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

LARSSON, Göran: Ignaz Goldziher on the Shuübiyya Movement

G

ÖRAN LARSSON Nor did we roast a skink [waral

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5 = a large lizard], with its quivering tail, Nor did I dig for and eat the lizard [dubbän

1''] of the stony ground; Nor did my father warm himself standing astraddle to the flame; No, nor did my father use to ride the twin supports of a camel-saddle. We are kings, who have always been so through long ages past...'

7 The shuübiyya argument is clearly illustrated in this poem. The symbolism of royalty, for example the diadem and curtain, is also apparently influenced by Persian traditions.

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8 The Arabs are seen as uncivilized, and the non-Arabs despise their way of life. Eating lizards, singing camel-songs, standing astride a flame etc. are all examples of the barbarism that prevailed among the Arabs. Their habits ought to be compared to the glory that predominated with the non-Arabs before the Arabs rose to power. Chosroes and Caesar are presented as the non-Arabs' forefathers, and the ways of the Sassanian kings are illustrations of their glory.

1" In sum the non-Arabs and their traditions are seen as positive examples that can and should be contrasted with the negative traditions associated with the Arabs. From a critical point of view it seems that Arabs and non-Arabs alike have little or nothing to do with historicity, but are rather treated as stereotypes or symbols embracing negative and positive feelings respectively in the shu übiyya literature. However, in his analysis Goldziher suggests that the shu

cübiyya should be regarded as a party articulating non-Arab nationalistic sentiments. Critic and objections To the Arabist H. A. R. Gibb, one of the main critics of Goldziher's analysis, the shuübiyya attack on the Arabs cannot be interpreted as the expression of Persian nationalistic feelings or movements. He writes: "The issue at stake was no superficial matter of literary modes and fashions, but the whole cultural orientation of the new Islamic society — whether it was to become a re-embodiment of the old Perso-Aramaean culture into which the Arabic and Islamic elements would be absorbed, or a culture in which the Perso-Aramaean contributions would be subordinated to the Arab tradition and the Islamic values".

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0 1

5 Hans Wehr, Arabic-English Dictionary, New York 1976, 1062. 1

6 Wehr 1976, 534. 1

7 Bashshär b. Burd, Diwan, in: A. F. L. Beeston, Selections From the Poetry of Bashshar, Cambridge 1977, Arabic text 11-12/English transl. 50-51. 1

8 Shaul Shaked, 'From Iran to Islam: on some Symbols of Royalty', Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 76 (1986), 75-91. 1

9 Cf. my interpretation of Ibn Garcia's sluiübiyya letter in Larsson 2003, especially 125177. 2

0 Gibb 1962,66. 154