Arabic Literary Salons in the Islamic Middle Ages

Samer M. Ali

Description

Arabic literary salons emerged in ninth-century Iraq and, by the tenth, were flourishing in Baghdad and other urban centers. In an age before broadcast media and classroom education, salons were the primary source of entertainment and escape for middle- and upper-rank members of society, serving also as a space and means for educating the young. Although salons relied on a culture of oral performance from memory, scholars of Arabic literature have focused almost exclusively on the written dimensions of the tradition.

That emphasis, argues Samer Ali, has neglected the interplay of oral and written, as well as of religious and secular knowledge in salon society, and the surprising ways in which these seemingly discrete categories blurred in the lived experience of participants. Looking at the period from 500 to 1250, and using methods from European medieval studies, folklore, and cultural anthropology, Ali interprets Arabic manuscripts in order to answer fundamental questions about literary salons as a social institution. He identifies salons not only as sites for socializing and educating, but as loci for performing literature and oral history; for creating and transmitting cultural identity; and for continually reinterpreting the past.

A fascinating recovery of a key element of humanistic culture, Ali’s work will encourage a recasting of our understanding of verbal art, cultural memory, and daily life in medieval Arab culture.

Sujets

• Medieval
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Edad Media
• Literature
• General officer
• Abbasid Caliphate
• Middle East
• Middle Ages
• General
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268074975
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A ra BIC LIT erar Y S a LO n S
in the
ISL am IC MIDDL e AG e S
P OETICS OF O RALITY AND L ITERACY
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 author s 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 poetry-750-1258-History and criticism. 2. Salons-Islamic Empire. 3. Oral tradition-Islamic Empire. 4. Islamic Empire-Intellectual life. I. Title.
PJ7553.A55 2010
892.7 13409-dc22
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 [e-mail] .
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 (1503-42),
The Lover Complaineth the Unkindness of His Love
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
P ar T I Literary Salons: Outlines of a Topic
one Literary Salons: From Ancient Symposion to Arabic Muj las t
TWO Adab Principles for Artistic Speech in Assembly
TH ree Poetry Performance and the Reinterpreting of Tradition
P ar T II The Muj las t as Forum for Literary Reception
FO ur The Poetics of Sin and Redemption: Performing Value and Canonicity
FIV e Al-Bu tur s w n Kisr Ode: Canonic Value and Folk Literacy in the Muj las t
SIX Singing Samarra (861-956): Poetry, Reception, and the Reproduction of Literary Value in Historical Narrative
Conclusion
Appendix of Arabic Poetry
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
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 ( qa da ) 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 of the U.S. Department of Education. I am indebted to the Fulbright commissions of Egypt, Germany, and Spain for their assistance during 1998-99. An early version of chapter 4 was delivered to the Departamento de Estudios rabes (Instituto de Filolog a) at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient ficas, Madrid, Spain, where I benefited from the comments of Heather Ecker, Howard Miller, and Manuela Mar n. Later, chapter 4 was published in Writers and Rulers , edited by Beatrice Gruendler and Louise Marlow. I appreciate the care and acumen of the two editors and the permission of the publisher to incorporate that chapter in this book. Similarly, I thank the Journal of Arabic Literature for permission to republish chapter 5 and the Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies for permission to use chapter 6 . 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, 2000-2001, 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 2004-5 to accept the Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Grant. This grant, as well as that of 1998-99, 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 Universit tsbibliothek Leipzig, Bibliothek der Deutschen Morgenl ndischen 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), Biblioth que Hasaniya (Rabat), and Biblioth que G n rale (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.
Introduction
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 century s 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 heroine s verbal prowess as a raconteur triumphs over the king s brutal mania, in Poe s version, The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade, Shahrazad s 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 him-according to Poe s wry humor-analogous to nineteenth-century critics who were unable to comprehend, let alone appreciate, Poe s or Arabo-Islamic culture s achievements because of f