چكيده لاتين :
1. Introduction
Maqama was widely used in classical Arabic literature, and several
writers experimented with this genre, to the extent that it spread to
other languages, including Hebrew and Syriac, and influenced the
emergence of the Picaresque. Persian language was not excluded as
well; Hamid al-Din Balkhi (d. 559 AH/ 1164 CE), the Supreme Judge
of Balkh, completed his Maqamat in 551 AH/1156 CE. The reputation
of Hamidi's Maqamat was remarkable. Nezami Aroozi regarded it as a
model for writing maqama (Nezami Aroozi, 2010: 21); Sa'd al-Din
Varavini praised the rhyme-making (Saj') of Hamid al-Din (Varavini,
1909: 2); Awfi considered his style very gentle and rhythmic at the
same time (Awfi, 1906: 1/1999).
It would be strange if a work with such a reputation did not continue
in literary history. The main object of this study is to search for the
continuation of maqama genre in the history of Persian literature and
to verify the validity of the famous statement demonstrated that
"maqama genre was not continued in Persian literature as opposed to
Arabic literature, just it was continued in some indirect method by
Saadi and his followers".
2. Methodology
Maqama is a literary genre (Brockelmann and Pellat, 1991:
"Makama"; Hämeen-Anttila, 2002). According to Wellek and Warren,
"Genre should be conceived, we think, as a grouping of literary works
based, theoretically, upon both outer form (specific metre or structure) and also upon inner form (attitude, tone, purpose - more crudely,
subject and audience)" and they pointed out that "our conception of
genre should lean to the formalistic side" (Wellek and Warren, 2004:
266-268). Also, the focus in this study is on the external form.
The most obvious feature of maqama form is the use of rhyme (saj')
and the use of verse in the prose. These features became common in
Arabic prose in the 4th lunar century, and after Badi-ol-Zaman al-
Hamedani, the authors had no problem following the requirements of
this genre, even if the quality of their work and rhymes varied.
The most characteristic structural feature of maqama in the writings of
al-Hamedani and al-Hariri is the existence of two characters, the
narrator (rawi) and the hero (wa'iz/baligh) in each maqama. However,
many later writers of maqama dispensed with the first character
(Brockelmann and Pellat, 1991: "Makama").
Maqama has a certain narrative structure. Kilito decomposed it as
follows: "arrival of the rawi in a town, encounter with the disguised
baligh (the eloquent man = the hero), speech, reward, recognition,
reproach, justification, parting." (Quoted from Brockelmann and
Pellat, 1991: "Makama").
Hämeen-Anttila lists another structure for the maqama that is more
comprehensive: "Isnad, General introduction, Link, Episode(s),
Recognition scene, Envoi, Final" (Hämeen-Anttila, 2002: 45).
In this study, we consider a work as maqama that has the above
features, or most of them, in the external form, such as literary style
and narrative pattern, and that has two characters.
3. Discussion
The above characteristics have been studied in several resalehhhs
(tractate). Among those resalehhs, the following have been influenced
by maqama structure and some of them should be considered as
maqama.
"Monazerat al-Ward va Bent al-Karam" (the Debate between the Red
Flower and the Wine) by Abu Sa'd Tirmidhi (Tirmidhi, 2014) was
written in 585 AH (26 years after Hamidi's death) and broke a new
ground in Persian maqama writing.
In maqama "al-Rabi'ia" by Hamidi, the hero (waiz) quotes from
personified flowers, but in resalehhh of Abu Sa'd, the Gol and the
Mol (the Red flower and the Wine) become the main characters speaking to each other.
