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Making Light Work of Serious Praise:
a Panegyric zajal by Lis!n al-D"n ibn al-Kha!"b1
Alexander Elinson
Hunter College
Introduction
Lis!n al-D"n ibn al-Kha!"b (d. 1375) demonstrated a staggering knowledge of
Arabic language, poetry, prose, philosophy, and religious sciences. His prodigious
literary output has secured his place as one of the last great Arab writers of alAndalus, serving as the inspiration for al-Maqqar"’s (d. 1628) voluminous history,
Naf! al-"!b min ghu#n al-Andalus al-ra"!b wa-dhikr waz!rih" Lis"n al-D!n ibn alKha"!b (The Perfumed Breeze from the Tender Branch of al-Andalus, with mention of
its vizier, Lis!n al-D"n ibn al-Kha!"b). In addition to his large corpus of official
diplomatic missives, travelogues, maq"m"s (literary rhymed prose epistles), qa#!das
(formal odes), and theological, philosophical, historical, biographical and literary
treatises, he was also quite interested in the strophic form; he collected an anthology of
muwashsha!s (strophic poems) entitled Jaysh al-tawshi! (The Army of Stanzaic
Poetry), even composing a number of muwashsha!s himself,2 and as an admirer of the
Sufi poet al-Shushtar" (d. 1269), he composed a number of zajals (colloquialized
strophic poems) on his model (see Ibn al-Kha!"b 1989, 238).3
In addition to the zajals that he composed with a religious intent, Ibn al-Kha!"b
composed one zajal for his patron Sultan Mu"ammad V al-Ghan" bi-ll!h (d. 1391), a
panegyric celebrating his return to power in Granada after a three-year exile in North
Africa. In this essay, I will examine this zajal in order to evaluate the ways in which
he exploits language and form to produce a unique and effective panegyric. What
interests me about this particular zajal, and more specifically about Ibn al-Kha!"b’s
having written it, is how and why he uses this form that, after a period of vogue during
1
Thanks to Vincent Barletta, Ahmed Bourhalla, Kenneth Garden, Consuelo López-Morillas, Michael
Perna, Cynthia Robinson, and the readers at eHumanista for their help and advice with numerous
aspects of this essay. I do want to especially thank Federico Corriente as the idea for this essay emerged
out of discussions with him on Ibn al-Kha!"b and the zajal. As well, he answered numerous questions,
and provided me with a facsimile of the manuscript version of the zajal that is the essay’s focus. Any
oversights, flaws, or errors in judgment that remain are mine alone.
2
One muwashsha! that begins j"daka al-ghaythu idh" al-ghaythu ham" [May the abundant rain, when
it pours down, be generous with you], an imitation of a muwashsha! by the Sevillan poet Ibn Sahl (d.
1261), is still sung today by contemporary Arab music greats Fayr#z (b. 1935), #ab!" Fakhr" (b. 1933)
and others. I thank Jonathan Shannon for this reference.
3
Ab# al-$asan al-Shushtar" was born in the region of Granada in 1212 and died near Damietta, Egypt
in 1269. He was a well-known mystic who adopted the zajal form for mystical expression (Corriente
1988).
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the Almoravid period, was not a particularly important part of the literary canon by the
fourteenth century.
Numerous poets including Ibn al-Kha!"b himself celebrated Mu"ammad V’s return
to Granada in 1362 using the classical panegyric qa#!da, and it is interesting that Ibn
al-Kha!"b chose to treat the same subject using two distinct forms, each with its own
set of rhetorical tones and conventions. Genre choice is no small matter that involves
the mere swapping of outward guises. Rather it assumes a particular audience and
performance context that determine thematic content, and that in turn, can shape the
reality of those very contexts. As Bakhtin and Medvedev discuss, artistic genres
possess “a two-fold orientation in reality” (130):
The first orientation is in the direction of real space and real time: the
work is loud or soft, it is associated with the church, or the stage or screen.
It is a part of a celebration, or simply leisure. It presupposes a particular
audience, this or that type of reaction, and one or another relationship
between the audience and the author. The work occupies a certain place in
everyday life and is joined to or brought nearer some ideological sphere...
But the intrinsic, thematic determinateness of genres is no less important.
(131)
When Ibn al-Kha!"b chooses to compose a panegyric zajal, he is well aware of the
performative and linguistic conventions that the choice implies, and the generic
realities that the form conveys. In utilizing this colloquial form, generally understood
as a vehicle for licentious, even ecstatic expression, Ibn al-Kha!"b exploits its jubilant
potential and produces a work that is both somewhat staid by the zajal’s conventional
standards, yet exuberant at the same time. In the following discussion, translation, and
analysis, I will focus on the qualities of the zajal form that allow Ibn al-Kha!"b to
deliver a powerful praise lyric that sets itself apart from the ceremonial panegyric
qa#!da.
The Place of Strophic Poetry in Andalus" Literary Culture
The strophic form (muwashsha! and zajal) has been the topic of much discussion
by Arabists and Hispanists alike, especially concerning its origins, metrical structure,
and lines of influence, and it is not my intention to insert myself directly into those
debates.4 Rather, I am more interested here in how the zajal was accepted, adopted,
and exploited by a highly literate poet such as Ibn al-Kha!"b, and how it functioned in
a panegyric at the Na%rid court. That the muwashsha! and the zajal were not recorded
or discussed by literary critics and anthologists prior to Ibn Bass!m of Santarém (d.
4
Cynthia Robinson discusses many of the critical issues and debates surrounding the study of strophic
poetry from al-Andalus in her book In Praise of Song, 273-83. See also Corriente 1988; Einbinder;
Monroe 1992; Rosen 2000.
