The Poetry of Ibn Khafajah: A Literary Analysis 9004096604, 9789004096608

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THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJAH

STUDIES IN ARABIC LITERATURE SUPPLEMENTS TO THE JOURNAL OF ARABIC LITERATURE

EDITED BY

M.M. BADAWI andJ.N. MATTOCK VOLUME XVI

THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJAH A Literary AnalYsis

BY

MAGDA M. AL-NOWAIHI

EJ. BRILL LEIDEN • NEW YORK • KOLN 1993

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.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ai-Nowaihi, Magda M. The poetry of Ibn Khafajah: a literary analysis / by Magda M. AINowaihi. p. cm.-(Studies in Arabic literature, ISSN 0169-9903; v. 16) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 90040096604 (cloth) I. Ibn Khafajah, Ibrahim ibn Abi ai-Fat!)., 1058 or 9-1138 or 9Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series. PJ77 55.122Z54 1992 892'.7134-dc20

ISSN 0169-9903 ISBN 90 04 09660 4

© Copyright 1993 by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated in a'!Y form, by print, photoprint, micrqfilm, micrqfiche or any other means without written permission .from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by E.J. Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, 27 Congress Street, SALEM A1A 01970, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

92-21985 CIP

To the memory of my father

CONTENTS Acknowledgements .................................. Introduction I. Imagery ......................................... A. The Subject Matter of Imagery ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B. The Formulation of Imagery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. C. The Functions of Imagery ....................... D. Conclusion ....................................

IX

1 11 11 25 37 61

II. Rhetorical Devices ................................ 65 A. Background of Critical Approaches to Badie Poetry .. 65 B. Ibn Khaffijah's Early Imitative Period ............. 67 C. Characteristics of Ibn Khaffijah' s Rhetorical Style ... 71 i. Jiniis ...................................... 71 ii. Antithesis ................................. 96 iii. Other Rhetorical Devices .................... 115 iv. Tawriya ................................... 121 D. Conclusion .................................... 126 III. Syntax and Structural Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. A. Background of Critical Approaches to the Structure of Arabic Poetry .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. B. Syntax ........................................ C. Linear Development ............................ D. Non-linear Structural Devices ....................

127 127 132 142 151

Conclusion ......................................... 161 Bibliography ........................................ 171 Index .............................................. 175

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is a revised version of a doctoral dissertation, submitted to the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, in October 1987. I am deeply grateful to my advisor, Professor Wolfhart Heinrichs, for his unfailing help. His ideas and insights have greatly influenced the writing of this work. I am also very grateful to Professor Everett Rowson, at the University of Pennsylvania, formerly at Harvard University, for his many helpful suggestions and corrections, both in the early stages and during the final revision. In revising the work for publication, I benefited from the critical comments of Professor John Mattock, my editor at Brill, particularly regarding the English translations. Professors Andras Hamori, Princeton University, and Gregory Nagy, Harvard University, read the text, and provided much - appreciated support and encouragement. Revising the text would have been difficult without a research fellowship from the Annenberg Research Institute at Philadelphia. Etty Lassman, at the Institute, kindly helped with the editing and typing. I am grateful to the Near Eastern Studies Department, Princeton University, for a gerterous contribution towards the publication expenses. I am grateful to my late father for awakening my interest in poetry, to my family, for their support and encouragement, and to Professor Michael Beard, at the University of North Dakota, formerly at the American University in Cairo, for being the first teacher to make me aware of the possibilities of analyzing poetry. Finally, I am grateful to all the authors whose works are listed at the end of the book, and to others whom I have no doubt forgotten to mention. This is but a small addition to their contributions. If I got anything wrong, it is my fault entirely.

