THE ANDALUSI MUWASHAH

THE GENRE

Of all the forms known to Arabic literature in al-Andalus, only strophic poetry is known to have originated on the peninsula. Despite certain characteristic thematic features, the Andalusian qasida and maqama remained principally products of the Muslim East, but strophic poetry is a quintessentially Andalusian creation and the most complete literary embodiment of the multiethnic and multilingual fabric of Andalusian society. The pride that Andalusians and Maghribis took in these genres is echoed well into the fourteenth century by Ibn Khaldūn, whose survey of Arabic literature culminates in an account of Andalusian strophic poetry. In both its varieties, the muwashshah – the prosodically more complicated form, employing classical language in all but its concluding couplet – and the zajal – which is simpler in form and vernacular throughout – Andalusian strophic poetry is indeed the most distinguished contribution of the Muslim West to the history of Arabic poetry, and its forms are most explicitly involved with the universe of incipient Romance lyrics.

The muwashshah is written in Classical Arabic, and its subjects are those of Classical Arabic poetry —love, wine, court figures. It sharply differs in form, however, from classical poetry, in which each verse is divided into two metric halves and a single rhyme recurs at the end of each verse. The muwashshah is usually divided into five strophes, or stanzas, each numbering four, five, or six lines. A master rhyme appears at the beginning of the poem and at the end of the strophes, somewhat like a refrain; it is interrupted by subordinate rhymes. A possible scheme is ABcdcdABefefABghghABijijABklklAB. The last AB, called kharjah, or markaz, is usually written in vernacular Arabic or in the Spanish Mozarabic dialect; it is normally rendered in the voice of a girl and expresses her longing for her absent lover. Such verses make it probable that the muwashshah was influenced by some kind of European Romance oral poetry or song. Jewish poets of Spain also wrote muwashshahs in Hebrew, with kharjahs in Arabic and Spanish.

FAMOUS EXAMPLE

Lamma Bada Yatathanna (trad. Arab-Andalusian, from the 12th century)

This well beloved piece, a muwashah , is in a 10/8 rhythmic mode called sama'i thaqil  which originated in Al-Andalus.

Arabic:

Lamma bada Yatathanna 

Hubbi jamalu fatanna 

Aman' Aman' Aman' Aman 

Aw ma bi LaHzu asarna 

Ghusnu thana Hinamal  

Lamma bada yatathanna 

Hubbi jamalu fatanna  

Waadi wa ya Hirati 

Man li shafeeashak wati 

Illa maleekul jamal 

Fil hubbi min lawaati 

Lamma bada yatathanna 

Hubbi jamalu fatanna

English:

She walked with a swaying gait

her beauty amazed me

Her eyes have taken me prisoner 

Her stem folded as she bent over

Oh, my promise, oh, my perplexity

Who can answer my lament of love and distress

but the graceful one, the queen of beauty?

Know more about:
http://www.sharjahart.org/programmes/web-radio1/episode-3-al-muwashshah

In Memory of the Aleksandrinke - Alexandrian Women

The “Aleksandrinke”, Slovenian women who owing to the difficult economic circumstances in what was at the time Italian Primorska at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century went to Egypt in search of employment, many of whom remained there, are a special phenomenon among Slovenian emigrants who should not be forgotten. They were between 4800 and 6000 mostly young mothers and girls from the Gorica area who worked in then-flourishing Alexandria and Cairo, mainly as maids, nannies, cooks and nursemaids for the families of wealthy townsfolk, the majority of whom were European. The economic heyday of Alexandria, which paralleled the construction of the Suez Canal in the second half of the 19th century, made it possible for Slovenian women to earn at least twice as much as they would at home in the economically straitened Gorica area, and spread the good reputation of disciplined, hard-working and well-kempt Slovenian maids far and wide. The situation in Cairo, 250 km away, was the same. The town chronicles speak clearly about how valued Primorska women were in Egypt, stating that a full 195 bourgeois families were vying for three Slovenian maids, as there simply weren’t any more available. At the same time, their good reputation led to some of them going back to Egypt several times, many of them to stay.

Complete reading:
http://www.slovenia.si/visit/features/aleksandrinke-slovenian-women-in-egypt/

Heroine of the resistance: Lalla Fatma N’Soumer

Lalla Fatma N'’Soumer, heroine of the Djurdjura, was born in a village near Ain El Hammam in 1830, the year when the French occupied Algeria. Her real name was Fatma Sid Ahmed. The nickname, N’Soumer, was given to her because of her  strength and because she lived in the village of Soumer.

Fatma's father was the head of the Qur’anic School, which was linked with the Zawyia Rahmaniya of Sidi Mohamed Ibn Abderrahmane Abu Qabrein. At a young age, Fatma memorized the Qur'an, simply by listening to her father’s disciples when they chanted the various surats (chapters). Those close to her described her as having a stupendous memory and being greatly gifted.