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1147) indicates that these Andalus" innovations were not immediately accepted into an
Arabic poetic canon over which the traditional metered and mono-rhymed qa#!da
reigned supreme. While it is true that in his anthology al-Dhakh!ra f! ma!"sin ahl aljaz!ra (The Treasury of the Charms of the People of the Iberian Peninsula), Ibn
Bass!m aims to omit muwashsha! poems due to the fact that their “meters...are
beyond the limits of this book of ours, as the majority of them are not in the metrical
schemes (a$"r!%) of the poems of the Arabs” (2),5 he includes a discussion of them
and definition of some of their components nonetheless, and it seems that even in their
exclusion, they bear mentioning (2). Thus, by the twelfth century, strophic poems
were acceptable, or at least known, enjoyed, and discussed within certain strata of
society and once they achieved quasi-acceptability in the Almoravid period, they
served to “complete the literary panorama offered by the compositions on verysimilar-but-not-identically-expressed themes preserved by Ibn Bass!m and al-Fat"
[ibn Kh!q!n d. 1134], both of whom tend to magnify the jidd (serious) and accord a
secondary, or even scant, place to hazl (joking or buffoonery)” (Robinson 283).6
While it makes sense (at least to this author) to argue that the strophic muwashsha!s
and zajals should be considered a part of the broader Arabic Andalus" literary scene,
their acceptance into the canon was grudging and fleeting; as Corriente points out,
“[a]fter the Almohad period, the decline begins. The zajal is soon barred from literary
consideration and confined to folkloric use, and even the muwashsha! loses ground
and ends up by being an occasional exercise for some poets” (Corriente 1991, 66).
However, although it may not have garnered the respect and prestige of more classical
literary genres, it was still enjoyed at certain levels of society, and for different
purposes.
Two and a half centuries after Ibn Bass!m, the famous polymath Ibn Khald#n (d.
1406) added his thoughts on the muwashsha! and the zajal. Although he is not
considered a literary critic per se, he was a highly educated person in touch with
intellectual currents, and could at least give an informed impression of certain literary
trends. By the fourteenth century, he states that the muwashsha! was composed and
enjoyed by all levels of Andalus" society, high and low, at least into the Almoravid
period.
Poetry was greatly cultivated in Spain. Its various ways and types were
refined. Poems came to be most artistic. As a result, recent Spaniards
created the kind of poetry called muwashsha!...(The authors of
muwashsha!ahs) vied to the utmost with each other in this (kind of
5
This statement is not entirely accepted as truth. There are a number of contemporary critics who hold
that the meter of the muwashsha! and zajal is based on variations of Arabic quantitative meter. For
arguments on both sides of the issue of meter (quantitative vs. stress-syllable), see the debate that
appeared across numerous articles in the pages of the journal La corónica through the 1980s by
Armistead, Jones, Monroe, and Whinnom.
6
On this distinction see also Hanlon.
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poetry). Everybody, the elite (al-kh"##a) and the common people (alk"ffa), liked and knew these poems because they were easy to grasp and
understand. (440)
On the zajal, Ibn Khald#n was of the opinion that it was simply the colloquial
equivalent of the muwashsha!, and emphasizes the genre’s even more popular appeal.
Although this is not entirely accurate (there are also certain structural and slightly
more complex linguistic differences, not to mention the fact that there is debate as to
which came first),7 what is interesting is the popularity across societal and educational
lines that the zajal seemed to enjoy.
The great mass took to [the muwashsha!] because of its smoothness,
artistic language, and the (many) internal rhymes found in it (which made
them popular). As a result, the common people in the cities imitated them.
They made poems of the (muwashsha!) type in their sedentary dialect,
without employing vowel endings. They thus invented a new form, which
they called zajal. They have continued to compose poems of this type
down to this time. They achieved remarkable things in it. The (zajal)
opened a wide field for eloquent (poetry) in the (Spanish-Arabic) dialect,
which is influenced by non-Arab (speech habits). (454)
Despite the popular aspect of the genre that Ibn Khald#n asserts, it is important to note
that many practitioners of the zajal were actually quite educated in poetry and other
language arts. For example, Ibn Quzm!n (d. 1160), considered im"m al-zajj"l!n (Head
of the Zajalists), admits that, in order to compose a zajal, he “smoothed it until it
became soft to the touch and its roughness became delicate...removing from it signs of
declension, and denuding it of all adornments and conventions” (Corriente 1980, 1). In
other words, it took education, literary skill, and trained work to compose a zajal.
Although the zajal may very well have been practiced by the uneducated masses as
strictly oral songs, it was only through their composition and recording by literate
poets that they have been preserved. Thus, what we are generally dealing with in terms
of preserved zajals are examples of highly literate poets choosing to compose in what
appears to be a popular form, but what is actually a self-conscious “popularization” of
more traditional genres. When Ibn al-Kha!"b composes a panegyric zajal for the Sultan
Mu"ammad V, he has chosen a form that is outwardly popular, but retains many
aspects of the traditional praise poem. It is the flexibility of the zajal form as
compared to the qa#!da panegyric in terms of language, structure, and performance,
and Ibn al-Kha!"b’s poetic abilities and political skills in manipulating the form, that
results in a unique and successful panegyric.
7
For a discussion of these issues, along with a useful bibliography, see Monroe 1989.
