Moorish Literature Part 3

The dam, perfidious thing, Precipitated his muddy Legions, With loud growlings.

No bank so strong as to hold him in check.

"He spurred to the right, The bridges which could not sustain his shock fell Under his added weight; His fury filled the country with fear, and he Crushed the barrier that would retain him."

[9] Delphin et Genis. Notes sur la Poesie et la musique Arabes dans le Maghreb Algerien, pp. 14-16. Paris, 1886.

As to the cla.s.s of declamatory poems, one in particular is popular in Algiers, for it celebrates the conquest of the Maghreb in the eleventh century by the divers branches of the Beni-Hilal, from whom descend almost the whole of the Arabs who now are living in the northwest of Africa. This veritable poem is old enough, perhaps under its present form, for the historian, Ten Khaldoun, who wrote at the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth, has preserved the resume of the episode of Djazza, the heroine who abandoned her children and husband to follow her brothers to the conquest of Thrgya Hajoute. To him are attributed verses which do not lack regularity, nor a certain rhythm, and also a facility of expression, but which abound in interpolations and faults of grammar. The city people could not bear to hear them nor to read them. In our days, for their taste has changed--at least in that which touches the ma.s.ses--the recital of the deeds of the Helals is much liked in the Arab cafes in Algeria and also in Tunis. Still more, these recitals have penetrated to the Berbers, and if they have not preserved the indigenous songs of the second Arab invasion, they have borrowed the traditions of their conquerors, as we can see in the episode of Ali el Hilalien and of Er-Redah.

The names of the invading chiefs have been preserved in the declamatory songs: Abou Zeid, Ha.s.san ben Serhan, and, above all, Dyab ben Ghanum, in the mouth of whom the poet puts at the end of the epic the recital of the exploits of his race:

"Since the day when we quitted the soil and territory of the Medjid, I have not opened my heart to joy; We came to the homes of Chokir and Cherif ben Hachem who pours upon thee (Djazzah) a rain of tears; We have marched against Ed-Dabis ben Monime and we have overrun his cities and plains.

We went to Koufat and have bought merchandise from the tradesmen who come to us by caravan.

We arrived at Ras el Ain in all our brave attire and we mastered all the villages and their inhabitants.

We came to Haleb, whose territory we had overrun, borne by our swift, magnificent steeds.

We entered the country of the Khazi Mohammed who wore a coat of mail, with long, floating ends, We traversed Syria, going toward Ghaza, and reached Egypt, belonging to the son of Yakoub, Yousof, and found the Turks with their swift steeds.

We reached the land of Raqin al Hoonara, and drowned him in a deluge of blood.

We came to the country of the Mahdi, whom we rolled on the earth and as to his n.o.bles their blood flowed in streams.

We came to the iron house of Boraih, and found that the Jewish was the established religion.

We arrived at the home of the warrior, El Hashais: The night was dark, he fell upon us while we slept without anxiety, He took from us our delicate and honored young girls, beauties whose eyes were darkened with kohol.

Abou Zeid marched against him with his sharp sword and left him lying on the ground.

Abou So'dah Khalifah the Zemati, made an expedition against us, and pursued us with the sword from all sides.

I killed Abou So'dah Khalifah the Zemati, and I have put you in possession of all his estates.

They gave me three provinces and So'dah, this is the exact truth that I am telling here.

Then came an old woman of evil augur and she threw dissension among us, and the Helals left for a distant land.

Then Abou Ali said to me: 'Dyab, you are but a fool,'

I marched against him under the wing of the night, and flames were lighted in the sheepfolds.

He sent against me Ha.s.san the Hilali, I went to meet him and said, 'Seize this wretched dog.' These are the words of the Zoght Dyab ben Ghanem and the fire of illness was lighted in his breast."[10]

[10] R. Ba.s.set. Un Episode d'une chanson de geste Arabe sur la seconde conquete de l'Afrique Septentrionale par les Mussulmans. Bulletin de Correspondence Africaine, p. 147. Alger, 1885, in 8vo. See also Stemme.

Tripolitanisches Bederinenlieder. Leipzig, 1804, in 8vo.

The second style of modern Arabic poetry is the "Kelamel hazel." It comprises the pieces which treat of wine, women, and pleasures; and, in general, on all subjects considered light and unworthy of a serious mind.

One may find an example in the piece of "Said and Hyza," and in different works of Mr. Stemme cited above. It is particularly among the nomad Arabs that this style is found, even more than the dwellers in cities, on whom rests the reproach of composing verses where the study and sometimes the singularity of expression cannot replace the inspiration, the energy, and even the delicacy of sentiment often found among the nomads:

"The country remains a desert, the days of heat are ended, the trees of our land have borne the attack of Summer, that is my grief.

After it was so magnificent to behold, its leaves are fallen, one by one, before my eyes.

But I do not covet the verdure of a cypress; my sorrow has for its cause a woman, whose heart has captivated mine.

I will describe her clearly; you will know who she is; since she has gone my heart fails me.

Cheika of the eye constantly veiled, daughter of Mouloud, thy love has exhausted me.

I have reached a point where I walk dizzily like one who has drunken and is drunk; still am I fasting; my heart has abandoned me.

Thy thick hair is like the ostrich's plumes, the male ostrich, feeding in the depressions of the dunes; thy eyebrows are like two _nouns_ [Arab letters] of a Tlemcen writing.

Thy eyes, my beautiful, are like two gleaming gun barrels, made at Stamboul, city defiant of Christians.

The cheek of Cherikha is like the rose and the poppy when they open under the showers.

Thy mouth insults the emerald and the diamond; thy saliva is a remedy against the malady; without doubt it is that which has cured me[1]."

