Characteristics of Andalusian Poetry By IBN Zaydun: A Review

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Introduction
Poetry was the very language of public and political debate in the courts of mediaeval Islam, and as a result, a man's fortune might be made or lost based on his ability to write poetry. Individual women, particularly those who operate outside the conventional expectations of the devout, liberated woman, face the same challenges. Their jobs needed to be more solid, which meant they had a higher chance of experiencing social mobility. When it came to court life, poetry was a vital part of it, and its authors may gain or lose political standing depending on how well they understood its norms, (Segol, 2009). The woman's voice communicates feminine desire in mediaeval Arabic literature, even if, as in their western counterparts, women poets were forced to write within a masculine-dominated framework and were nonetheless constrained by the images and subjects produced by males at the time. This gender neutrality was evident in the poetry, frequently leading to a misunderstanding about the authorship of some pieces and their references (Cantarino, 2000). According to Jacquelyn Bessell and Patricia Riddell, Poetry's importance in education concentrates on memorization. In their essay 'Embodiment and Performance', they describe a small-scale study that looked into the significance of bodily movement in memorizing poetry and whether doing physical activities helps memory. They explore the findings connected to embodied cognition, which shows that embodied engagement with poetry can enhance internalization and, consequently, recitation accuracy (Simecek & Rumbold, 2016). Before delving deeper into Qafiyya and Nuniyya, let us look at the poet's life and work as a starting point. What is the actual name of Ibn Zaydun? His real name was 'Abd Allah b. Ahmad b. Galib al-Mahzumi was given the name Abu al-Walid Ahmad when he was born in Cordoba in 1003 as a child. Cordoba, Spain, is located in the heart of the Iberian Peninsula, although Seville has gained significance. According to research conducted by Pinto (2013), the cartographer of this 12th edition suspends time and chronology in showing Cordoba at its political and cultural height in the late 10th century. He died on a negotiation mission as ambassador en route to Seville in 1071. His fame was mainly attributed to his political and adventurous love life, particularly in well-defined segments, which led many researchers and scholars to organize his life into phases like a well-made film. Despite his reputation, his life was believed to be unpredictable, with several courts and palace intrigues forcing him to flee or move between cities until he ultimately lived in Seville before his fated death. Throughout his life, Ibn Zaydun politically served under a few rulers. However, his romantic life was demonstrated to only one such master, Princess Wallada. From the perspective of the people of mediaeval Spain, she was born as the daughter of the Caliph al-Mustakfi and endowed with breathtaking beauty due to her lineage. Many men were attracted to her because of her beauty, blonde hair, blue eyes, and family heritage. However, Ibn Zaydun most successfully won the princess' affection. Their relationship and conflicts were the significant drives of Ibn Zaydun's career as a poet. Furthermore, according to Said (2014), Ibn Zaydun's poetry, his emotional love story with princess Wallada, is among his most well-known works, as is his prose poetry. She contacted Ibn Zaydun when he visited her renowned salon in Cordoba. Their meeting took place among the bustling court life of the city. They made a fantastic team because they were two young women with a wealth of information, finesse, humour, and attractiveness, all in equal measure. However, in addition to writing several poems 55 in grief for his past connection with Princess Walla bint al-Mustakfi, he also penned many lyrics elegizing his favourite city, Mecca, where he lived for many years. His exile manifests itself in chronological and spatial dimensions throughout his poem while he constructs his version of Cordoba from memories from his childhood (Cruz, 2016).

Methodology
The methodology chosen adapted the translated version of Ibn Zaydun's masterpieces of Qafiyya and Nuniyya from well-known sources. Every line or verse of both poems was classified into several parts according to the meaning and significance of each part. Biographies, encyclopaedias, and other reference materials served as starting points for the investigation. After establishing the project's broader historical framework, the researchers reviewed several intellectual materials, including journals and PhD dissertations. Then, each line or verse was analyzed for its fundamental lesson by reading between the lines, which needed the author's talents and judgement to extract the poem's content and communicate it to readers. At the end of each section of discussed poems, the ultimate interpretation of poems was ruled out to conclude the article.