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The Context
Ibn al-Kha!"b first found himself in the Na%rid court when his father was given a
high-ranking position with the emir Ism!&"l b. Faraj (r. 1314-25). Schooled in all
branches of religious studies, language and literature, history, and philosophy, and
having proven his prowess in all of them, Ibn al-Kha!"b was appointed to the post of
personal secretary to Ibn al-Jayy!b, emir Y#suf I’s (r. 1333-54) vizier. Upon the death
of Ibn al-Jayy!b, Ibn al-Kha!"b was appointed vizier and head of the chancery. From
here, his life and career followed the contours of the Na%rid sultan under whom he
worked, Mu"ammad V (r. 1354-59 and 1362-91), and of the political times. In
general, the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were marked by power struggles
between the Mar"nid dynasty of North Africa, the Christian kingdoms of Iberia
(Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and Portugal), and the Na%rids of Granada who were
desperately trying to preserve their kingdom against internal and external threats by
sometimes appealing to the Mar"nids for help and other times to the Castilians, with
Ibn al-Kha!"b playing a key diplomatic role in fostering relations with both of these
states.
In 1359 Mu"ammad V was deposed by his half brother Ism!&"l II (r. 1359-60) who
was then promptly killed by his cousin and co-conspirator Ab# &Abd All!h
Mu"ammad (afterwards known as Mu"ammad VI; in the Spanish accounts, he was
known as el Bermejo for the redness of his hair). Mu"ammad V and his retinue
(including Ibn al-Kha!"b) took refuge in the Mar"nid capital of Fez where they were
received graciously by the sultan Ab# S!lim (r. 1359-61). During this time,
Mu"ammad V continued to receive the support of the Castilian King Pedro I (d.
1369), and in 1362, they joined forces in Casares, marched together toward Granada
and forced Mu"ammad VI to flee, later to be executed by Pedro I. With his adversary
dispatched, Mu"ammad V reassumed control of Granada where he would rule as one
of the most successful Na%rid sultans for another twenty-nine years.
Mu"ammad V’s return to Granada was a momentous occasion. In his official
account, Ibn al-Kha!"b writes:
When he ascended the mountain –the mountain of the Alhambra–
the sky practically fell prostrate upon the earth on account of the
raised voices of the sandy-haired women who had come from the
city to catch a glimpse of him; they filled the vast space as if snow
had piled up there...and for him, God caused mercy and excitement
and friendliness to fill all hearts such as He had not done for
anyone before. When he arrived at the Alhambra’s door, he
stopped there covered up and cloaked, hidden from all inside...then
the doors opened for him before noon on Saturday 20 Jum!d! II,
763 [April 6, 1362]. (Ibn al-Kha!"b 1989, 124)
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As part of the pageantry that accompanied the occasion, a number of poets
presented panegyric odes to the once-again sovereign including Ab# Ja'far b. #afw!n
(d. 1362), Ab# Is"!q b. al-$!jj (d. 1367), Ab# &Abd All!h Mu"ammad al-Shar"sh" (d.
1375), Ab# Bakr b. al-Faq"h al-K!tib Ab" al-Q!sim b. Qu!ba (dates unknown), and
others (125-136). Indeed Ibn al-Kha!"b also composed a long panegyric qa#!da that he
includes within his narrative of the event.8 In addition to these “official” gifts to the
sultan Mu"ammad V, at least two zajals were also composed to mark the occasion one by Ibn al-Kha!"b and one by his former student and eventual rival Ibn Zamrak (d.
1394).9
Ibn al-Kha!"b’s zajal appears in a small collection of his zajals in Nuf"%at al-jir"b
(Shaking the Dust off the Rucksack), and according to Sa&d"ya F!gh"ya, the examples
that Ibn al-Kha!"b includes here represent an important addition to his oeuvre in that
“he was known as a composer of zajals without any of them having come down to us”
(19). Thus, this panegyric zajal represents an important yet somewhat little known
aspect of Ibn al-Kha!"b’s literary production, it also provides an opportunity to
experience his poetic skill both within the formal courtly setting in a panegyric for his
sovereign, as well as in a unique contrast to that same setting in the poem’s language
and form. Below, I provide an English translation of the zajal followed by a
commentary on its imagery, language, and significance. By looking specifically at
performance and language, I aim to investigate what makes this zajal a unique and
effective addition to more standard examples of praise for Mu"ammad V.
Ibn al-Kha"!b’s zajal celebrating the return of Mu!ammad V to
Granada10
I composed an example of hazl while on the way back [to Granada]:
0. Rejoice and delight / the enemy of God has gone / and His beloved
has been restored
1. The country and its people / greatly desired him.
They had not seen light in the daytime / nor anything good after he
had gone.
How is it that [the country] / had become a widowed stranger.
Oh God, where can I find him?
I had my share of longing
when he disappeared.
2. The people, from grief / without drink are drunk.
8
al-!aqqu ya$l# wa-l-ab""ilu tasfulu / wa-ll"hu $an a!k"mihi l" yus&alu (The truth rises up whereas
falsehoods descend. / God is not questioned about his judgments). See Ibn al-Kha!"b 1985, 287-97.
9
Both of these zajals are discussed in Corriente 1990. Ibn al-Kha!"b’s is from Nuf"%at al-jirab.
10
The English translation is mine.
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Their eyes are flowing water springs; / their hearts are perplexed.
Whoever among them grasped / a letter or a package,
Has placed it close to his heart
to perhaps extinguish his passion
and calm the beating in his breast.
3. This event was a stumble, / an error in the celestial sphere.
Because of it the world fell; / it fell to no good.
That ruler asked for help / from Fuengirola to Baza,
But no one answered him
across the whole country,
the uncivil with the highborn.
4. The Islamic faith fell sick / until its eyes were almost covered over.
No one had tasted sleep / nor had anyone been able to close their
eyes.
Everyone had surrendered / themselves to fate,
Until the doctor came
and the pain and suffering subsided
from those who were afflicted.
5. With Moulay Mu"ammad / is the strength of the faith of
Mu"ammad.
