(lui era alla corte di harun al.

rashid)

ʿAbbās b. al-Aḥnaf, the Courtly Poet

Author(s): Daniela Beissel
Source: Journal of Arabic Literature , Mar., 1993, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1993), pp. 1-10
Published by: Brill

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/4183285

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Brill is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Arabic
Literature

This content downloaded from

93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 1

Journal of Arabic Literature, XXIV

CABBAS B. AL-AHNAF, THE COURTLY POET

The love poetry of CAbbas b. al-Ahnaf (died 804) and its special vision
of love has attracted the attention of many scholars. The application of
theilattribute
menestrello courtly to his ghazal-first by Joseph Hell who called him a
"Minnesanger"'-has
se questo confrontoraised the
implicito con question
la letteratura of whether
europea dei Troubadourthis implicit
è effettivamente com-
giustificato
parison with European Troubadour literature is actually justified. A
couple of recent articles deny this and it would seem that he cannot be
alcuni negano il fatto che lui sia un poeta di corte propriamente detto
l’autore
considered as a courtly poet proper. This paper aims first at discussing
intende
some problems inherent in the comparison of Troubadour poetry and fornire
uno studio
early Abbasid poetry and in the consideration of CAbbas' poetry as su considera-
courtly. I will next proceed to choose a suitable definition of what courtly zioni circa
la poesia
love may mean and how cAbbas expresses it in his poetry. abbaside come
perché a) The lack of a social structure, in the time of CAbbas, equivalent to thepoesie cortese
non potremmo equivalente alla cavalleria di corte
definire cortese courtly chivalry in Europe where the Troubadours found their audience
la poesia di ‘Abbas: is one of the arguments against applying the term courtly to his poetry.

The first question is now: Is courtly love inseparably connected with ma chiediam-
oci se:
chivalry and chivalric ethics and thus a comparison can only be made L'amore cortese
è inseparabi-
where the same social background exists, or is it, according to Peter
lmente connesso con
Dronke, a feeling which is "universally possible, possible in any time or
la cavalleria ed etica
cavalleresca e
place and on any level of society".2 It is true that the relation between quindi un confronto
a lady and her poet in Troubadour poetry is evoked by the poet's si può solo fare
dove esiste lo
employment of a feudal vocabulary which characterizes the agreement stesso backgr-
that binds a vassal to his master.3 But as Moshe Lazar and others warn,
“cortese” non va confuso con gli ideali etici e sociali della cavalleria
ound sociale
oppure
courtesy must not be confused with the ethical and social ideal of o è, come sostiene
Dronke, una
chivalry. The feudal language must rather be understood as a metaphor sensazione che
or rather free imitation of rites. Thus interpretation has to be very è "universal-
mente possibile,
careful: "... les allusions a la vassalite et a l'hommage sont toutes sym- possibile in quals-
iasi momento o
boliques, et les comparaisons demeurent bien souvent verbales. luogo e a quals-
L'accumulation des ceremonies ou des formes, bien loin meme d'aller iasi livello
della società
dans le sens de l'identite, marque au contraire les differences entre la

Il 2° proble-
vassalite guerriere et le vasselage amoureux".4
ma è che mol-
b) The second problem is that a lot of qualities found in the conception
te qualità che
of cortezia are not germane to ideas in early Abbasid poetry. Cortezia is a
si trovano nel-
la concezione
di “cortezia” non
sono attine- I Hell, Joseph, "Al-'Abbas ibn al-Abnaf. Der Minnesanger am Hofe Harun ar-
nti alle idee Rald's',.Islamica 2 (1926-1927), 271-307.
del primo 2 Dronke, Peter, Medieval Latin and the Rise of European Love-Lyric, Oxford 21968, 2.
periodo abbaside
3 See Cropp, Glynnis M., Le vocabulaire courtois des troubadours de l'ipoque classique,
Geneve 1975.
4 Ourliac, Paul, 'Troubadours et juristes', Cahiers de la Civilisation Midiivale 8 (1965),
162.

