15 - Ibn Zaydūn

Summary

Writing in the fourteenth century, the renowned literary critic al-Ṣafadī recorded a current definition of the ultimate ẓarf, “sophistication” or “elegance,” a quality highly prized and contested in Arab social and literary circles throughout premodern times. The true sophisticate is one who “wears robes of white and rings of carnelian, recites the Qurʾan according to the reading of Abū ʿĀmr, knows the sacred law according to the tradition of al-Shafii, and relates the poetry of Ibn Zaydūn” (al-Maqqarī 3:566). This recipein- a-nutshell for the attainment of social polish reflects the high aesthetic regard in which Ibn Zaydūn’s poetry has been held in the Arabic literary tradition. Often described as a master of passion and longing, Ibn Zaydūn is generally held to be the outstanding Arab poet of al-Andalus and ranks among the most illustrious love poets in all Arabic literature. His stormy love affair with Wallāda, the daughter of the Umayyad caliph al-Mustakfī, takes its place alongside the Eastern stories of Laylā and Majnūn, Buthayna and Jamīl, as a classic tale of passion and separation that lives on in the Arab imagination and figures prominently, if in bowdlerized version, in modern schoolbooks. Ibn Zaydūn’s poetry also seems to capture the essence of Andalusian poetry at large, shining in two areas considered characteristic fortes of Andalusian literature: the description of gardens and the relatively unstylized presentation of emotion and experience. In its forthrightness, Ibn Zaydūn’s work recalls that of his contemporary Ibn Ḥazm.