Innovating and Breaking Metrical Patterns in the Poetry of Al-Maqāmāt al-Luzūmiyya by al-Saraqusṭī (VI/XIIth Century)

Abstract

Al-Maqāmāt al-Luzūmiyya, a collection of 50 picaresque-like stories couched in rhymed prose by Abū l-Ṭāhir al-Saraqusṭī in al-Andalus in the VI/XIIth century, were considered by Western scholars, up until the eighties of XXth century, as highly rhetorical pieces with a negligible and irrelevant content. However, some contemporary scholars argued that they contain some degree of social and political criticism, as they constitute a fictional domain in which subversion and irony play a fundamental role. In this paper, we cast some light on the particular use of metrical patterns in Al-Maqāmāt al-Luzūmiyya, which should be considered another subversion field: a poetical rhythm that avoids the most usual Arabic metrical patterns, contributing to provide the maqāma a flavor of the countergenre.