| The Poet Ahmad al-Jāmī and his Contribution to Medinan Verse in the twelfth/Eighteenth Century |
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| Ahmad al-Jāmī was a poet who contributed verse of various kinds to the literary production of Medina, but his compositions in the genre of what we may call "the poetry of zeal" were particularly distinguished and we will here direct our attention to one example of it. |
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| As already noticed in connection with our studies of al-Sayyid al-Baytī's malāhim verse, the events which stirred the social fabric of Medina gave inspiration to most of the productions of Medinan poets in the twelfth/eighteenth century. Al-jāmī was no exception to this characteristic and he would express his sorrow and vent his anger at the continuation of Medina's unrest. So, when the fighting broke out between opposing factions in 1189/1775
(1)
, the poet reflected on this event with some emotion and addressed himself to the Prophet Muhammad in verse: |
| الامَ رسول اللَّه يَشْتَدُّ ذَا الخَطْبُ |
| وحتَّامَ هذا الحَالُ والطَّعْنُ والضَّرْبُ |
| وَكَمْ هَتَكُوا رَبْعَ الأَمَانِ بطَيْبَةٍ |
| يُهَدِّدُ فيها مَنْ لا يُهدِّدُهُ الرُّعْبُ |
| وكيف بمرأىً مِنْكَ يَا سَيَّدَ الوَرَى |
| ومُسْتََمَعٍ في مَسْجدٍ يُشْهَرُ العَضْبُ |
| ويصدر فيها ما يُمَجُّ سَمَاعُهُ |
| ولا يَرْتَضِي ذِكْرَاهُ شَهْمٌ ولا نَدْبُ |
| فما لأُنَاس مُسْلمين تجبَّرُوا |
| على اللَّهَ في ناديك واسْتُسْهِلَ الصَّعْبُ |
| فأين حَيَاهُمُ منك، أين احتشَامُهُم |
| لِذَاتٍ سَمَتْ، أين التَّخَضُّعُ والحُبُّ |
| وأين احترامُ السِّر، أين افتخارُهم |
| بنسبته، أين المَهَابَةُ والقُرْبُ |
| وكيف لهم وجْهٌ مع اللَّه في غَدٍ |
| إذا كُنْتَ أنتَ الخَصْمُ، والحَكَمُ الرَّبْ
(2)
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| ("O Messenger of Allāh, how far will this situation escalate and how long will the attacks and blows endure? How many times they have plundered the domain of security in Tayba [Medina], where destruction has been brought by those who are not threatened by the fright. How before your eyes and ears and in the mosque the sharp sword has been unsheathed. and how in it [the mosque] comes forth what would be rejected by the ear and the mention of which would not be accepted by any decent or respectable person. Why have people who are Muslims lifted up their hands against Allāh in your [the Prophet's] house, and shameful deeds are done with ease? Where is their reverence for you [the Prophet] and their respect for an exalted personality? Where is humility and love? Where is their respect for mystery? Where their boast of their kinship to him [the Prophet]? Where the observance of honour when they approach so near? How will they face Allāh in the day of judgment, when you [the Prophet] are the adversary and the Master [God] will be the Judge"]. |
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| When we analyse these opening verses of the poem, we realise that religious zeal has coloured its tone and even its vocabulaty, so that we notice such words used currently in Sufi terminology as sirr ("mystery")
(3)
and qurb ("approach")
(4)
. It seems that by using such religious terms in the seventh line of the above extract, the poet intended to rebuke the hypocrisy of the ravaging party who made it their claim to be the defenders of the sacred things. Thus, this group showed no respect for the Prophet's Mosque, but pursued the fighting inside the mosque itself and all around it, while they themselves claimed kinship with the Prophet, so that what they were doing was obviously the contradiction of all their claims. |
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| Next al-Jāmī turned to describe the stats of the mosque, which had become transformed into an arsenal and he told how the fighting had brought about its temporary abandonment by the people who previously had frequented it in regular worship: |
| ومَسْجِدُه السَّامِي غَدَا جَبَّخَانَةً |
| وحِصْناً حَصِيناً عَافَهُ الغَرْضُ والنَّدْبُ |
| وليس له أضحى مَقَامٌ، وإنَّما |
| زمامُك فيه ليس تُرْعَى ولا القُرْبُ |
| وقد حُرِمَ الجِيَرانُ طيبَ مَنَامِهم |
| وحَرَّمَهُ الأَرْجَافُ والرُّعْبُ والرُّهْب
(5)
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| ("His [the Prophet's] exalted Mosque became a store for arms
(6)
and a barricaded fortress, loathsome to the sense of religious duty and supererogation. The mosque lost its dignity, neither was your power respected in it, nor the state of closeness. Those who lived nearby already were dented their sleep. They were denied it on account of false rumour, fright, and terror"). |
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| The diction of the poet in these three lines expresses well the sense of war and fighting which the poet personally experienced with the rest of the population. By the use of such disturbing words, unfitting to a sanctuary, as jabbakhāna ("arsenal"), hisn ("fortress"), hasīn ("barricaded"), ruCb ("fright"), and ruhb ("terror"), al-Jāmī has succeeded in making every element in the picture of what he was portraying to express the lamentable circumstances of the city. It should be noticed also in the second hemistich of the first of the three lines how the poet managed to show how worship itself, expressed in the two words "duty" and "supererogation", had rejected the scene, with no blame to the people themselves who had abandoned the mosque because of the atmosphere of disturbance and battle. |
