IFAO

This article deals with the situations in which verses of poetry occur and the functions that they fulfill within akhbâr texts in al-Tanûkhî’s (m. 384/994) Kitâb al-Faraj ba‘d al-shidda. In the first part, typical situations in which poetry is used are identified. As might be expected, poetic verses often occur when human interaction is taking place ; particularly when characters express their love and their anger. However, it not only occurs under such conditions but also when the writer seeks a pardon from the ruler. In some instances, poetry serves as solace and is even preferred to the Koran or to prayers in a mosque as the last refuge to which the protagonist resorts. Conversely, verses are rare in stories that have the Koran, the ḥadith, wild animals or illness as their main theme.

In the second part, this author identifies sixteen functions that poetry fulfills in Faraj (i.e. adab, inherent, personal, associative, structural, illustrative, analogical, summary, psychological, communicative, resumtive, poetic quiz function, explicative, nominative, corrective/ diversive and inter-/ intratextual). These sixteen functions comprise different levels of narrative/ literary analysis : surface level, plot level, intra- and intertextual level and generic level. A function may extend over several of these levels and a single poem may fulfill several functions at one time.

One of the most important functions for the Faraj in particular, is the structural function. It is divided into five subfunctions (on the plot level : conclusive or “de dénouement”, proleptic and analeptic ; on the surface level : initial and final). The conclusive subfunction is the most characteristic of the Faraj stories because the verses mark the point where the dramatic climax of the story is reached and the plot is brought to a conclusion.

Such ambivalence of Islam towards the status of poets and poetry engendered one of the themes continually treated within Arabic poetics during the medieval era, namely to show, on the basis of explicitly chosen traditions and anecdotes, that the Prophet and Islam were not hostile to poetry. To prove the legitimacy of this literary genre, the majority of authors selected ḥadîth-s which demonstrated that the Prophet was indeed, in favour of poetry, liked to listen it and rewarded poets who composed poetic verses in his glory.

The geographer Muqaddasî is reputed to have provided in his Aḥsan al-taqâsîm fî ma‘rifat al-aqâlîm a considerable amount of information on the linguistic situation of the Muslim world during the 4th/10th century. A meticulous analysis of the data concerning the Arabic language leads us to a double conclusion :

1. Muqaddasî distinguishes between two levels of Arabic, which can be assimilated to two main varieties : on the one hand, Arabic as a vehicular language, to which he gives the same name of ‘arabiyya ; and on the other hand, Arabic as a vernacular language, which he calls lisân al-qawm (“ language of the people ”) which he considers as being made up of lughât mukhtalifa (“ different ways of speech ”). As a vehicle of the learned culture, the ‘arabiyya is better mastered by those whose native language is not Arabic and for whom Arabic does not constitute a vernacular language. A remarkable example is represented by the educated men of letters of Nishapur, capital of the Iranian state of the Samanids. On the contrary Muqaddasî deplores the mistakes (especially as far as declension endings are concerned) of the Great Qadi of Baghdad in his majlis.

Abû Ḥâmid al-Tirmidhî is the author of a small treatise which might actually be the oldest critical Arabic source dealing with the earliest grammarians in Iraq. Unknown until recently, Abû Ḥâmid al-Tirmidhî must have lived during the 3rd/9th century. Among his masters were Abû ʿUbayda, al-Aṣma‘î and Ibn al-A‘râbî. He belonged to a group of scholars associated with the governor ‘Abd Allâh b. Ṭâhir in Khurasân.

This article includes a French translation from the Arabic, of Abû Ḥâmid’s treatise, based on Hâshim al-Ṭa‘‘ân’s edition (in al-Mawrid, Bagdad, 1974) from the Arabic manuscript. In addition, two indices or glossaries explain technical Arabic terminology and the proper names mentioned in the treatise.

As for our reading of Abû Ḥâmid’s treatise, it goes through a comparative analysis of several akhbâr depicting the foundation of the grammatical Arabic tradition, which are also to be found in most of the Arabic sources.