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adversely affects the individual. The poetical forms that should be avoided are: (1) love poetry (ghazal), which provokes fervent longings, invites temptations, incites youth, turns the soul to dissipation and pleasure, and leads to deceit, passion, corruption of religious sentiments, extravagant spending, and other objectionable pursuits; (2) poetry of separation (taghar rub) and description of deserts which encourages abandonment of dwellings and his other adverse effects; (3) poetry connected with destitution and wars which agitates the soul and leads lo destruction and crimes, and other abominable action; (4) satirical poetr> (hija’). which is the vilest of all since it leads the individual to the company of insolent people, deep addicts, and street sweeper: in addition, it aims at tearing people’s honour to pieces, and at indulging in imperfections and defilements; and (5) panegyrics (madh) and eulogy (ritha) which may be licit but are distasteful since they tend to exaggerate, distort, and falsify.
After studying writing, regarding, grammar, lexicography, and selected poetry, the student should pass on to study the science of numbers (’ilm al-’adad). He should master addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and plane geometry (masahah). Then he should take arithmetic, which is the science of the nature of number (’ilm Tbi’at al-addad). He should read and grasp Euclid’s work, which will gain him knowledge about the earth and its surface, about the celestial bodies, their positions, distances, as so forth. He should also read Ptolemy’s Almagest, which teaches him about the eclipses, the width and length of countries, the duration of day and night, the rising tide, the rise and setting of the sun, moon, and the bright stars. After a digression on the virtue of teaching, the true objective of knowledge, the evil company of the sultan, and the usefulness of books, he divides the sciences into seven groups which are, he says, universal among all peoples. The first three (law. history, and language) distinguish one tuition from another, whereas the remaining four (astronomy, number, medicine, and philosophy) are common to all peoples.
After stating that the religious law (Shari’ah) is the only true law, he recognizes its main components which constitute the following discipline:

1. Religion law (Shari’ah)

a. Qur’an:reading and meaning (ma’na)

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b. Prophetic Traditions (Hadith): texts (main) and chain of transmitters (ruwat)
c. Jurisprudence (Fiqah): Qur’anic ordinance. Hadith ordinance, consensus (Ijma1)
d. Theology (kalam)
2. Language
a. Grammar
b. Lexicographv
3. History
a. Dynastic (inamalik)
b. Annalistic
c. Countries
d Categories (Tabaqat)
e. Genealogy
4. Astronomy
5 Numbers: Ascertaining their rules and then their proofs
6 Logic, rational or metaphysical and sensory
7. Medicine: Spiritual medicine and corporeal medicine
Perhaps as an afterthought he adds poetry, rhetoric, (balagha), and idioms (’ilm al-’ibarah). He argues that any thing \vhich is known can be called knowledge (fa kull ma ’ulima fa huwa ’ilm) and thus commerce, construction, tailoring, weaving, shipbuilding, agriculture, horticulture, and the like can be called science (’ilm). But these are limited to this world fpr gaining a livelihood.28 The earliest of the examples of Andalusian literature that have been preserved data from the middle of the 8th century We know verses bv the Umayyad Amir Abdur Rahman 1 (the newcomer), who had fled from the Abbasids and founded an independent Umayyad state in Andalusia. His verses are full of the exile’s yearning for his beloved countrv.
Zirvab (789-857)
The Persian Ziryab (789-857). who came to Cordova from Baghdad, played an important part in the development of Andalusian literature and art. Ziryab, v\ho was a musician, a singer and an actor, introduced to Spain the East Arabian custom of reciting verses to a
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musical accompaniment From this time on. the development of Andalusian poetry kept pace with music.
Towards the end of the 9th centurv,, a strophic poetry arose known as the mmvashshah (”encircling”, evidently from the term wishah, a baldric studded with a double row of precious stones). This invention was attributed to the poet Mukaddam ibn Mu’afa. The origin here of strophic poetry, unknown in the eastern regions of the Caliphate, was connected, in all likelihood: with the influence of Romans poetry, the traditions of which had been introduced to Andalusian literature bv the Arabised population of Spain The muwashshah is a verse consisting of from four to ten stanzas There are a many variations of the muvvashshah. depending upon the alternation of the rhyme in the stanza and upon the number of lines between the ”encircling” rhymed bavts. This strophic form was used in ail traditional genres of Arabic poetry, emploving all traditional metres.
The Cordovan ”imitative” literature attained its peaking the