Islam has returned with him / as it was laid out thus.
And the world saw in him / that which it was used to:
A union where the watcher is absent
and a happiness that endures
in his son’s sons.
6. Relief comes down when / hardships end,
And God, for these people, / is in the habit of doing good deeds.
What country has seen his protection / and favors more?
Its stranger is restored
wrapped in the cloak of God,
the innocent with the suspect.
7. If not for the compassion of the sultan, / may God grant him
assistance,
Then mankind’s left would not have been joined / to its right.11
11
The Arabic reads m" jtma$ shmal ins"n f!h" ma$a yam!nu and recalls al-Shushtar": anjama$ shaml!
biyya wa-an" ma$! ma"b#$ / My totality is made whole in me, and I am, with me, fashioned as one
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Nor would anyone be able to enjoy his worldly deeds / or his pious
ones;
The one who is skillful with whom he speaks
said to Alfonso [Pedro I]: “No matar,
ya señor, cautivo.”
8. And he said to al-Andalus: / “I wanted to enumerate your bad
qualities,
Then after that I would return / to renew our union.
Really, how can you forget me? / How can you suffer it?
God takes account
of everyone who cheats on his intimate
or who leaves his lover.”
9. He who is ungrateful for favors / will watch as they pass away.
The chicks of a mother who has abandoned her young / will peck at
the egg of their brother.
He will regret something that has passed / once it is difficult to
respond.
His milk will go sour
and he will see the difference between a son
and a stepson
10. He has returned, thanks to God; / that which was unlawfully taken
is back with its owner.
May God remind you how to give thanks / for that which He has
given.
What happiness, what joy! O lovers of God!
Rejoice and delight
the enemy of God has gone
and his beloved has been restored. (Ibn al-Kha!"b 1989, 244-45)
(Corriente 1988, 86; zajal 48). The sense in both verses is the completion of the whole. This could be
understood in terms of mystical union, love union, political union, or a combination of all three.
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Commentary
Both the placement of this laudatory zajal in Nuf"%at al-jir"b, and its
superscription are significant, revealing, or at least hinting at Ibn al-Kha!"b’s
ambivalence toward the zajal as a vehicle for official expression. The poem is
relegated to a short section of zajals at the end of a larger section devoted to more
official examples of writings (poetry and prose) that he composed after his return to
Granada. He introduces the poem as “an example of hazl” (min al-hazl), a term that is
understood in the Arabic literary tradition to mean “jesting” when used in contrast to
jidd, or “seriousness.” However, as Jareer Abu-Haidar demonstrates, hazl, when not
used in contrast to jidd, refers to the zajal –a form that uses language, themes, and
imagery to express a tone of “merriment, pleasantry, facetiousness, wry humour,
satire, ridicule smartness, wit, waggishness, etc.” (112). As discussed above, by the
twelfth century in al-Andalus (in Ibn Quzm!n’s time and after), although not
necessarily held as equivalent to high literature, the zajal as a genre comes to be
deemed worthy by literate writers for purposes of satire, mystical expression, or
otherwise. Thus highly educated poets chose the zajal form not necessarily to reject
official culture and contexts outright, but rather to speak to that society in a light,
comical, and / or ecstatic manner that allowed them to more poignantly achieve their
poetic goals. In separating the zajals from the qa#!das and rhymed prose epistles
(ras"&il) that make up the collection of writings following his return to Granada, and
that grace his official description of Mu"ammad V’s return to power, Ibn al-Kha!"b
makes clear the divisions between the more official forms, and forms such as the zajal
that, by his own time, had become secondary. However, I will argue that, in fact, this
panegyric zajal serves goals that Ibn al-Kha!"b is acutely aware of and careful to
achieve.
The occasion of Mu"ammad V’s return to power in Granada was a serious one, to
be sure, and was marked by the expected official offerings. However, the lighter tone
and colloquialized Arabic of the zajal allow the poet a more natural and evocative way
to praise Mu"ammad V than with the more formal qa#!da. Additionally, the
performance of the form and use of Hispano-Romance distinguish it quite clearly from
the qa#!da, even if, on a superficial level, the poetic intent (ghara%) appears to be the
same. The zajals composed by educated poets were not meant for “wide release” to
the masses, nor did they necessarily circulate widely outside of cultured circles. While
it is likely that the orally performed and transmitted zajals that circulated before Ibn
Quzm!n’s time made the form famous (Stern 1974, 170),12 later zajj"ls (zajal poets)
were first and foremost literate “poets-for-hire,” with Ibn al-Kha!"b and Ibn Zamrak
serving the highest levels of Andalus" society; even Ibn Quzm!n, despite the decidedly
12
In his literary treatise al-Muqta"af min az"hir al-"araf (Plucked selections from blossoms of the
learned), Ibn Sa&"d (d. 1286) points out that “zajals were composed in al-Andalus before Ab# Bakr b.
Quzm!n, but it was only in his time that their jewels appeared, their meanings gushed forth, and their
elegance became famous” (263).
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lower status that poetry enjoyed during the Almoravid period as compared to the more
lucrative periods of the Cordoban Caliphate and the Taifa period (Mul#k al-"aw"&if),
still composed for patrons and was of the educated class. In fact, “Ibn Quzm!n’s
contributions are not popular zajals, but rather adaptations of a popular tradition”
(Monroe and Pettigrew 2003, 163). This adaptation allowed the poet to use a language
that more closely mirrored the linguistic situation in al-Andalus at the time, and in the
hands of a skilled poet such as Ibn al-Kha!"b the zajal held great potential to express
the excitement that he claimed gripped all of Granada when Mu"ammad V returned to
the Alhambra, and the significance of the event.
