The Muwashshaḥāt and the Kharjas Tell their Own Story

Abstract

The best way for understanding any literature, we are told, is by reading the literature itself, and not what has been said or written about it. This article, in four parts, is an attempt to study the muwashshaḥāt and their kharjasdepending, as far as possible, solely on the available texts. It arrives at three conclusions not altogether new to my readers: 1. The muwashshaḥāt were the product of the classical Arabic literary tradition, but their development is, inevitably, linked with specific political and social factors in the Andalusi milieu. 2. The kharja is a sally of ẓarf or hazl 'wit', 'wittiness' at the end of the muwashshaḥ. Woman's-voice kharjas in Romance, whatever the purpose they served, if they existed prior to the muwashshaḥāt, were, like their Arabic counterparts, meant to provide the same ẓarf requirement at the end of the muwashshaḥ. 3. Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk's reaction to the kharja was largely a psychological reaction, and not a considered literary one. The best way of knowing what Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk thought of the muwashshaḥāt is by reading the muwashshaḥs he wrote, and not what he had to say about the kharja.