This content downloaded from

93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 2 cABBAS B. AL-AHNAF
cosa si intende per “CORTEZIA”

code of moral virtues, mostly dominated by sen (sense) and mesura

(moderation) opposed to immoderate and foolish behaviour in love which
is called foudatz. But it also seems true that this system was destined to
rovesciato
be overthrown. Rational qualities such as sen and mesura must conflict
with love based on sensual desire. It conflicts with a poet's creativity and
the intensity of his feelings and is replaced by expressions of folly and
individual definitions of cortezia. So in the verse of Bernart de Ven-
tadorn:5

If I err when I love, the man who blames me for this is wrong, for the
man who looks for good sense (sen) in love has neither good sense nor a
sense of what is fitting (mesura).

The individual solution reveals his divergence from the underlying

theoretical system of rules. These are accepted as a framework: lyric
Una possibile conclusione
genius develops by toying with them. di ciò è che l'amor cortese
A possible conclusion of this is that courtly love is a feature ofè aunarefined caratteristica
di una società raffinata
society with complicated human relations. Norbert Elias puts it in
sociological terms: a hierarchical system which restricts the individual
and requires a high degree of self-restraint.6 Its spokesman is the poet.
The parallel between the Troubadour's position and cAbbas' position is
obvious. cAbbas was totally dependent upon Haruin ar-Rashid to the
extent that sometimes he was poorly
convocato
treated by him. Al-Baghdadi tells
how one night, when he was summoned by the Caliph-a summons
which made him and his family fear the worst-CAbbas could barely calm
down when it was made clear that Harun merely wanted him to recite
some verses. A large sum of money eventually helped to mollify his ter-
ror.7 This and other stories paint a picture of an atmosphere where
mastery of language, especially the language of love, was a vital feature
I of social mores. The poet's task, if he was unwilling to risk his privileged
M position as a court poet, was to meet the requirements of a refined taste
P
represented in early Abbasid society by the newly fledged concept of zarf.
The new moral values of the urban baghddd£ society are projected back
into the biographies of bedouin, cudhrf love-poets, thus giving these
Umayyad poets a courtly colouring. A similar, European, phenomen is
found in the motif of the noble shepherdess in the pastorela. Yet the
application of the term Cudhrf-derived from these biographies-to
CAbbas' poetry causes confusion. By confusing the historical Umayyad

5 For quotations from the Troubadours see Topsfield, Paul; Troubadours and Love,
Cambridge 1975.
6 Elias, Norbert, Die hofische Gesellschaft, Frankfurt 1983.
7 Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Ahmad Muhammad b. CAll, Ta'r£kh Baghddd aw madinat as-
saldm, Medina, vl. 12, 131.
. Il compito del poeta, se non voleva rischiare la sua posizione privilegiata di poeta di corte, era quello di soddisfare le esigenze di un gusto raffinato
rappresentato nella prima società abbaside dal nuovo concetto di zarf. I nuovi valori morali della società urbana di Baghdad vengono proiettati di nuovo
nelle biografie dei beduini, poeti dell'amore 'udhri, dando così a questi poeti omayyadi un colore cortese

