• ARABIC INFLUENCES ON CHAUCER: SPECULATIVE ESSAYS ON A STUDY OF A LITERARY RELATIONSHIP rI by Raouf Jamil Halaby Submitted to the Faculty Qf the Graduate School of East Texas State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of ·DOCTOR OF EDUCATION I N TBE COLLEGE TEACHING OF ENGLISH August, 1973 ARABIC INFLUENCES ON CHAUCER: SPECULATIVE ESSAYS ON A STUDY OF A LITERARY RELATIONSHIP Dissertation Approved: ~ =c Disertation~ ' V\ ~ Adviser - School ii /iliS'I'RACT ARABIC INFLUENCES ON CHAUCER: SPECULATIVE ESSAYS ON A STUDY OF A LITERARY RELATIONSHIP Raouf Jamil Halaby, Ed.D. East Texas State University, 1973 Adviser: Lawrence F. McNamee Purpose of the Study The purposes of this study were (1) to show how, during the Middle Ages, the Arabs bridged the Hellenic achievements in science and phi;J..osophy to the HeGt; (2) to determine the impact of Arab civilization and its contri­ butions to Western science (astrology, mathema_tics, and medicine), philosophy, fine arts and literature; (3) to add to the already known Oriental and Eastern influences on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; (4) to show the relationship and parallels between Ibn Hazm's ideas on Jove and Chaucer's use of courtly love ideas. Procedure Sev~tal steps were necessary in developing this dissertation: (1) a study of the three bridges between iv V Europe and the Arab world through Spain, Sicily, and the Crusades; (2) a survey of the cultural and intellectual contributions of the Arabs to European thought; (3) a review of the Eastern influence on the development of the framed story; (4) a review of Arabic scientific influences on Chaucer's works; (5) a study of the known Oriental and Eastern influences on Chaucer's tales; (6) a careful study of "The Squire's Tale," "The Pardoner's Tale," "The Friar's Tale," and "The Manciple 's Tale" in light of new perspec­ tives and newly discovered Arabic influences; (7) a close examination of a limited number of tales derived from the Arabian Nights, Kaleela wa Dumna, and the Latin Gesta Romanorwn and their possible influences on Chaucer's four tales; (8) a study of Arabic passionate, platonic, and mystic poetry and its influence on medieval courtly love ideas; (9) the possible influence of Tawg al-Hamama (The Ring of the Dove) on the courtly love ideas in Chaucer's TroJlus and Criseyde and "The Knight's Tale." The trans­ lation for materials from Arabic texts was carried out by the author. Findings Chaucer employed several features which appeared in the Arabian _Nights, Kaleela wa Dumna; and the Gesta Romanorum: The use of birds, bird and human language, and didactic bird plots. concerning faithless lovers and the irrational actions of man, the use of avarice and greed as vi a comment on man's nature, and the theme of evil and its effect on man. The findings revealed that Chaucer's "The Squire's Tale" has analogous qualities to Ibn al-Muqaffa's "Mathal al Hamamata~" ("Exemplum of the Two Pigeons") and the Gesta Romanorum's tale LXII, "The l'ale of the Three Caskets," and "The Tale of Judgement Against Adulterers." Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale" has analogous qualities to Ibn al-Muqaffa's "The Exempl\ill1 of the Shrew and the Igno­ ramus II and "The Exemplum of the Discoverer of the Treasure" and also the Arabian Nights' "The Stolen Purse" and "The Merchant and the Two Sharpers." Chaucer's "The Friar's Tale" has striking similarities to Ibn al-Muqaffa's tale of "The Hermit, the Robber and the Devil" and the Arabian Nights' "The Angel of Death with the Proud King and the Devout ·Man''. and "The Angel of Death and the Rich King." In similar fashion, certain similarities surface between Chaucer's "The Manciple's Tale," "King Sinbad and His Falcon" and "The Merchant's Wife and the Parrot" derived from the Arabian Nights, and tale XXXII of the Gesta Romanorum. Other analogous qualities and similar features appear in the treatment of the love conventions as they appear in Ibn Hazm's doctrines on love and Chaucer's. use of love ideas in his Troilus and Criseyde and "The Knight's Tale." Conclusions The appearance of the similar treatments of plots, motifs, character~zation and the interlacery structure of vii the tales in the Arabic works on the one hand and their recognized and accepted influence on the Gesta Romanorum on the other suggests that Chaucer, who borrowed most of his ideas and plots from Latin works, borrowed these ideas from the Arabs and hence, the existence•i of a literary relationship between Arabic and British literatures. The love doctrin8s which appear in Ibn Hazm and •Chaucer are also too similar to be attributed to mere coincidence. • 4 PREFACE The typical daily routine of a Westerner's life is enriched by Middle Eastern contributions. Through Arabic, such terms as coffee (qahwa), sugar (al-sukkar), cotton, assassin (hashash), admiral (amir al-bahr), alcohol, and sofa (suffa) have entered the English language and are noted in a student's Webster's. Other influences such as the Mesopotamian invention of the wheel, the Phoenician invention of letters, the Arab invention of the clock (the clock first appearing in Europe as a present from Harun al-Rashid to Charlemagne), the Arab introduction of paper into Europe and the use of Arabic numerals have been recognized. Indeed, the Western world is only recently becoming more aware of its indebtedness to the Eastern civilization and its contributions to the world. The Middle East, its people and the Islamic religion, have always held a sense of awe and mystery for the Occidental mind. Most studies of the Arab world have been observations from the Westerner's point of view, a view which had often been distorted either by religious fanaticism or a fear of the unknown. But in actuality it was not an ideological fear; more often it was an historical one which involved a political and military struggle for viii ix the control of the economics of the Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea. As the twentieth century opened its pages to a new era of international wars, however, this part of the world, under colonial rule, aroused a new interest in scholarship. Not only did Western intellectuals travel to Arab coun­ tries, but they began to delve into the history, the reli­ gion, the culture and the heritage of the Arab Empire that flourished in the middle of the seventh century and sur­ vived till the middle of the fifteenth century when the Arab forces were driven out of Spain in 1492 A.D. With this objective arousal of interest, new historical perspectives were introduced. Scholars and historians realized that the great gap between the Hellenic civilization and the Renaissance of Europe was bridged through another civilization which inherited the legacy of Greece and transmitted it to Europe. Thus the "Crusades" of the twentieth century had different overtones and interests. No longer did the Western world feel the threat of Islam and the Arab world as it did in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. Not only that, but the weakening of the power of the Christian churches, the Catholic and Greek Orthodox, during the latter part of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries eased the tensions, threats and fears · of any invasions by the Muhamedans and their Koran. As Professor A. J. Arberry has put it, Our forebears were taught to regard Islam as a crude and fanatical creed which propagated itself, to the tragic detriment of Christianity, only by the sword; X the Arabs were pictured as uncouth nomads who left in their wake deserts wherever they passed~l It was for this reason that Dante, Voltaire, and Carlyle passed judgement on the Arab1c and Islamic peoples as led"' by an imposter who attempted to instill a dissolute schism into the minds of his followers. My interest in this study began in an Eighteenth Century course and has, since then, been a fasc ¥1ating and challenging one . After I reviewed several history books and corresponded with Dr. Phillip Hitti, Professor Emeritus at Pr.inceton University, the study became more realistic and the necessity of limiting the topic pecame more essential. First and foremost was the necessity of reviewing previous ancient and modern literature on the topic. A review of Dr. Lawrence McNamee's Dissertations in American and European Universities revealed that no disser­ tation had been written on the literary relationship of Arabic and British literatures. '1'his did not mean that no dissertations were written on the relationship of Arabic, Spanish, and Italian literatures, and a review of the latter dissertations was essential in order to trace motifs, genres, and direct influences. Specifically, this study is an attempt to trace Arabic influences on Geoffrey Chaucer. These influences include social, historical, and cultural features which are 1Rom Landau, .Arab Contributio;s to Civilization (San Francisco: The American Academy of Asian Studies, 1958), Preface, p. i. xi directly related to literature and which have been trans­ ported to England through Arabic influences on Italian and Spanish literatures. The sources used in this research are the appro­ priate dissertations and historical books written by Middle Eastern and European historians. Other sources are scientific treatises transi ated from Arabic and histories of Arabic, Spanish, and English literatures. Primary sources include Robinson's collection of Chaucer's work, an Arabic text of Kaleela wa Dumna, Campbell's edition of the Arabian Nights and various anthologies of Arabic literature. The difficulty in such a research lies in the fact that two extremely different cultures are dealt_ with-­ mainly two different languages.