The Epic Poetry of medina in the Twelfth/Eighteenth Century
Among the unpublished works of eighteenth-century medinan poets, we find a number of long poems which preserve for us records of the great events occurring in Medinan society at that time. Each poem is written in one metre and one rhyme and the content of every poem is clear and specific. In some cases more than one poet was motivated to take part in recording public affairs, commencing with the cause of the event, its date (with the specific day and month), and continuing to describe the people who involved in it, their behaviour and manners, the development of the event, how long it lasted, and its consequences for the place and its consequences for the place and the people. These recurring features in these poems moved the late critic CUbayd al-Madanī (1) to refer to this genre of verse as malāhīm (epics).
It is essential that we consider the correct definition of the malham (epic) and its early history in Arabic literature, as well as its relation to the other epic poetry found in different nations' cultures. D.B. Macdonald commented on the root of the word malhama and the development of its meaning as follows: "The derivation of malhama and the development of its meanings are very obscure. The word does not occur in the Kur'ān which has the root only in lahm and luhūm with the concerete meaning 'flesh'. Yet the root l-h-m, like the cognate Hebrew root, had apparently two very separate but old meanings, 'food' and 'fighting'. Further, the fact that the Hebrew food-word, lehem, means 'bread', while its exact equivalent in Arabic means 'flesh' would suggest a separation very far back rather than a borrowing.. In old Arabic the meaning of decisive fighting, leading to defeat, pursuit and slaughter, seems to be certain". Macdonald also noted Ibn Khaldūn's definition of al-malāhīm as "numerous books of dynastic changes and events… writtien in verse and prose and radjaz" (2).
But can we indeed compare the famous pre-Islamic poems known as the MuCallaqāt ("hanging odes"), some of them dealing with historical events, with the famous early Greek epics (3), the Iliad (4) and the Odyssey (5) of Homer (6), or the famous historical epic of Persia, the Shāhnāma (7) of Firdawsī (8)? Mārūn CAbbūd has suggested that there is a great deal of similarity between CAntara's MuCallaqa an dthe Iliad of Homer (9), while D.S. Margolliouth observed that is not a lot of history in the MuCallaqāt (10). George Gharīb, however, considered that in the MuCallaqāt of CAmr ibn Kulthūm (11), CAntara (12), and al-Hārith ibn Hilliza (13) we find true examples of epic verse; he commonted that it would be fair to classify these long Arabic poems as a zealous and glorious poetical genre (14). Sulaymān al-Bustānī, in his introduction to the Arabic translation of the Iliad, discussed the causes of what he saw as the lack of similarity of the pre-Islamic Arabic poetry to the epic poetry found in ancient Greece. He attributed this dissimilarity to many factors. He suggested that the Jāhiliyya (pre-Islamic) Arabs did not develop their talents into the field of metaphysical throught. Neither did they settle down and build a civilization like that of Greece, so that we find in Arabic poetry only short epics, in which the composers sought to record only specific events (15).
Nevertheless, in his lecture entitled "Poetry as a Vehicle of History", D.S. Margoliouth has clearly demonstrated that Arabic poetry of the post-Islamic period does indeed show some similarities to epics such as Tasso's (16) chief work, Jerusalem Delivered (17). Considering the apparent fact that Arabic productions were not, however, much more than a summary of events, without any development of an intricate plot, Margoliouth observed that this arose from the nature of the construction of Arabic verse itself which, in his view, was not suitable to the expression of such poetical experiences. He explained the situation as follows: "We have thus answered a question which is some-times asked and answered negatively:- is there anything corresponding to the Epic in Arabic verse? If by the Epic is understood the historical poem, of which Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, or the great Indian Epics may be taken as examples, we have seen that the language shows certain efforts in this direction: and the rejez metre, as the style suitable for didactic poetry, was naturally chosen by the authors. Whereas Ibn al-MuCtazz designed a work of art, Ibn CAbd Rabbihi scarcely contemplated more than a memoria technica or summary of events, easier to remember than a prose narrative. That the language produced nothing more considerable in this line than the odes which have been analysed is due in the first place to the circumstance that the qasīdah with its bold leaping from subject to subject was ill-adapted to a poem with a plot: in the second place to the fact that only the rejez metre was suited to such a composition, and only in the form in which the rhyme is confined to a single couplet. The older form wherein the same rhyme pervades the odes, and the other metres, were far too difficult to permit of lengthy narratives being committed to them. Hence such attmepts as we have considered remain exceptional though rough encomists and satirists naturally continued to allude to important events wherein their subjects has some share: and to these allusions the historians frequently refer less for confirmation of their narratives than owing to the felicity of the versification" (18).
