The Satirical Poets of the Caliphate
Within a few centuries after the death of Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632 AD, the various Islamic dynasties that succeeded him controlled territory from Spain in the West to parts of Northwestern India in the East. Poets were an integral part of the new and growing civilization. They maintained roles in the courts of rulers, they were present at battles to encourage soldiers, and they were, in a few cases, the targets of political assassinations.
Among the great Arab traditions is satirical poetry, which is largely composed of personal insults and graphic sexual imagery. Despite often being sophomoric in nature, their subject matter gives insight into a changing civilization during this time of rapid growth.
The nomadic inhabitants of pre-Islamic Arabia had more respect for spoken poetry than the written word, and this gave rise to a rich oral tradition. Competitive politics driven by sparse resources and tribal loyalties led to a form of poetry known as hija. The aim of the poet was to use humor to defame one’s enemy and defend one’s own tribe. Scholar of Islam Ignac Goldziher proposed a theory in the 19th century that these poems started out as magical curses. By the time Muhammad preached Islam in the 7th century, notions of magical powers died but satirical poets remained a powerful political force in Arabia.
In The First Muslim, author Lesley Hazleton describes satirical poetry, as, “verses laced with vivid and often bawdy puns and double entendres, the more biting the better.” Hazleton then describes the story of ʻAṣmāʼ bint Marwān. In the city of Yathrib (modern-day Medina), the feuding tribes of al-Kharzraj and al-Aws, in an attempt to reconcile their feud, accepted Muhammad as a leader.Asma bint-Marwan, a female poet from a clan that opposed Muhammad’s rule, reportedly recited this verse in opposition:
Will you be cuckolds?
Allowing this stranger to take over your nest?
You put your hopes in him like men greedy for warm barley soup.
Is there no man who will step up and cut off this cuckoo?
According to the account that Hazleton relates, Muhammad said, “Will nobody rid me of this woman?” and one of Asma’s kinsmen killed her in her sleep.
Most historians debate the authenticity of the story, but its existence shows that leaders in Arab society were cognizant of satire’s power. Another indication of its power is in the Quranic Surah (chapter) “The Poets,” which states, “Poets are followed by erring men. Behold how aimlessly they rove in every valley, preaching what they never practice.” [Koran, 26:224]
During the rule of the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik (685–704 AD), the newly standardized Arabic language replaced Greek in administration and scholarship. The poets within the courts of the Umayyad Caliphate continued the early Arab tradition of using hija poetry to defame rivals, but in this era, it was less about tribal battles and more about personal prestige. One of the most famous rivalries was between the court poets al-Farazdaq and al-Jarir, whose 40-year rivalry created over 100 poems with obscene insults that are even shocking by today’s standards and pioneered a genre called naqaith. In one line, al-Jarir accuses al-Farazdaq of bestiality by saying, “There was no Muslim neighbor who could keep a scabby camel safe on one of al-Farazdaq’s sleepless nights.”
Later on in their rivalry, al-Farazdaq uses a colorful metaphor to describe his superior poetic skills:
You worried about Banu Numayr lampooning you
And you left your mother’s ass open to the archers
Observe me and your mother when I shoot
At her ass crack with piercing arrows!
According to Dr. Cory Jorgensen, Professor of Arabic at George Washington University, these poems were structurally similar to earlier hija poems, but they reflected the transition to a settled, urban society. “In that era, in that place, you weren’t worried about tribes breaking out into open warfare over poetry,” Jorgensen says. “But rather, the poets were using the same sort of idiom, very similar tropes to what their predecessors did. But this time in the hopes of vaunting themselves and their own abilities as poets.”
During the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 AD), the tradition of satire continued to grow and move beyond tribal rivalries. The Persian-Arab poet Abū Nuwās wrote verses about urban life in addition to the traditional Bedouin topics of war and desert life. To the chagrin of many of his contemporaries, these included forbidden topics like homoeriticism, wine, and sophomoric insults.
In one incident, Abū Nuwās’ turns his satirical skills toward the topic of personal wealth. A poet named Aban, who was the artistic patron of the politically influential Barmecide family in Baghdad, gave Abū Nuwās a paltry two dinars for his work. Abū Nuwās slapped Aban and sarcastically accused Aban’s mother of being a prostitute. He also accused Aban of taking those two dinars from her earnings. He went on to pen a series of hija poems insulting him, including one describing a fictional letter sent from Aban’s mother saying that she got the spelling of his name wrong when she named him. He said Aban’s name should actually be Atan, the Arabic word for donkey.
As the Muslim empires expanded and paper replaced parchment in the 9th century, scholars in the Muslim world had increasing access to knowledge from the outside world. The 9th-century African-Arab scholar al-Jāḥiẓ wrote on topics ranging from literary criticism to theology to Greek philosophy. He believed hija was an effective way to entertain others, and he brought his eclectic interests to traditional satire. For example, in one of his biological works, he jokes about the human fixation on penis sizes by joking that, “if the length of a penis were a sign of honor, the mule would belong to the honorable tribe of Quraysh.” Among his other satirical works are The Book of Misers, in which al-Jāḥiẓ uses satire to denigrate greed, and Squaring and Circling, which criticizes pseudoscience.
In 711 AD, the Umayyad Caliphate began to conquer most of Iberia, known in Arabic as al-Andalus, and the region became an artistic and intellectual center. Although different from hija poems of the Arabian Peninsula, satire remained a popular literary genre. One of the more famous examples was the work of 11th-century poet Wallada bint al-Mustakfi. Her use of graphic sexual imagery was in line with previous invective poetry, but her individualism as a female poet was notable. She famously refused to wear the traditional hijab, and one of her robes prominently featured the the embroidered words, “I am, by Allah, fit for high positions / And am going my way, with pride.”
Wallada’s secret relationship with fellow poet Ibn Zaydun is the subject of some of her most famous works. Her love poems famously reversed gender roles by being written from a female perspective, but she gained respect through her invective poetry. Wallada became estranged from ibn-Zaydun, and the two poets traded insults, including the following poem from Wallada, accusing her former lover of same-sex relationships:
Because of his love for the rods in the trousers, Ibn Zaydun
In spite of his excellence
If he would see a penis in a palm tree
He would belong to the birds called ababil
Many of these poems contain verses that one might consider crass. However the writers of hija poetry and those influenced by them held prestigious positions, which is indicative of their importance in early Islamic society. Abu-Nuwas was present in the court of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid; al-Jarir and al-Farazdaq received patronage from various governors and emperors; and Wallada bint al-Mustakfi was a princess who ran a literary salon some believe influenced European romantic poetry.
As Islamic society grew, poetic satire remained a consistent fixture of society. However, the form evolved to reflect a new, growing civilization. Insults remained the primary objective, but the nature of these insults changed. Hija, an art form that possibly originated as magical curses against enemies, influenced poetry that encompassed tribal war, non-violent personal rivalries, love, and even science and philosophy. It was a product of a nomadic Bedouin culture, but poets from areas like Persia, Africa, and Iberia adopted its techniques. The work of these poets gives a unique insight into the priorities of an ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse society during a period of immense growth.
