Ali - Arabic literary salons in the Islamic Middle Ages: poetry, public performance, and the presentation of the past

A ra BIC
LIT erar Y
S a LO n S

in the

ISL am IC
MIDDL e AG e S

POETICS OF ORALITY AND LITERACY

John Miles Foley, series editor

A ra BIC
LIT erar Y
S a L on S

in the

ISL am IC
MIDDL e AG e S

Poetry, Public Performance, and the Presentation of the Past

S amer M. ALI

University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

www.undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2010 by the University of Notre Dame

Published in the United States of America

Reprinted in 2013

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ali, Samer M.

Arabic literary salons in the Islamic Middle Ages : poetry, public performance, and the presentation of the past / Samer M. Ali.

p. cm.(Poetics of orality and literacy)

Originally presented as the authors thesis (doctoral)Indiana University.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-268-02032-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-268-02032-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Arabic poetry7501258History and criticism. 2. SalonsIslamic Empire. 3. Oral traditionIslamic Empire. 4. Islamic EmpireIntellectual life. I. Title.

PJ7553.A55 2010

892.7'13409dc22

2010037737

ISBN 9780268074975

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at .

To my mother

and my father

My lute awake! perform the last

Labour that thou and I shall waste,

And end that I have now begun;

For when this song is sung and past,

My lute be still, for I have done.

Sir Thomas Wyatt (150342),

The Lover Complaineth the Unkindness of His Love

Contents

P ar T I
Literary Salons: Outlines of a Topic

P ar T II
The Mujlast as Forum for Literary Reception

The publication of this book has been a goal for many years, and in that duration a number of individuals and institutions have provided material and moral support. Without them, this book simply would not be, and it is a joy to record my gratitude to them.

The project began as a Ph.D. dissertation at Indiana University under the supervision of Suzanne Stetkevych, who has been an exemplary mentor and colleague. Few people outside her circle of students witness the unflagging energy and countless hours she devotes to training Arabists and cultivating in them the sensibilities of the ode (qada) genre, which is the backbone of the Arabic literary heritage. Her knowledge of the Arabic literary tradition in particular and classical culture in general serve as an inspiration. I have also benefited from conversations and comments from Jaroslav Stetkevych, who served as discussant on several conference panels, providing compelling suggestions and insights. It has been my good fortune to witness his avuncular wisdom and breadth of knowledge in Arabic and comparative literatures.

Research for this book was originally funded by a Fulbright-Hays Training Grant, part of the Doctoral Dissertation Research Program . Likewise, many improvements were brought about in those articles because of the journals editors and reviewers. Sections of this paper were discussed at the Working Group on Modernity and Islam at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Berlin, 20002001, and I appreciate the productive exchanges I had with Angelika Neuwirth, Renate Jacobi, Hilary Kilpatrick, and Friederike Pannewick.

I owe my gratitude as well to my colleagues at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin, who welcomed me there in fall 2001 and provided encouragement with their example and wisdom: Moh Ghanoonparvar, Adam Newton, Esther Raizen, Abe Marcus, Kamran Aghaie, Faegheh Shirazi, Keith Walters, Peter Abboud, Mohammad Mohammad, Mahmoud Al-Batal, and Kristen Brustad. I want to thank successive chairs in particular for funding support and research leave: Harold Liebowitz, Abe Marcus, Ian Manners, and Esther Raizen. All have served with such fairness and effectiveness as to create a hospitable and invigorating environment crucial for scholarship and communication. At a critical point in the writing of this book, I had the privilege of teaching an undergraduate seminar titled Loyalty and Rebellion in Arabic Literature, where we focused on the issues of patronage and literary performance in medieval Arabic and Icelandic societies. Those seventeen students discussed, wrote, and thought along with me during fall 2005, thus enriching the book. With the support of the department and the dean of the College of Liberal Arts, I was given a research leave in 20045 to accept the Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Grant. This grant, as well as that of 199899, not only offered the opportunity to write in peace, but to examine manuscripts at world archives. Without that funding, it would not have been feasible for a private individual to finance trips to Spain for the Real Biblioteca del Monasterio, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid; to Germany to visit the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, and Universittsbibliothek Leipzig, Bibliothek der Deutschen Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft; to Egypt for the Manuscript Institute of the Arab League and the Egyptian National Archive in Cairo; and to Morocco to use the Madrasat Ben Yusif Library (Marrakesh), Bibliothque Hasaniya (Rabat), and Bibliothque Gnrale (Rabat). I mention this funding in name to indicate the critical role of public funds in supporting research and cultural understanding.

I am grateful as well to family and friends who have voluntarily made sacrifices for this book, and I appreciate their constant inspiration and affection. My mother and father have bestowed many advantages on their children despite never having had those advantages in their own childhoods. I gladly recognize their greatness and the example they have set for generations. May your years be filled with love and warm memories. I want to thank as well beloved Zainab, Ehab, Jackie, Camila, and Ade, whose love and support sustain me. A circle of friends in Chicago and Austin aided me with drinks along the course of the marathon. Thanks to Jihad and Sofia Shoshara, Nejd and Fauzia Alsikafi, Hans Boas, Claire Colton, Carolyn Eastman, and Sharmila Rudrappa.

Judging by the number of American universities that have added faculty and courses in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies to their curricula since September 11, 2001, many educators have come to the realization that Middle Eastern cultures and Islamic societies ought to be part of a liberal arts education. In addition, the most foresighted among policy makers have long held the view that the United States cannot wait for disaster to demonstrate that an understanding of foreign languages and cultures is vital.1 Fear of the foreign, the new, and the unfamiliar can itself be an alluring disaster. As the ancient Sumerian proverb describes and warns: What I know makes everything else seem strange. The challenge to educators is this: How do we cultivate the cognitive capacity to assimilate the foreign? In particular, how do we alleviate the cultural anxieties that might hinder this process?

Edgar Allan Poe, the nineteenth centurys master of anxiety, illustrated the value of these questions in his horrific rewrite of the ending of the Thousand and One Nights. Whereas in the original Arabic tale the heroines verbal prowess as a raconteur triumphs over the kings brutal mania, in Poes version, The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade, Shahrazads plan to save herself and her society goes tragically awry. This one extra night of narrative becomes too much for the impetuous, dimwitted king. He is unable to apprehend or assimilate the wonders Shahrazad tells, real as they may be. At first, he fails to understand the wonders of Arabic language and culture. This presentation of the king as a xenophobe renders himaccording to Poes wry humoranalogous to nineteenth-century critics who were unable to comprehend, let alone appreciate, Poes or Arabo-Islamic cultures achievements because of fear of the unfamiliar.