INTRODUCTION Ibn Khafajah was born in 1058 in Alcira in Andalus, and died there in 1138 or 39 over eighty years old. I He was independently wealthy, so that he did not need to use his poetry as a means of survival, and aside from a few trips, the longest of which appears to have been to North Africa, he led a relatively uneventful life. Many of the Andalusian poets who slightly preceded him or were his contemporaries were involved in the politics of the times. Ibn Zaidun, Ibn cAmmar, and Ibn cAbdun were all kiitibs for princes, involved in the various intrigues of government, while al-MuCtamid himself was a prince who died in exile in Aghmat. Ibn Khafajah, however, had little interest in politics, and led a sheltered, retired life. The extent of his involvement was to write a few poems of mad~ for the Muriibit prince Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, and one poem lamenting the fall of Valencia to EI C id. 2 Around the age of sixty-four, Ibn Khafajah decided to collect his poetry in a Dlwiirt to which he wrote an introduction, describing his evolving relationship with poetry, and expressing some of his critical views on the subject. From this introduction, we learn that his fascination with poetry started in his early youth, when he discovered, admired, and began imitating some of the eastern poets. He mentions al-Suri, who influenced him in the use of rhetorical devices, and aI-Sharif al-Rac;li, Mihyar al-Daylami, and al-Mutanabbi, who influenced his use of the "Arabian" or "bedouin" style, discussed below. Poetry became for him a source of pleasure and solace: "and it happened that I employed it in my affairs, and entrusted it in some places with my sorrows" (p. 6), and" [as if! had not] conversed with it at night as a companion, who talked to me in a friendly manner, and had not walked side by side with it as an intimate friend, who conversed sweetly with me in private" (p. 7). In middle age, he stopped writing poetry for a long period of time, and only returned to it in order to eulogize Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, after he entered 1 Abu Isl)aq Ibn Khafiijah, Dzwiin, ed. S. M. Ghazi (Alexandria: Manshi}at alMa(arif, 1960), p. 5. All subsequent references to the Dzwiin will be to this edition. 2 Il)san (Abbas, TiiTZkh al-Adab al-Andalusz: CAST al- TawiiJjj wa-I-MuTiibitzn (Beirut: Dar al-Thaqafa, 1962), p. 88.

2

INTRODUCTION

Andalus and defeated the Spaniards. He stresses, however, that in doing that he was not after financial gain: "doing good, not seeking benefit, and aiming for affection, not favours" (p. 8). As he was growing older, "and life approached its end", and his poetry "had almost become extinct", while desire for it amongst people was strong, he decided to collect it in a Diwiin (p. 8). At that stage his role was that of an editor, correcting, throwing out, and improving: "what I attempted required that I attend to it [the poetry] once more as an author, and review it again as a meditater and corrector, so I attended to some of it and tightened it, and some of it I considered and discarded, and some of it I examined and corrected, either for the benefit of the meaning, or for the sake of a construction that I thought well of' (p. 9). The introduction to the Diwiin also offers some ofIbn Khatajah's views regarding the nature of poetry. Poetry does not always come naturally or effortlessly to him. He admits that the composition of poetry is sometimes difficult, and requires hard work: And good poetry, even if it is cared for and worked on, is not free of worthless parts, and can be divided into two extremes and a middle [excellent, bad, and medium], for intellects in the end become tired, and material in terms of expressions and rhymes decreases. Also, everything that is formed of related parts, is composed of different things. Poetry is composed of meaning (maCnii) and expression (laf~) and meter and rhyme-letter, and in some places one of these parts or more may become difficult, so that the verse is sometimes composed as poetry and sometimes as prose, until it is rightly arranged as is desired, or is formed lacking in the luster of beauty and acceptance (p. 9).

Secondly, the introduction includes responses to some criticisms that had been levelled against Ibn Khatajah. Defending himself against what some perceived to be the immorality behind some of his poems, he explains that these poems were written in his youth, and, more importantly, that poetry is imaginary in nature, and untruths are acceptable within it. In modern terms, one could say that it is not the poet himself who is speaking, but a persona which he adopts: "annahu yustajazu fi ~inaCati sh-shicri, la fi ~inaCati n-nathri, an yaquI a l-qa)ilu fihi 'inni facaltu' wa 'inni ~anaCtu', min ghayri an yakuna wara)a dhalika I:.laqiqatun, fa-inna sh-shi'ra ma)khadhun wa-tariqatun, wa-idha kana l-qa~du fihi t-takhyila, falaysa l-qa~du fihi ~-~idqa, wa-Ia yuCabu fihi l-kadhibu, wa-li-kulli maqamin maqalu." "It is permissible in the art of poetry, but not