Qafiyya
Qafiyya, as it is written from Al-Zahra, originated from the event in which Princess Wallada rejected Ibn Zaydun for his love and chose Ibn 'Abdus as her lover. During that time, the poet had come back to Cordoba. It was spring, and his desire to see Princess Wallada was too strong, but he was afraid. Walking in Al-Zahra, he comforted himself by writing a poem about Princess Wallada, the Qafiyya. It contains a total of 15 lines/verses. 1.
From Al-Zahra, I remember you with passion. The horizon is clear, the earth's face serene.

2.
The breeze grows faint with the coming of dawn. It seems to pity me and lingers, full of tenderness. 3.
The meandering waterway with its silvery waters shows a sparkling smile. It resembles a necklace unclasped and thrown aside.

4.
A day like those delicious ones has gone by when seizing the dream of destiny; we were pleasure thieves.

5.
Today, alone, I distract myself with flowers that attract my eyes like magnets. The wind roughhouses with them bending them over. 6.
The blossoms aghre eyes. They see my sleeplessness and weep for me; their iridescent tears overflow, staining the calyx. 7.
Redbuds light up the rose bushes in the bright sun, making the morning brighter. 8.
Fragrant breaths come from the pome of the water lilies, sleepyheads with eyes halfopened by dawn. 9.
Everything stirs up the memory of my passion for you still intact in my chest, although my chest might seem too narrow to contain. 10.
If, as I so desire, we two could again be made one, that day would be the noblest of all days. 11.
Would God grant calm to my heart if it could cease to remember you and refrain from flying to your side on wings trembling with desire? 12.
If this passing breeze would consent to carry me along, it would put a man worn out by grief at your feet. 13.
Oh, my most precious jewel, the most sublime, the one preferred by my soul, as if lovers dealt in jewels! 14.
In times gone by, we demanded of each other payments of pure love and were happy as colts running free in a pasture. 15.
I am the only one who can boast of being loyal. You left me, and I stay here, still sad, loving you.
The source of these poems is the book Poems of Arab Andalusia (City Lights Books, 1989), which Cola Franzen translates from the Spanish versions of Emilio García Górmez. Andalusian literature is famous mainly for depicting gardens and natural beauty, and Qafiyya is one of the most exceptional examples of that aspect. An interaction between the poet's mood and surroundings is an element of eastern arabic poetry. Ibn Zaydun brought this feature to a new height, and other poets, such as Ibn Khafaja (Stewart, 2000). The characteristics of natural beauty or surroundings in Qafiyya reflected the mind and feelings of the poet when he composed the poem. It is a symbolic approach for Ibn Zaydun to express his thought and channel what he felt by using the gardens and natural beauty as his subjects, as if nature understood his predicament. Through this characteristic of his poem, Ibn Zaydun may seem to seek comfort from nature, indulging himself in self-thought and swaying amid such beautiful scenery.
This characteristic is brought up by Ibn Zaydun, particularly in Line 2: "It seems to pity me and lingers, full of tenderness" Line 5: "I distract myself with flowers that attract my eyes like magnets" Line 6: "They see my sleeplessness and weep for me" These three lines portray his sadness due to extreme longing for his beloved Princess Wallada, and his emotions blend in with the surroundings, piercing his thought on those parts of nature that respond to him in such a sad way.
