Arabic Literary Salons in the Islamic Middle Ages by Ali Samer M.;

Author:Ali, Samer M.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: 2016-04-29T04:00:00+00:00

THE PRAGMATICS OF VALUE: ADJUSTMENT AND RECEPTION

A poet in performance is faced with the demands of attracting and holding the attention of an unstable audience.82 Nevertheless, what we witness in this ode goes beyond that because of a series of textual adjustments. The poet or later performers assumed responsibility for influencing the anticipated reception. Recalling Barbara Herrnstein Smith’s theory of literary valuation, one can observe textual adjustments meant to ensure the durability and survivability of the ode, thus enhancing its appeal and the chances of reproducing value for generations.83 One anecdote in particular indicates that some littérateurs held that the text of the elegy was adjusted after the initial crisis. That is, the sociopolitical pressures of the court put the short- and long-term appeal of the ode into mutual conflict. The compromise, it is believed, was a succession of textual adjustments in different performance settings. Al-Ṣūlī reports that al-Buḥturī added lines 27, 28, and 30 of the ode—three of the eight lines of rebuke—later, during the reign of al-Muʿtazz, in order to court his favor. Al-Ṣūlī says, “I asked ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Muʿtazz, Did al-Buḥturī [really] dare to say, when al-Mutawakkil was killed on the day of al-Muntaṣir, ‘How excellent is the blood…. May the mosque pulpits not bear benedictions for him’ [al-Sayrafī’s lines 30, 27, 28 (in this order)].”84 Ibn al-Muʿtazz replied, “He composed the lines during the reign of al-Muʿtazz to ingratiate himself to him thereby (yataqarrabu bihā ilayhi).” According to the anecdote, al-Buḥturī responded to the diverging expectations of two audiences. At the time of the murder he issued a slightly milder rebuke of al-Muntaṣir, because the outcome of the succession struggle was still uncertain. For al-Muntaṣir’s sibling and successor, al-Muʿtazz, the poet later amplified the onus on al-Muntaṣir, giving subsequent generations further dramatic tension in the atonement rite. This anecdote suggests not only the poet’s capacity and willingness to adjust the texts in response to changing conditions but also the readiness of subsequent generations to rate the ode not by historical veracity but by artistic impact and ultimately persuasiveness in mujālasāt performances.

Al-Buḥturī’s readapted and weaponized rebuke of al-Muntaṣir earned rousing literary reception and circulation in several historical and literary sources. Al-Masʿūdī, in narrating the story of the murder, recalled lines 27 and 28, both full of condemnation.85 Similarly, the littérateur Abū Isḥāq al-Ḥuṣrī al-Qayrawānī (d. 1022), in Blossoms of Humanistic Arts and Fruits of the Heart, cites eleven lines of the poem, including lines 26 and 28.86 He quotes Abū l-ʿAbbās Thaʿlab as commenting, “No better Hāshimite [ode] was ever said. [Al-Buḥturī] spoke in it the truth, like someone whom misfortune has distracted from fearing the consequences.” These indications suggest that the elegy’s textual adjustments sustained audiences’ attention over nearly two centuries and maintained its appeal as an ode confirming the burden of those involved. One might also speculate that the adjustments were not the poet’s invention but that of later generations of performers who sought to sharpen the poem for maximum rhetorical effect in mujālasāt.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.