INTRODUCTION

3

in the art of prose, for the speaker to say 'I did' and 'I made', without there being any truth behind that, for poetry is a mode and a system, and since the intention in it is imagination, then the intention in it is not the truth, and lying is not reprehensible in it, and for every situation there is a sui table type of speech" (pp. 10-11).3 Finally, Ibn Khatajah responds to a critic who attacks certain styles used by the poet, by explaining that there are a variety of poetic styles, each of which has its own beauty, and is suitable for certain topics, so that what is acceptable in dealing with serious topics may not be suitable for lighter subjects. Consequently, he is influenced by a variety of poets, each of whom has a certain beauty to his style (pp. 11-14). There are four printed editions of the Diwiin, the earliest published in Cairo in 1869, and edited by Mu~tata al-NajjarI. The second appeared in Beirut in 1951 and was edited by Karam alBustanI. The third, which is being used in this book and which is far superior to the others, was edited by Mu~tata Ghazi and printed in Alexandria in 1961, and finally the Sadir edition, printed in Beirut in 1961, which uses the text of al- N ajjari. 4 Ghazi primarily used the Escurial manuscript, collating it to those of London and Paris, and supplementing it with the selections in the manuscript of al-Safina, collected by Ibn Mubarak Shah, those in al-Dhakhira ofIbn Bassam, and those in a variety of eastern and western anthologies. 5 The Diwiin, as edited by Ibn Khatajah, does not display any system of arrangement, alphabetical, thematic, historical, or otherwise. Ibn Khatajah discusses this arrangement in his introduction, and explains that he has presented it, as he composed it, without deleting the prose introductions or letters sent with the poems, in order to provide the reader with variety and to limit boredom. 6 He promises to rearrange the Diwiin in alphabetical order of rhyme, if God grants him the time (pp. 10-11). Although he lived almost

3 For a survey of the opinions of medieval Arab critics on the issue of truthfulness in poetry, see Mansour Ajami, The Alchemy of Glory: The Dialectic oj Truthfulness and Untruthfulness in Medieval Arabic Literary Criticism (Washington: Three Continents Press, 1988). 4 I;Iamdan I;Iajaji, /:layiit wa-Athiir al-Sha'ir al-Andalusi Ibn Khafojah, ( Algeria: alSharika al-Wataniyya, 1974), pp. 26-28. 5 Ghazi's Introduction to the Diwiin, pp. 21-26. 6 For a similar argument by al-Jal)i~, see G. J. H. Van Gelder, Beyond the Line (Leiden: Brill, 1982), pp. 38-41.

4

INTRODUCTION

eighteen years after this, he never rearranged the Dzwan. Ghazi believes that a possible reason was his great pride in his prose, and his desire to keep it intact with the poetry, which the rearrangement of the Dzwan in alphabetical order would have made impracticable. He therefore maintained the original organization of the Dzwan in his own edition. 7 A curious feature of the short prose introductions to the poems is that they are written in the third person. Ghazi, in a footnote, asserts that the introductions must have been written by the poet, since they are in his prose style, and contain personal facts which no one else could have known. Moreover, in these introductions there is often an abrupt switch from the third to the first person. Ghazi gives two possible reasons for the use of the third person: either Ibn Khatajah used it to lighten the heaviness resulting from speaking in the first person, or else the transmitters changed the first person to the third. 8 The number of poems in Ghazi's edition of the Dzwan and its supplement are three hundred and nine, twenty of which are mar!~, and four ritha,, 9 the rest being mainly ghazal and nature description, for which he is most famous. The subject matter of the poems is taken from two main contexts: Andalusian, and "Arabian" or "bedouin". The latter shows the influence of al-Mutanabbi, Daylami and al-RaQi, as Ibn Khatajah himself states in the introduction (pp. 14-18). This" Arabian" context includes descriptions of desert geography, animals, vegetation, and activities. It usually appears in the a(lal (crying over the ruins of a former abode) and riMa (trip) sections of mad~ or ghazal as well as in ritha' and poems lamenting lost youth. The a(lal section in particular often expresses yearning for lost love as well as lost youth and happiness, through evoking a general atmosphere, reminiscent of Arabia and based on a yearning for Arabian places and scenes. Ibn Khatajah was not unique in being influenced by the "Arabian" or bedouin style, which enjoyed a great deal of popularity in Andalus. This "Arabian" poetry was experienced by Andalusians through the medium of contemporary eastern poets who emulated and advocated the Bedouin style. AlMutanabbi and aI-Sharif al-RaQi's "I:Iijaziyat" were particularly 7 8