This content downloaded from

93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 'ABBAS B. AL-AHNAF 3
IMPPPPP
il termine, amor cortese
sense of 'udhAr with the later Abbasid connotation of the term, courtly
nel contesto arabo
è talvolta travisato
love in the Arab context is sometimes misrepresented as a bedouin come unandfenomeno
beduino e quindi
thus extra-urban phenomenon. If this were true, the origins of both types
extraurbano
of literature-Troubadour poetry and Abbasid love-poetry-would be so tuttavia,
però,
different as to render any such comparison farfetched. The biographies,
le biografie, sulle quali
however, on which CAbbas may have relied, are not proper representa- 'Abbas potrebbe aver
fatto affidamento
tions of Cudhrt poetry but embody urban social rules and imaginings, non sono rappresen-
tazioni vere e proprie
Un altro problema
per quanto riguarda
which have no basis in bedouin society.
della poesia 'udhri, ma
a personalità di 'Abbas' Another problem with regard to CAbbas' personality is the apparent incarnano regole e
è l'apparente esistenza
immaginazioni soci-
di due atteggiamenti existence of two very different attitudes which he adopts. The views con- ali urbane che
molto diversi che adotta.
Le opinioni sulla cerning his poetry oscillate between comparisons with CUmar b. Abi non hanno alcun
sua poesia oscillano fondamento nella
tra i confronti Rabica and with Abuf al-CAtahiya, both of which are corroborated by hissocietà beduina.
1
con 'Umar e con
Abu al-'Atahiya,
dzwdn. On the one hand2
he is often light-hearted and quite unlike the
entrambi confermati standard courtly lover. On the other hand the dfwdn contains a number
dal suo diwan
1. Da un lato è
of verses dealing with the notions of tragic love, love-sickness and lethal
spesso spensierato e
piuttosto diverso
love. They form the basis of our assessment of his treatment of courtly
dall'amante di corte love although it can hardly be designated a doctrine-doctrines are
standard. 2 D'altra parte
il diwan contiene una generally inimical to an appreciation of poetry. It does however show the
serie di versi che
trattano le nozioni means of channeling emotional impulses, transforming them into ideas
di amore tragico, malattia
d'amore e amore letale.
about love. Such impulses can be typified by a comment of Joseph
l'amore come culto
Bedier: "... l'amour comme un culte qui s'adresse a un objet excellent
che si rivolge a un
oggetto eccellente
et se fonde ... sur l'indefinie disproportion du merite au desir ... comme e si fonda sull'indefi-
def. di amore un servage volontaire qui recele un pouvoir ennoblissant, et fait consisternita sproporzione del
cortese merito al desiderio
(beissel) dans la souffrance la dignite et la beaute de la passion".8 Courtly love come servitù volon-
Amore cortese taria che cela un
è da intendersi is to be understood as a lyrical game in which the lover and the beloved potere nobilitante, e
come un gioco lirico fa consistere nella
in cui l'amante e l'amato are opponents. The dynamics of this game involve the poet's longing for sofferenza la dignità
sono avversari. Le dinam-
iche di questo gio-
a woman who is not only idealised but who is depicted as belonging to e la bellezza del-
la passione
co coinvolgono il a higher social class as well as his obsession with love and the emotional
desiderio del poeta per
una donna che non crisis that he experiences.
solo è idealizzata
ma che è raffi- In the following excerpts cAbbas b. al-Ahnaf's treatment of courtly
gurata come
love will be illustrated. FAWZ
appartenente a
una classe sociale CAbbas' lady may be represented as a moon or a sun, a queen or a
più elevata così
come la sua osses- princess beyond attainment. The gulf between them cannot be and is not
sione per l'amore e
la crisi emotiva che vive intended to be transversed. It is a factor borne-with resignation-by
'La dama di Abbas può essere rappresentata come una luna o un sole, una regina o
CAbbas:9 una principessa irraggiungibile. L'abisso tra loro non può essere e non è destinato ad essere attraversato.
È un fattore sopportato -con rassegnazione- da 'Abbas:
428:3,4
vedi versi sotto
3. hiyd sh-shamsu maskanuhdi f s-samd'i
fa-Cazzi l-fu zdda Cazdan jam1d
4. fa-lan tastatica ilayhd s-suuiida
wa-lan tastati-a ilayka n-nuzuld
8 Bedier, Joseph cited by Peter Dronke 4.
9 'Abbas b. al-Ahnaf, Diwdn, Ed. CAtika al-Khazraii, Kairo 1373/1954.

This content downloaded from

93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 4 CABBAS B. AL-AiNAF

3. She is the sun dwelling in the sky Lei è il sole che dimora nel cielo, quindi arma il cuore di fermezza
4. perché tu non puoi salire a lei e lei non può discendere a te.
so arm the heart with steadiness
4. for you cannot rise to her
and she cannot descend to you.
La sua rassegnazione contrasta con il coraggio di Jamil nel penetrare nella tenda di Buthaina
IMPSSS
JAMIL His resignation contrasts with the bravery of Jamil in penetrating
VS
ABBAS
Buthaina's tent.10

CVI
wa-law anna alfan dzna bathna kulluhum ghaydrd
wa-kullun hdribun muzmiCun qatli
la-hdwaltuhd immd nahdran mujdhiran
wa-immd surd laylin wa-law qutiCat rijli

