Makamat

Preface

T HE work of Hariri which is the subject of the follow¬ ing pages has been denominated “the most classical in Arabic literature,” and “ a master-piece of elegance and refinement.” Nor are these appellations unmerited. In elaborate execution and ornateness of style the Makamat are perhaps unrivalled; they have always been regarded in the East as models of accuracy; and the design with which they were written was purely literary, namely, to display the vast resources of the Arabic language, to exemplify the most difficult methods of composition, and to embpdy in a series of rhythmical and metrical anec¬ dotes all the refinements of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and tradition, that the author’s extensive learn¬ ing could supply.

To this design the subject-matter of the work is entirely subordinate, the characters and incidents being selected not for their intrinsic interest or value, but merely as forming a suitable occasion and groundwork for the exhibition of recondite learning and rhetorical skill. It is not the outline but the detail of the perviii

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formance, not the importance of the topics but the style in which they are treated, that claims our approbation.

At the same time it must be allowed that Hariri has adopted a peculiarly appropriate method of exempli¬ fying the branches of literature most cultivated and esteemed by his Arabian contemporaries, — a method which, it appears, was suggested, and in some degree prescribed to him by the example of an eminent author who had preceded him in the same field of labour. The character of the wily and versatile Abou-Zaid of Seroug, —eloquent and erratic like the hero of the Odyssey, roaming from place to place with no means of support except his marvellous powers of language, nor any object except the display of them, restless if without an opportunity of exerting them, but careless from the very confidence of success about employing them in a settled direction, devoting them sometimes to the noblest and sometimes to the meanest purposes, yet never losing sight of the dignity of their possession, but applying them to foil the learned, to cajole the simple, to baffle the powerful, and to defraud the humane,—this character is an amplification and improvement of that of Abou’l Fateh in the Makamat of Badiah A1 Zamaan of Hamadan; while that of Hareth,—the companion and admirer of Abou-Zaid, who is constantly on the look out for him, but always pays dearly for the pleasure of meeting him, and, as a scholar of considerable attainments, narrates

PREFACE.

xx the adventures and performances of his friend in the highest style of Arabian eloquence—is in like manner the counterpart of the Ibn Hashaam of Badiah.

By means of the repeated exhibition of these two characters in lively contrast to each other, through a series of unconnected anecdotes, Hariri has succeeded in maintaining a certain unity in his work, and in avoid¬ ing abrupt transitions, while he introduces specimens of all the different species of composition which it was his design to illustrate. By this means he has preserved a graceful dramatic effect, and such a pleasing variety as might beguile and encourage his readers in the study of what he designates “a combination of serious lan¬ guage with lightsome, refinement with nervousness of style, and elegant with recondite phraseology,—a rich store of choice metaphors, and ancient proverbs, and riddles, and orations, and poems, religious, festive, plaintive, and didactic.”

The work is no idle rhapsody intended, like “The Thousand and One Nights,” to amuse the loiterers of the cafd or the seraglio, but the elaborate result of the literary system of a period in which not only the sciences but the useful arts of life were sacrificed by the ingenious and studious of a great nation to a pro¬ found grammatical and rhetorical research into the structure and resources of their own most copious lan¬ guage; and if the author of it has arrayed his pro-

X

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duction in the garb of anecdote, this is merely an artifice by which its stateliness might be rendered less forbid¬ ding, and its treasures more accessible.

That literary system originated in the extreme im¬ portance attached by Mohammedans to the study of the Koran, which is universally regarded by them as of divine origin and verbally inspired. The style of the Koran is so elliptical, and the dialect in which it is written, though allowed to be the purest and best, so totally different from the language of ordinary life, that it was found necessary in order to effect even an approximate solution of its difficulties to institute a close compara¬ tive study of the contemporary and preceding produc¬ tions of Arabic poets, and to establish systems of gram¬ mar, rhetoric, and logic which might be brought to bear upon the revered text. These sciences therefore, being the offspring of religious enthusiasm, acquired so much value in the estimation of Mohammedans under the Khaliphate, as to cause almost every other literary pur¬ suit to be considered superfluous if not culpable; and thus the study of them became general, and the at¬ tainment of them the chief standard of excellence. They formed the topics of discussion in all literary and religious assemblies, and those who outshone their com¬ petitors in masterly familiarity with them, combined with copious command of language, became the objects of public admiration and the munificence of the rich

