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| Analysis of al-Baytī's descriptive poem |
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| We have already observed in general that al-Baytī tried to imitate Ibn al-Nahhās' verse, but without referring to any particular poem. Now, however, we are able to refer specifically to the poem which al-Baytī probably took as his example in composing the descriptive poem which concerns us in this study. In contrast, Ibn al-Nahhās' poem may be classified as gnomic verse, as its opening stanza shows: |
| طمِّنْ فؤادَك أيُّ حُرٍّ |
| لمن يُرَع بالخَطْبَ قَلْبُهْ
(1)
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| ("Calm your heart. Is there any genuine person whose heart is not startled by the deeds of misadventure?"). |
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| Throughout the available extracts of the poem, only once does the poet mention a certain kind of insect, referred to under the general term al-dhubāb ("flies"). It is introduced as an example of how small creatures in this universe are able to inflict damage upon the more powerul, viz: |
| والعين يدميها الذُّبابُ |
| ويُعْجِزُ الآسَادَ ذَبُّه
(2)
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| ("Flies cause bleeding to the eye and lions are incapable of chasing them away"). |
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| It has been observed previously at the beginning of our critical study of poetry in Medina of the twelfth/eighteenth century that the poet al-Baytī sought to imitate some of the famous Arabic poets who lived before him
(3)
. This was evidence of the wide interest of the later poet in perpetuating some traditions and in tackling subjects which were treated befor, but in a more lengthy manner, motivated by individual experience, while at the same time allowing the previous poets the credit for paving the way for those who came after in developing both meaning and form. Thus it would be worthwhile to examine how these earlier poets dealt with the description of insects, as in the line by the pre-Islamic poet al-Mutalammis al-DubaCī
(4)
, where we find a comparison made between the sound of flies and the cooing of pigeons. We read: |
| وتسْمعُ للذُّبَاب إذا تَغَنَّى |
| كَتَغْرِيدِ الحَمَامِ على الغُصُونِ
(5)
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| ("When the flies sing, you hear the twittering of the pigeon on the boughs"). |
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| Later, the CAbbāsid poet Ibn al-MuCtazz
(6)
painted a picture of himself struggling with this small insect, when the only weapon available to him in the battle to chase them away was his own hand with which he hit himself frequently, so that his skin became beaten on account of the tiny bedbugs: |
| بتُّ بجهد لا أذوق الغمضا |
| مسهداً يضرب بعضي بعضا |
| قد قطع القرقس جلدي عضاً |
| منتهشاً بقرسه منقضا
(7)
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| ("I made every effort to get some sleep, but while I was awake part of my body hit the other part of it. The bedbug nibbled my skin with his bite, while the tiny ones grabbed and pounced"). |
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| When we turn to the particular poem of al-Baytī, the immediate question will be asked, was the poet talking about a real experience of his own, or was it just an imaginative flight of poetic fancy? To assess the possibilities, we consulted a historical account of the city itself, written by the modern author Hamad al-Jāsir, who tells us that the city of YanbyC was known in the eighteenth century for its infestation with insects due to the function of the city as a port which received the grain from Egypt to be sent later to Medina in order to be distributed to the population of that city, who depended heavily on such help for the maintenance of their economic life. While the grain was stored in YanbuC, before it was sent to Medina, the himudity of the climate encouraged these insects to multiply and spread abroad. In addition to all this, the condition of such places was notoriously dirty
(8)
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| In our assessment of the descriptive power of the poet, we are impressed with the way in which al-Baytī has dealt with the strange activities of the insects in the first line of his poem
(9)
. He has tried to make his reader envisage a huge troop of bedbugs invading his lodging without any warning. The first hemistich contains the verb ra'ā ("to see") and this is followed by the weird scene of the bedbugs that struck his sight. So, very quickly, he opened his eyes to view the empty room filled by these insects. His astonishment grew as he tried to paint the picture of the place invaded by the strange visiting insects seen in every direction. His glancing around is an action precisely described by the phrase min kull al-jihāt ("in every direction") and the only response of the poet to this attack launched against him by the bugs was one of anger expressed in the words of the second hemistich: falā tunkirū iCrādah wa-imtināCah ("so do not deny his evasive action and resistance"). Thus he wished to convince his reader that he did not surrender in this battle against his enemies from the insect world. |
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| In order to create a lively and moving picture, al-Baytī made use in his verses of suitable diction with overtones of battle fought between himself and his disturbing enemies, the bedbugs. The words qaraCa ("strike"), katā'ib ("regiments'), fursān ("cavaliers"), and jund ("troop")
(10)
present the image of a vigorous and well-organized onslaught by a military force. Furthermore, the poet's talent appears in his representing the extensive power and formidable skill of his enemies, making this tiny part of creation appear to the observer as a huge and important force. He managed to give a true picture of his own wounded state as a result of the battle he experienced. So, he showed how by the bedbugs' sucking his blood, he was compelled to turn physically against himself, to boat and scratch (hakk) his skin (jild) with the result that such rough treatment produced a sort of disturbing sickness called jarab ("scabbiness"). Consequently al-Baytī expressed in the second hemistich of the same line his fear at this sickness, using the word inqishāC
(11)
("breaking up") to show how this scabbiness caused by the activities of the bugs led the poet to feel that his skin would be finally taken away. |
| The poet also demonstrated in this descriptive passage the influence of early Arabic poetry, and since earlier Arabic literary critics considered allusions and echoes of ancient works to be evidence of the ability of the literary man and his grasp of the artistic skill, it is noteworhy in this place. The author's skill in literary allusions included his discrimination in making suitable choice and subsequently his ability in producing the sentence or expression in the appropriate place without any self-contradiction or artificiality
(12)
. Thus we find in the nineteenth and last line of al-Baytī's poem an allusion to CAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr's
(13)
verse
(14)
referring to his fight with Mālik ibn al-Hārith
(15)
during the battle of the Camel
(16)
. Thereby, al-Baytī reinforces the image of a real battle (this time with bedbugs) which he describes through his passage and concludes with this allusion to a historical battle between two equal rivals
(17)
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| We should add one final note of criticism. In the sixteenth line
(18)
of his poem, al-Baytī used the world ibtidāC ("innovation") as a rhyme with the same word in the fourteenth stanza of the same passage. This, however, is considered a defect, called ibtā'
(19)
, because it is only allowed to repeat a word with the same letters and meaning for the sake of rhyme if there are seven lines dividing the two occurrences of the word. For the sake of not disfiguring his verse, it is preferable that a poet should avoid sush a necessity, the occurrence of which is here due to the attempt to make an adjustment between the poetical metre and the linguistic structure
(20)
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