[1] Joly, Poesie Arnaduno chez les Nomades Algeriennes. Revue Africaine, XLV, pp. 217-219. Alger, 1901, 8vo.

To finish with the modern literature of the northwest of Africa, I should mention a style of writings which played a grand role some five centuries ago, but that sort is too closely connected with those composing the poems on the Spanish Moors, and of them I shall speak later. It remains now to but enumerate the enigmas found in all popular literature, and the satiric sayings attributed to holy persons of the fifteenth century, who, for having been virtuous and having possessed the gift of miracles, were none the less men, and as such bore anger and spite. The most celebrated of all was Sidi Ahmed ben Yousuf, who was buried at Miliana. By reason of the axiom, "They lend but to the rich," they attributed to him all the satirical sayings which are heard in the villages and among the tribes of Algeria, of which, perhaps, he did p.r.o.nounce some. Praises are rare:

"He whom you see, wild and tall, Know him for a child of Algiers,"

"Beni Menaur, son of the dispersed, Has many soldiers, And a false heart."

"Some are going to call you Blida (little village), But I have called you Ourida (little rose)."

"Cherchel is but shame, Avarice, and flight from society, His face is that of a sheep, His heart is the heart of a wolf; Be either sailor or forge worker, Or else leave the city."[2]

[2] R. Ba.s.set. Les dictionnaires satiriques attribues a Sidi ben Yousof.

Paris, 1890, 8vo.

"He who stands there on a low hill All dressed in a small mantle, Holding in his hand a small stick And calling to sorrow, 'Come and find me,'

Know him for a son of Medea."

"Miliana; Error and evil renown, Of water and of wood, People are jealous of it, Women are Viziers there, And men the captives."

"Tenes; built upon a dunghill, Its water is blood, Its air is poison, By the Eternal! Sidi Ahmed will not pa.s.s the night here, Get out of the house, O cat!"

"People of Bon Speur, Women and men, That they throw into the sea."

"From the Orient and Occident, I gathered the scamps, I brought them to Sidi Mohammed ben Djellal.

There they escaped me, One part went to Morocco, And the rest went down into Eghres."

"Oran the depraved, I sold thee at a reasonable price; The Christians have come there, Until the day of the resurrection."

"Tlemcen: Glory of the chevaliers; Her water, her air, And the way her women veil themselves Are found in no other land."

"Tunis: Land of hypocrisy and deceit, In the day there is abundance of vagabonds, At night their number is multiplied, G.o.d grant that I be not buried in its soil."

Another no less celebrated in Morocco, Sidi Abdan Rahman el Medjidont, is, they say, the author of sentences in four verses, in which he curses the vices of his time and satirizes the tribes, and attacks the women with a bitterness worthy of Juvenal:

"Morocco is the land of treason; Accursed be its habitants; They make guests sleep outside, And steal their provisions."[3]

[3] H.J. Castries. Les Gnomes de Sidi Abdir Rahman El Medjedoub. Paris, 1896.

"Deceptive women are deceivers ever, I hastened to escape them.

They girdle themselves with vipers, And fasten their gowns with scorpions."

"Let not thyself fall victim to a widow, Even if her cheeks are bouquets, For though you are the best of husbands, She will repeat ceaselessly, 'G.o.d, be merciful to the dead.'"

"No river on the mountains, No warm nights in the winter, No women doing kind actions, No generous-hearted enemies."

The battle of the Guadalete, where sank the Visigoth empire, delivered Spain almost defenceless to the Arab and Berber conquest. There developed then a civilization and an intellectual culture far superior to those of the barbarous Christian refugees in the Asturias, where they led a rude and coa.r.s.e life which but seasoned them for future struggles. Of their literary monuments, there remain to us but mediocre Latin chronicles. The court of the Omayades at Cordova saw a literature blossom which did not disappear even after the fall of the Khalifate. On the contrary, it seemed to regain a new vigor in the small states which surged up about the Iberian Peninsula. The Christians, under the domination of the Mussulmans, allowed themselves to be seduced by the Arabian literature. "They loved to read their poems and romances. They went to great expense and built immense libraries. They scarcely knew how to express themselves in Latin, but when it was necessary to write in Arabic, they found crowds of people who understood that language, wrote it with the greatest elegance, and composed poems even preferable in point of view to the art of the Arab poets themselves."[4]

[4] Dozy. Histoire des Mussulmans de l'Espagne, pp. 103-166. Leyden, 1861, in 12mo, 4to.

In spite of the complaints of fanatics like Euloge and Alvaro, the literary history of that time was filled with Christian names, either those of Spanish who had remained faithful to the ancient faith, or renegades, or children of renegades. By the side of the Arab names, like that of the Bishop Arib ben Said of Cordova, are found those of Ibn Guzman (Son of Guzman), Ibn el Goutya (son of Gothe), Ibn Loyon (son of Leon), Ibn er Roumaye (son of the Greek), Ibn Konbaret (son of Comparatus), Ibn Baschkoual (son of Paschal), and all have left a name among letters.

One magnificent period in literature unfolded itself in the eleventh century A.D., in the little courts of Seville, of Murcie, of Malaga, Valence, Toledo, and Badajos. The kings, like El Nis Sasim, El Mo'hadhid, El Mishamed, Hbn Razin, rank among the best poets, and even the women answered with talent to the verses which they inspired. They have preserved the names and the pieces of some of them: Aicha, Rhadia, Fatima, Maryam, Touna, and the Princess Ouallada. Greek antiquity has not left us more elegant verses, nor elegies more pa.s.sionate, than these, of which but a small portion has been saved from forgetfulness in the anthologies of Hbn Khayan, Hbn el Abbar, Hbn Ba.s.sam de Turad-eddin, and Ibn el Khatib el Maggari. They needed the arrival of the Berbers to turn them into Almoran.