The resalehhh of Abu Sa'd is the beginning of the transformation of
maqama into zaban-e hal debate in which flowers and things speak to
each other (Hamidi used the term "Zaban-e Hal" for utterances of
flowers in maqama "al-Rabi'ia"). The zaban-e hal debate had a history
in mystical works before him (Bahr al-Fawaid, 1967: 461 & 465;
Mahmoud Ebn Uthman, 1980: 545; Meybodi, 1970: 59, Ansari,
1994: 1/375), but was not an independent resalehhh and did not have
the narrative pattern of maqama. Using the experiences of Judge
Hamid al-Din, Abu Sa'd established a link between maqama and
zaban-e hal and detached zaban-e hal from the mystical context of
earlier works. Maqama had no precedent in Persian before him. He
gave maqama independence by adding literary praise to it and
demonstrated the ability of this format to write a panegyric (madh). In
this resalehhh, the narrator is the author himself. The same is true of
the maqama of Husaybiyah (Ibn Zubayr, 2002: 45) and is frequently
repeated in later Arabic maqamas as well (Hämeen-Anttila, 2002:
185). Tirmidhi's envoi is not about the disappearance of the
protagonist. One of the innovations of Abu Sa'd is that in the fourth
debate, the Gol and the Mol each recite short qasidas in praise of the
Praised One (mamdouh), and envoi of the resalehh, like a Ta'bid
prayer (a prayer for the immortality of the Praised One), comes at the
end of the qasida.
"Resalehhh-ye Chang" (The Tractate of Harp) is a resalehhh by Judge
Kamal al-Din Ahmad Maraghi (d. 665 AH) which begins with Isnad
and takhalos (Maraghi, 1998: 151).
"Jedal-e Saadi ba Modda'i" (Saadi's Dispute with the Plaintiff) from
Golestan was also considered as maqama by other scholars, including
Ebrahimi Hariri (Ebrahimi Hariri, 2005: 421), who considered it
more similar to the style of maqama than the rest of Golestan.
Among the personification resalehhhs of Wassaf al-Hadhra, "Badi' al-
Rabi'" (Spring Freshness) (2020) resembles maqama, which is not a
debate; it is the author's dialogue with the nightingale about love and
separation.
Mohammad Zangi Bukhari (who died after 713 AH) experimented
with different prose genres and wrote, among others, a maqama,
which, unlike other works studied, is also entitled "Maqama". Zangi
exactly followed the narrative model of Hamidi's maqamas in the maqama of "Al-Monazerat bayn Al-Mosaferayn" (the Debate
between Travelers) or "The Debate between the Traveler of the
World of Appearance and the Traveler of the World of Meaning"
(Zangi Bukhari, 1994: 79-94). Also, the narrative pattern of his
"Monazere-ye Mavizab va Foqa'e Ajami@n" (the Debate between
Two Kinds of Drink) is similar to that of maqama.
"Manazarat al-Sam' va al-Basar" (the Debate between Hearing and
Sight) is a debate by the owner of the "Safine-ye Tabriz", Abu al-
Majd Tabrizi, which should be considered as a complete maqama in
which he has brought the isnad after the general introduction (Abu al-
Majd Tabrizi, 2003: 241).
Khaju-ye Kermani (689-753 AH/1280-1352 CE) wrote four
resalehhhs in 748 AH. The beginning of all four resalehhhs is the
same: Tahmidiyeh (praise of Allah), Isnad, panegyric, and the general
introduction of the story. They end with an explanation of the
resalehhh and a verse. Generally, in "Monazerat Namad va Boria"
(The Felt and Mat Debate), more principles of Maqama genre were
observed (Khaju-ye Kermani, 2021: 96). In this resalehh, Khaju has
combined a maqama with a newer subgenre of maqama, the zaban-e
hal debate.
"Rishnameh" is a satirical treatise by Obaid Zakani in which he
condemns the beard. In the beginning, there is not isnad and the
author himself is the narrator of the story (Obaid Zakani, 1999: 333).
This resalehhh is a parody of maqama in terms of both theme and
structure. The author has become the narrator, but instead of the
narrator traveling and finding the hero deep in a meeting, the narrator
stays at home, and it is the hero (Rish al-Din Abu al-Mahasin) who
comes to the narrator's house and finds him deep in a conversation
with imagination. If in the debates the parties were looking for
superiority and proof of their goodness, here Obaid is only concerned
with showing the ugliness of the beard. At the end of resalehhh,
unlike the usual debates which end with compromises, the angry
beard leaves the debate.
"Monazerat bayn Al-Seyf va Al-Qalam" (The Debate between the
Sword and the Pen) is a resaleh by Abu Sa'ed Mohammad Ibn Abul-
Futuh Al-Ya'qubi Al-Tusi written in 769 AH, in which the narrative
structure of maqama can be observed (Ya'qubi Tusi, 1978, 27-54).