9

Ghazi, pp. 10, 26-27. Ibid., p. 3. I:Iajaji, pp. 125-26.

INTRODUCTION

5

popular. 10 Abmad Haykal calls this style "neoclassical", and sees it as a combination of bedouin subjects, language and spirit with the mu~dath (modern) rhetorical style, and the general inclination of the mu~dathun to search for new and innovative images and concepts. ll As for the" Andalusian" subject matter, it is most evident in the shorter poems, dealing primarily with the description of nature. Alcira, situated eighteen miles to the southwest of Valencia, contained many beautiful scenes, which Ibn Khaffijah spent a great part of his time enjoying. 12 Ibn Khallikan, in Wafayiit al-A'yiin, notes that Ibn Khaffijah was enamored with descriptions of rivers and flowers, and the people of Andalus called him "the gardener" (aljannan), while al-Shaqandi mentions how he excels in the descriptions of meadows and bodies of water. 13 Indeed, he was a genuine nature lover, and as he grew older the pleasure he derived from it made up for the other more physical pleasures which he gave up.14 Although these descriptions of nature differ from the previous category in that the scenes and objects described have been experienced or observed by the poet first-hand, they represent two varying levels of originality. The first level is that on which Ibn Khaffijah, if not exactly an imitator, is basically continuing a trend which was already current in Andalus, while the second is that on which he was truly original and innovative. Andalus was already famous for the quantity, if not necessarily the quality, of its nature poetry, so that I:Iabib al- I:Iimyari compiled an anthology of Andalusian nature poetry, al-Badicfi Waif al-Rabl c, to prove the superiority of his country in that sphere. The selections show that the description of nature did not start out as an independent genre in Andalus, but rather served as introduction to other themes or genres such as mad~ in place of the more traditional naslb. The descriptions were mainly pictures in words concentrating on the physical aspects of a scene or natural object, usually in a dry, static manner. Comparisons with materials and jewels were common and,

10

For examples of this "Arabian" trend in Andalusian poetry, see cAbbas,

Tiirikh al-Adab al-Andalusi, pp. 108-117, and Sacd Ismacn Shalabi, Dirasal Adabiyafi al-Shicr al-Andalusi (Cairo: Dar Nahc;lat Mi~r, 1973), pp. 25-26. 11 Al-Adab al-Andalusi (Cairo: Dar al-Macarif, 1970), pp. 217-232.

I;Iajaji, pp. 39-42. CAbd al-Ral;tman Jubayr, Ibn Khafojah al-Andalusi (Beirut: Dar al-Affiq alJadida, 1980), p. 31. 14 See below, pp. 46-47. 12 13

6

INTRODUCTION

with very few exceptions, there was little or no emotional interaction between man and nature. Ibn I:Iamdis became famous for poems in which nature is a background for drinking and festivity. He was also able to continue or maintain a series of related and progressive images over several lines, instead of jumping from one subject or scene to another in quick succession. Another trend, which reached its peak in a few ofIbn Zaidun's poems, was to combineghazalwith nature description, and to present nature as responding to and sharing in the emotions of the lovers.15 Ibn Khatajah, "the foremost poet of nature in Andalus and otherwise", intensified and concentrated all of the existing trends, for nature reaches a high degree of personalization in his poetry, and serves not only as a background for love, drinking, and festivities, but is related to almost all other subjects, so that it reflects and even participates in the entire range of human feelings. Even when only drawing a scene in pictures, Ibn Khatajah usually creates dynamic, vibrant images, imbued with a sensual feeling, and interconnected, to result in a cohesive, unified scene. He is truly original in poems where the physical description of nature is of minor or no importance, and nature, particularly mountains and the night, reflects and symbolizes universal yearning, sadness and alienation, and feelings of mortality and temporality. 16 One can also include poems of homesickness and yearning for the homeland, which is usually symbolized by a natural scene. This attitude to nature is responsible for some of Ibn Khatajah's most intense and successful poems. In spite of Ibn Khatajah's importance "in Andalus and otherwise", and the fact that' 'he left a deep influence on later poetry, and his style, known as "Khataji", continued to be imitated until the very last days of peninsular Islam, and was then kept alive in North Africa," 17 no full-scale study has been devoted entirely to analyzing his style and identifying its various components and specific

