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Hilalians and Zanatas: notes on the Sìrat Bani Hilâl
After having made reference to the famed writings by Ibn Haldun on the invasion of Ifriqiya by the Hilali tribes in the eleventh century, this essay examines the popular epic tradition which has developed around these events, as illustrated by the Sirat Bani Hilal. That tradition has seen at least four areas of development, two of them major (Egypt, the Syrian-Lebanese region) and two peripheral (Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, Maghreb), each of which has its own distinguishing features.
The aim of our analysis has been to show those steps of the Sira which are particularly important in understanding the conception dominant among the common people about the Hilali conquest of North Africa. Oral sources, manuscripts and published works were taken into examination. The research was conducted by following three principal directions:
1) the ethnic contrast between Banu Hilal and Zanata;
2) the social contrast between Bedouins and settlers;
3) the religious contrast between Sunnites and Shi'ites.
The Sira presents the Hilali invasion as a fratricidal war between Qays and Himyar; the Zanata Berbers are considered, in fact, descendants of those tribes which in ancient times migrated from Yemen to North Africa. Reference to Berber populations is, except on rare occasions, conspicuously absent. The Banu Hilan conquerors were warlike Bedouins who despised all forms of farming and cultivation and who did not hesistate to destroy the famous Zanati's gardens. They charged the Tunisian ruler with the massacre of the Shi'ites, while the latter wre in prayer; this was but one echo of the anti-Shi'ite activities which occurred during the reign of Mu`izz ibn Badis, a rebel against the Fatimides of Egypt.
The articles concludes with an appendix on those traditions relative to the origin of the Zanata, based on information from Berber and Arab genealogists.
A theatrical story of end of the eighteenth century
This essay examines the play "al-Sabb al-gahil al-sikkir" written by Tannus al-Hurr in 1863.
A brief preface offers bits of information about the author and his work, as well as a critical assessment by the scholar Yusuf Nagm.
Attention is then given to the intended purpose of this theatrical piece, as illustrated by al-Hurr in his muqaddima. We can recognize an obvious didactic and moralizing tone which, through the presentation of a stage play, takes full advantage of the educational possibilities inherent in direct contact with the public.
The content of the work, as summarized and commented upon through quotations from the original text, is based on a simple event which allows us to follow the ruinous decline of a young man as a result of bad companions and an uncontrollable drinking habit. We can read between the lines al-Hurr's repeated warning against educational methods which are too liberal and too permissive, methods which lead to the creation of a generation both impudent and unlearned. On the other hand, the author continuously sings the praises of the values of both science and education.
In this play, the very speech patterns employed by the characters take on special importance. While the 'ammiyya language alternates throughout the play with the fusha, there are also numerous passages in Latin, Italian, French and Turkish; such a mixture of languages gives the work a particular sheen of refinement and elegance. At the same time, the dialogue is likewise sprinkled with the quoting of proverbs and folk sayings as well as idiomatic phrases and the recitation of verse, all of which infuse the play with a breath of vitality.
One major purpose of the article is to draw attention to those parts of the play which may be of interest to the study of dramatic literature of the last century.
Notes on Haci Hamed's world map of Tunis
There are six wooden blocks in St. Mark's Library in Venice. In 1795, when they were discovered in the archives of the Council of Ten, the official printer of the Republic was instructed to take impressions from them. The sheets thus obtained presented a map of the world drawn in 967 A.H. (1559-1560 A.D.) by a certain Haci Ahmed from Tunis with a long accompanying text in Turkish.
Many scholars studied this curious work. New documents found in the Venetian State Archives inform us about the probable source of this map, i.e. another map prepared for the Turks in Venice in the same years: it was requested by a son of Soleyman the Magnificent and it was likely carried out with Ramusio's help.
Merchants misadventures collaterally of the enterprises of Barbarossa
Since 1441 the Republic of Venice had been commercially linked with the Maghrib by a convoy of ships called the Muda di Barberia, which left the Adriatic Sea in the Spring and came back in the Autumn. Around 1530 the presence of corsairs and European fleets along the African coasts and a great number of pillages and battles deterred Venetians from continuing trading directly with those countries. One of the events which may have helped to stop the Muda was the fact that some Tunisian merchants were forced to go to Venice. They embarked on the Venetian Muda ships in the Maghrib for coastal trading in August 1534, but just then Hayreddin seized Tunis. The captain of the convoy chose to return immediately, instead of risking all his ships in order to land the Tunisian merchants. In Venice the Senate had to defend the Tunisians against the shipowners who were demanding payment for the voyage. Furthermore the Senate had to help them to sell their goods and find a passage back to Africa. There is no evidence that any other convoy of ships left Venice for the Maghrib after this unlucky event.
The school of Venitian `giovani di lingua' in the XVI and XVII centuries
On 21 February 1551 the Republic of Venice decided to establish a state school for interpreters to help the baili in their dealings with the Ottoman Turks: two joung Venetian citizens had to be sent to Istanbul to learn languages for five years. However, recurrent plagues and death-threatering illnesses victimized the transplanted young Venetians and often interrupted their studies. After the war of Cyprus, a Turkish professor also suggested moving the school to Venice and offered himself as a teachers.
Toward the end of the siwteenth century the school was seriously declining and for this reason entrance to the school was granted to the children of local dragomans who had given proof of loyalty to the Republic of Venice.
