAHU PELED N his article 1'auteur et 1'homme» Boris Schloezer quotes Potebnia's famous saying that a literary work is first of all an event in the life of the language and adds : «il s'ensuivait que 1'etude de 1'aeuvre devait commencer par celle des particularit6s de son langage». As a guiding principle this can certainly be considered of universal validity. But in some cases the peculiarities of language appear to be the essence of the work and al-Sidiaq's book of al-Fdridq is clearly one of them 2. First published in Paris in 1855, it was presented by the publisher as a book of many advantages primarily on account of the abundance of synonyms, alliterations, metonymies, allusions and other figures and tropes. Not concealing that some aspects of style were less than orthodox he felt that on balance it was a book to be liked by readers of high literary taste. The author himself had less qualms about testing the receptiveness of his readers. Except for the French title of the book which is strictly informative, all the preliminaries in Arabic constitute an undisguised challenge. After describing his book as ayydm wa guhi7r wa al-'arab wa-l-aji7m- he immediately goes on to satirize: ta'lif zayd wa hind fi zamdnika dd asha ild al-nds min ta'lf sifrayn wa dars taurayn qad suddd ild qaran aqnd `wa anfa° min tadrts habrayn 1 Les Chemins Actuels de la Critique, dir. George Poulet, Publications du Centre Culturel de Cerisy-La-Salle,Union Générale d'Editions, 1968,p.128. 2 al-S�q� alal-s� �q f� huam� al-F �ri�Allq. referenceswill be made to the edition of Dar Maktabat al-Hay�t,Beirut 1966,prepared by al-Šayx Nas�Wahb �baal-X �zin. 3 La Vie et Les Aventures de Fariac Relation de Ses Voyagesavec Ses Observations Critiques sur Les Arabes et sur Les Autres Peuples par Faris El-Chidiac. 4 The alternative reading would be �ajamal- �arabetc. meaning the corrupt Arabic spoken by Arabs and others. 32 Days months and years concerning intelligent people - Arabs and others. The writing of Zayd and Hind these days Is desired by people more than the writing of two volumes And the threshing of two bulls tied together Is better sold and more profitable than the teaching of two clergymen. This motive is not entirely unfamiliar; in fact we find it in Hazz where the author complains: faqad yaltaddu al-sdmi bikalämfihi al-dahk wa'l scald `a wa/ä yamtlu ild qaul fihi al-baldka wa'l bara-'a The listener often finds more pleasure in a tale of laughter and wan- tonness and favours not talk distinguished by rhetorics and brilliance. This book of mine, graceful to the witty - unbridled of tongue - and silly to the fool. However there is a difference: Hazz al-quhi7f is supposed to be an interpretation of a vulgar poem (f?awajadtuhu qasiddn ya lahu min qasid)?' whereas kitdb a/-färiäq is presented as a book of history and travel. The incongruity becomes even more glaring in a/-kitäb», which is an introduction in verse. Strangely enough this introduction has received less critical attention than << TanbThmin al-mu'allif» which is the introduction in prose. The latter is often quoted because it announces the purpose of the book which is twofold' ; displaying the peculiarities of the language and its rare words and listing the praiseworthy traits of women as well as the blameworthy. While being very clear this intro- 5 Hazz al-qu��fšar f��qas �abd � š�dby� Yf, �suf� abdal-Jaw �al-Širbd �nRegarding�. its first publication Jirj�Zayd �n,Ta¸r �adr �bal-luga al-�arabiyya,Beirut 1967, V. III, p. 289 givesthe yeat 1284H (= 1867).Naf �saSa ��Ta¸rd, �al-dax �wail� al- ��miyyawa ath �ruh� f� misr, Alexandria, 1964, p. 240 gives the year 1857 for the first publication and this is accepted by Gabriel Baer, «Fell�hand Townsman in Ottoman Egypt», Asia and African - Studies,Jerusalem, V. VIII, no. 3, 1972, p.221. R.A. Nicholson,however, gives the year 1687,which is probably the year of al-Širb�n�death;¸s cf. A Literary History of the Arabs, Cambridge 1969, p. 450 and H.A.R. Gibb, Arabic Literature, Oxford 1963, p. 156. The sentencehere quoted, cf. édition of 1308H (= 1890)made by al-ma�ba�wa¸la maktaba al- ma�m�diyyabimisr, p. 3. 6 Op. cit., p. 2. 7 al-S�q,p. 65. 8 Ib., p. 67. .

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