'Abbas, pp. 193-204. Ibid., pp. 204-215. 17 James T. Monroe, Hispano-Arabic Poetry: A Student Anthology. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), p. 38. For other opinions on Ibn Khaffijah's importance, see, for example, J. C. Burge!, "Man, Nature and Cosmos as Intertwining Elements in the Poetry of Ibn Khaffija, " Journal of Arabic Literature, 14 (1983), pp. 31-33, 42-45, and Arie Schippers and John Mattock, "Love and War: a Poem ofIbn Khaffijah, " Journal of Arabic Literature, 17 (1987), p. 50. 15

16

INTRODUCTION

7

qualities. 18 This book will focus on the main elements of Ibn Kharajah's style: imagery, rhetorical devices, and syntax and structure. The subject matter of imagery includes both Arabian, or bedouin, and Andalusian elements. Two trends are noticeable: "humanization of nature" so that it reflects and participates in man's thoughts and feelings, and the' 'interprojection of microcosm and macrocosm,"19 so that man becomes an integral part of his universe, which in its turn becomes closer and more understandable to him. In terms offormulation, imagery expresses a variety oflevels of interaction between subject and analogue, or between the worlds of reality and imagination, from the explicit statement that an image is indeed an imaginary creation of the poet, to a confusion of the two worlds by including aspects of both in the image, to an image that is only hinted at or implied. Another noticeable factor in the formulation ofIbn Kharajah's images is that they build upon previously existing images, usually by reifying an image or taking it literally, and then adding to it other images resulting from this reification, so that, for example, the "sea of night" is full of "pearls of poetry", in search of which the insomniac poet dives. 2o As for the functions that the images serve, they range from making an abstract concept seem more comprehensible by comparing it to a more concrete scene, to the almost reverse function of the creation of paradox, resulting in statements that seem nonsensical or self-contradictory. Imagery produces two-layered poetry by using the vocabulary of one subject with another, in which there is a utilization as well as a creation of associations between objects and feelings, such as love of nature and love of women, and the occasional use of this technique to produce humor, usually through associating a highly serious subject with a trivial one. Finally, a certain unity may be bestowed on a long poem through the repetition of a fixed set of images in the poem. Images of tears and thirst may abound in sections of a poem expressing sorrow and need, while descriptions 18 That is not to say that the previously quoted works have not identified some important characteristics of his style. Particularly illuminating are the works by 'Abbas, Burge!, Monroe, and Schippers and Mattock. Schippers is planning to publish an edition of an unpublished part of the Diwiin preserved in a Leiden MS in the near future. 19 J. C. Burgel coined these terms in his above-cited article. They will be discussed further in the chapter on imagery. 20 See below, pp. 36-37.