Sainte-Beuve, in his essay entitled "Virgil and the Epic", distinguished between two types of epic in the history for ancient epic poetry, viz.: "There was the primitive epic tale, the Homeric rhapsody, what in the Middle Ages was called the chanson de geste, a type of story recited publicly, often accompanied by music (of a very somber strain), in what amounted to a kind of clearly articulated and accented recitative. And then there was and still is the epic poem properly so called, a work of deep private meditation, the noblest of poetic creations, produced in eras of culture and refined taste". (Literary Criticism of Sainte-Beuve, tr. & ed. E.R. Marks [Linclon, Neb., 1971] p. 133).
The Iliad: "a Greek epic poem attributed to Homer, describing the war waged by Achaean princes against Troy for the purpose of recovering Helen, wife of Menelaus, whom Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, had carried off". (M. Drabble, The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 5th ed. [Oxford, 1985] p. 492).
The Odyssey: "a Greek epic poem attributed to Homer describing the adventures of Odysseus in the course of his return from the Trojan War to his kingdom of Ithaca". (Ibid., p. 711).
"Nothing is known about him [Homer] for certain, not his birthplace, nor his date. It is now considered unlikely that the sams man wrote both epics, or indeed that either, as now known, is the work of a single poet". (Ibid., p. 471).
'The Sháhnáma, or 'Book of Kings', an immense poem, generally computed at about 60,000 couplets, composed by Firdawsi, for Sultán Mahmúd of Ghazna, and completed, after some forty years of labour, in the year A.D.1010… The Sháhnáma recognises four dynasties of pre-Muhammadan Persian kings - the Píshdádí, the Kayání, the Ashkání (or Parthian…), and the Sásání". (E.G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia, vol. I [London, 1902] p. 111).
"Firdawsī (Ferdosī), Persian poet, one of the greatest writers of epic, author of the Shahnāma (Shāhnamè, the Book of Kings). His personal name and that of his father are variously reported (Mansūr b. Hasan, according to al-Bundārī)… it is agreed that his kunya… and his pen name were Abu' l-Kāsim Firdawsī… he was born at Bāzh, a village in the Tabaran quarter of Tūs… The date of his birth [is] ca. 329-30/940-1… He died in 411/1020". (V.L, Ménage, art. "Firdawsī", EI2, vol. II, p. 918f).
"CAmr b. Kulthum, pre-Islamic sayyid and poet; through his mother he was the grandson of the sayyid and poet al-Muhalhil… Above all, they [his Taghlibite fellow-tribesmen] proudly attributed to him a poem celebrating their deeds in their conflict with the Bakr". (R. Blachère, art. "CAmr b. Kulthūm", EI2, vol. I, p. 452.
"CAntara b. Shaddād, warrior-poet of the 6th century A.D., belonged to the CAbs tribe of central Arabia… there are 27 poems and fragments: one of these, the Kasīda in mīm also appears in he MuCallakāt anthology; numerous fragments, of considerable length, [are] attributed to CAntara". (R. Blachère, art. "CAntara", EI2, vol. I, p. 521).
"Al-Hārith b. Hilliza al-Yashkurī, a pre-Islamic Arab poet to whom is atributed principally a kasīda which mediaeval critics regarded as the seventh of the MuCallakāt", (C. Pellat, art. "al-Hārith b. Hilliza", EI, vol. III, P. 222f).
"Tasso, Torquato (1154-95), son of Bernardo Tasso (author of an epic on Amadis of Gaul), was born at Sorrento and spent many years at the court of ferrara… He died in Rome… Tasso's epics and his critical works… had a great influence on English literature, displayed in the works of Daniel, Milton, Giles and Phineas Fletcher, Cowley, Dryden, and others". (M. Drabble, op.cit., p. 964f).
"Jerusalem Delivered (Gerusalemme Liberata), a poem by Tasso… the poem is an epic of the First Crusade, with the addition of romantic and fabulous elements". Ibid., p. 508f).
شارع عبد المقصود خوجة
00966-12-6982222 - تحويلة 250