PREFACE.

xi and powerful. Hence it resulted that the eloquent were prone to depend exclusively on their rhetorical powers for maintenance or aggrandisement. They be¬ came as it were the knights-errant of literature, wan¬ dering from city to city to contest the palm of genius and erudition with any rivals whom they might chance to meet with, and thus attracting the notice and favour of the great. It was not uncommon for a destitute stranger to enter the learned circle where the choicest wits of a province were assembled, and, as soon as an opportunity was offered, compel them all to acknow¬ ledge his superiority to themselves, and win their bounty by some feat of marvellous improvisation, or a lucid decision on some perplexing difficulty in grammar or rhetoric. Such persons being necessarily exposed in the course of their wanderings to all the vicissitudes of fortune, were tempted in the intervals of success to abuse their ingenuity and fertility of resource by descending to unworthy arts of deception for the sake of subsistence; and thus it appears that the character of Abou-Zaid as depicted in the Makamat is no more than the type to which the then state of literary taste and structure of literary society assimilated many of the most gifted and cultivated minds of the period, though perhaps none of them possessed the completeness or consistency of this their ideal abstract. The Makamat therefore combine the primary excellence of being a

PREFACE.

grand collection of specimens of the literature most admired during a long and important period of Moham¬ medanism, and the secondary one of containing a correct and interesting delineation of the character of some of its most eminent professors.

Of the esteem in which this work has always been held by learned Moslemin, no better proof can be alleged than the numerous commentaries, (second only in number to those upon the Koran), written upon it by natives of the remotest East and West, both Arabian and Persian. Those in Arabic which are most approved are two, the one by a native of Xeres in Andalusia, the other by a native of Khouaresm the N. Eastern province of Persia. Much as every line of the Makamat has been discussed, the consent of the Arabs themselves has decided that scarcely one word or phrase admits of improvement or alteration. An eminent writer has asserted that ‘they ought never to be transcribed but in letters of gold on a tissue of silk.’ It were superfluous to quote the ver¬ bose and grandiloquent eulogies bestowed upon them by the above-mentioned commentators at the commencement of their works; the vast labour of elucidation and illus¬ tration which they have expended on them is the most valuable testimony which they could offer both of their own esteem, and of the important place of literary emi¬ nence assigned to them by those best qualified to judge of them. It is true indeed that few books are more

PREFACE.

xm unintelligible without the assistance of a commentary, or more removed above the understanding of the vulgar by recondite phraseology and involved construction; but nevertheless, as De Sacy justly observes, ‘ it attracts the reader capable of understanding it with an irresistible charm.’ That illustrious scholar, however, who has the honour of having raised the most permanent and sub¬ stantial monument to the genius of Hariri in his admi¬ rable ‘ edition and select commentary,’ has presumed on the right of criticism supposed to be possessed by one whose editorial labours have rendered him minutely conversant with his author, to condemn the lavish expense of omar ment and refinement with which, he says, the style of Hariri is surcharged. He accuses him of the abuse of wit and imagination, and of shocking his readers by repeated offences against good taste, and inclines to prefer the Makamat of A1 Hamadani as more exempt from these faults, and as depicting with more simplicity a greater variety of subjects and adventures. Perhaps it was natu¬ ral that, fatigued or disgusted with the magnitude of his own labours in the explanation of the Makamat, he should have been inclined to indemnify himself as it were for the toil that Hariri had cost him by indulg¬ ing in a few disparaging reflections on his author, reflec¬ tions which, however unjust, cannot fail to have suggested themselves in the moments of weariness to any one who has perseveringly accomplished the perusal of this most xiv

PREFACE.

difficult and elaborate work, and which are excusable in one who spent years of indefatigable labour in the illus¬ tration of it. The truth, on the contrary, seems to be that Hariri has attained a much higher degree of the style at which his predecessor had been aiming, and that the greater richness of his fancy and copiousness of his language enabled him to scatter brighter flowers with a more lavish hand, though the space which he has thus adorned is more limited.

