É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.

SZOMBATHY, Zoltán: Some Notes on the Impact of the Shu übiyya on Arabic Genealogy

SOME NOTES ON THE IMPACT OF THE SHI/" OBIYYA weeping over deserted camping-grounds, and the usual idealized image of preIslamic Arabian life and culture.

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1 A closer inspection of his poems dedicated to this subject will, however, instantly reveal that neither is there anything truly political about his irony, nor is it Arabs as a nation that he was hostile to, but the commonplace idealization of the rough lifestyle and culture of ancient desert nomads, as well as the superannuated Bedouin poetical style and imagery that the more traditionalist poets of his age still thought to be the highest standard of artistry.

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4 He contrasts the sophisticated material culture and tastes of Abbasid-era Iraqi towns and cities to the romanticized poetical representation of Bedouin life. It must be added that wherever in his poems reference is made to the glory of the ancient Persian kings like Anüshirwän or Säbür, it is invariably the material civilization associated with them (including great monuments, gardens, and especially viniculture) that he contrasts to the misery of Bedouin life.

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2 Extolling the virtues of such urban pleasures as wine-drinking, strolls in charming gardens, and homosexual liaisons, he deplores the customary idealization of the Bedouins' austerity, bravery, and their pure passions for simple damsels."

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1 It is reasonably safe 2

3 As is widely known, he frequently incorporated names and themes from the works of well-known pre-Islamic poets into his own poems as sarcastic references to what he had chosen to leave behind altogether. See for instance Abu Nuwäs, Diwan 182 ["Saqyan lighayri l-'Alyä 7 wa-l-Sanadi / wa-ghayri atläli Mayya bi-l-Jaradi", the allusion is to alNäbigha], 366 ["Qui li-man yabki

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alä rasmin daras / wäqifan, mä darra law käna jalas", to Imru'u 1-Qays], etc. For a full list of the occurrences of the motif in Abü Nuwäs's poetry, see Arazi (1979), 8, note 1. 2

4 In one of his poems, Abu Nuwäs dismisses the old poetical topos of describing the traces of abandoned camps in the desert as "the eloquence of times past" (sifatu l-tulüli baläghatu l-qidmi), advising that his contemporaries, instead of parroting ancient themes, ought to focus on what they have personally experienced. See Abu Nuwäs, Diwan 539-40. There is a story in which Abü Nuwäs makes a fool of Abü Khälid al-Numayri, a scholar keen on showing off by using the Bedouin words that he has picked up during his fieldwork in the desert. See alcAskari, Tashif 30. 2

2 E.g., Abü Nuwäs, Diwan 37, 252, 338. 2,

1 The Bedouins' life is described in images of wretched, scorched acacias for shade, modest tents for a dwelling-place, snakes and lizards or sour milk for a diet, etc. The hardness of the Bedouin lifestyle apparently had little appeal to an educated man of letters accustomed to the refined urban culture of the Abbasid era. Abü Nuwäs, Diwan 35-6, 181, 338; and cf. al-Qishtaynl (1992): 69-70. Genuine shu

cübi intellectuals also appear to have exploited this point in their crusade against the Arabs and Arabic culture, cf. Ibn Garcia, Risäla 247, 250, 251-52. [Pre-Islamic Arabs are described here as 'possessors of scabby camels', 'keepers of small sheep', who subsist on the fruit of colocynth, lizards' eggs and snakes. They are also said to have had no sciences to boast of.] In fact, even some opponents of the shu

cübiyya admitted the repulsive harshness of life in the desert, cf. the Risäla fi Ihanin ilä l-awtän in al-Jähiz, Rasä'il 1 (2), 383-412; also Ibn Qutayba, cUyün II (3), 23235. A late echo of this description is to be found in what the Muqaddima has to say about the lifestyle and the material culture of the Bedouins, but, of course, the shiíübiyya 263