The tone of Ibn al-Kha!"b’s zajal is emphasized immediately in the ma"la$
(opening line and refrain) and the performative and inclusive aspect, or at least
conceit, of the genre, is emphasized. The command to “rejoice and delight” (afra!#
wa-"!b#), directed at an audience or assembled group, separates this zajal panegyric
from more gnomic examples of official panegyrics that tend to speak in generalities
and absolute terms. These formal, ceremonial odes may celebrate specific rulers and
even specific events, but “[t]he purpose of [qa#!da] poetry . . . is to confer perpetuity”
(Stetkevych 253). A fine example is Ibn al-Kha!"b’s own panegyric qa#!da written to
commemorate this same event. The language of this long qa#!da is of an elevated
quality that displays the poet’s skill in ornamental bad!$, and, according to al-Maqqar"
(d. 1632), “it is said that the sultan ordered this qa#!da to be inscribed in his palaces in
the Alhambra, so pleased was he with it. And to this day it remains written in these
palaces that the unbelieving enemy has taken over, may God, exalted is He, return
them to Islam” (al-Maqqar" 1968, 6: 478). Thus, the panegyric was to be inscribed in
stone as a testament to Mu"ammad V’s greatness for all time, reflected in the timeless
quality of the words themselves. The monumental qa#!da, which runs two hundred
lines, was in fact, composed avant la lettre, as Ibn al-Kha!"b states: “I had composed it
[prior to my return to Granada] while in Salé [Morocco], as if the unknown had been
revealed to me, or I had gazed into the future” (Ibn al-Kha!"b 1989, 151). The poem
clearly fulfills a high ceremonial function and assumes a highly educated audience. In
his introduction to it, Ibn al-Kha!"b says:
I present this qa#!da in order to fill everyone with good cheer and
encouragement; upon the completion of the matter [of Mu"ammad V’s
return to power], its utility and intention will be there for he who explores
the literary arts (al-"d"b), is very fond of exquisite qualities (kalafa bi-lfa%"&il), and who raises his eyes toward rhetorical manners and themes
(wa-tashawwafa il" al-an!"& al-bal"ghiyya wa-l-maq"#id). (Ibn al-Kha!"b
1985, 287)
This qa#!da is intended for performance for the sultan, to be enjoyed by him and the
cultured class of udab"& (litterateurs) who surround him, and later to be carved into
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the walls of his palace. It directly addresses the sultan, focusing attention on him and
all of his majesty:
O Mu"ammad, praiseworthiness from you comes naturally;
with all its ornaments, among men, it is made beautiful.
As for your good fortune, it is without rival;
A pact, by the rulings of Fate, it is recorded.
You possess the most noble qualities and traits
The most remarkable of which the imitator tries to imitate.
You possess sedateness when the hills quake
and the towering heights shake in fear.
You possess a cheerful countenance, and those who
catch a glimpse the completeness [in you] surrender
themselves over to you. (Ibn al-Kha!"b 1985, 288)
In contrast, the zajal assumes a different audience, performance, and reception, and its
performative conceit and bilingualism “[set] up, or [represent] an interpretive frame
within which the messages being communicated are to be understood” (Bauman 292).
While this zajal was composed by a single author, the plural imperative of the ma"la$,
and its choral repetition between each strophe implies a participatory, and thus
contributive role on the part of the audience. Although the themes, imagery, and
conventions follow those of the formal panegyric qa#!da as will be shown, the mood
conveyed is one of jubilant celebration of the moment, rather than the pomp and
ceremony aimed at the permanent edification of the ruler. Adding to the shifted focus
from the sultan to the audience/participants, the mamd¥! (object of praise) is
perpetually present, but only indirectly addressed in the rhyme vowel –¥ (meaning
“his,” or sometimes “its”) of the ma"la$ and last line of each strophe. Thus
Mu"ammad V is constantly referred to as the object of praise throughout the
performance of the zajal, but it is the group that is emphasized in each choral
repetition of the refrain “Rejoice and delight”. While this is clearly a panegyric, the
focus is less an exaltation of the mamd¥! and more an expression of the celebratory
atmosphere surrounding his return.
The first four strophes serve as an introduction to the main panegyric, with swift
movement from one theme to the next. The language in the first strophe is elegiac in
tone, with each line emphasizing either desire and longing, or loss, thus evoking and
combining the nas!b (erotic prelude) and rith"& (elegy) themes of the classical qa#!da
in a general description of the deprived state of Mu"ammad V’s dominions during his
exile. Within these conventions, the comparison in line 3 of Na%rid Granada to a
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widowed stranger (armula ghar!ba) departs slightly yet significantly from the trope of
the separation of lovers and from that of the traditional elegy. In the nas!b of the
traditional qa#!da, it is common to find young lovers separated by the movement of
the beloved’s tribe or more generally by Fate, as in this example from Imru' al-Qays’
(d. ca. 544) famous pre-Islamic ode:
Halt, my two friends, and we will weep over the memories of a beloved
and a campsite that was at the sand dune’s rim, between al-Dakh#l
and $awmal.
And T#(i" and al-Miqr!t, whose traces have not been effaced by the
weaving of the north and south winds.
You see antelope droppings in the former courtyards
and in their enclosures, [scattered around] like pepper seeds.
It was as if —on the morning of separation, on the day that they loaded
up amid the acacias— my eyes welled up like one cracking open
bitter colocynth pods.