Greater simplicity is no praise in a species of com¬ position the merit of which consists in exuberance of ornament, nor variety of interesting topics any just claim to superiority when the topics themselves are confessedly a mere field for the display of those triumphs of elo¬ quence which shine with the more concentrated splen¬ dour, the more contracted and unworthy the space in which they are exhibited. Besides, it must be recol¬ lected that in matters of taste the opinions of the East and the West can never coincide, because they are respec¬ tively swayed, if not dictated, by two opposite principles, the love of artificial beauty, and the love of utility; nor can the quaint imagery and wild extravagance of Ori¬ ental style be justly tried before the limitary tribunal of rigorous Occidental criticism. The best Arabian authors love to revel in the unbounded resources of their rich language, and, by the unrestricted employment of metonyms and metaphors the most recondite and startling, to

PREFACE.

xv prove their mastery over its difficulties, and their pos¬ session of its treasures, leaving explicitness of style to be cultivated by those who have not been endowed with so prolific an imagination or so ample a scope for its exercise and display.

With De Sacy’s criticism on Hariri may be contrasted the unreserved eulogy of the laborious and accomplished Alb. Schultens, who, in the year 1731, published with copious annotations Golius’ elegant version of the Makamah of Sanaa, with his own translation of five more. He says, ‘ Haririi consessus totidem limpidos fundunt rivos qui vernantia prata et viridaria amoenissima prseterlabantur atque rigent. Praecipua iis admiratio inde eoneiliatur quod ut nihil copiosius et uberius, ita limatius castigatiusque nihil ab ullo humano ingenio proficisci posse videatur.’ To this testimony may be added the more recent one of a learned German, who says, ‘Lectione Haririi nemo carere potest qui de linguae Arabicae copiA volubilitate, elegantia, genio, omninoque de dialectis Semiticis rectum judicium facere voluerit.’

TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTION.

, PAGE

Method adopted by the translator . 1

On Rhyming Prose . 2

Alliteration admired by Orientals. 3

Difficulty of the Makamat and necessity of annotations. 4

Birth and titles of the author of the Makamat . 5

Account given by his son of the occasion of his undertaking this work... 6

Another account found in his own hand-writing . 7

On the names of the two principal characters in the Makamat . 8

Hariri's failure in the court of the Vizier of Baghdad . 9

His other works ; his personal appearance. 10

Derivation and meaning of the word Makamah . 11

Account of A1 Hamadani the predecessor of Hariri in this sort of com¬ position . 12

On the town of Hamadan; quotations from poets . 13

De Sacy prefers A1 Hamadani to Hariri; Arabic commentaries on the

Makamat... 14

De Sacy's great edition . 15

Naseef A1 Yazigi, his strictures on Hariri; Hebrew and Syriac imitations

of the Makamat . 10

Ruckert's Paraphrase of the Makamat . 17

Quotations from Riickert. 10

Schultens' Latin Version of five Makamat......19

The Prefatory Prayer. 20

Introduction

A FTER the completion of a closely literal version of all the Makamat of Hariri, many of them were found to present almost insuperable obstacles to that union of elegance with accurate translation which is indispensable to a faithful repre¬ sentation of the highly-finished originals. A selection 1 has there¬ fore been made of those most suitable for publication, and the rest are merely quoted in notes by way of illustration; while a summary of their contents is added in the form of an Appendix (see pag. 479), which, it is hoped, will serve as a guide in the perusal of them to those students who may wish to become ac¬ quainted with the whole of Hariri’s work.

The Makamat consisting of a stately rhyming prose , inter¬ spersed with metrical passages, the translator has rendered the latter

1 De Sacy in the Preface to his edition of the Makamat expresses his persuasion that an entire translation of them will never be called for but by those whose acquaintance with them is limited to select extracts. He adds, e II y a des Makamat qui consistent tout entiers en enigmes, en logogriphes, et expressions a double entente, sorte de jeu d’esprit que le plus grand talent ne saurait pas passer dans une autre langue, et qu’on doit se contenter de faire apercevoir dans une sorte de lontain et comme & travers un brouillard, si Ton ne veut pas sacrifier le principal a ce que n’est qu’accessoire. La lecture de ces Seances doit etre envisagee seulement comme un moyen d’acquerir une profonde connaissance de la langue Arabe/

