MESA Banner
Lost Virgins Found: Is this the oldest extant Andalusian songbook?
Abstract
In 1902 Philippe El Khazen published a collection of muwashshah poetry that he titled al-'adhara al-ma'isat fi l-azjal wa-l-muwashshahat [The Swaying Virgins on Zajals and Muwashshahat] (Jounieh: Matba'at al-Arz). The book is mysterious in several ways. First, many of the poems/songs are preceded by musical terms (a common practice in songbooks from the 10th century CE onwards), but the technical musical terminology comes from both the North African and the Levantine traditions, which in pre-modern times possessed completely distinct musical vocabularies, and this is utterly unique. Second, several of the poems are introduced with the context for their composition and when the Sultan of Granada is mentioned, his title is followed by the phrase "May God aid him and grant him victory!" apparently indicating that at least part of this collection was assembled when Muslims still ruled in Granada. Third, the collection includes poems by several of the most famous Andalusian poets which do not appear in their modern published diwans (compiled works). But the most mysterious aspect of this work is its origin. El Khazen wrote that he was in Rome in 1900 browsing through the library of the Monastery of St. Antonius (Anthony) "belonging to the monks of Aleppo" when he stumbled upon a tattered manuscript in maghrebi script which contained remarkable fragments of poetry "whose creators had gone beyond the meters of classical Arabic poetry." He was so taken with them that he copied out many of them and put them into the volume which he later published as "The Swaying Virgins." The great scholar of the Andalusian literature Samuel Miklos Stern twice wrote that he had heard of this manuscript and thought it to be quite ancient. He also wrote that his friend Giorgio Della Vida had located the original manscript in Rome and was sending him a copy. But the manuscript never arrived. It was not found in Stern's personal possessions when he died and did not make its way into the Oxford libraries. It also apparently did not accompany Giorgio Della Vida when he fled the Nazis and emigrated to America. And there is no Monastery of St. Anthony or Antonius in Rome. The manuscript, lost since 1900, has recently been found after a seven-year search. This presentation consists of a description of the manuscript and some preliminary conclusions about its provenance and significance.
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
Spain
Sub Area
13th-18th Centuries