Saen al-Din Ali Torkeh (d. 835 Ah/ 1432 CE) paid attention to the narrative structure of maqama in several of his treatises. Saen al-Din
charted a new path for the maqama debate. He used the experience of
Abu Sa'd and created a zaban-e hal story from the controversy of two
emirs, each of whom has assistants who take on roles in the story.
The beginning of the story is maqama-like and part of it is zaban-e
hal debate (see Ebn Torke Isfahani, 1997; 2017: 69; 1973: 103).
"Sham'-e Jam'" (Candle of the Company) is a resalehh by Mohammad
Ibn Abd al-Latif Vafai, an author of the 9th century AH. This resale
contains two debates between the wineglass and the wine, and the
wisdom, the soul, and the heart.
"Kanz al-Lataif" is a humorous resaleh with technical and artificial
prose attributed to Obaid Zakani but almost certainly written by
another author who, according to a passage at the end of the treatise,
finished it in 877 AH. This resaleh is a debate between the male and
female genital organs, and it, like "Rishnameh," should be regarded
as a parody of the maqama's overall structure (Obaid Zakani, 1999:
375-394).
"Monazere-ye Rooze va Eid" (The Debate between Fasting and the
Eid) is a resaleh by Idris Bedlisi (856-926 AH/1452-1520 CE), which
can be considered as two successive maqamas (2004). Bedlisi has
another detailed creative resaleh called "Mir'at al-Jamal" (2017) or
"The Debate of the Sun and the Moon", which should be considered
as zaban-e hal story, similar to the resaleh of Saen al-Din.
"Hosn va Eshgh" (Beauty and Love) is an allegorical resaleh by
Fuzuli Baghdadi (2001), the beginning of which is maqama-like and
has a short debate in it. Although it is influenced by maqama
narrative pattern, it shouldn’t be considered as maqama.
"Maqama fil-Kharif" (Maqama of Autumn) is a forged maqama
included in the later manuscripts of Hamidi's maqamas (Anzabinejad,
Introduction to Hamid al-Din Balkhi, 2017: 11).
"Kanz al-Salekin" is a resaleh attributed to Khaje Abdullah Ansari,
but it is most likely not written by him (Pourjavadi, 2014: 613).
Compared to other works of Khaje Abdullah, there is generally more
rhyme and insertions of verses in this resaleh. For this reason, the
editor of this resaleh has rightly called it "a kind of maqama writing
experience" (Molaei, Introduction to Ansari, 1994: 1/One hundred
and ninety-three). The first chapter, "Dar Maqalat-e Aql va Eshq" (Of
Reason and Love) (Ansari, 1994: 2/542-551), is a complete maqama and this adaptation to the structure of maqama is another reason that
makes the attribution of this treatise to Khaje Abdullah uncertain. The
sixth chapter of this resaleh, which is about "the pride of youth and
elderly fall", seems to have been influenced by "Maqama al-Rabi'ia"
attributed to Judge Hamid al-Din, i.e., "Al-Kharifiya". It is interesting
to note that the narrator in this resaleh meets another character before
the journey (when going to the garden), i.e., takhalos precedes the
general introduction (with travelling theme).
4. Conclusion
In the narrative structure of Hamidi's Maqamas, links and general
introductions were more prevalent than other narrative elements.
These two sections also have the most repetitions in works influenced
by Maqamas. Maqama-like conclusions have the least repetition
among the main elements of maqama. The envoi, although repetitive,
cannot necessarily be considered under the influence of maqama
narrative pattern. Only in "Monazarat al-Ward va Bent al-Karam"
(The Debate of the Flower and the Wine), "Badi' al-Rabi'" (Spring
Freshness) and "Monazerat beyn Al-Seyf va Al-Qalam" (The Debate
between the Sword and the Pen), the envoi plays a structural role and
is closely related to the text. Two sub-elements are also common in
these works: the description of the night and the dawn in the
introduction and the representation of the story in a dream.
