Kharja

Akharjaorkharjah(Arabic:خرجة,romanized:kharjah,lit. 'final'[ˈxardʒa];Spanish:jarcha[ˈxaɾtʃa];Portuguese:carja[ˈkaɾʒɐ];also known asmarkaz),^[1]is the final refrain of amuwashshah(مُوَشَّح'girdle'), a lyric genre ofal-Andalus(theIberian Peninsulaunder Muslim control) written in Arabic orAndalusi Romance( "Mozárabic" ).

Themuwashshahconsists of five stanzas (bait) of four to six lines, alternating with five or six refrains (qufl); each refrain has the same rhyme and metre, whereas each stanza has only the same metre. Thekharjaappears often to have been composed independently of themuwashshahin which it is found.

Characteristics of the kharja

About a third of extantkharjasare written in Classical Arabic. Most of the remainder are in Andalusi Arabic, but there are about seventy examples that are written either inIberian Romance languagesor with significant Romance elements. None are recorded inHebrew,even when themuwashshahitself is in Hebrew.^[2]

Generally, though not always, thekharjais presented as a quotation from a speaker who is introduced in the preceding stanza.

It is not uncommon to find the samekharjaattached to several differentmuwashshahat.The Egyptian writerIbn Sanā' al-Mulk(1155–1211), in hisDar al-Tirāz(a study of themuwashshahat,including an anthology) states that thekharjawas the most important part of the poem, that the poets generated themuwashshahfrom thekharja,and that consequently it was considered better to borrow a goodkharjathan compose a bad one.^[3]

Kharjasmay describe love, praise, the pleasures of drinking, but also ascetism.

Corpora

Corpus of Arabicmuwaššaḥāt

Of the approximately 600 known secular Arabicmuwaššaḥāt,there are almost 300kharjasinvernacular Andalusi Arabicand over 200 in Standard Arabic (فُصْحَى), though some of the vernacularkharjasare essentially Standard Arabic with a vulgar gloss.^[4]^: 185About 50 are inAndalusi Romanceor contain some Romance words or elements.^[4]^: 185

Corpus of Hebrewmuwaššaḥāt

About half of the corpus of the more than 250 knownmuwaššaḥātinHebrewhavekharjasin Arabic.^[4]^: 185There about roughly 50 withkharjasin Hebrew, and about 25 with Romance.^[4]^: 185There are also a fewkharjaswith a combination of Hebrew and Arabic.^[4]^: 185

Romance kharjas

Though they comprise only a fraction of the corpus of extantkharjas,it is the Romancekharjasthat have attracted the greatest scholarly interest. With examples dating back to the 11th century, this genre of poetry is believed to be among the oldest in any Romance language, and certainly the earliest recorded form of lyric poetry in Andalusi Romance or another Iberian Romance language.

Their rediscovery in the 20th century by Hebrew scholarSamuel Miklos SternandArabist Emilio García Gómezis generally thought to have cast new light on the evolution ofRomance languages.

The Romancekharjasare thematically comparatively restricted, being almost entirely about love. Approximately three-quarters of them are put into the mouths of women, while the proportion for Arabickharjasis nearer one-fifth.^[5]

Debate over origins

Since thekharjamay be written separately from themuwashshah,many scholars have speculated that the Romance kharjas were originally popular Spanish lyrics that the court poets incorporated into their poems.^[6]Some similarities have been claimed with other early Romance lyrics in theme, metre, and idiom.^[7]^[8]Arabic writers from theMiddle EastorNorth AfricalikeAhmad al-Tifashi(1184–1253) referred to "songs in the Christian style" sung in al-Andalus from ancient times that some have identified as thekharjas.^[9]

Other scholars dispute such claims, arguing that thekharjasstand firmly within the Arabic tradition with little or no Romance input at all, and the apparent similarities only arise because thekharjasdiscuss themes that are universal in human literature anyway.^[5]^[10]

Debate over language and reading

Modern translations of the Romancekharjasare a matter of debate particularly because the Arabic script does not include vowels. Most of them were copied by scribes who probably did not understand the language they were recording, which may have caused transmission errors. A large spectrum of translations is possible given the ambiguity created by the missing vowels and potentially erroneous consonants. Because of this, most translations of these texts will be disputed by some. Severe criticism has been made of García Gómez's editions because of his palaeographical errors.^[11]Further debate arises around the mixed vocabulary used by the authors.

