IN the first century of Islám there were scarcely any books and knowledge was handed down orally. In fact there was, till well
Those who wished to study Arabic philosophy, poetry, legend and the idiom of the desert were obliged to pursue their researches and investigations among the Bedawín tribes. 3
Travel in search of knowledge thus rendered necessary at first by circumstance became the fashion not only for the acquisition of knowledge, but also for the dissemination and display thereof. It thus led to the evolution of the vagabond scholar, a kind of knight-errant of literature and the prototype of the medieval wandering man of learning.
Inspired by such examples of peripatetic scholars as well as by his own wanderings and varied experience, 4 Hamadhání imagined a profoundly clever and witty but unscrupulous improvisor wandering from place to place, appearing in a variety of disguises unexpectedly, but always opportunely, in the gatherings of the great and the literary assemblies of the learned and living on the rich presents, 5 the display of his erudition rarely failed to produce from the generous and the cultured, and a ráwí, or narrator, a man of means of mature age, of a grave and generous disposition with a penchant for learning who should continually meet him and relate his learned compositions.
Abú’l-Fatḥ, therefore, represents the vagabond scholar of Hamadhání's own day, and, one is inclined to believe, occasionally the author himself relating his own experiences or personal adventures. 6
The conception was an advance to the dramatic style which, on account of the religious objection to the portrayal or realistic representation of life or the human form, had hitherto been wanting in Arabic literature. 7
Ibn Khallikan makes no mention of these stories in the list of works ascribed to Ibn Duraid 5 nor is there any reference to them in that cited by Yaqút. 6 The nearest approach to a work of this kind by that author is the Kitáb al-Lughát on the dialects or idiomatic expressions of the Arabs. 7
In electing to do this in rhymed prose he imposed upon himself all the limitations of a style which, in any but the hand of a master, tends to become oppressively monotonous and depressingly dull. 2
In pleasing contrast, however, to the numerous obscurities, intentional and otherwise, the hypocritical and dishonest Qádí, the Bedawín robber, the simple rustic, the eloquent and fearless
The second point of importance in this extract from the Zahr al-Adáb is the reference to the number of the compositions. Al-Huṣrí must have had the Maqámát and the Letters before him, because he gives copious extracts from both in the work above mentioned, and if there had not been four hundred he would, in all probability, have alluded to the fact when mentioning their number. We have, therefore, in the printed text about one-eighth of the original work.
The question, as to whether the maqámát are impromptu compositions, as they were represented to be, may be disposed of by a consideration of the maqámát themselves. They bear evident trace of scholarly preparation and literary finish, and I think the author himself, unconsciously, furnishes the explanation. In the fortieth maqáma he says: 'I wrote elegantly by virtue of much reading. I passed on from reading to investigation and from investigation to composition.' 2
Again, on page 389 of the Letters, in replying to certain strictures passed on the maqámát and to the taunt by his great rival, Abú Bakr al-Khwárazmí, that he was unable to produce any more, he writes: 'Now if that savant were just he would have endeavoured to produce five maqámát, or ten original compositions, and submitted them to the judgement of the cultured and then, if they approved and did not reject them, he might have adversely criticized us. Now let him understand that, while I have dictated four hundred maqámát on mendicity, between no two of which is there any resemblance, either as regards words or ideas, he is unable to produce a tenth of a maqáma, and, therefore, he deserves to have his faults exposed.'
The maqámát vary in length. Some of them extending over several pages 2 while others are limited to a few lines. 3 In some both persons of the drama are not introduced, and the narrator, who is, of course, the author himself, speaks in his own character. 4 In others one is left to conjecture as to the identity of the improvisor. 5
As regards the style of the work, its distinctive feature is parallelism, which consists in making the second part of a
The Maqámát did much to fix a style of composition in which Persian and Greek ideas could make little inroads. Still there is more of the foreign element than the purist would approve. More than sixty such words have been collected and traced, as far as possible, to original sources.
The copious notes and numerous references essential to the elucidation of the text afford in themselves abundant evidence of the difficult nature and comprehensive character of the Maqámát. The sources the author has drawn upon for his materials are, as might be expected, exclusively Muslim. They consist of the comparison of the poets, an important branch of belles-lettres (), the relative merits of Jarír and Farazdaq, a question the Arabs never seemed able to decide; incidents from the lives of Dhúr’l-Rumma and Farazdaq; tests of acquaintance with the principal poets and their poetry; 2 polemical questions such as the Mu‘tazilite heresy, the doctrine of free will and the dogmas of predestination and the uncreate Qur’án.