After her father’s death, Fatma directed the Qur’anic school with her brother, Si Mohand Tayeb. She took special care of the children and the poor. In addition to her great piety, her notable wisdom, and piercing intelligence, she had an excellent reputation throughout the region of Kabylia. Fatma N’Soumer was only sixteen years old when French soldiers occupied Kabylia.

The region was taken like the country's other regions, not without violent fighting. But the insurrection led by Lalla Fatma N’Soumer remains one of the most important because of this lady fighter’s bravery and nobility. The enemy referred to her as the Joan of Ark of the Djurdjura, a comparison that the religious Fatma N’Soumer did not accept. Armed with an unshakable faith, she threw herself in bloody battles to push back the enemy.

In Oued Sebaou, in 1854, when Fatma was 24 years old, she gave the French army (several times her superior in number and supplies) a lesson in courage and determination. During this famous battle, led by Mohamed El Amdjed Ibn Abdelmalek (nicknamed Boubaghla), who almost gave the French troops the advantage, Fatma, heading an army of men and women, took control and led her people to victory, a victory that was heralded throughout Kabylia. The mosques, zawiyas, and Qur’anic schools burst into chants of praise in honor of the heroine of the Djurdjura.

General Randon, who did not accept this defeat, asked the inhabitants of Azazga to help him reach Fatma N’Soumer’s quarters and to end "her legend and misdeeds." The response to his emissary was to "Go to the one who sent you, and tell him our ears cannot hear the language of he who asks us to betray." The reaction of the general in turn was that "as long as they remain deaf to our appeals, I will make them hear the sound of our cannons."

Fatma N’Soumer did not give up. Even after the fall of Azazga and the ferocious repression by Randon’s troops, she mobilized the population and led more battles. She called her people to "fight for Islam, the land, and liberty. They are our constant, and they are sacred. They can neither be the object of concessions nor haggling." Her strong personality had a strong influence on all of Kabylia, shown by the sacrifice and determination of the people during all the battles, especially those of Icherridene and Tachkrit, where the enemy troops were greatly defeated. The latter took place on July 18, 1854, and resulted in a heavy toll for the enemy: 800 dead of which 56 were officers and 371 injured.

Randon finally asked for a cease-fire, which was accepted by Fatma N’Soumer, a political and military strategic decision. She planned to use the period of the cease-fire to improve her organization and reinforce her troops. The fields were plowed and sowed, and arms factories were installed in all corners of the region. However, this cease fire, like other signed cease fires and treaties, like those with Emir Abdelkader, was not respected by the French. After three years, in 1857, they broke their word after having prepared their armies and launched offensives against several large cities which where, until then, difficult to overtake.

Fatma N’Soumer, whose influence motivated the fighters for freedom, appealed to the people for a last and supreme effort. It was a matter of occupying three strategically important positions. Surrounded by women of the region, Lalla Fatma directed the fight and encouraged the volunteers who remained. The battle was lost, however.

In the same year, Fatma was arrested, imprisoned in the Issers then in Tablat. The French soldiers spent her fortune, which had been used toward caring for the disciples of her brother’s zawiya. Her rich library, which contained a rich source of scientific and religious works from the region, was completely destroyed.

Lalla Fatma N’Soumer died in 1863. The hardship from her incarceration and the frustration from her inability to act against the aggressions and insults to which her people were submitted, affected her so deeply that her health deteriorated. She was only 33 years old.

Hawa Aden Mohamed: a woman of courage

Hawa Aden Mohamed has dedicated her life to advancing the health and education of Somali women and girls, to providing both emergency and long-term assistance to internally-displaced Somali families, and to abolishing the practice of female genital mutilation. Ms. Mohamed began her work over three decades ago by founding the Refugee Women’s Relief and Development Center. 

Hawa Aden Mohamed, who has come to be known in Galkayo as "Mama" Hawa, has created spaces where displaced women and girls, victims of all sorts of abuse and violence, can find safety, opportunity and be protected and sheltered. Her work stems from a belief that education lies at the root of everything, especially for girls.

Mama Hawa is also a vocal campaigner for women's rights, particularly opposing female genital mutilation (FGM). Her sister died from an infection after she was circumcised at about the age of seven. In addition to advocacy, Mama Hawa's centre provides counselling for circumcised women and girls and survivors of gender-based violence. Every year, some 180 women benefit from these programmes and many lives are saved.

In 2008, Mama Hawa received the Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award presented by Human Rights First in honor of her work to improve the quality of life for Somali women and girls affected by Violence. 

