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Poets And Poetry Of Moslem AndalusPoets And Poetry Of Moslem Andalus
Poets And Poetry Of Moslem Andalus
During the latter part of my sojourn in the Alhambra I was more than
once visited by the Moor of Tetuan, with whom I took great pleasure in
rambling through the halls and courts, and getting him to explain to me the
Arabic inscriptions. He endeavored to do so faithfully; but, though he
succeeded in giving me the thought, he despaired of imparting an idea of the
grace and beauty of the language. The aroma of the poetry, said he, is all
lost in translation. Enough was imparted, however, to increase the stock of my
delightful associations with this extraordinary pile. Perhaps there never was
a monument more characteristic of an age and people than the Alhambra; a
rugged fortress without, a voluptuous palace within; war frowning from its
battlements; poetry breathing throughout the fairy architecture of its halls.
One is irresistibly transported in imagination to those times when Moslem
Spain was a region of light amid Christian, yet benighted Europe-externally a
warrior power fighting for existence, internally a realm devoted to
literature, science, and the arts, where philosophy was cultivated with
passion, though wrought up into subtleties and refinements, and where the
luxuries of sense were transcended by those of thought and imagination.
Arab poetry, we are told, arrived at its highest splendor under the
Ommiades of Spain, who for a long time centred the power and splendor of the
Western Caliphat at Cordova. Most of the sovereigns of that brilliant line
were themselves poets. One of the last of them was Mahomed ben Abderahman. He
led the life of a sybarite in the famous palace and gardens of Azahara,
surrounding himself with all that could excite the imagination and delight the
senses. His palace was the resort of poets. His vizier, Ibn Zeydun, was called
the Horace of Moslem Spain, from his exquisite verses, which were recited with
enthusiasm even in the saloons of the Eastern Caliphs. The vizier became
passionately enamored of the princess Walada, daughter of Mahomed. She was the
idol of her father`s court, a poetess of the highest order, and renowned for
beauty as well as talent. If Ibn Zeydun was the Horace of Moslem Spain, she
was its Sappho. The princess became the subject of the vizier`s most
impassioned verses, especially of a famous risaleh or epistle addressed to
her, which the historian Ash-Shakandi declares has never been
equalled for
tenderness and melancholy. Whether the poet was happy in his love, the authors
I have consulted do not say; but one intimates that the princess was discreet
as she was beautiful, and caused many a lover to sigh in vain. In fact, the
reign of love and poetry in the delicious abode of Zahara, was soon brought to
a close by a popular insurrection. Mahomed with his family took refuge in the
fortress of Ucles, near Toledo, where he was treacherously poisoned by the
Alcayde; and thus perished one of the last of the Ommiades.
The downfall of that brilliant dynasty, which had concentrated every
thing at Cordova, was favorable to the general literature of Morisco Spain.
"After the breaking of the necklace and the scattering of its pearls,"
says Ash-Shakandi, "the kings of small states divided among themselves the
patrimony of the Beni Ommiah."
They vied with each other in filling their capitals with poets and
learned men, and rewarded them with boundless prodigality. Such were the
Moorish kings of Seville of the illustrious line of the Beni Abbad, "with
whom," says the same writer, "resided fruit and palm-trees and pomegranates;
who became the centre of eloquence in prose and verse; every day of whose
reign was a solemn festivity; whose history abounds in generous actions and
heroic deeds, that will last through surrounding ages and live for ever in the
memory of man!"
No place, however, profited more in point of civilization and refinement
by the downfall of the Western Caliphat than Granada. It succeeded to Cordova
in splendor, while it surpassed it in romantic beauty of situation. The
amenity of its climate, where the ardent heats of a southern summer were
tempered by breezes from snow-clad mountains, the voluptuous repose of its
valleys and the bosky luxuriance of its groves and gardens all awakened
sensations of delight, and disposed the mind to love and poetry. Hence the
great number of amatory poets that flourished in Granada. Hence those amorous
canticles breathing of love and war, and wreathing chivalrous grace round the
stern exercise of arms. Those ballads which still form the pride and delight
of Spanish literature are but the echoes of amatory and chivalric lays which
once delighted the Moslem courts of Andalus, and in which a modern historian
of Granada pretends to find the origin of the rima Castellana and the type of
the "gay science" of the troubadours.
Poetry was cultivated in Granada by both sexes. "Had Allah," says
Ash-Shakandi, "bestowed no other boon on Granada than that of making it the
birth-place of so many poetesses; that alone would be sufficient for its
glory."
Among the most famous of these was Hafsah; renowned, says the old
chronicler, for beauty, talents, nobility, and wealth. We have a mere relic of
her poetry in some verses, addressed to her lover, Ahmed, recalling an evening
passed together in the garden of Maumal.
"Allah has given us a happy night, such as he never vouchsafes to the
wicked and the ignoble. We have beheld the cypresses of Maumal gently bowing
their heads before the mountain breeze - the sweet perfumed breeze that smelt
of gillyflowers: the dove murmured her love among the trees; the sweet basil
inclined its boughs to the limpid brook."
The garden of Maumal was famous among the Moors for its rivulets, its
fountains, its flowers, and above all, its cypresses. It had its name from a
vizier of Abdallah, grandson of Aben Habuz, and Sultan of Granada. Under the
administration of this vizier many of the noblest public works were executed.
He constructed an aqueduct by which water was brought from the mountains of
Alfacar to irrigate the hills and orchards north of the city. He planted a
public walk with cypress-trees, and "made delicious gardens for the solace
of the melancholy Moors." "The name of Maumal," says Alcantara, "ought to be
preserved in Granada in letters of gold." Perhaps it is as well preserved by
being associated with the garden he planted; and by being mentioned in the
verses of Hafsah. How often does a casual word from a poet confer immortality!