Another dominant characteristic of Ibn Zaydun's Qafiyya is the temporality of love (Douglas, 1976). The temporality of love is philosophical in general, involving time. The poet has attained happiness and joy with his lover, Princess Wallada, and yet, in the end, their love affair was just a fleeting dream. The poet concludes that love is temporal; it exists within the flow of time, and love will fade away when time passes. The characteristic appears strongly in Line 4 "A day like those delicious ones now gone." A pleasure once experienced by two lovers is fading, leaving sadness in one's heart. This "back then it was there, but now it has gone" depiction from the line firmly expresses the temporality of love. It is further strengthened in Line 10 "If, as I so desire, we two could again be made one, that day would be the noblest of all days", or in another translated version of Qafiyya by Fedwa Malti Douglas (1976). "If death had fulfilled our union with you, it would have been the most generous of days in character". The poet has succumbed to the fate of his transient love, destined to disappear over time since love might not be as fulfilling as he desires because of this temporality. He could only hope that death would stop the flow of time and disband any temporality, and he will be reunited with his lover forever, and when that day came, it would be the happiest day for him. Another exciting part of this poem concerning the temporality of love is from Line 4 "seizing the dream of destiny we were thieves of pleasure". From these words, one can say that the vision of the future is an imagery of the act of stopping time since "destiny" here is the time of the two lovers' everlasting reunion. They have been deprived of pleasure by time's flow, and in defiance, they halt and rob time's flow to recapture what is rightfully theirs. However, this is only a passing fantasy born of an unending desire for love. Aside from natural beauty and the temporality of love, a distinct characteristic of Ibn Zaydun's Qafiyya is the pain of a man/woman longing for his/her separated lover. Ibn Zaydun and Princess Wallada's relationship is full of ups and downs, like the ocean's tide. Many instances of their life as royalty and political embodiment of medieval Spain brought turmoil to them. Ibn Zaydun was imprisoned during his life, while his betrayal of Princess Wallada on him and his turn to Ibn 'Abdus, a vizier, escalated a bad relationship between them. However, through time, they reconcile and rekindle their love. Unfortunately, they were doomed to be apart, and Ibn Zaydun was saddened, yearning for her days and nights and crying in his heart. Line 9. "Everything stirs up the memory of my passion for you still intact in my chest although my chest might seem too narrow to contain it", describes his overflowing thought of the poet on the princess as their memories intact in his heart. However, it might burst out of his unquenchable desire to see his lover more than anything. His desire to know the princess is so overwhelming that he wishes and prays to God to turn his heart at ease and void of any urge to immediately seek the princess, as he composed in Line 11 "Would God grant calm to my heart if it could cease to remember you and refrain from flying to your side on wings trembling with desire?". Line 12 "If this passing breeze consented to carry me along, it would put down at your feet a man worn out by grief", further reflects the contradictory scenario against Line 11, in which the poet succumbs to his desire to see his lover. By chance, if he is brought forward to meet his lover, all that prevails is the body of a man kneeling before his lover in a pathetic state of great sorrow and grief. These are due to his undisputed love for her, which might transcend his honour as a respected persona during his time.
In the last part of Qafiyya, Line 15 "But now I am the only one who can boast of being loyal. You left me, and I stay here, still sad, still loving you", concluded the poem with an unsatisfactory note on the earlier part of the poem. With all the thoughts and feelings of the poet lamented on them, the ending is far from a glorious one. It is unrequited love, betrayed by the most treasured woman he is dealing with. Loyalty is cruelly one-sided, as the contrasting fidelity between two lovers echoes through the poem's end. His love is not of a mutual relationship, unreciprocated by the princess. However it might be, the poet still loves her wholeheartedly, though great grief awaits him in advance.

Nuniyya
This examination of the characteristics of Ibn Zaydun's Nuniyya is based on Sieglinde Lug's (1981) and Raymond K. Farrin's (2003) prior research and some new interpretations noted in this analysis. These two prominent sources are unique in their works on thematic analysis. In contrast, the study on the current position is more towards understanding the content and meaning of the whole poem.
There is a sum of fifty verses in Nuniyya. It is divided into sections according to distinguished tones or characteristics as the poem flows from the beginning until the end. The translation of Nuniyya employed in this study is based on Michael Sells' original translation (2000). The first section is comprised of verses 1 to 7. 1. Morning came --the separation --substitute for the love we shared, for the fragrance of our coming together, falling away. 2. The moment of departure came upon us --fateful morning. The crier of our passing ushered us through death's door. 3. Who will tell them who, by leaving, cloak us in sorrow not worn away with time, though time wears us away? 4. That time they made us laugh when they were near returning to make us grieve. 5. We poured from one another the wine of love. Our enemies seethed and called for us to choke --and fate said let it be. 6. Our two souls' knot came undone, and what our hands joined was broken. 7. We never used to consider separation, and now, for us to be together again is beyond our dreams. The beginning of the poem summarizes what happened to the two lovers. Both are physically apart, yet it is not enough obstruction to their love, and now they condemn each other through harsh words (mutual harshness). Their previous sweet romance is now full of nasty behaviours towards each other verbally due to their breakup. Going through verses in this beginning section, one can say that generally, the characteristic is the separation of two lovers, driven by enemies and fate itself, ultimately leading the poet to hopelessness and resignation to his future, as depicted in verse 7. Verses 1 and 2 indicate that the morning of separation between two lovers is finally in front of them. Their union has been shattered against their will, and the sweetness felt generated by their mutual love has begun to fade away, much like a fragrance being blown away by the wind. Time keeps them away from each other, yet the sorrow culminated from this separation is never going away from them, as expressed in verse 3, and only great grief awaits them, as stated in verse 4. Verse 5 imagines the poet enjoying a drink or some free time with his girlfriend, but opponents surround him, plotting to steal his love and make it worse; fate is siding with his adversaries, and he is doomed to lose his love. This early section of the poem also justifies the two souls that were previously tied firmly, and their hands joined together (verse 6), and it further symbolizes that they share spiritual and sensual love. The second section in Ibn Zaydun's Nuniyya consists of verse 8 until verse 19 of the poem.
8. How I wish I knew --and I have given your rivals no satisfaction --if ours have won a share from you. 9. Now you are gone; keeping faith in you is our religion's only creed. 10. What is our fault that you cool the envier's eye, satisfying one who takes pleasure in our misfortune? 11. To give up hope, we thought, might bring relief. However, it only made a desire for you burn deeper. 12. You left. We went our way, ribs still scorched --longing for you --tears still welling in our eyes. 13. When our secret thought whispered in your ear, sorrow would have crushed us if we had not held onto one another. 14. Our days turned in losing you and darkened, while nights with you glowed. 15. When life bounded free with intimacy, we gave when the meadows of our pleasure were pure. 16. When whatever we wished, we gathered from the boughs of loving bending near. 17. Oh, the good times spent with you --God bless them with gentle rain. You were for our spirits the fragrance of basil. 18. Please only imagine your distance will change as length varies with other lovers. 19. We sought, by God, no other in your place, nor do our hopes turn us another way. The principal characteristics of tones that could be extracted from this section are doubt, religion, despair, departure, patience, and spiritual and sensual love. Verse 9 indicates that the poet firmly clings to his faithfulness his passion even though they are already separated, and the poet is embracing his faith in his lover as if it is a religion. This marks his mighty love for his woman against all odds. The poet also complains to his lover about the treatment she gives to his enemies, much to his shock, and he only pleads to be treated the same way, but the truth is he wants his lover's eyes only gazing at him rather than his enemies (verse 10). In verse 11 of this poem, the poet gives up hope of ever being reunited with his lover and falls into despair. Nonetheless, his yearning and desire to see his sweetheart again grow more solid and significant over time. Verses 12 and 13 reminisce about the pain of being separated from one's love. Both lovers are parting ways, but the poet is enduring the agony of not seeing her again, using a radical imagining of "ribs still scorched" to convey the depth of his pain and sadness (verse 12), while in verse 13 "sorrow would have crushed us, had we not hold onto one another," the poet's outstanding characteristic of patience prevails, as the poet stated that he would be doomed, full of sorrow, and that only through tolerance could he find comfort against Verse 14 depicts a metaphor of contradiction between days and nights when someone is falling in love. Days become darkened without his lover; inversely, nights glow brightly when she is around. A full moon contributes to the symbol of vividly sparkling nights, which is exciting. In Arabic literature, a full moon is frequently used as an analogy for a beautiful woman. N verse 17, the poet sketches his recollection of his time with his sweetheart as the sensation of goodness with one's love spent together and saturated with a gentle rain by God, detailing the beautiful experiences they enjoyed in the past. Verse 18 is self-explanatory, as the poet tells his lover through this poem that distances between them will not sway him from his thoughts on her, as his love for her is on a completely different level compared to other lovers. The third section of this poem comprises the central verses of the entire poem, starting from verse 20 and ending with verse 34.
20. Night-traveler lightning goes early to the palace and offers the drink to one who freely poured us her pure love. 21. Furthermore, ask if thoughts of us trouble a lover as her memory possesses our troubled mind. 22. O fragrant breath of the east wind brings greetings to one whose kind word would revive us even from a distance. 23. Will she not grant us consideration through the long pass of time, however often, however, well we plead? 24. Fostered in royalty as if God shaped her from musk (and we mere humans from clay). 25. Alternatively, they formed her pure silver and crowned her with gold, unalloyed, new creation and glory. 26. Her necklace weighs her down when she bends --bracelets bruise her tender skin. 27. She is the nursling of the sun within her veils, though it barely touches her. 28. As if on the curve of her cheek, the star of Venus was graven, amulet and charm. 29. What harm is it we are not of her station? In love, and it is enough; we are equal. 30. O garden where our gazes gathered rose and sweetbriar unveiled soft and tender by young amours! 31. O life, in whose brilliance we were granted our wishes, each kind, drawing out our pleasure! 32. The good times we had gone by when we strolled in splendour, adorned in its robes, long folds trailing! 33. We cannot name you. In the station, you transcend all names, freeing us of the obligation. 34. You are unique, the one and only. Your qualities cannot be shared. We are left to describe you as best we can. This section's general characteristics and tones are mainly focused on the heavenly figure of the poet's lover; in this case, it is the charming Princess Wallada and the equality of physical love between two lovers of different social statuses. Verses 20 and 21 mention the palace where the princess resides, and within these two verses, a third person appears as the subject of the poet's efforts to claim his lover's attention to him. "Offer her a drink" here may as well be interpreted as sending news about the poet to the princess since she is constantly and permanently in his mind, and the poet wants to know how he would respond to such information about her estranged lover. Verses 22 and 23 portray the inner power of Princess Wallada, at least to the poet himself. Considered a continuation of verses 20 -21, the poet's news, if reciprocated by the princess, would rouse the poet from his sadness, even if not from the princess herself (through the third-person described in verse 20).
The main characteristic of this section, the holy figure or statue of Princess Wallada, echoes significantly from verse 24 to verse 28. Her royal bloodline's grandeur and incredible beauty overshadow others around her as if she were mainly created by God (verse 24). Her divine nature is further indicated in verses 25 -28 as she is pictured wearing exquisite clothes and jewellery that make her shine radiantly in the crowd. Some extremities are also present, as she is wearing excessive amounts of jewellery to unintentionally hurt her (verse 26). The characteristic of equality in love begins to take place from verse 29 onwards. In verse 29, the poet expresses his objection to love being thwarted between two lovers due to a significant disparity in their socioeconomic status (one is royalty, the other is not). The poet believes that when the pet is mutual, the two lovers are equal and deserve to seek happiness together. The final verses of this section (verses 30 -34) indulge the readers in the poet's intention for physical love. He and Princess Wallada would be together, and he strives to elevate himself to the princess's level. With all the brilliant traits of the princess that no one else can achieve, the poet reminisces his best description of her grandeur. The next section of this poem comprises verses 35 -42.
35. O garden never dying, your lote tree and spring of Kawthar are now for us the tree of skulls and the drink of the damned. 36. When our good luck weighed on our informer's eyes, did we not spend the night making love for our third companion? 37. Two secrets are hidden in the whisper of darkness until the morning's tongue is about to reveal us. 38. No wonder we recalled sadness forbidden to prudent minds, our patience gone and forgotten. 39. We read our sorrow, that dawn of parting, as Qur'an, reciting it by heart from the verse of patience. 40. We can find no drink like loving you --even as it quenches and leaves us thirsting more. 41. Nothing can divert our gaze from the horizon of the beauty of your star. Bitterness cannot turn us from it. 42. Not by choice did we withdraw from so near! Time's twist, destiny, turned us against our will. In general, the characteristics of this section are physical love, despair, religion, patience, and departure. These characteristics are almost identical to the second section of this poem (verses 8 -19). From this point of view, the poem at this stage is diverting the mood to the one residing within verses 8 -19, a somewhat cyclic or ring structure of the poem. This section begins with verse 35, which stands out for its multiple explicit references to the Qur'an, depicting the concept of Heaven and Hell. While the lote tree and spring of Kawthar reside in Heaven, the tree of skulls and the nasty drink are for the damned in Hell. Verses 36 and 37 tell about the union between two lovers; they are so into it that they forget about anything around them. The long-awaited reunion is held tightly in their heart, and the wave of physical love is emitted strongly within their presence. The poet attempts to warn readers in verse 38 not to succumb to the sadness of losing someone for an extended time. This is forbidden to a cautious mind and thus mirrors the Islamic doctrine of Redha, or "accepting God's will". Verse 39 in this section circulates on the poet's act to quell his sorrow amidst the separation from his lover by reciting Suras on patience in Qur'an. He would calm his mind out of deep despair by repeating it wholeheartedly, going into verse 40 ventures into the thought of the unlimited love of the poet towards his lover. As contradictory as a drink can quench the poet's thirst, the same concept is inapplicable to him regarding his love since the more he gets a glimpse of the princess' love, the more he desires it. The end of this section (verses 41 and 42) signifies another heart-wrenching departure of the poet from his lover's side. While nothing can distract his gaze from his beloved woman, even though she does not return his affection, the poet has to depart from his lover when the time comes as he is destined to walk away against his will. The final section of this poem comprises the last eight verses (verses 43 -50). This final section gives diverse character that is distinguished from each other.
43. As the wine is mixed and sparkles and singers perform their trance song, we ache for you. 44. The passing round of the cup of wine brings out in us no mark of repose, the sound of a lute, no forgetting. 45. Be true to our vow as we have been. The noble give back loyally, as given. 46. If the night's full moon bent toward us from its towering course, she would not (forgive the thought) stir out desire. 47. I am left sad, keeping the faith though you have shut me out. A phantom will be enough; memories suffice. 48. Though we could not afford you in this world, we will find you in the stations of the last assembly and pay the price. 49. A response from you would be something! If only what you offered you gave. 50. God bless you long as our love for you still burns, the love we hide, the love that gives us away. One can extract coherent characteristics from this section: unhappiness, faithfulness, a night of hope, and the appeal to get a reply from the loved one through a letter. This section begins with a scene from a festival or celebration, with everyone, including the poet, enjoying beverages and being entertained by the singer's voice and calming music. Despite this, the poet does not experience joy or contentment with all of them because his thoughts are still on his beloved girlfriend (verses 43 and 44). In verse 45, the poet stresses keeping the vow and promise between human beings, including those in love. In this case, Ibn Zaydun calls upon Princess Wallada to hold on to the vow made between them, as nobles must always keep their promise. However, verse 47 implies that the poet is abandoned by his beloved, putting him in despair. Nevertheless, he still has unbending faith in his love that she will come to him one day, although he is comforting himself for the time being to the extent that her phantom and memories are more than enough for him. If fate still treats him as unworthy to claim the princess's love within his lifetime, the desire for his lover will burn and propel him until the end of his life. If death is waiting at his doorstep, he is willing to go through it as long as he can reunite with his lover forever (verse 48). Verse 49 stands as directly as it is when the poet is expecting to get a reply to the letter he sent previously by the princess. The poet firmly expresses that whatever response he may get from the princess, it would be something he is looking forward to the most. Ultimately, the last verse of this poem expresses the poet's wish that God will always bless and protect her whenever and wherever she is. His sincere thought on this might be due to his inability to be by his lover's side as both lovers emanate their love in hiding.

Conclusion
In conclusion, both Qafiyya and Nuniyya tell the readers of the poet's predicaments in his journey to attain everlasting love with his beloved woman. Readers will pierce deep into the thought and dwell within his consciousness through both masterpieces as he wrote the poems. Furthermore, even though many readers celebrate these poems from different passages of time, these poems were indeed composed as love letters towards only one person in this world; Princess Wallada. His unending love for his lover and his unbending will reclaim the love he once lost played a significant factor in creating two of the most famous poems written by one of the most well-established poets during Arab civilization and medieval Spain (Andalus). Poetry plays a crucial role in comprehending the profound implications of linguistic usage and the potency of language in expressing mood and sentiment. Additionally, it enables the exploration of rhythmic arrangements that can exist among words and within groups of words. Facilitating free personal writing is crucial for fostering self-expression and motivation. The present research contributes to elucidating the audacious themes evident in many poetic works under investigation. Furthermore, it has succeeded in augmenting these overt themes with covert elements of defiance and acquiescence that are at least as prominent as the bold themes in the poetic texts. This study delved into the poet's psyche, uncovering its secrets and exploring the poet's ability to express themselves. Additionally, the study examined the poet's response to external influences and contextualized these responses within an existential framework. Moreover, this research can serve contextually as a building block for forthcoming semantic-level evaluations of poetry within the given context. As for future research recommendations, Qafiyya and Nuniyya could be discussed with a more in-depth explanation and accompanied by systematic and thematic analysis for every single line and verse in both poems. Linguistics research is also a perfect choice if Qafiyya and Nuniyya are potential targets for future research.