INTRODUCTION.

into English verse, and the former into a species of composition which occupies a middle place between prose and verse, the clauses of which, though not rhyming together, are arranged as far as possible in evenly balanced periods, and never exceed a certain length. Rhyming prose is extremely ungraceful in English, and introduces an air of flippancy, unless the subject be of the most light and frivolous description; whereas the style of com¬ position which has been adopted, at the same time that it is pleasing to the ear, conveys the best idea of the short, senten¬ tious, sonorous, and generally antithetical clauses of the original. It is clearly no less suitable for the translation of such a work as the Makamat, than for that of the Proverbs and other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, to which it has been applied with remarkable success. Besides, though the rhyming prose of Hariri has been elegantly imitated in the most flexible and copious of modern languages by the German poet Friedrich Riickert, a similar imitation in English would probably be found as impracticable as a preservation of all the alliterations of the original, without a greater departure from the literal meaning than even that in¬ genious author has allowed himself, although he distinctly states, that his work is ‘a travestie, and not a translation/ ‘gibt sich fur keine uebersetsung, sondera fur eine nachbildung/ On the other hand, the method adopted in this volume, while it suffi¬ ciently imposes the artificial restraints without which composi¬ tion is liable to dwindle from stateliness into insignificance, fully admits of that preservation of the details as well as the outline of the original, which is required by the laws of faithful translation. In the prose part of the present version every effort has been made to convey a closely literal rendering of the words of Hariri in accordance with the expositions of the best commentators, except

INTRODUCTION.

in some instances where the metaphors of the original are so strange or complicated as to require circumlocution, or where an attempt is made to imitate the alliterations. In the metrical translation of the verses of the Makamat, only the general sense has been adhered to, but a literal version is always given in the annotations, for the sake of the student who may wish to satisfy himself of the accuracy of the renderings. If the poetry never rises into the sublime, it is not on that account the less faithful representation of the corresponding part of the original, the chief merit of which consists in clearness, terseness, and grammatical ac¬ curacy. An imitation of the Arabic metres and rhymes would in English be a task both fruitless and impracticable, and in German, though a language far richer and more pliant than the English, is but imperfectly effected by one who has proved himself a consummate master of verbal and phraseological resource. Here and there only in the present work a sequence of similar rhymes is preserved through several successive lines, after the manner of the Arabian poets; and in regard to the metre, the translator has contented himself with selecting that species of ordinary English verse which seemed best suited to the subject of the passages to be translated. Occasionally he has ventured to imitate the alliterations of Hariri, and would apologize to the reader for having thus adopted a species of verbal artifice which is con¬ demned by the more correct taste of modern Europe, though always admired and practised by Orientals. They regard it as the highest

proof of genius in an author, that he should be able to unite so

*

difficult a performance with refinement of expression and ele¬ gance and appositeness of meaning, and seem to imagine that the merit of a composition increases in proportion to the manifest indications of labour bestowed upon it. In Oriental literature

2—2

INTRODUCTION.

nothing is to be found corresponding with those bold and sublime efforts of English poesy, which, as if fearing to be hampered by the trammels of rhyme, have arrayed themselves in the plain but majestic attire of blank verse. An Eastern poet who should neglect to assume the elaborate ornaments of style prescribed by established custom, would at once be condemned unheard, on the score of indolence or incapacity. For such negligence no excel¬ lence of ideas could atone in the eyes of his countrymen. ‘If his conceptions are fine/ they would say, ‘ why does he not make the exertion requisite to produce them in a more worthy and elegant form ?