If there were thousands between me and Buthayna, each of them

JAMIL NON PUò ESSERE DEFINITO
jealous and angry, resolved to kill me PROPRIAMENTE CORTESE, PERCHÉ
IN LUI C’è UNA differenza fondamentale
I would try to attain her, openly by day or dall'amor cortese. La donna potrebbe essere
distante e schermata dalla sua
by night, even if my feet had been amputated famiglia e da persone ostili alla
sua unione con il poeta, ma è dello stesso status sociale.
These verses reveal a basic difference from courtly love. The woman
might be distant and screened by her family and by people hostile to her
VS
union with the poet, but she is of the same social status.
spavalderia
cAbbas' lady requires absolute submission and male braggadocio does
La signora 'Abbas' richiede assoluta sottomissione e la millanteria maschile non la impressiona:
not impress her:

200:2
2. wa-kuntu mra an saCban Cald man yaquidunf
fa-marraghtu ft Cufri t-turabi lakum jaddt

2. I was indomitable, impossible to be haltered Ho strofinato le mie guance nella polvere per te.
yet now I have rubbed my cheeks in the dust for you.
or 204:2

2. hddhihi nafsf lakum mawhubatun

khairu md ythabu md ld yustaraddiu
Questa è la mia anima data a te
2. This is my soul given to you la cosa migliore da dare è quella che non si può pretendere indietro

the best thing to be given is that which cannot be demanded back.

The submission to her will culminates in self-immolation:
La sottomissione alla sua volontà culmina nell'autoimmolazione: = sacrificio di un essere vivente alla divinità

103:4,5
4. in kdna turdtkum ¢idhdbi wa-an
amzita bi-l-hasrati wa-l-kurbi

10 Francesco Gabrieli, 'Oamil al-cUdri. Studio critico e raccolte de frammenti', Rivista

degli Studi Orientali 17 (1938), 40-172.

This content downloaded from

93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 'ABBAS B. AL-AHNAF 5

5. fa-s-samCu wa-.t-tdatu minni lakum

hasbt bi-md tar1awna lz hasbt

4. If torturing me pleases you and you wish Se

metorturarmi ti fa piacere e desideri che muoia di dolore e tristezza
i
5. allora obbedirò e ascolterò; perché sono soddisfatto
m to die of pain and sorrow di ciò che a te piace ritenere sufficiente per me
p
5. then I shall obey and heed; because I am satisfied with
that which pleases you to deem as sufficient for me

The poet has dedicated his life to striving for union, well knowing that
he must drain a cup filled with terror (ka'sun mina r-rawCdti mutaraCatun).
242:1
1. a-lam tara annani afnaytu Cumrz
bi-matlabihd wa-matlabuhd Casfir

1. Has she not seen that I have consumed my life

in quest for her, when quest for her is difficult.

Yet she is at the same time the source of his poetic inspiration and brings
out the best in him: to be a lover and a love-poet.
NONOSTANTE LEI FACCIA SOFFRIRE LUI, Eppure, è allo stesso tempo la fonte della sua ispirazione poetica e tira fuori il meglio di lui:

355:17

17. fa-lawldki mi zayyantu nafsf bi-zinatin

wa-lawldki mi allaftu harfan ild harft

17. Were it not for you I could not have decked out my soul
in embellishment
and were it not for you I could not have written one letter
beside another.

It is only through language that he can display his refined feelings and
his endurance in his worship of love: concealment of love is required by
society; the expression of love is unavoidable in love-poetry. Only by
asserting his supremacy as a lover can he become a model for all lovers.

539:3
3. fa-md tazdlu land ashya 'u nuhdithuhd
takunu li-n-ndsi fi-md baCdand sunand

3. The things of which we tell will forever be "sunnas"

for posterity.

The same thought is found in verses of Raimbaut d'Orange:

... if I were not pleasing to her, I should stand around like the statue of
saints, thinking of nothing but how I should eat and keep myself warm,
and answer to the name of Raimbaut ...

