The Maqamat of Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani: With Introduction and Notes (Forgotten Books)

Book Description:

"A Maqama (plural, Maqamat) is an Arabic rhymed prose literary form, with short poetic passages. Maqama is from a root which means 'he stood,' and in this case it means to stand in a literary discussion in order to orate.

The two classical exponents of the Maqama were Hamadhani (967-1007), the composer of this work, and the later and better-known Hariri (1054-1122). Hamadhani was born in Hamadhan, the ancient Ecbatana, in what is now Iran (to the southwest of Tehran) and spent his life as a wandering scholar. The Maqamat of Hamadhani and Hariri have a similar structure. They both consist of a series of unrelated episodes involving a wandering narrator, and a trickster protagonist. In the Maqamat of Hamadhani, the narrator is an alter ego of Hamadhani, a wandering scholar named Isa ibn Hisham. In each tale, he encounters a mysterious rogue named Abul-Fath al-Iskanderi.

Iskanderi wanders the earth, surviving on his wits and a silver tongue, running scams, always one step ahead of an angry mob. Each story is a small capsule description of a sometimes absurd predicament that the characters find themselves in. Nonetheless the stories are often used as framing for discourses on serious topics such as predestination, the vanity of human life, and the inevitability of death and judgement. The work brings to mind Jack Kerouac's On the Road, with its tales of Dharma bums wandering through a rich and morally ambiguous land, and the interaction between the Sal Paradise/Dean Moriarty characters.

The Maqamat presents a vivid street-level view of the medieval Islamic countries at the height of their power and culture. We meet merchants, clerics, peasants, sultans, scholars, and, literally, an entire catalog of swindlers. We get to visit fabled cities of Iraq, Iran, Arabia, Yemen, and other middle eastern locations. Some of these will be familiar from the headlines: Mosul, Basra, Samara, and Baghdad, (which Hamadhani calls 'The City of Peace'). " (Quote from sacred-texts.com)

Table of Contents:

Publisher's Preface; Preface; Introduction; Life Of The Author; Rhymed Prose; The Word Maqama (…); Origin And Character Of The Maqamat; Hamadhani And Hariri Compared; The MaqÁmÁt; The Maqama Of Poesie; The Maqama Of The Date; The Maqama Of Balkh; The Maqama Of Sijistan; The Maqama Of KÚfa; The Maqama Of The Lion; The Maqama Of Ghailan ; The Maqama Of AdharbayjÁn; The Maqama Of Jurjan; The Maqama Of Isfahan; The Maqama Of Ahwaz; The Maqama Of Baghdad; The Maqama Of Basra; The Maqama Of Al-fazara; The Maqama Of Jahiz ; The Maqama Of The Blind; The Maqama Of Bukhara ; The Maqama Of Qazwin; The Maqama Of Sasan; The Maqama Of The Ape; The Maqama Of Mosul; The Maqama Of The Madirah; The Maqama Of The Amulet; The Maqama Of The Asylum; The Maqama Of The Famine; The Maqama Of The Exhortation; The Maqama Of Al-aswad ; The Maqama Of 'iraq ; The Maqama Of Hamdan ; The Maqama Of Rusafa; The Maqama Of The Spindle; The Maqama Of Shiraz ; The Maqama Of Hulwan; The Maqama Of Fresh Butter; The Maqama Of Iblis; The Maqama Of Armenia; The Maqama Of The Najim; The Maqama Of Khalaf ; The Maqama Of Nishapur; The Maqama Of Knowledge; The Maqama Of Advice; The Maqama Of Saimara; The Maqama Of The Dinar; The Maqama Of Poetry; The Maqama Of Kings; The Maqama Of The Yellow; The Maqama Of Sariah; Maqama Of Tamin; The Maqama Of Wine; The Maqama Of The Quest; The Maqama Of Bishr; Endnotes

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