The fault of prolixity, which the translator fears will be laid to the charge of his annotations, is one into which he has been almost unavoidably led by the very diffuse character of the com¬ mentaries which he has had to consult; and the reader will be less surprised at the pains taken to explain the precise meaning of the text, when he is assured that with ‘all appliances and means , the Makamat in the Arabic will still be found a most difficult study, and that none but the most highly educated native Arabs are capable of understanding them without constant refer¬ ence to the commentaries, which however do not always enable them to decide between conflicting grammatical opinions. This arises from the circumstance that nearly every clause is intended to illustrate the use of some rare word, some remarkable idiom, or some paradox in grammar, construction, or signification; so that all that a translator can hope to effect beyond assisting those who may desire to study the original, is to convey to the English reader a general idea of the style and species of excel¬ lence by which the work of Hariri is distinguished. The most patient and arduous exertion must necessarily fail to do justice

INTRODUCTION.

to this monument of consummate skill and execution; the very per¬ fection of which forms the best apology for the manifest defects of the present attempt to illustrate it.

It now remains to give some account of the life of Hariri, of the occasion of his undertaking the Makamat, of the author who preceded him in that field of labour, of the dramatis per¬ sons and title of the work, and of those who have edited it or commented upon it.

The history of Hariri given by Ibn Khalekan in his Biographical Dictionary, (pag. 586. edit. De Slane), is to this effect:

* Abou-Mohammed A1 Kaasem Ibn-Aali A1 Hariri A1 Basri A1 c Haraami, the author of the Makamat, was one of the first writers t of his age, and attained the greatest perfection in those com-

* positions, which contain a great part of the riches of the Arabic

* language, and of its rare words, proverbs, and figurative and c senigmatic expressions. Whoever is acquainted with them, as

* thoroughly as they deserve to be known, must be aware of 4 his vast erudition.

* He was born a.h. 446, (a.d. 103Q), and died a.h. 516, at c Basra, in the street of the Benou Haraam, (a tribe of Bedouin Arabs 4 settled there) leaving two sons. He is called A1 Haraami from

* the name of that street in which he had generally residecj, and

* AI Hariri 1 from the word Harir (silk), because he traded in ‘ silk, or had a manufactory of it. The family of Hariri belonged i D’Herbelot inaccurately states that he was so called because he lived in a village of Persia called Harir. He adds, in the same style, that 4 the Makamat are declamations on various moral subjects, which were recited In the towns whose names they respectively bear/

INTRODUCTION.

‘ to the small village of Meshan near Basra, where he is said < to have possest eighteen thousand palm-trees and to have ‘ enjoyed great opulence 1 .

‘ The occasion of his undertaking the composition of the * Makamat was thus related by his son Abdallah Aboul Kaasem: 1 “ My father being seated one day in the mosque which he usually 6 frequented, in the quarter of the Benou Haraam, there came in ‘ an elderly man (Shaikh) clad in two ragged cloaks ‘ see pag. 384, note 1), and with all the appearance of a destitute

1 Herr Peiper, in the Preface to his improved translation of the five Makamat published by Schultens, disputes the accuracy of this account, on the ground that Hariri states in his Peroration that ho was compelled by poverty to offer his Makamat for sale. His words are, c Vix dives haberi potest ille qui dicit “mala fortuna coactus hsec mercimonia, quibus publics) reprehensioni me expono, venum dedi;” octodecim palmorum millia Meshani genti potius quam ipsi Haririo fuisse existimes/ It is clear, however, that he has misunderstood and mistranslated Hariri’s metaphorical language, where, speaking of himself and his work with diffidence and modesty, and disclaiming the imputation of forwardness to publish it, he calls his Mak¬ amat ‘ worthless wares, deserving to be sold rather than bought, which ho had been constrained [by the importunities of his friends] (as appears from the commentators) to present to the public, and, as it were, to proclaim (cry) in the market-place of criticism ’—phrases used in a sense purely metapho¬ rical, with respect to the publication of the work, and without any reference to the sale of it; for in those days (before printing was invented) no profit could be made by the sale of a book; and the only pecuniary advantage which could possibly result to an author from publication, was a casual reward from a rich man, who might be pleased with his work, or at whose request it might have been edited. The passage from which M. Peiper has derived the too hasty inference by which he has attempted to throw discredit on the statement of Ibn Khalekan, occurs in the Peroration of the Makamat of Hariri, pag. 687, De Sacys edit.

INTRODUCTION.