There, my companions stopped their camels, saying to me: “Don’t die
of grief; bear it patiently.” (al-Tibr"z" 20-26)
Rather than the movement of the beloved’s tribe that is responsible for the separation
of lovers, in this zajal, it is a symbolic (and temporary) death. Moreover, the separated
parties are not young lovers, but a married couple (not usually the characters of love
poetry). This “widowhood” emphasizes the elegiac quality of these first lines, and the
pain of the separation. Marriage is rarely a topic for literary attention, except perhaps,
in elegies for spouses where “elegy for one’s wife came to form a distinct subgenre”
(Homerin 250), and in misogynistic treatments of marriage (see Rosen 2003,
specifically Chapter 5 “Domesticating the Enemy”). In early examples of $udhr!
(unrequited love poetry) and later courtly love poetry, union with the beloved was
essentially impossible, representing the end of the love affair. Marriage was a paradox;
the lover was in constant pursuit of the ideal, pure beloved, but were the love act to be
consummated in marriage and/or sex, that purity would be compromised. The ideal
beloved was always just out of reach as
[the] prerequisite of [the beloved] being desired is that she be
perfect, ideal, complete unto herself, without imperfection or lack,
and therefore without desire; the sine qua non of loving, therefore,
is that one not be loved in return. The lady must be a virgin in
order to be loved; the desire for the virgin represents an ideal or
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idea...as a desire for the absolute, which in this case subtends a
profound wish for identity with the other, for self-identity. (Bloch
151)
The theme of eternal separation of lovers initiated by the pre-Islamic nas!b that is so
common in the traditional love lyric, and the elegy for the spouse are combined in this
zajal.
It is important here to touch upon the intersection of mystical and poetic language,
wherein mystical sensibilities and poetic emotion inform and express one another in
such a way as to make it difficult to neatly separate the two. Early mystics (ca. ninth
century) drew upon an existing poetic language that expressed love, intoxication and
the fleeting nature of union with the beloved. Just as pre-Islamic poets wept and
remembered past trysts and were forced to journey through an often hostile desert to
reach the safety of the protector, or as udhr! poets in the early Islamic period literally
went mad (majn#n) seeking union with their impossible beloveds, mystic poets used
these themes, along with the imagery of wine poetry to express such mystical ideas as
separation (fir"q) ecstasy/finding (wajd), union (jam$ or wi#"l), and drunkenness
(sukr),13 as in, for example, these lines by the famous mystic poet Ibn &Arabi (d. 1240)
describing his lovesickness and longing for the divine:
I echo back, in the evening, in the morning, echo,
the longing of a lovesick lover, the moaning of the lost.
In the grove of Gháda, spirits wrestled,
bending the limbs down over me, passing me away.
They brought yearning, breaking of the heart,
and other new twists of pain, putting me through it.
.................................................
I profess the religion of love; wherever its caravan turns
along the way, that is the belief, the faith I keep.
Like Bishr, Hind and her sister,
love-mad Qays and the lost Láyla, Máyya and her lover
Ghaylán. (Sells 2000, 151-52)
Although it is often difficult to distinguish between mystical and earthly love and wine
imagery, to ignore its potential to express deeper layers of meaning is to do so at the
13
For a clear and comprehensive discussion of the languages of Islamic mysticism, see Sells 1996.
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peril of a fuller appreciation of the poem. Taking into account Ibn al-Kha!"b’s Sufism
(manifest in his treatise on divine love, Raw%at al-ta$r!f bi-l-!ubb al-shar!f / The
Garden of Instruction in Noble Love, as well as in his other writings), his unique take
on the separation of man and wife (that is, Mu"ammad V and al-Andalus) is rather
interesting given the implication that the two had once been together in a state of
union before their separation. The clever manipulation of this theme actually points to
an extended period of union (marriage!) that far exceeded the limited union of young
lovers. In this “marriage,” Ibn al-Kha!"b lengthens the period of bliss that so often lasts
but a short while in both earthly love and Sufi love of the divine. Thus, in the
hyperbolic language of the panegyric, and with allusions to mystical uses of love
imagery, Ibn al-Kha!"b places the period of Mu"ammad V’s rule in the context of this
extended, and nearly impossible, love union.
In the second strophe, Ibn al-Kha!"b continues to combine the themes of mourning,
bewilderment, and the separation of lovers, and in the third and fourth strophes, he
begins to focus the lyric on the fall and exile of Mu"ammad V who, according to Ibn
al-Kha!"b, was the true defender of Islam which suffered an illness and near death
experience in his absence. As the fourth strophe ends with the arrival of the doctor
("ab!b), there is a seamless transition (Until his doctor comes / and gets rid of the pain
and suffering / of those who were afflicted) into the main panegyric that will occupy
the last five strophes of the zajal. The fifth strophe celebrates the return of Mu"ammad
V and of life in Granada to that which it should be, and the sixth elaborates on that
theme.
The final line of strophe 6 (anjabar ghar!b# / Its stranger is restored) cleaves
nicely (in terms of rhyme, repetition, and antithesis) with the last part line of the
ma"la$ (wa-njabar !ab!b# / His beloved has been restored), as the beloved
(Mu"ammad V) and the stranger (al-Andalus) are the two halves that make the whole.
Also, the stranger of strophe 6 recalls the stranger of strophe 1 who was widowed
from the mate; reunion has finally been realized in a “union where the watcher is
absent / and happiness endures” (5/4). By exploiting the unique structure of the zajal
with the choral refrains of the ma"la$, Ibn al-Kha!"b emphasizes that the impossible,
through God’s intervention and the return of Mu"ammad V, is made possible; death is
overcome and union is once again achieved.
Turning now to the inclusion of non-Arabic (Hispano-Romance) language in
strophe 7, it bears mentioning that the presence of Hispano-Romance was not
uncommon in a zajal. What is notable is the way in which Ibn al-Kha!"b, (a welleducated high government official who had served as an envoy to Castile) uses
Hispano-Romance to draw attention to a historical event, and to skillfully articulate a
particular historical-political context. When Ibn al-Kha!"b says: “The one who was
skillful with whom he speaks / said to Alfonso:14 ‘No matar, / ya señor, cautivo’,” we
14
Pedro I.
