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

Al-Mu’tamid (1040-1095)
Al-Mu’tamid was no less popular than Ibn Zaydun in Spain. He was the son of ’Abbadid, amir of Seville, and on his accession to the throne, pursued a vigorous foreign policy. He considerably extended his dominions and even captured Cordova. But his fear of Alphonso VI, the King of Castile, was so great that he appealed for aid to the Almoravide ruler of Morocco, Yusuf Ibn Tashifm. This ruler effectively checked the Reconquista and simultaneously seized al- Mu’tamind’s dominions; he exiled the royal poet to Morocco. There, in the village of Aghmat, he ended his life as a captive.
According to tradition, al-Mu’tamid appears to have been a hospitable and generous patron of learning, to whose court savants and men of letters came from the parts of Andalusia. The poems that have been preserved are for the most part those written in captivity. Their main theme is the narrative of the humiliations to which the poet has been subjected, and his memories of the happier past. AlMu’tamid’s verse is elegant and simple. The freshness and the unusual nature of the imagery place him among the most brilliant representatives of Andalusian poetry. Ibn Hamids (1055-1132)
While al-Mu’tamid was still in power in Seville, a poet, named Ibn Hamids. lived at his court. A Sicilian Arab by birth, he was obliged to leave his native land after the Norman conquest of

1078. He became an intimate friend of al-Mu’tamid’s and remained faithful to the amir until his death. Ibn Hamids spent the last years of nis life in Tunisia and on the Island of Mallorca depiction of nature his flights of fancy knew no bounds. This is a description of a stream: Lines praising wine frequently vary descriptions of nature Ibn Hamdis composed love lyrics and also verses of a pious and ascetic nature (zuhdiyyat). His work in these genres shown the influence of East-Arabian poetry; for instance, that of’Umar ibn Abu Rabi’a and Abu ’I-’Atahiya. His verse is always graceful and expresses ideas, his imagery is plastic and expressive, the language invariably simple and precise. Ibn Khafadja (1058-1138)

Ibn Khafadja, a noted master in the poetic depiction oi landscape, was popularly known as al-Djannan (”the Gardener”). He
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was born in Alcira, a small town in Valencia. The landscapes of his native district, one of the most beautiful in Spain, proved an inexhaustible source of inspiration to the poet. Whether his compositions were odes or elegies, the nature theme was inevitably present in them. Despite his inclination to employ the stereotyped phrases of East-Arabic poetry, his keen observation and form of expression rendered his descriptive passages worthy of being taken as models by succeeding generations of Andalusian poets. Andalusia is presented to us in his verses as a blossoming garden, where beauty and serenity are only disturbed for a while by storm.
The gradual decadence of Arabic-Spanish literature began in the 12th century. The invasion of Spain by the Almoravides and the Almohades led eventually to the loss of political independence by the Arab states and the transformation of Andalusia into a province of the Maghrib. No trace remained of the former intellectual and religious tolerance. The Christians were driven beyond the confines of Andalusia. The renowned architecture of the country was reduced to ruins by the fanatical Berber leaders, and ”heretical” books were burned all with a view to restoring the ”simplicity” and ”purity” of early Islam.
The Berber conquests in Spain were responsible for the total disappearance of the cultured circles where the poetry of the court had flourished of old. The African conquerors were not very familiar with the Arabic language, and at their residences, refined ArabicSpanish poetry was incomprehensible, except to the few. This led to the disappearance of the hitherto familiar type of court poe£ and the mergence of th« wandering oard, who sought listeners and found appreciation only among towns-people with whom he could converse in the jargon of the city streets. A widely- known type of verse in a commonly used dialect is found during the period lasting from the end of the 1 Ith to the first half of the 12th century. Poetry in dialect was popular among the masses, who knew nothing of the refinements of classical poetry and, very often, spoke two or three languages (the Arabic dialect of Andalusia, the Berber and the Romance tongues). The most widespread form of folk poetry was the zadjal, a strophic ballad, resembling in structure the muwashshah. The two opening lines of the zadja! determined the metre and the master-rhyme of the whole, but unlike the muwashshah were not divided into rhyming hemistiches. Following this, came form five to nine stanzas of an equal number of lines (from four to twelve) with

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the same rhyme. Only the last line of each stanza rhymed with the first two lines.