ULF HAXEN
An unpublished Hebrew strophic poem
from the Geniza with an Arabic kharja
by
Ulf Haxen
SUMMARY:
The point of departure of the paper is an unpublished anonymous strophic poem
from the Geniza in Hebrew, with an Arabic kharja.
The
poem, a wedding song, exhibits marked archaic features in the literary context
as well as in its metrical structure, very similar to other pre-muwashshah
patterns, e.g. no 140 in Haim Schirmann’s New Hebrew Poems from the Geniza
(1965).
The
question to be considered is whether this poem and other ‘zajal-like’ muwashshahat offer a clue
as to an explanation of the enigmatic sections in Ibn Sana’ al-Mulk’s poetic
treatise Dar at-Tiraz, in which the
influence of musical rhythm is emphasized.
Ibn
Sana’ al-Mulk alludes to a shift in rhythmic emphasis when speaking about the
metrical transition from qufl to ghusn, and vice versa, and when pointing
to the final strophe, the kharja, as
a ‘metrical jump’, to be observed by the poet-composer.
Ulf
Haxen
Hebrew
Department,
Royal
Library,
Copenhagen