Ibn Quzman

Abu Bakr Abd al-Malik ibn Quzman (Arabic: أبو بكر بن قزمان‎, 1078–1160) was the most famous poet in the history of al-Andalus; he is also considered to be one of its most original.^[1] He was born and died in Cordoba during the reign of the Almoravids but seems to have spent most of his time in Sevilla. He has earned his fame from his zajals.^[2] Characteristics of the zajal or zejel include its colloquial language, as well as a typical rhyming scheme, aaab cccb dddb, where b rhymes with a constantly recurring refrain of one or two lines.^[3] The zajal is extremely similar to the Malhoun poetry found in North Africa, both in style and vocabulary.

The lifestyle of Ibn Quzman was similar to that of troubadours. His approach to life as expressed in his melodious poems, together with their mixed idiom (occasionally using words of the Romance languages), shows a resemblance to the later vernacular troubadour poetry of France.^[4]

A collection of poems by Ibn Quzman (Spanish "Cancionero") was rediscovered in Saint Petersburg in 1881.^[5]

See also

• Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtari
• Ibn al-Khatib
• Ibn Bajja
• Music of North Africa

References

1. Josef W. Meri, Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, 2005, p.364
2. Josef W. Meri, Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, 2005, p.365
3. Gorton, T.J., "The Metre of IbnQuzman: a "Classical"Approach", Journal of Arabic Literature, 6 (1975), pp. 1-29
4. Robert Kehew, Ezra Pound, William De Witt Snodgrass, Lark in the morning: the verses of the troubadours, University of Chicago Press, 2005, p.10
5. Collectif, Hispano - Arabic Poetry, ed. Slatkine, 1974, p.XII

Bibliography

• Menocal, María Rosa (EDT) /Scheindlin, Raymond P., "The Literature of Al-Andalus" (The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature) ch. 14, ISBN 0-521-47159-1 (EDT) /Sells, Michael /Publisher: Cambridge Univ Press, 2000
• Dr. Bonnie D. Irwin Dean, "Cooking With Ibn Quzman: Kitchen Imagery in Azjal nos. 90, 68, and 118." Philological Association of the Pacific Coast Conference. Portland, 13 November 1988.
• Artifara, n. 1, (luglio - dicembre 2002), sezione Addenda .
• A Middle East Studies Association conference was held in Anchorage, Alaska, 2003.

External links

• Collectif, Hispano-arabic poetry, ed. Slatkine, 1974, Ch. IV The Almoravid Period, Ibn Quzman, p. 266-308 (retrieved 26-09-2011)
• M. Th Houtsma, First encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936 (retrieved 36-09-2011)
• "Cancionero de Abenguzmán" in Enciclopedia GER (in Spanish)