These works can be divided into several categories:
1. Debates: three-fourths of the above resalehs are debates, totally or
partially. Only the authors of two resalehs have not used zaban-e hal,
i.e., "Jedale Saadi ba Modda'i" (Saadi's Dispute with the Plaintiff) and
the Zangi's maqama.
2. Zaban-e hal conversations: these include "Chang", "Badi' al-Rabi'"
and "Serajie" resalehs, in which a person asks another being (harp,
nightingale, lamp) about the secret of their burning and they answer.
3. Parodies: including "Rishname" and "Kanz al-Lataif".
4. Zaban-e hal stories: In these works, a debate is only part of the
story. The beginning of these works should be considered as a resaleh
by Abu Sa'd, because although it is a whole debate, the story takes
place between two emirs, each of whom receives help from their
supporters and assistants. In the resalehs "Razm va Bazm" (War and
Feast), "Aql va Eshgh" (Wisdom and Love), "Hosn va Eshgh" (Beauty and Love), and "Mir'at al-Jamal" (Mirror of Beauty), the plot
has become broader and the debate has faded, and totally, the
distance from magama has become more, whereas "Monazerat al-
Ward va Bent al-Karam" certainly should be considered as maqama.
Riyad al-Afkar by Yar Ali Tabrizi (2004) resembles these works in
plot, but does not have the narrative structure of a maqama.
5. Other works: including "Shaq-e-Qamar and Sa'at" (Moon and Time
Split), "Maqama fil-Kharif" (Maqama of Autumn) and "Ghorour-e
Jawani" (Youth Pride).
Among the subgenres of Maqama, Hamidi used debate more than any
other. After him, debate became the dominant subgenre of maqama in
Persian literature. Debate writing in his style continued in "Jedal-e
Saadi ba Modda'i" and Zangi's maqama, but the authors tended to
zaban-e hal debate in the style of Abu Sa'd Tirmidhi. Narrative
structure also changed significantly, replacing maqama-like endings.
In these debates, the narrative structure of maqama can be seen, and
as Hämeen-Anttila pointed out "it would be somewhat awkward to
rule them out from the genre, yet, in fact, it would be easier to
classify the texts as monazaras rather than maqamas" (2012: 7).
Following the evolution of the zaban-e hal maqama-monazere, a kind
of zaban-e hal story emerged, in which two emirs argue with each
other and seek help from their supporters. In some of these works, the
debates faded and totally, the distance from maqama and its structure
has become more.
As far as literary style is concerned, all works mentioned have the
main features of the style of maqama prose, but differ in the degree of
commitment to rhyme (saj'). Numerous works in Arabic maqamas do
not have Hariri's commitment to rhyme, as well as in some Persian
works, the commitment to rhyme is less than Hamidi's. authors of
mentioned works, have used verses (tazmin) in prose (except in
Fuzuli's tractate). It should be noted that parallel to zaban-e hal
maqama-monazere, the rhymed zaban-e hal debates without the
narrative structure of the maqama have also flourished (see:
Pourjavadi, 2014).
Persian writers tended to write individual maqamas, and after Hamidi
no more maqama collections were written before Restoration
(Bazgasht period). In Arabic literature, writers from the eastern part
of the Arab world considered writing single maqamas as a kind of hobby, and maqama writer was someone who wrote a collection of
maqamas. In contrast, in the western part of the Islamic world, in
Andalusia, there was a greater tendency to write individual maqamas
(Hämeen-Anttila, 2002: 176 & 179).
Most of the mentioned Persian literary works had the narrative
structure of maqama, but the maqama title wasn’t given to most of
them. Similar to Arabic literature, several works with the titles risala
(resaleh) and hadith followed the obligations of maqama genre
(Hämeen-Anttila, 2002: 126; Brockelmann and Pellat, 1991:
"makama").
In order to study the development of maqamas in more details, it is
necessary to examine several unpublished manuscripts. However, a
consideration of the above resalehs shows that, contrary to common
belief, maqama was not continued in Persian literature as opposed to
Arabic literature; it was continued only in some indirect method by
Saadi and his followers. In Persian literature, maqama has been a
living and dynamic literary genre that has undergone various changes
to return to its origins in Bazgasht period.
