Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

Ibn Shuhayd (992-1035)
Who left some elegant (though traditional in their content) encomiums and lyrics. There is also a prose work originally called The Epistle of the Spirits and Demons (Risalat al-Tawabi wa ’IZawabi). This is reminiscent in its subject of al-Ma’arri’s Epistte of Forgiveness, while the general character of its presentation and its tone recall the satirical works of al-Jahiz. The Epistle of the Spirits is a narrative of the author’s imaginary journey into the spirit world and his encounters there with the souls of certain departed Arab poets and prose writers. Each of these recites his own works.
Ibn Shuhayd was an adherent of the tradition of East- Arabic poetry, although he did not consider it necessary to obey its cannons to the letter. He looked down upon the muwashshah as dissociated from Arab tradition. Unlike many of his eastern colleagues, however, Ibn Shuhayd definitely rejected the epigonic verse of erudite writers and considered that the artistic value of a iiterary work must be determined, primarily, by the author’s talent.
The decline of the Cordova Caliphate at the beginning of the

11th century and the formation of numerous petty states in Andalusia did not check the further development of its literature. From this time on, Seville, Badajoz, Valencia. Murcia, Jaen, Granada, Almeria and the island of Mallorca became centres of literary life on a level with Cordova. By degrees, Andalusian literature departed from the traditional East-Arabic forms and subject-matter and adopted the local Spanish theme. It became Arabic-Spanish in the exact meaning of the terms, and was called by the Arabs ’.he literature of ”modernization”. This period extended from the fi:st half of the 11th century to the middle of the 12th.

During this period the general subject-’/iatter of Andalusian poetry altered; whereas the leading theme during the ”imitation” phase had been the expression of nostalgia for distant Iraq, the poetry of the ”modernization” expressed love for Andalusia. All the traditional Arab genres are preserved in th’s poetry, but while the canons of the East-Ara yt in tradition w^re adhered to in the encomiums or in satires this tradition underwent considerably alteration and modificatioi ,n love lyrics, wine songs, humouresques and descriptions of nature.
One of the most widespread genres in Arabic-Spanish poetry was the wasf. The material in the descriptive parts showed great variety. The admiration of the AndaKisian poets for Spain was

690 Political and Cultural History of Islam

expressed in praises of the picturesque Andalusian landscape, flowery meadows, rivers, lakes, mountains, gardens and parks. Now, for the first time in Arabic poetry, detailed descriptions appeared of the sea, and the shifs that sailed upon it. The attention of the ”modernization” poets was attracted by the marvelous edifices in Spanish cities, the richly-encrusted weenons, the Towers poetry.
The instability of the Arabs position, in Spain, wfiere they were constantly at war with Christian countries, strongly influenced the general tone of Andalusian poetry. Undoubtedly, elegiac mourning for vanished dynasties and ruined cities, a theme unfamiliar to Eastern Arabs, sounded in Andalusian poetry like an echo of the menacing attacks of the Spanish. The verse of ArabicSpanish poet abounds in endless prayers and appeals for the aid of Allah and the Muslims of the eastern provinces. The constant repetition of the theme of the ephemeral nature of human existence, recurrent since pre-Islamic times, acquired, against the background of the Spanish Arabs’ tragic destiny, a universal resonance in Andalusian verses. These were on the level of the finest lyrical productions in Arabic literature.