A Summary of the Subjects of al-Baytī's Epic Poetical Works, with an Introduction to one of them, as an Example
In our consideration of the definition of malhama (epic), we have seen that the Arabic poetry of pre-and post-Islamic times did include some attempts in the epic genre. Furthermore, it is apparent that the Medinan poets of the twelfth/eighteenth century sought to revive this species of literature during a period of literary decline, The genre itself was associated with the name of the famous poet of the early Mamlūk period Ibn Dāniyāl (1) in one of al-Sayyid al-Baytī's epic poems (2), a fact which could be taken as evidence of th Medinan poets' knowledge of their predecessors and literary pioneers. Since al-Baytī used the term malhama, he no doubt felt that he was descibing epic events, but we have to remember that his poetical experience was a response to the circumstances of Medinan society in the twelfth/eighteenth century, as we have noted in the first and second chapters of this study. In other words, his natural feeling of patriotism toward medina was the underlying motive of his three epic poems which furnish an omportant part of the manuscript (3) edited as part of this research. These poems were composed on different occasions and it is important to note the dates and the occasions of their composition as they are recorded in al-Akhbār and the Dīwān of al-Baytī himself.
The first malhama was composed in 1134/1721-2 (4) and its motivation was the civil strife of al-CAhd (the pledge) (5). It consists of ninety-four lines in al-kāmil metre and its rhyme is in lām with kasra. The second malhama was composed in 1148/1735-6 (6) and its motivation was the civil strife of Bashīr Āghā(7). It consists of sixty-four lines in al-tawīl metre and its rhyme is in mīm with damma. The third malhma was composed in 1155/174 2-3 (8) on the covil strife of CAbd al-Rahmān Āghā al-Kabīr (9) and consists of one-hundred and sixty-three lines in al-basīt metre with rhyme in hā' with fatha.
We will look at the third malhama as an example of al-Baytī's poetical ability in this field. Our analysis will attempt to estimate how well the poet was able to reduce one of the events of his time into poetical expression. We shall consider what sort of artificial devices he implemented in his poem and whether these devices achieved the purpose which the poet intended for them.
Before proceeding with this analysis, however, it will be useful to refer very briefly to the froups of people who were invollved in the event which forms the theme of al-Baytī's epic poem. It appears from the introduction to the poem that there were two authorities managing the affairs of the city. One the one hand, there was the military authority headed by the Āghā, who was a military commander with a garrison of Turkish soldiers who were stationed at al-QalCa (the castle) (10) of the city. On the other hand, there was the civil authority headed by the Shaykh al-Haram (the chief of the mosque), who was a eunuch āghā (11).
The introduction and the contents of the poem reveal that there was suspicion of corrupt dealing concerning the financing of the city's affairs and the person responsible for this was apparently a member of the two military, a matter which provoked a conflict between the two authorities. When a demand arose to expel some people from the city, the conflict boiled over into bloodshed involving innocent inhabitants of the city. Outside elements, like the Harb tribe, fled into the city and, at the request of the civil authority, their men took side in the conflict.
As already noted in our summary of al-Baytī's malāhīm, it was the love of the poet for his city which was the important factor motivating his production in this field. So when the poet commenced his poem, he opened with twenty-three lines of elegy lamenting over the unfortunate state of the city, which had resulted in the conflict causing devastation to the city. But why, we may ask, did the poet incorporate such an elegiac opening passage into his poem? Was it because he wanted to attract the attention of the Ottoman authority to what was going on in the city? But since the governing authority seems to have had no sympathy towards the sufferings of the inhabitants of Medina, did the poet seek to obtain a favourable audience from his readers or listeners and so avoided presenting right at the outset with a plain and detailed statement of the actual events?
Whatever the poet's intention was, he undoubtedly manages to steal his listeners' ears with the following fine elegiac passage on the city's woes:
("He wept for the home when its guardian was absent and its enemies were introduced by its governor. He wept for Tayba [Medina] as its citizens were lost and its patron took fright at the dogs of the desert. He wept for those who emigrated and were compelled to leave the city by force, those who long before had settled down in it. Oh woe, for its [the city's] pain! Oh woe, for its separation! Oh woe, for its hungry citizens! Oh woe, for its naked citizens! I stood to recite to her - the home was full of silence, like the mouth of a man afflicted with dumbness. Oh, remnants of a dwelling - its happy prospect was looted and was covered by the rags of a filthy dress. I stood in its land to offer my condolences at its agony. How astonishing is my patience which enables me to condole with her! Who will help me to express my sadness? Who will be a help for my eyes? Who offers them a consolation? Oh, awake! Call for the mourners and cry yourself with me. Do not encourage me to be enduring. Do not comfort me. No place could be compared to Tayba [Medina] in its suffering under sorrow, whoever may offer her the expected comfort. Far be it from the place regularly attended by the angels - the effect of the vicissitudes of life and what is inflicted upon her by the events of its [life's] dark nights").