Currently, Mama Hawa serves as the Executive Director of the Galkayo Education Center for Peace and Development (GECPD), a community-based organization in the Puntland area of Somalia. Since it’s founding in 2000, GECPD operates primary and vocational education programs for impoverished, displaced, and minority women and girls and works within communities to promote women’s rights, including combating the grave problems of gender-based violence and female genital mutilation. 

Suor Marie Keyrouz: Un fenomeno vocale liturgico che si possa ascoltare nel mondo.

"Per ascoltare un concerto di suor Marie Keyrouz non basta un cd, bisogna vedere le mani" scrive sul forum di "Le Figaro"

Marie Keyrouz nasce a Deir-El-Ahmar, vicino alla città di Baalbek , maronita di origine e melchita di congregazione religiosa, ha fondato l'Institut international de Chant Sacré a Parigi.

Senza trascurare le musiche antiche d'Occidente;  è riuscita suor Marie Keyrouz a fare arte dalla propria vita e fare della propria vita una opera d’arte. Studiosa di musicologia e antropologia, Marie Keyrouz spazia dal gregoriano al repertorio lirico sacro classico (Bach, Haendel, Mozart). La sicurezza della tecnica vocale le permette una grande intensità espressiva; per questo viene spesso accostata a Maria Callas e Oum Kalsoum, la più celebre artista araba della storia.  La sua arte attraversa la spiritualità che attraverso una relazione tra suono e  lingua crea una sintesi artistica,misteriosa, magica dell’intero monoteismo.

Ha cantato sotto le bombe della guerra in Libano, e la sua melodia è diventata un messaggio di pace per tutti i popoli della terra e perchè chi canta, dice suor Marie, "prega tre volte".

leggi qui tutta l'intervista a suor Marie Keyrouz 

Ascolta la sua intervista

Los Caprichos

Francisco Goya, considered to be "the Father of Modern Art", began his painting career just after the late Baroque period. In expressing his thoughts and feelings frankly, as he did, he became the pioneer of new artistic tendencies which were to come to fruition in the 19th century. 

He is more commonly known for his moving and often disturbing oil on canvas; however, he can also be considered as one of the most important and talented etchers ever to have tried the medium. While it is due to his magnificent rococo inspired portraits that he can claim the epithet "Last of the great masters", it is his post-1790 paintings and, more importantly, his etching and aquatints that earn Goya the ascription "First of the moderns".

However, Goya is perhaps better known for creating images critical of changes in the world around him. His later work famously records scenes of violence and destruction during the Napoleonic wars and openly comments on social injustice and senseless cruelty within Spanish society.  Goya bravely expressed these feelings through his paintings and graphic art. Los Caprichos, his first series of etchings, clearly shows his willingness to record the world as he really saw it, with all its horror, tragedy and ugliness.

Animals, Beasts and Monsters

Many of the 80 prints in Los Caprichos contain imagery of animals, beasts and monsters in a variety of comical, melancholy and sometimes disturbing compositions. 

Donkeys, parrots, bats, goblins, devils and witches not only illustrate the extremes of Goya’s imagination but symbolise his observations of the darker themes of human behaviour in Spanish society. 

In Plates 37 to 42 a series of donkeys dressed as humans plays on the common association of the donkey or ass with foolish or stubborn behaviour. Works portraying the donkey as teacher, music connoisseur or doctor, question roles of knowledge and wisdom in society, while another showing a donkey having his portrait painted by a monkey ridicules the pretentious..

Goya’s distorted caricatures of animals and monsters, and everything in between, examine the more comical and disturbing examples of human behaviour in 18th century Spanish society. For the viewer, they are often bizarre, puzzling or uncomfortable to look at, but without a doubt they stimulate imagination and reflection.

more info:

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/aug2006.html

La diversità è la base su cui si costruisce la vera uguaglianza. -- Moni Ovadia

Moni Ovadia : Lettera di un ebreo agnostico al Papa

".....mi chiamo Moni Ovadia, sono un ebreo agnostico di professione saltimbanco che pratica il suo mestiere contrabbandando la spiritualità dell’esilio ebraico, soprattutto nelle sue espressioni umoristiche e paradossali. Nella vita e sul palcoscenico, sono un “attivista” che, nei limiti delle sue capacità, ma con passione, si impegna a favore dei diritti degli ultimi e delle minoranze, della loro dignità, della giustizia sociale e della pace. Talora mi capita anche di pubblicare le mie personali riflessioni su libri, articoli e altri scritti. Le scrivo per assolvere un dovere e un impegno cogenti. Alcune settimane fa, con decine di migliaia di persone in Italia e non solo, ho condiviso la perdita di un grande amico, un fratello, un Maestro. Si chiamava Andrea Gallo, Don Andrea Gallo, era un prete cattolico. Sì, un prete cattolico!............ continua lettura"