Perhaps the reader may be curious to learn something of the story of
Hafsah and her lover, thus connected with one of the beautiful localities of
Granada. The following are all the particulars I have been able to rescue out
of the darkness and oblivion which have settled upon the brightest names and
geniuses of Moslem Spain:
Ahmed and Hafsah flourished in the sixth century of the Hhgira, the
twelfth of the Christian Era. Ahmed was the son of the Alcayde of Alcala la
Real. His father designed him for public and military life and would have made
him his lieutenant; but the youth was of a poetical temperament, and preferred
a life of lettered ease in the delightful abodes of Granada. Here he
surrounded himself by objects of taste in the arts, and by the works of the
learned; he divided his time between study and social enjoyment. He was fond
of the sports of the field, and kept horses, hawks, and hounds. He devoted
himself to literature, became renowned for erudition, and his compositions in
prose and verse were extolled for their beauty, and in the mouths of every
one.
Of a tender, susceptible heart, and extremely sensible to female charms,
he became the devoted lover of Hafsah. The passion was mutual, and for once
the course of true love appeared to run smooth. The lovers were both young,
equal in merit, fame, rank, and fortune, enamored of each other`s genius as
well as person, and inhabiting a region formed to be a realm of love and
poetry. A poetical intercourse was carried on between them that formed the
delight of Granada. They were continually interchanging verses and epistles,
"the poetry of which," says the Arabian writer, Al Makkari, "was like the
language of doves."
In the height of their happiness a change took place in the government of
Granada. It was the time when the Almohades, a Berber tribe of Mount Atlas,
had acquired the control of Moslem Spain, and removed the seat of government
from Cordova to Morocco. The Sultan Abdelmuman governed Spain through his
Walis and Alcaydes; and his son, Sidi Abu Said, was made Wali of Granada. He
governed in his father`s name with royal state and splendor, and with despotic
sway. Being a stranger in the couthe couthe country, and a Moor by birth, he
sought to strengthen himself by drawing round him popular persons of the Arab
race; and to this effect made Ahmed, who was then in the zenith of his fame
and popularity, his vizier. Ahmed would have declined the post, but the Wali
was peremptory. Its duties were irksome to him, and he spurned at its
restraint. On a hawking party, with some of his gay companions, he gave way to
his poetic vein, exulting in his breaking away from the thraldom of a
despotic master like a hawk from the jesses of the falconer, to follow the
soaring impulses of his soul.
His words were repeated to Sidi Abu Said. "Ahmed," said the informant,
"spurns at restraint and scoffs at thy authority." The poet was instantly
dismissed from office. The loss of an irksome post was no grievance to one of
his joyous temperament; but he soon discovered the real cause of his removal.
The Wali was his rival. He had seen and become enamored of Hafsah. What was
worse, Hafsah was dazzled with the conquest she had made.
For a time Ahmed treated the matter with ridicule, and appealed to the
prejudice existing between the Arab and Moorish races. Sidi Abu Said was of
a dark olive complexion. "How canst thou endure that black man?" said he,
scornfully. "By Allah, for twenty dinars I can buy thee a better than he in
the slave market."
The scoff reached the ears of Sidi Abu Said and rankled in his heart.
At other times, Ahmed gave way to grief and tenderness, recalling past
scenes of happiness, reproaching Hafsah with her inconstancy, and warning
her in despairing accents that she would be the cause of his death. His
words were unheeded. The idea of having the son of the Sultan for a lover
had captivated the imagination of the poetess.
Maddened by jealousy and despair, Ahmed joined in a conspiracy against
the ruling dynasty. It was discovered, and the conspirators fled from
Granada. Some escaped to a castle on the mountains, Ahmed took refuge in
Malaga, where he concealed himself, intending to embark for Valencia. He was
discovered, loaded with chains and thrown into a dungeon, to abide the
decision of Sidi Abu Said.
He was visited in prison by a nephew, who has left on record an account
of the interview. The youth was moved to tears at seeing his illustrious
relative, late so prosperous and honored, fettered like a malefactor.
"Why dost thou weep?" said Ahmed. "Are these tears shed for me? For
me, who have enjoyed all that the world could give? Weep not for me. I have
had my share of happiness; banqueted on the daintiest fare; quaffed out of
crystal cups; slept on beds of down; been arrayed in the richest silks and
brocades; ridden the fleetest steeds; enjoyed the loves of the fairest
maidens. Weep not for me. My present reverse is but the inevitable course
of fate. I have committed acts which render pardon hopeless. I must await
my punishment."
His presentiment was correct. The vengeance of Sidi Abu Said was only
to be satisfied by the blood of his rival, and the unfortunate Ahmed was
beheaded at Malaga, in the month Jumadi, in the year 559 of the Hegira
(April, 1164). When the news was brought to the fickle-hearted Hafsah, she
was struck with sorrow and remorse, and put on mourning; recalling his
warning words, and reproaching herself with being the cause of his death.
Of the after fortunes of Hafsah I have no further trace than that she
died in Morocco, in 1184, outliving both her lovers, for Sidi Abu Said died
in Morocco of the plague in 1175. A memorial of his residence in Granada
remained in a palace which he built on the banks of the Xenil. The garden
of Maumal, the scene of the early lives of Ahmed and Hafsah, is no longer
in existence. Its site may be found by the antiquary in poetical research.
The authorities for the foregoing: Alcantara, Hist. Granada. Al Makkari,
Hist. Mohamed. Dynasties in Spain. Notes and illustrations of the same by
Gayangos. Ibnu Al Kahttib, Biograph. Dic., cited by Gayangos. Conde, Hist.
Dom. Arab.
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