This content downloaded from

93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 6 'ABBAS B. AL-AHNAF

and

... if they were aware of how perfectly I love her (they) would come here
to entreat me now to instruct them like apprentices in the art of true
loving.
Il fardello è dolore,
The burden is pain, sorrow and sickness, and each symptom is desribed tristezza
e malattia, e ogni
in a plethora of variations. He weeps over sleepless nights, consumption, sintomo è descritto
in una miriade
inner fire and gray hair, thereby enriching the traditional catalogue that di varianti.
Piange per notti
corresponds to the mal d'amour of the Troubadours with many metaphors. insonni, consunzione,
fuoco interiore
18:1,2 e capelli grigi,
arricchendo così di

1. md anka a l-bayna li-qarhi l-qulub molte metafore il

catalogo tradizionale
shayyaba ra si qabla hini l-mashtb che corrisponde al
mal d'amour
2. anhala jismi wa-bard aCzumf dei Trovatori.

ladhcu hardrati firdqi l-habib

1. How separation scrapes the scab of the wounded heart;

it has made my head turn white before its time
2. The cauterisation brought on by the heat of separation from the
beloved
has emaciated my body and pared away my bones.
The inevitable end of love is death: those who set off in the service of love
must be ready to face it.
La fine inevitabile dell'amore è la morte: chi si mette al servizio dell'amore deve essere pronto ad affrontarla.
581:4
4. wa-shdribu l-hubbi wirdu l-mawti ghdyatuhu
wa-qad wajadtu amarra l-hubbi ahld

4. The watering-place of death is the destination of the one who drinks

from love
and I have found that the bitterest part of love is the sweetest.

and 287:5
5. wa-awwalu hddhd l-hubbi hazanun muldzimun
wa-hammun yutiru n-nawma wa-l-mawtu dkhiruh

5. The beginning of such love was constant grief

and anxiety which drives sleep away, and the end of it is death.
Ma l'immaginazione
cortese va oltre,
MORTE But the courtly imagination goes one step further by developing the idea sviluppando l'idea
= della morte come
GIOIA of death as the fulfilment of love in moments of the greatest joy. compimento dell'amore
nei momenti di più grande gioia.
123:1
1. tamannaytuhd hattd idha-md ra'aytuhd
ra 'aytu l-mandyd shurracan qad azallatf

This content downloaded from

93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 'ABBAS B. AL-AHNAF 7

1. I desired her so that when I saw her

I saw that the fates were at hand, overshadowing me.

For Bernart de Ventadorn death through love is cortezia:

... for it were a deed of great courtesy if love for my lady would kill me

This is a new concept of love as an ambivalent experience, clearly

expressed in these much quoted verses:

23:3
3. inna li-l-hubbi l-halay * ni naCFman wa-Cidhdba
L'amore ha due condizioni: beatitudine e castigo.
3. Love has two conditions * bliss and chastisement. La signora incarna queste due condizioni.
I contrari dell'amore sono uniti nella sua persona:

The lady embodies these two conditions. The contraries of love are
united in her person:

465:4
4. fa-anta s-surturu wa-anta l-baldtu
wa-anta sh-shifai'u wa-anta s-saqdmtu