8

INTRODUCTION

of happier times in the same poem contain a large number of images related to moisture, verdure, and thirst-quenching. 21 Ibn Kharajah was particularly impressed with rhetoric and its effects during his early, mostly imitative period, the main influence in this respect appearing to be (Abd al-MuQ.sin aH;luri, who made extensive use of a variety of rhetorical devices, in particular jiniis, paronomasia, and its combination with tibiiq, antithesis. 22 As Ibn Kharajah outgrew this imitative period, rhetoric continued to figure strongly in his poems, but was no longer the dominant stylistic and structural factor in them. Although he made use of a variety of devices, jiniis continued to be his favorite and most frequently used one. He utilized it in a variety of ways, alone and in conjunction with other rhetorical devices and imagery, to serve a wide range of functions, including the structuring of one or more lines, the strengthening of imagery, and the creation of harmony of sound and sense. The existence of structural patterns greater than the single line in Ibn Kharajah's poetry can be examined from three aspects: syntax, linear devices, and non-linear devices. First, syntax may unify two or more lines, either through making them into one grammatical unit, or through repeating the same syntactic arrangement over a number of lines. Syntax may also structure the meaning of a line or an entire poem. The position of the subject in a sentence, for example, or the movement in a poem from the negative to the positive, then the interrogative, may all be meaningful elements of structure, expressing changes in mood. Linear devices are those that make the transition from one section or theme in a long poem seem natural and smooth. For example, two themes may be put within a narrative structure or a time sequence, thereby giving them a form of continuity. Non-linear devices, on the other hand, are those which create a form of unity that crosses through the linear continuity, and often represents a unity of vision or experience. This is usually achieved through the recurrence of motifs or images, which may give a poem a symbolic level of meaning. Finally, the conclusion includes a close reading of one of Ibn

21 22

See below, pp. 57-60. (Abbas, p. 207.

INTRODUCTION

9

Khafajah's most successful poems, showing how all these elements of imagery, rhetoric, syntax, linear and non-linear structuring devices combine and interconnect to produce a successful poem in the Khafaj'i style.

CHAPTER ONE

IMAGERY

A. The Subject Matter of Imagery The subject matter or content ofIbn Khafajah' s imagery can be subdivided into two main categories: images whose content has been taken over from the world of poetry, and images whose content has been observed and experienced by the poet first-hand, though their expression also utilizes the poetic tradition. In the first category we have images associated with the desert and its geography, animals, and related activities. Images involving camels and horses are frequent, as are images associated with the attiit motif. The journey in the hot desert, usually towards the mamdii4, often includes this type of imagery. The objects, animals, and experiences contained in these images were not a part of Ibn KhaIajah' s personal experience. In a prose letter following a poem in which the names of several Arabian places were mentioned, he writes: "and as to the names of these places, and the way in which they are described either as high ground or low ground, they are given only as imaginary examples that are constructed to serve as representative ... " (p. 204). In fact, not all of the vocabulary items relating to Arabia are necessarily images, but even in cases where they are simply names or descriptions, they are used for their evocative power, and create an atmosphere related to a certain time and place. The following lines are an example of this Arabian or bedouin style: wa-lamma tara)at Ii' athafiyyu manzilin aratni mu1:tayya dhaIika r-rabci ash)ama And when the fire-stones of an abode were visible to me they showed me the face of that place as sinister.

and three lines later: wa-Cujtu l-mataya 1:taythu Caja biya l-hawa fa-1:tayyaytu rna bayna l-kathlbi ila l-1:tima wa-qabbaltu rasma d-dari 1:tubban li-ahliha wa-man lam yajid illa ~acidan tayammama wa-1:tannat rikabi wa-l-hawa yabCathu I-hawa fa-lam ara fi tayma)a illa mutayyama

12

CHAPTER ONE

fa-ha ana wa-?-?alma)u wa-I-cisu ~ul;tbatun tarama bina aydi n-nawa kulla murtama And I turned the riding beasts where passion had turned me and saluted what extends from the sand dune to the sanctuary. And I kissed the trace of the abode, out of love for its inhabitants, for whoever finds only sand should perform ablutions with it. And my riding beasts yearned, for passion begets passion, so that I saw no one in Tayma) who was not enamored. So here I am, with the darkness and the camels for my companions, thrown by the hands of remoteness to every expanse (pp. 236-37).

The following lines provide another typical example of this style: fa-ya banata I-wadi bi-munCaraji l-liwa atu~ghi cala shal;tti n-nawa fa-aqiilii wa-ya nafal;tati r-ril;ti min batni laclacin ala jada min dhaka n-nasimi bakhilii wa-hal takhidu l-wajna)u diinaka laylatan fa-tuf