In 1623 the course was established to last for seven years. The long war of Candia (1645-69) interrupted again the school and it was resumed only after the peace was concluded. In 1670 France decided to follow the Venetian example and to send young people to Istanbul to learn languages. However it was only in 1682 that that Venetian school began really to function under professor Abramo Albanese, a converted Muslim who held that assignment for the next seven years.
La Sira de Sayf b. Di Yazan de la fin de la période médiévale a été genérallement étudiée et interprétée en tant qu'une expression d'hostilité des Arabes envers les Ethiopiens qui ont soumis le Yémen et ont essayé de détruire la Mecque. Au 14eme siècle deux souverains Ethiopiens, 'Amda Syon (1314-44) et son successeur Sayfa Ar'ad (1344-72), présentaient une ménace et pour les royaumes musulmans voisins de l'Ethiopie, et pour les souverains Mamluk de l'Egypte. Ce conflit est essentiel à la raison d'être de la Sira.
Néanmoins, il serait imprudent d'insister sur ce contexte historique seulement. Beaucoup d'événements dans la Sira n'ont aucun lien avec ce conflit. Par ailleurs, il y a beaucoup d'emprunts des travaux de Wahb b. Munabbih, Kitab al-Tigan, et d'al-Mas'udi, Kutub al-'Aga'ib.
A la différence d'autres Siras, celle de Sayf parait qu 'elle a été exportée à des régions en Afrique où son hero allait devenir l'éponyme d'une dynastie souveraine musulmane, d'origine Arabe, Berbère ou de Teda. Au Kanem et Borno, la Sira de Sayf semblait être très importante à son histoire médiévale et à l'Islamisation de la région près du Lac du Tchad. On peut distinguer un lien idéologique entre les souverains de Kanim/Bornu et la Sira. Cependant, on ne sait pas encore si les souverains en question ont fait usage d'une partie du complot canonique ou non.
A Mukhtasar fi `ilm ad-din attributed to `Abd al-Qàdir al-Jilàni
As far as we know, ms. Vat. Ar. 1458 includes the only one existant copy of a Mukhtasar fi 'ilm ad-din ascribed to 'Abd al-Qàdir al-Jilàni. The work is divided into two parts, 'ilm as-sari'a and 'ilm at-tariqa, following the same pattern of the main work of 'Abd al-Qàdir al-Jilàni's, Gunya; either part of this Muhtasar is divided into seven chapters, dealing with iman and islam (1.1), the scrupulous care and fear of God (1.2), the prayer (1.3), the zakat (1.4), fasting (1.5), the pilgrimage (1.6), the sacrifice (1.7); avoidance of this world and preference for the hereafter (2.1), the recovery, of the heart (2.2), the clear will (2.3), the advantages of asceticism (2.4), silence (2.5), and hunger (2.6), the benefits of watching and interpretation of dreams (2.7), respectively. The attribution of this Mukhtasar to the founder of the Qadiriyyah order is discussed in the introduction, which is followed by the Arabic text and a translation into Italian.
Refinement and polite love in the Kitâb al-muwashshâ
This article proposes the translation of a chapter from the Kitâb al-muwashshâ of al-Wassaa', a grammarian and adib who lived in Bagdad between the 3rd and the 4th century. This chapter cotains the description of the refinement (zarf) rules, but in fact it unfolds as a long description of the amorous feeling and manners. Refinement seems fully realized in the amorous experience, that becomes in this way a sort of test for the real refined man.
Al-Wassa' delineates the figure of the exemplary refined man through a long series of anecdotes and quotations: coarseness, unlawful pleasures, passionateness, all kind of excesses are blamed, whereas "chaste" love, closeness, amorous suffering, moderation are praised. In substance, the amorous reclations become the instrument to achieve an ideal of "refined" life, where the good zarif feels gratified, alienating from himself every more disquieting problem, every more involving engagement.
The meaning of this translation, that will be followed by others concerning customs and material life, is to propose a direct approach to a source that, in the sphere of wide adab literature of abbasid period, offers a vivid testimony about the way of living and thinking of a social group in Bagdad between the 3rd and the 4th century. In fact, that cultured middle-class, experienced in grammar, literature, poetry, history, canonical traditions, in consequence of the increased political r“le of the vizir and of the whole class of court secretaries, could aim at becoming part of that powerful élite by shaping their learning and their mentality.
Prophet's apparition in the Sùrat `Antar
The events narrated in the romance of 'Antar took place in the pre-islamic period. Although the coming of the prophet is announced a few times 'Antar dies as a pagan and without having seen that prophet.
The theme of this paper is the last episode of the romance of 'Antar containing the legend of the appearance of Muhammad wherein the miracle of the splitting of the moon is the most important and wonderful event. The leading characters occuring in this episode (part XXXII, pp. 103-117 of the Cairo impression of 1343 A.H.) are beside Muhammad of course the angel Gabriel, Abu Talib, Abu Bakr, Abu Gahl (the head of the opposition), king Habib b. Malik (the arbiter between Muhammad and his foes of the Qurays) and Hadija.
The main consequence of the appearance of Muhammad and the spread of Islam amongst the Arabs in the peninsula (thanks to the part played by the surviving members of the family of 'Antar) is the fact that the romance which is the glorification of pagan bedouin life, can come to a dignified and appropriate end.
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