4. You are joy and you are affliction

you are remedy and you are disease. IMP
Questo è il punto di
partenza dell'idea che
c'è bellezza nella
This is the starting point of the idea that there is beauty in suffering. Thesofferenza.
joy of love is not connected with union but the quest itself, a quest which
La gioia dell'amore
non è collegata
results in a kind of masochistic, self-destructive renunciation of personal all'unione
happiness. ma alla ricerca stessa
dell’amore,
una ricerca che
530:1
si traduce
in una sorta di rinuncia
1. daCathu bi-l-wayli fa-labbd lahd
masochistica e
mustamlihan li-l-wayli mustahsina autodistruttiva alla
felicità.
1. She called him to his misfortune and he replied
finding it beautiful and pleasant.
IMPORTANTISSIMO: udhri ghazal vs ghazal cortese
The difference from the Cudhri complaints of unhappy, unfulfilled love is
obvious. There, joy and pain are still poles apart. The poet declares that
he would die if he does not attain union and that he will live if he gains
desire. 'Abbas' perception of happiness is the reverse of udhrn thinking.
La differenza con le lamentele degli 'udhri
429:1 per un amore infelice e inappagato è ovvia.
Lì, gioia e dolore sono ancora agli antipodi. Il poeta dichiara che
1. tabki rijdlun Cald l-haydti wa-qad
morirebbe se non raggiunge l'unione e che vivrà se guadagna il desiderio.
La percezione della felicità di 'Abbas' è l'opposto del pensiero di 'udhri.
afnd dumiic shawqf ild ajali
in pratica
1. Men weep over life whereas per gli
udhri
my longing for my death has spent my tears.
una cosa
è la
gioia
e un’altra
è il dolore
vs
abbas al ahnaf:
lui contempla
il dolore
come qualcosa
This content downloaded from
93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC che porta gioia
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 IL PARADOSSO CORTESE:
Ahnaf Nega la realizzazione che cerca costantemente e crea una distanza dall'oggetto del suo
desiderio, distanza che non è né geografica né sociale, ma creati da lui stesso.
Il pradosso sta anche nel
godimento che si esplicita
nell'equilibrio tra
desiderio e autocontrollo
volontario, il disegno di una linea
8 CABBAS B. AL-AHNAF che il poeta è deciso a non oltrepassare

This is a basic impulse for the creation of the courtly paradox. Here the
nella lover can show his skill by translating it into language. The enjoyment
poesia
di ahnaf lies in the balance of desire and voluntary self-restraint, the drawing of
si mostra
il paradosso
a line which the poet is determined not to cross. He denies the fulfillment
cortese that he constantly seeks and creates a distance from the object of his
wishes that is neither geographical nor social but created by himself. It
is desire cut off from its object, the beloved.

209:1
1. sa-'atlubu buCda d-ddri Cankum li-taqrubzu
wa-taskubu Cayndya d-dumzua li-tajmudd

1. I shall seek an abode distant from yours so that you may come near
and my eyes will shed tears so that they may freeze.

This reminds us of the motif of love from afar as sung by Jaufre Rudel.
In his vida, it is reported that he fell in love with a lady he had not seen.
As he approached her, he fell sick and his sickness increased on the way,
until he died at the moment of their meeting. In one of his poems he says:
Never ever will I feel joy if I do not rejoice in this distant love.

It is a last consequence of the paradox that opposites are no longer

perceived as opposites but are identified with each other and become syn-
onymous.

20:7
7. wifdlukum ,armun wa-hubbukum qilan
wa-Catfukum saddun wa-silmukum harbuz

7. Union with you is severance and love for you is hate

and affection for you is rejection and peace with you is war.
altro elemento di differenza tra udhri gh. e gh. cortese
The contrast with Cudhri poetry becomes clear in a verse of Jamil, who
is not yet able to experience love as a coincidence of opposites:
Il contrasto con la poesia ‘udhri diventa
XXVI chiaro in un verso di Jamil, che non è ancora
in grado di vivere l'amore come una coincidenza di opposti:
4. uridu aldahahd wa-turfdu qatli
fa-shattd bayna qatli wa-.s-aldhi

4. I want peace with her and she wants to kill me

but there is a difference between killing and peace.

Finally, the fusion of two opposites into a new entity has been realized
by a skillful use of language. The poem that will be used for this demon-
stration has already excited the attention of the Arabs. Al-Hu$ri describes
it as beautiful poetry because of its "remoteness with nearness,

This content downloaded from

93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 CABBAS B. AL-AHNAF 9

roughness with smoothness" .I The meaning of this rather vague expres-

sion is perhaps that CAbbas uses a simple, natural language which is,
however, complicated with regard to its composition, given that CAbbas'
ideas are expressed through phonological and morphological structures,
which appeal to emotion and the senses more than to the intellect:

1. ilayka ashki rabbi md halla bi

min paddi hddhd l-cdtibi l-mudhnibi
2. in qdla lam yaf'al wa-in sila lam
yabdhal wa-in ctutiba lam yuctibj
3. sabbun bi-cisydnf wa-law qala I1
Id tashrab al-bdrida lam ashrabf

1. I raise my complaint to you, God, about that which I suffer

because of the turning away of the guilty reprover.
2. If she says something, she does not do it and if she is asked for some-
thing she does not
give it and if she is reproved she does not satisfy (the reprover).
3. I am ardently in love in spite of her rejection, yet if she were to say
to me:
Do not drink the cold water, I should not drink it.