10th century. In those davs, while in Western Europe cultural development still remained at a ver> low level, and the only literate class was that of the clerg). Arabic Spain was passing through a remarkable economic and cultural advance. The political and religious reaction that was gaining ground in Baghdad did not concern Andalusia. The enlightened Cordovan caliphs, Abdur Rahman in (912-961) and al- Hakam II (971-976). inaugurated building activities on a wide scale and encouraged science and art. The caliph al-Hakam II founded many schools in Cordova: the Cordovan University was celebrated far beyond the frontiers of Spain. The library founded bv the caliph contained, according to Arab sources, about 400,000 manuscripts.

In the 10th century, a favourable influence on the development of Andalusian literature was exerted by the literary circles organized by rich and noble Cordovan patrons. A renowned circle was that associated with the powerful Mansur (in the European pronunciation, ”al Mansorv, ”), the wazir on the Cordovan Caliphs.
Ibn Abd Rabbihi (860-940)
The most prominent writer of the ”limitation” period is justly considered bv Arab critics to be Ibn Abd Rabbihi, the ode-writer to Abdur Rahman in. He compiled an anthologv entitled. ”The Unique Necklace” (al’Iqd al-Farid). Other works by this writer include a series ot verses in the traditional genres (love lyrics, odes, elegies.

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and so on). The Unique Necklace consists o1 25 parts. 12 of which are named after precious stones. In writing them, the author has used as references, ”The Choice Histories” (’Uyun al-Akhbar) of Ibn Kutayba; they contain information on the writers of the eastern regions of the Caliphate. Various socio-political, historical-literary and even ethical questions arc treated here. The Unique Necklace enjoyed widespread popularity in Spain and the eastern regions of the Caliphate. The manner in which it is written makes the book such diverting reading that it might even be placed among the adab. literature, which, as we have previous!) noted, bordered upon scientific books and belles-letters.
In his youth, Ibn Abd Rabbihi composed a series of erotic verses. Towards the close of his life he repented, like Abu Nuwas in his time, of his licentiousness and compiled a volume of verse, wherein, for every frivolous lyric written in youth, there was a corresponding pious verse in the identical metre and with the identical rhyme; all were written with a view to his own purification and redemption. Ibn Hani (983-973)
Another very popular Andalusian poet of the ”imitation” period was Ibn Hani, whom the historian Ibn Khallikan considered worthy of a place beside al-Mutanabbi. His Shi’ite sympathies and also his daring hyperbole, which likened the personage he praised to a deity, brought down upon the head of Ibn Hani’ the wrath of the orthodox Muslims of his native Seville. He was obliged to depart for North Africa. Here, he was to come into close contact with alMu’izz. the son of the Fatimid Caliph al-Mansur. After the conquest of Egypt by the Fatimids, al-Mu’iz/ had becjme the ruler of the country. But on the way to his new patron Ibn Hani’ was attacked by an unknown assassin and died at the age of thirty-five.
He had already written about 60 qasida?. mainly encomiums, following the customary lines of this genre perhaps, their sole distinguishing feature lies in the philosophical maxims, pessimistic in tone, contained in them. From the standpoint of poetical craftsmanship, they are inclined to be banal. Besides the above mentioned tendency to use unexpected allegories and simile, a typical trait of this poet is the use of unfamiliar words and rhymes that to Arab ears sound inharmonious, and it was this that led critics to accuse him of lack of taste.
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