4 wayfarer, but who spoke with fluency, and expressed himself 4 with great elegance; and when asked by the people present who 4 and whence he was, told them that he was Abou-Zaid of Seroug. 4 Astonished at finding such eloquence in one so indigent, my father 4 went home and composed concerning him the Makamah entitled 4 that of the Mosque Beni Haraam, in the form of an anecdote 4 narrated by Abou-Zaid himself. This Makamah was published,

4 and being read by Abou-Nasr Anoushirwan, Vizeer of the 4 Khaliph Mostarshid Billahi, an erudite and talented person and 4 an author of history, it pleased him so much, that he engaged my 4 father to write more of the same sort 1 , which he did, and com- 4 pleted their number to fifty. It is to this Vizeer that my father 4 alludes in the Preface of his Makamat, where he speaks of a 4 personage, a suggestion from whom is obligatory, and obedience 4 to whose behests is clear gain.” I found, says Ibn Khalekan, an 4 account similar to this in many historical works; but happening to 4 be at Cairo in the year 656 (a. h.), I saw there a copy of several 4 of the Makamat in Hariri’s own hand-writing, with an inscrip- 4 tion on the cover, stating that such was the case, and that 4 they had been composed expressly for Jelaal-addeen Ibn Sadakah,

4 who, as well as Anourshirwan (above mentioned) was a Vizeer of 4 Mostarshid Billahi; and this account is certainly more to be 4 relied on than the other, as having been written by the author’s 4 own hand. There is also a discrepancy in the accounts of the

1 This account from the mouth of Hariri’s son does not agree with the whole of the account given by Hariri himself in his preface, (pag. 26), where he states that it was a conversation about the Makamat of a preceding author, A1 Hamadani, that suggested to the Vizeer to request him to com¬ pose some after that model, ‘however difficult it might be for him,’ as he says, 4 to try to equal the excellence of so distinguished an author.’

INTRODUCTION.

‘ reason that suggested to Hariri to make a person named Abou- ‘ Zaid 1 the principal character who displays his eloquence in all the

* Makamat. One account is that given above. Another narrated

* by Jamaal-addeen Ibn Yousouf, governor of Aleppo, in his

* “ Biography of Grammarians,” is that “ Hariri intends under this

* name to represent a pupil of his own, one Motahher Ibn Salaam, ‘ a native of Basra, who cultivated grammar and lexicography, ‘ and having pursued his studies under the auspices and with ‘ the assistance of Hariri, became thereby a great adept in them, ‘ insomuch that on one occasion he repeated by heart to the ‘ governor of Waset a grammatical work of Hariri, written In

* verse, entitled Moulhat A1 Irab (the beauties of Syntax)” The 4 name Hareth Ibn Hammam, by which Hariri designates the 4 reporter of Abou-Zaid’s adventures and performances in the 4 Makamat, is also fictitious. Many commentators assert that he 4 intends thereby to denote himself 2 * . The name is borrowed from

1 Whoever the original of the Abou-Zaid in the Makamat may have been, it is evident that this is a fictitious name, being one of the most ordi¬ nary that could be selected. The name Zaid is used by the Arabs to denote 4 any man whatever,' (e. g. in the examples of grammatical rules) and cor¬ responds nearly with the Hebrew or the Greek o Privet, or the English ‘such an one,' so that the name 4 Abou-Zaid' is equivalent to ‘any body’s father,’ and is analogous to that of the corresponding character in the Makamat of AlHamadani, viz. Abou’l Fateh (‘the young man’s father’),a name, as Hariri himself observes (pag. 25), ‘too ordinary and general to be recognised as the designation of a particular individual/

2 This is not improbable; because Hareth is always represented in the

Makamat as a native of Basra, as generally in easy circumstances, as en¬ gaged in trade, as a tolerable proficient in literature, and as entertaining a great admiration for feats of eloquence like those of Abou-Zaid_all cir¬

cumstances which characterized Hariri himself.

INTRODUCTION.

* an expression attributed to Mohammed, who said to his followers, c “ each of you is a Hareth, and every one of you a Hammam.”

‘ The word “ Hareth” signifies " one who acquires gain by trade c or other means,” and Hammam, “ one who is subject to cares 1 and anxieties,” so that there is not an individual of mankind c to whom these names may not be properly applied 1 . I have i read in a collection of narratives that Hariri at first composed