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wonder how an Arabic-speaking audience would react to such language, and what is
intended by the poet?
In terms of the linguistic situation in al-Andalus, the contours of language borders
were affected by education, social status, and religion, and there were changes over
time. The Muslims who arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in 711 found a population
who spoke some form of Latin, albeit with a local accent. It was generally the case
that Arabic usage followed conversion to Islam, although Paul Alvarus’ famous
complaint that the “Christians love to read the poems and romances of the Arabs...and
write better poems in this language than the Arabs themselves” (Menocal 66),
reflected a perceived threat of Arabic culture that came to dominate, in varying ways,
intellectual life in al-Andalus, regardless of religion. In terms of Muslim knowledge of
Romance, there were instances of Romance being used by Muslims in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries (López-Morillas 46). This is not to mention the many examples
of kharjas in muwashsha!s and the inclusion of Romance words and phrases in zajals.
However, as Corriente points out, although there was a presence of bilingualism in the
earlier Andalus" period, the dominant Arabic culture “tended toward monolingualism
that was totally realized in the thirteenth century” (1992, 33-34). By the Na%rid period,
the Muslim inhabitants of Granada were almost completely Arabic speaking. Thus,
Ibn al-Kha!"b’s insertion of Hispano-Romance is clearly aimed at a monolingual
Arabic audience who had limited, if any knowledge of this language. However, this is
not to say that these “foreign” words would fall flat. The Hispano-Romance statement
is rather simple, and the sense of it would very likely have be understood by an
audience familiar with strophic love poetry. In fact, although the sentence alludes to a
historical event that I will discuss below, the language and imagery recall that of the
Romance kharja of the muwashsha!, evoking the conventional theme of love as death
at the hand of the lover. Consider, for example, this kharja from a muwashsha! by alA&m! al-Tu!"l" (d. 1130), in Arabic and Hispano-Romance:
'm!n 'm!n y!lml"" $!r brqy nw qrsh y!llah mtt!r
(am!n am!n y! al-mal"" G%RE BORQE TU QERESH y!-ll!h
MAT%RE)
Mercy! Mercy! Oh beautiful one, tell me: Why do you want, by
God, to kill me? (Corriente 1997, 276)
Or this one by Ibn Arfa& Ra'suhu (eleventh century)
b'n!ysh lm"t 'n l"t km hlsh mn ydy bwn bl!sh mt!r 'wb"t mm
'n kfry
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(bi-in!ysh lama"ta in lu"tu kam hawlESH min yaday BON
bil!shi MATTARE awba"tu MAMMA G%R KE FAREY)
With bad intentions you notice, if I appear: how many problems
do I have? The handsome one, for no good reason, kills me.
Mamma, tell me what to do. (299)
Imprisonment as a trope in love poetry was also not unknown, as, for example, in this
kharja in Andalus" Arabic by Ibn Sahl:
qul#b al-khalqi asr"k / wa-qalbi wa!du mathw"k
fa-f$al fa-lghayri ma tahw" / wa-akrim bayti sukn"k
People’s hearts are your prisoners / but only my heart is your
abode,
So do with the others’ what you desire / but honor the house as
the one where you live. (203)
Thus, it is clear that Ibn al-Kha!"b’s line in Hispano-Romance contained familiar
elements of strophic love poetry, and he has skillfully woven a kharja-like line into the
middle of his zajal. However, it is not just a clever manipulation of strophic genres
that he accomplishes here. His language play also serves a political function, and the
intersection of the two calls to mind Caton’s discussion of power, poetry, and
persuasion (Caton 155-79) according to which composing in a specific poetic genre
(Caton talks about the Yemen" z"mil poem, but his analysis applies more generally as
well)
in accordance with the conventions of poetic tradition is to have
the power to enter into a certain kind of discourse in which honor
is created or defended by the poet and persuasion is exercised. This
aspect of power has to do with the construction of conventionally
recognized verse. (178)
Further, in his discussion of persuasion and identification in rhetorical discourse,
Burke notes that “[you] persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by
speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his”
(55). As the poet operates within social, political, and poetic contexts understood by
all, he utilizes all the literary tools at his disposal to express existing power relations,
as well as to attempt to manipulate them.
The event alluded to by Ibn al-Kha!"b is the capture and ultimate execution of Ab¥
&Abd All!h Mu"ammad VI al-Gh!lib bi-ll!h (el Bermejo). As it is told in the Spanish
chronicle, Mu"ammad VI, feeling that his chances of victory were slim against the
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alliance of Mu"ammad V and Pedro I,15 took the advice of Idr"s b. Ab" al-&Ul!' and
other advisors and decided to “place himself on the mercy of the king of Castile, and
in his power” (Ayala 126). He did so, but unfortunately, mercy was not forthcoming.
After receiving Mu"ammad VI and his entourage graciously, even throwing them a
banquet that lasted for two days, on April 25, 1362,
King Pedro brought him out to a large field in Seville, near the
castle, which they call Tablada, riding an ass and wearing a scarlet
robe [and Pedro] struck the first blow with his lance and said:
“Take that”...When el Bermejo was struck, he said to the king in
his Arabic: “What a deed of little chivalry you have done
(pequenna caualgada feziste)”. (128)
Indeed, Pedro I’s once loyal chronicler and later detractor, Ayala, is critical of the
king’s ruthlessness, chalking it up to reasons of political retribution as well as “greed
for the treasures that the king Bermejo had brought” (128).