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| Then the poet moved from the mosque to the city itself and in despairing mood he again began to address the Prophet about the city's plight: |
| أَلاَ يا رسولَ اللَّهِ غَارَةَ غِيرةٍ |
| يَذُوبُ لها الجلمودُ واليابِسُ الصَّلْبُ |
| فَبلدتُكَ الغَرَّاء زاهٍ خَرَابُها |
| وَقَامَتْ لِلَدْغِ النَّاس حَيَّاتُها الجُرْبُ |
| وقُطعَت الأَسبابُ فيها وعُطّلَتْ |
| وحُقَّ عليها الحُزْنُ والنَّوْحُ والنَّدْبُ |
| وصار يَحِلُّ الأمرُ خوفاً وحالُهَا |
| غَدَا حَالِكاً، والخلْقُ عَمَّهُمُ الكَرْبُ
(7)
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| ("O Messenger of Allāh, would that you should launch an attack for your self-respect, which should cause the rock and solid land to melt away, because of the ruin of your honourable, shining city where the scaly snakes begin to bite the people. Relationships in the city were suspended and broken off, so that it deserved to be grieved for, to be mourned over, and elegized. Fearful are the events that have taken place in the city. Gloomy is its state and sorrow has become the general necessity among the people"). |
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| As despair had grown in the poet's heart and mind, the only person to whom he was able to express his grief was the Prophet. This prophetic apostrophe may be seen as a sufi tradition and Arabic literature produced many well-known poets who addressed their complaints, as well as love, to the Prophet. Since al-Jāmī had been living in the holy city of Medina in a period when the schools of Sufism were very flourishing, he too joined these circles and embraced their traditions. So, the state of the city and the ignorance of the governing authority about the conditions became important motives inducing him to address the Prophet about his city which had been turned into a ruin, as the poet states in the first hemistich of the second line of the above extract. |
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| In order to deepen the unplesant picture of that ruin, he described the city’s former rightful state by the word Zāhī ("shining"). In choosing this word he wished to suggest that the destruction of the city had reached the point where it would of necessity have to be rebuilt in order to regain its erstwhile "shining" state. |
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| In the second hemistich of the same line, the poet turned from the ruined state of the city to notice its inhabitants who were being harmed by a certain group of people whom he did not name. These inimical persons he compared to the scaly snakes whose bite was exceedingly dangerous. This was to make his readers conscious of what harm this group had done against the innocent people of the city. In making this comparison, the poet no doubt had in mind the environment of his native city of Medina, the mountainous outskirts of which were known to be suitable habitat for snakes. |
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| This production of al-Jāmī may be considered to be remarkable in the period of the eighteenth century for its success in treating the themes which he sought to tackle in his poems, as he tried to comment on the social problems of his day by means of strong and classical words which shaped the main body of his poems. He was still attracted by traditional rhetorical devices, as we may see in the first hemistich of the fourth line above, where al-Jāmī tried imperfectly to make a pun (jinās)
(8)
between the verb yahillu ("have taken place") and the noun hāl ("state"). |
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| In the last part of his poem al-Jāmī noticed the connection between the state of the city of Medina and the state of Islamic observance, as if to imply that if such an important city in the Islamic world suffered such disorder, then the people could not be following the right path of the religion of Islam. Instead, it had become strange to them and they took the forgiveness of Allāh and his Prophet for granted, as the poet said: |
| فَلِمْ لا يعود الدِّينُ هَذَا كَمَا بَدَا |
| غريباً ومن يقبض عَلَيْهِ وينكَبُّ |
| كقابض جَمْرٍ في يديه كَمَا بهِ |
| لقد أخبَرَتْ عنه الرَّسائِلُ والكُتْبُ |
| وما غَرَّ أهْلَ البَغْي غَيْرُ مَقَالَةٍ |
| بأَنَّكَ بَحْرٌ لا يكدِّرُكَ الغَرْبُ
(9)
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| ("Why does religion not become as it began, marvellous with those who hold to and devote themselves to it, people who hold a live coal in their hands, as the messages and books relate. The people of oppression were misled by the saying that you are a vast sea that will not become turbid by the ebb"). |
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| The thoughts of this last extract are full of gloom. The poet feels deeply how society constantly undergoes many changes, which cannot come about in an easy and safe manner. The society of Medina was no exception in this matter, but because he belonged to the class of religious Culamā', he viewed things only from his own point of view. The second line reflects this religious education as he alluded to one of the Prophet's traditions
(10)
. Finally, the second hemistich of the third line demonstrates his poetic talent as he draws the simile between the Prophet's patience and forgiveness, and the width and lasting supply of the sea, a comparison which is both imaginative and impressive. |
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