After this emotional overture to the poem, part of which is cited above, the poet proceeds to give the date of the event he is describing and to explain the causes leading to these sad affairs. It concerned the attitude of the Āghā, i.e. the military commander, towards the money which he had to spend on the city and its citizens. The poet even provides his listeners with the source of the money concerned; it was the income yielded by taxable land (13), which had been brought in by a person called CUthmān Beg (14). He had possibly come as an envoy of the Ottoman government to the governor of the city in order to deliver the money to him, but when the Āghā denied the citizens their rights over this money, his attitude induced the other authority (i.e. probably the authority of the Shaykh al-Haram and his supporters in Medina) to oppose the Āghā by force and to ask for the expulsion of certain people from the military base of the city in al-QalCa. With this demand from the Shaykh al-Haram, the opposing military Āghā was forced to accept a truce which was signed between the two parties. The authority in Istanbul was informed of these moves and the response was a firmān, strengthening the position of the Shaykh al-Haram, possibly because of his religious influence. The latter now went seeking help from an outside power in order to further the dispute with his rival authority, a step which resulted in a new round of killings on both sides. At this stage the poem proceeds to show how the control over the city's affairs was lost when the Shaykh al-Haram again informed three authorities of the development of the events. These authorities were the Ottoman government, the Wālī (governor) of Juddah, and the Sharīf of Mecca. The latter, who was secretly on the side of al-QalCa group, responded by dispatching a military expedition to the city. When the news reached the Shaykh al-Haram, he quickly responded by asking help from the leaders of the Harb tribe (15), the old hated enemies of the city and its citizens. The leaders of this tribe spared no time in bringing a huge number of fighters, who turned the mosque of the Prophet into a military base from which to overcome the rivals of the Shaykh al-Haram. This fluctuation in the balance of power had the effect of encouraging the dispute to deepen and the period of unrest to be protracted, as the poet further enlarged:
وتَرَّسُوا مسجد الهادِي، وثَارَ به
بين الفريقين حَرْبٌ لست أحكيها
فيا لها زَلَّةً منهم وفاقرةً
جاءت على رغم مُفْتِيها وَقَاضِيها
وقامت الحرب فيهم تَرْتمي شرراً
ستين أُخْرى، يد الأعراب تذكيها
وصاحب القبر محزون بما صنعوا
غيظاً لأمته ممن يعاديها
وامتدت الحال بالبلوى إلى رجبٍ
ومنتهى صفر قد كان بَادِيها
("They furnished the Mosque of the guide with weapons and in it a warfare broke out between the two sides, which I cannot describe. Oh, what a mistake and a disaster has befallen against the will of its Muftī and its Qādī. By the power of the ACrāb (16), a warfare has been kindled into flames which cast their sparks over their forces sixty days. The master of the tomb [the Prophet] has been grived by the behaviour of the enemy of his people. The state of calamity, which started by the end of the month of Safar, has been extended into the month of Rajab").
From here the poem continues to inform us that the only intervention made by the Sharīf of Mecca (as an official authority over the Hejaz province) in this dramatic atmosphere was his sending powerless troops, who were repulsed by the fighters of the Harb tribe. The Harb took an aggressive action against the civilians of the city, who abandoned their houses, especially those around the Prophet's Mosque, and moved to the safer site of al-Manākha (17). These innocent people had to suffer through another truce which was agreed between the two opposing authorities over the affairs of the city and had to wait for another six months for the Amīr al-Hajj al-Shāmī (18) who was to bring the firmān of the Sultān of Istanbul. When he arrived with this long-awaited document, the Shaykh al-Haram during this period of unrest was fired and replaced by another, whose appointment was to issue in another period of sadness and suffering for the city of Medina's inhabitants during the twelfth/eighteenth century.
In line 120 of his poem concerning the civil strife in Medina in 1155/1742-3, al-Baytī employed the term malhama in conjunction with the name of Ibn Dāniyāl when he said,
حوادث ما رآها دانيالُ ولا
قصّت مَلاحِمُهُ شيئاً يساويها
("Events which Ibn Dāniyāl neither observed, nor in his epics [malāhīm] ever narrated anything comparable to"). (Al-Akhbar, p. 36).
For his biography, see p. 25, 1.2. The civil strife carries his name because of his involvement in it, but it is also known as Fitna Kābūs. See p. 25, 1.5.
Details relating to the authorities who shared the responsibilities for the affairs of Medina and its society have been discussed in the fist chapter of this study, dealing with the word āghā and its development. See p. 29, 1.26.
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