The event as described by Ibn al-Kha!"b in al-Lam!a al-badriyya f! al-dawla alNa#riyya (Moonlit Glimpse of the Na%rid State) and quoted by al-Maqqar" is similar in
spirit, albeit a bit more elaborate in its judgment of Pedro I:
[Mu"ammad VI] came to the strange resolution of throwing
himself on the mercy of [King Pedro I] and repairing to his court.
He might just as well have thrown himself into the mouth of a
hungry tiger thirsting for blood; for no sooner had the infidel dog
cast his eye over the countless treasures which Mohammed and the
chiefs who composed his suite brought with them, than he
conceived the wicked design of murdering them and appropriating
their riches; and on the 2nd day of Rejeb, 763 (April 27, A.D.
1362), he was assassinated, with all his followers, at a place called
Tablada, close to Seville. (al-Maqqar" 2002, 361)
It seems that Ibn al-Kha!"b, Mu"ammad VI (el Bermejo), and Ayala adhere to the
same chivalric code, as they all decry the killing of the prisoner, at least as the event
was described in the chronicles. In the zajal, when Ibn al-Kha!"b has his patron
Mu"ammad V, who is “skillful with whom he speaks,” seek clemency for the
imprisoned Mu"ammad VI, he aims first and foremost to emphasize his patron’s own
sense of mercy and righteousness, who argues for the life of his former rival. Of
course, his entreaties fail to persuade Pedro I, but this is not the point. Rather, Ibn alKha!"b’s zajal is speaking to the Granadans after the event, not during it. His goal is
15
The (in)famous Pedro I has been the subject of much fascination and myth-making, appearing in texts
as disparate as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Thoreau’s Walden. For a study of Pedro I’s biography
and some of the critical historiographical issues surrounding it, see Estow.
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not to actually save the life of Mu"ammad VI, but rather to show that the sultan
Mu"ammad V attempted to do so, in Hispano-Romance. As Mu"ammad VI complains
to Pedro I “in his Arabic” and Ibn al-Kha!"b has Mu"ammad V speak to the Castilian
king in his Hispano-Romance, the result is a rather interesting intertextual,
multilingual exchange. I am not implying that Ibn al-Kha!"b or Ayala read one
another, but in reading both sources, it seems that Pedro I was impervious to any
entreaties, regardless of language. By embedding this kharja-like line into the middle
of the zajal, Ibn al-Kha!"b skillfully manipulates a strophic poetry convention to
articulate a historical moment when the Na%rid hold on Granada is strong, tenuous as it
may seem. He betrays a confidence in his own Arabic culture by presenting an Arabic
zajal interposed with Hispano-Romance and although at this time, power relations
between the Muslims and Christians in Iberia are uneven at best, Ibn al-Kha!"b
emphasizes the dominance of Arabic. Within the reality that the poem conveys, Arabic
culture, headed by Mu"ammad V, is strong, noble, and holding firm against any
threats.
In the eighth strophe, Ibn al-Kha!"b has Mu"ammad V turn to al-Andalus and
address it directly, chastising it in the manner of a spurned lover. After a separation of
nearly three years, he is eager to “renew [the] union” between himself and his
kingdom, careful to remind anyone who may have supported his rival that “God takes
account of everyone who cheats on his intimate or who leaves his lover.” In the next
strophe, Ibn al-Kha!"b’s voice returns and he elaborates on the importance of loyalty.
Comparing the Andalus"s to ungrateful and misguided “chicks,” Ibn al-Kha!"b
emphasizes the importance of proper rule and order. As well, it appears that he is
unable to resist taking a jab at the ultimately failed attempt by Ism!&"l (Mu"ammad
V’s half-brother –their father was Y#suf I but they had different mothers), Ism!&"l’s
mother Maryam, and Mu"ammad VI (married to a daughter of Maryam) to wrest
control of Granada from Mu"ammad V, the failure coming as the result of having
come from the wrong mother. Having moved from the panegyric strophes 5-7,
followed by complaint about separation and stern warning against disloyalty in
strophes 8-9, the final strophe returns to the jubilant and celebratory mood initiated by
the ma"la$, repeated between each strophe and again in the last line of the zajal.
Conclusions
The panegyric ode “far from being merely descriptive, prescriptive, or abjectly
sycophantic...plays an active role in the ritual exchanges, the sensitive negotiations,
and the mythopoesis of the Arabo-Islamic court” (Stetkevych ix). By combining
conventional tropes and creative expression, the panegyrist reiterates and strengthens
the bonds that join supplicant, object of praise, and society. In celebration of the return
of Mu"ammad V to power in Granada, Ibn al-Kha!"b composed a mono-rhymed
panegyric ode in accordance with the conventions and expectations of the genre, as
did a number of other poets. However, Ibn al-Kha!"b went further and composed this
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other panegyric, a zajal, for reasons that went beyond mere jest (hazl). By utilizing a
form with avowedly more flexible metrical structure and multi-vocal performance
potential, Ibn al-Kha!"b shifts the focus of the panegyric from the monumental ode that
immortalizes the ruler, to a public and collective performance that celebrates the event
as an outward display of joy. While the intent is to edify the sultan, the edification
occurs out loud, in a language all can understand, and ostensibly sung by many.
Moreover, the insertion of Hispano-Romance that reads like a kharja while at the
same time articulating, or at least imagining a historical event, underlines Ibn alKha!"b’s skill with the strophic genre and allows him to use language in ways that are
both entertaining and politically expedient. This zajal, composed by one of the
greatest Arabic stylists of the medieval period, displays a clear understanding of the
genre and masterfully re-casts classical panegyric, love, even mystical themes into a
lively and public celebration for the return of his patron, the sultan Mu"ammad V.
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