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

Ibn Hazm (994-1063)
Among the writers of the last years of the Cordovan Caliphate was Ibn Hazm , the scholar-poet, with whom the ArabicSpanish ”modernization” phase may be said to have begun. He was among the active adherents of the Cordovan Umayyads and after the fall of this dynasty retired to Almeria, a town on the Mediterranean coast. Here, at the request of a friend, he wrote a work on love, something between a treatise on ethics and a literary study, entitled Dove’s Necklace on ethics and a literary .study, entitled Dove’s Necklace (Tawk al-Hamama). It is a unique work of its kind in Arabic literature. In each chapter an analysis is given of a love
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situation or a phase in the unfolding of love: the signs of love, fidelity, betrayal, the break, and so on. After observations of a general moral and psychological nature, the author usually illustrates his conclusions by instances drawn from life or literature. These examples frequently resemble anecdotes of life in Spain in the author’s time. In this respect, the construction of Dove’s Necklace is reminiscent of the Book of Misers by al-Jahiz, that is to thereto unknown in Andalusian literature. According to the custom of Arab storytellers. Ibn Hazm provided his composition with poetical inserts, illustrating the basic principles of the book. Some scholars connect Ibn Hazm’s attitude to love with the views of Baghdad mystics, who considered that the works of the ’Udhrite poets were simply the reflection of a mystical love of God. Ibn Zaydun (1003-1071)
A contemporary of Ibn Hazm, though younger was Ibn Zaydun an eminent Arabic-Spanish poet from Cordova. He took an active part in the political struggle that raged around the Cordovan throne. After the overthrow of the Umayyads, he found himself among the courtiers who, under the new rulers, were out of favour. He was thrown into prison, escaped and became once more a member of the Cordovan rulers court. Eventually, he fell into disfavour again and fled to Seville, where he was given a high position at the court of the ruler al-Mu’tadid.
The poems of Ibn Zaydun were written in all the traditional genres: encomiums, elegies, love songs, etc. He also composed epistles. For example, he wrote a satirical epistle to his principal rival in love, the wazir Ibn Abdus, constructed in the same manner as alJahiz’s Epistle of the Quadrangular and the Circular. The best of Ibn Zaydun’s verses, tale of his love for the daughter of the Umayyad Caliph al-Mustakfi, the poetess al-Wallada. Among Arabs, the poem Nuniya was the greatest favourite. It is a qasida rhyming on the letter ”nun” and describing his love for al-Wallada.
The influence of East-Arabian poetry is strongly marked in the work of Ibn Zaydun. He imitated the poets of the East, in particular al-Buhturi, from whom he borrowed ideas and imagery. Sometimes he even inserted lines from al- Buhturi’s poems in his own verses. Nevertheless, purely Spanish elements are frequently encountered in Ibn Zaydun’s poetry and permit of placing it at the beginning of the Arabic- Spanish ”modernization” period. The poet

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praises Spanish landscapes, the splendid Andalusian cities, especially
Cordova.