The content of the poem reveals the cruel dialectic of courtly love. The
question is how love is translated into language. The tension between
a livello stilistico,
lover and beloved is produced by antithetic structures put into strictly
come mostra il poeta
questo contrasto parallel constructions where each unit has to be seen in the light of the
tra amante e amato?
others. The parallelism is produced by four clauses similar in mor-
Il contenuto del poema rivela la crudele dialettica
phological and phonological dell'amor
features: cortese. La domanda è come si traduce l'amore in un linguaggio.
La tensione tra amante e amato è prodotta da strutture antitetiche messe in costruzioni
1. in qdla lam yafal rigorosamente parallele in cui ogni unità deve essere vista alla luce delle altre.
2. in sfla lam yabdhal
3. in citiba lam yuctibf
4. law qala Id tashrab ... lam ashrabf
The first three components are a description of the beloved's actions. In
simple words it is made clear that all efforts to obtain a positive reaction
from the beloved are fruitless, underlined by long "lamenting" vowels
on the one hand and a heavy rhythm of closed syllables on the other.
Verse no. 4 differs from the rest and carries thus a special weight. The
beloved gives a sharp order to the poet and receives an immediate reac-
tion. It reveals, in contrast, the lover's way of acting. He would not
hesitate for a second to do what she wants him to, even if it were his ruin.

AI-Hugri, Ibrahim b. cAll, Zahr al-dddb wa-thamar al-albdb, Ed, cAll Muhammad al-
Bijawi, Kairo 1372/1953, 630.

This content downloaded from

93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 dinamica dei suoi poemi:
nasce da questo sottile
gioco di due avversari disuguali, opposizioni che consentono
10 CABBAS B. AL-AHNAF antitesi o conflitti e parallelismi ascendenti fino
all'estasi tragica che significa follia e morte

The dynamic of this poem, and of many others, arises from this subtle
game of two unequal opponents, oppositions which allow antitheses or
conflicts and ascending parallelisms until tragic extasy which means
madness and death.12 Another particularity of the text is the use of
phonological equivalences to build up relations between elements that are
usually disparate. This is the case with faddun, fabbun, Ci,ydn'. They form
a semantic group by a common feature, the letter s; fabbun and faddun are
in addition connected by tashdid. Here they become poetic synonyms.
Passionate loving, turning away and rejection are not percieved as
antithetic but as a belonging together in the sense that passion is pro-
duced by unfulfillment, thus, the paradox of courtly love is present in
phonological structure.
These remarks highlight only one feature and point to one of the
developments of the tradition found in the diwdn of cAbbas. They are
meant as an adjustement of the reproach against cAbbas voiced in a
recent publication, namely that he adopts an cudArf pose in "somewhat
diluted form"13 which surely does not do him justice. One aspect of his
personality often offends against courtly rules but I think, taking all these
scattered verses together, he pursues the courtly experiment to the end.
Albert Arazil4 describes him as a poet of transition whose sensuality
prevented him from reaching the courtly summit, as Khilid b. Yazid
did. I think the relation of the two poets is analogous to the relation
between, for example, Bernart de Ventadorn and Marcabrun, between
love that is still an emotional experience and a love that is merely an
intellectual attitude, devoid of life.

Universitat des Saarlandes DANIELA BEISSEL

12 Tomiche, Nada, 'Reflexions sur la poesie de CAbbas b.

289.
"1 Badawi, M.M., 'CAbbasid poetry and its anctecedents',
Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Cambridge 1990, 15
'4 Arazi, Albert; 'La poesie d'amour dans le Diwan de
Revista degli Studi Orientali 53 (1979), 235-268; 54 (1980),

This content downloaded from

93.67.39.229 on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:14:02 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms