Muwashshah

Poetic form

Examples of muwaššaḥ poetry start to appear as early as the 9th or 10th century. It is believed to come from the Arabic root w-š-ḥ (وشح) which means any thing that a woman might wear on her neck from a necklace to a scarf, and the verb Tawašḥ means to wear. Some relate it to the word for a type of double-banded ornamental belt, the wišaḥ, which also means a scarf in Arabic. The underlying idea is that, as there is a single rhyme running through the refrain of each stanza, the stanzas are like objects hung from a belt.

Typically, Arabic poetry has a single meter and rhyme across the poem and is structured according to couplets, not strophes. The muwashah however, is generally divided into five stanzas with a complex rhyme scheme. Each stanza consisted of aghsan (sing: ghusn), lines with a rhyme particular to that strophe and asmat (sing: simt), lines with a rhyme shared by the rest of the poem. Conventionally, the muwashshah opened with a maṭlaʿ (مَطْلَع‘the beginning’) and closed with a kharja (‘exit’). The kharja was in a vernacular language such as colloquial Arabic or Romance. It often was voiced by a different poetic speaker.

Meter

The meter of the muwashah can be one of the classical meters defined by al-Khalil or the poet can devise a new meter. This subject is debated amongst scholars, some of whom argue for the use of a Romance metrical system based on syllable stress.

Themes

Typical themes for a muwashshah include love, panegyric, and wine. Some muwashshah poems are devoted to a single theme while others combine multiple themes. One common thematic structure is love, followed by panegyric, and then love. The kharja also plays a role in elaborating the poem’s theme. At the end of a love poem, the kharja might be voiced by the beloved. The eastern muwashshah tradition includes themes such as elegy and invective. Ibn Arabi and ibn al-Ṣabbāgh composed esoteric muwashshahs that used wine and love as allegories for divine yearning.

Corpora

Corpus of Arabic muwaššaḥāt

Of the approximately 600 known secular Arabic muwaššaḥāt, there are almost 300 kharjas in vernacular Andalusi Arabic and over 200 in Standard Arabic (فُصْحَى), though some of the vernacular kharjas are essentially Standard Arabic with a vulgar gloss. About 50 are in Andalusi Romance or contain some Romance words or elements.

Corpus of Hebrew muwaššaḥāt

About half of the corpus of the more than 250 known muwaššaḥāt in Hebrew have kharjas in Arabic. There about roughly 50 with kharjas in Hebrew, and about 25 with Romance. There are also a few kharjas with a combination of Hebrew and Arabic.

Hebrew muwashshah

An important number of the muwashshah poems written in al-Andalus were composed in Hebrew. Like the muwaššaḥāt composed in Arabic, those in Hebrew might also contain linguistically distinct kharjas, either in Romance, Arabic, or a combination of Hebrew and Arabic. Because of its strophic structure, it was similar to some Hebrew liturgical poetry. Starting in the 11th century, the Hebrew muwashshah was also used for religious purposes. The first extant Hebrew muwashshahs are attributed to Samuel ibn Naghrillah. Other prominent Hebrew muwashshah authors include Judah Halevi, Todros ben Judah Halevi Abulafia and Joseph ibn Tzaddik.

The first author to compose a devotional muwashshah was Solomon ibn Gabirol, about two centuries prior to the development of religious muwashshah poetry in Arabic. He was followed in this tradition by Moses ibn Ezra, Abraham ibn Ezra, and Judah Halevi, among others. The poems were designed for use in prayer services and were elaborated themes of particular benedictions. Unlike other Hebrew muwashshahs, the kharja of a devotional muwashshah was in Hebrew.

The musical genre

Musically, the ensemble consists of oud (lute), maghreb rebab (Andalusi rebab back then), qanun (box zither), darabukkah (goblet drum), and daf (tambourine): the players of these instruments often double as a choir. The soloist performs only a few chosen lines of the selected text. In Aleppo multiple maqam rows (scales) and up to three awzān (rhythms) are used and modulation to neighboring maqamat was possible during the B section. Until modernization it was typical to present a complete waslah, or up to eight successive muwaššaḥ including an instrumental introduction (sama'i or bashraf). It may end with a longa. Famous Muwashshah songs still played in the Arab World today include Lamma Bada Yatathanna and Jadaka al-Ghaithu.

Famous poets

A composer of muwaššaḥāt is known as a waššāḥ (وَشّاح 'girdler'; pl. وَشّاحُون waššāḥūn). Famous waššāḥūn include:

• Al-Tutili
• Avempace
• Avenzoar
• Todros ben Judah Halevi Abulafia (Hebrew)
• Yehuda Halevi (Hebrew)
• Ibn al-Khatib
• Ibn Baqi
• Ibn Zamrak
• Ibn Sahl of Seville

Famous muwashshahs

• "Lamma Bada Yatathanna" (لما بدا يتثنى)
• "Jadaka al-Ghaithu" (جادك الغيث)