There are examples of the proverbial generosity of the Ḥamdánid prince Saif al-Daula and the Arab's knowledge of the points of the horse, popular superstitions such as the belief in charms, pulpit oratory, the dangers of the desert, apt quotations from the Qur’án, popular sayings and customs illustrative of Bedawín life, insolence of the servants of the great, flattering and faithless friends and their treatment, 3 eulogy of the patron, satirizing of the Qáḍí and the convivial assembly. Others might be mentioned, but these are sufficient to show the subjects Hamadhání laid under contribution, and the versatile character of the Maqámát.
The question as to whether Hamadhání owed anything, directly or indirectly, to Greek scholarship or Byzantine models is an extremely difficult one upon which to venture an opinion.
In the matter of the lavish display of erudition, intentional obscurities, and the use of words of doubtful meaning, the
He shows little disposition, however, to make use of such artifices in the Maqámát, but the suggestion was not lost upon Ḥarírí, who frequently employed them for the display of his superior skill and learning. 3
In point of literary style and in regard to the manner of describing in an amusing way the occurrences of everyday life there is a closer resemblance between the Maqámát and the Satires of Horace (65-8 B.C.). Here again the resemblance is accidental rather than essential.
There is, however, a far closer resemblance between the Maqámát and the Greek Mimes. The similarity is indeed so striking that one is almost forced into the belief, either that they must have had a common origin or that the same informing spirit speaks to the nations irrespective of race, time, or place.
So far as we know the Mime commences seriously with Sophron (about 430 B.C.), whose Mimes, unlike those of Herondas, which we have, were in prose. 'These dialogues contained both male and female characters. Some were serious and some were humorous in style. They portrayed the daily life of the Sicilian Greeks, and were written in pithy, popular language full of proverbs and colloquialisms.' 4
Once having received the impulse or inspiration the Arabs would, in accordance with their national genius, develop the idea on their own lines, as they did in the case of law and grammar. This is, of course, mere conjecture, but the outstanding fact of the striking resemblance remains a problem upon which investigation and research may some day shed new light.
Finally, the practice of making one person the hero of a series of adventures has been tried by some modern writers. In Grant Allen's An African Millionaire Colonel Clay has much in common with Abú’l-Fatḥ al-Iskanderí, the hero of the Maqamát.
15:1 De Slane's Introduction to Ibn Kallikan, p. xxiii.
15:2 Ibid., p. xxxi.
15:3 See Ibn Khallikan i, 102.
15:4 See Letters, pp. 101-2.
15:5 Numerous examples of these rich rewards, out of all proportion to the performance, might be quoted, e.g. Abú’l-‘Anbas, the hero of the forty-second maqáma, received from the Khalífa Mutúwakkil 10,000 dirhems for a few verses. (See Yaqút, Dictionary of Learned Men, vi. 406). Several instances are mentioned by Ibn Khallikan in his life of Saif al-Daula, ii, 334-7.
15:6 See Letters, pp. 104-5 and Text, pp. 187-8.
15:7 See Qur’án, v. 92 and Hermann Reich, Der Mimus, p. 80.
16:1 Ibn Khallikan, i, 34.
16:2 On p. 49 of the Letters, Hamadhání taunts Abú Bakr al-Khwárazmí with having persistently practised mendicity and condemns the practice as a degrading one!
16:3 Ḥarírí says: 'Both these are obscure persons not known.' Ḥarírí, p. 6.
16:4 Zahr al-Adáb, i, pp. 254-5.
16:5 Men of learning said of Ibn Duraid that he was the most learned among the poets and ablest poet among the learned. Ibn Khallikan, iii, 38.
16:6 Dictionary of Learned Men, vi, 489.
16:7 Ibn Khallikan, iii, 38.
17:1 See collection of nawádir in Mabadi al-Lughat by Shaikh ‘Abdulláh (ob. A. H. 421) pub. A. H. 1325.
17:2 See Ibn ‘Arabsháh, Life of Timúr.
18:1 Introduction to the Text, p. 1.
18:2 Text, pp. 203-4.
19:1 There are more than a hundred pieces of poetry distributed throughout the Text.
19:2 The Maqámát of Maḍirah, pp. 101-15 and Ṣaimara, pp. 207-16.
19:3 The Maqámát of Knowledge, p. 202 and Advice, p. 204 and the Yellow, 13.229.
19:4 The Maqámát of Baghdad, Ṣaimara and Bishr.
19:5 The Maqáma of the Nájim.
20:1 See Chenery's Introduction to Ḥarírí, p. 45.
20:2 The Kitáb al-Aghání, which the author was able to consult, contains numerous references to these four themes.
20:3 Taken from Abú‘l-‘Anbas.
21:1 Letters, p. 74.
21:2 Ibid., p. 76,
21:3 See Ḥarírí, vi, xv, xvi, xviii, xxix, xliv, etc.
21:4 Encyclopædia Britannica, xxv, 429.