Most of the Romancekharjasare not written entirely in Romance, but include Arabic elements to a greater or lesser extent. It has been argued that such blending cannot possibly represent the natural speech patterns of the Romance speakers,^[12]and that the Romancekharjasmust therefore be regarded asmacaronicliterature.^[13]

A minority of scholars, such asRichard Hitchcockcontend that the Romance Kharjas are, in fact, not predominantly in a Romance language at all, but rather an extremely colloquial Arabic idiom bearing marked influence from the local Romance varieties. Such scholars accuse the academic majority of misreading the ambiguous script in untenable or questionable ways and ignoring contemporary Arab accounts of howMuwashshahatandKharjaswere composed.^[14]

Examples

Romance

An example of a Romancekharja(and translation) by the Jewish poetJudah Halevi:

Vayse meu corachón de mib:

ya Rab, si me tornarád?

Tan mal meu doler li-l-habib!

Enfermo yed, cuánd sanarád?

My heart has left me,

Oh sir, will it return to me? (Alternate translation: Oh Lord, will you transform me?)

So great is my pain for my beloved!

I am sick, when will I be cured?,

These verses express the theme of the pain of longing for the absent lover (habib). Many scholars have compared such themes to theGalician-Portuguese cantigas de amigowhich date from c. 1220 to c. 1300, but “[t]he early trend […] towards seeing a genetic link betweenkharajatandcantigas d'amigoseems now to have been over-hasty.”^[15]

Arabic

An example of an Arabickharja:

How beautiful is the army with its orderly ranks

When the champions call out, ‘Oh, Wāthiq, oh, handsome one!’

Thekharjais from amuwashshahin theDar al-Tirāzof Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk.^[16]

History ofkharjascholarship

Manuscript sources

Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk,a 12th century Egyptian poet, wrote an anthology and study of themuwaššaḥand itskharjaentitledDār aṭ-ṭirāz fī ʿamal al-muwas̲h̲s̲h̲aḥāt(دار الطراز في عمل الموشحات).^[17]The Syrian scholarJawdat Rikabi[ar]published an edition of the work in 1949.^[17]

Ibn al-Khatib,a 14th century Andalusi poet, compiled an anthology ofmuwaššaḥātentitledJaysh at-Tawshĩḥ(جيش التوشيح).^[18]Alan Jones published a modern edition of this work.

An anthology ofmuwaššaḥātentitledUddat al-Jalīs(عدة الجليس),attributed to a certain Ali ibn Bishri al-Ighranati, is based on a manuscript taken from Morocco in 1948 by Georges Séraphin Colin (1893-1977). Alan Jones published an Arabic edition in 1992.^[19]

Ibn Bassamwrote inDhakhīra fī mahāsin ahl al-Jazīra [ar](الذخيرة في محاسن أهل الجزيرة) that thekharjawas the initial text around which the rest of themuwaššaḥwas composed.^[20]

Ibn Khaldunalso mentions themuwaššaḥand itskharjain hisMuqaddimah.^[21]

Modern study

In 1948, the Hungarian linguistSamuel Miklos Sternpublished "Les Vers finaux en espagnol dans les muwaššaḥs hispano-hebraïques"in the journalal-Andalus,translated into English in 1974 asThe Final Lines of HebrewMuwashshaḥsfrom Spain.^[21]^[22]Stern's interpretation ofkharjasin Hebrew texts made them accessible to Romanists and had a great impact on the Spanish establishment and scholars of Romance in the West.^[21]^[22]

Emilio García Gómezand Josep M. Solà-Solé compiled collections ofkharjas.^[22]^[23]Gómez's 1965 bookJarchas Romances De La Serie Arabe En Su Marcopresented a corpus of all knownkharjasat the time; although it did not include annotation or scholarly apparatus, it became canonical.^[22]Solà-Solé'sCorpus de poesía mozárabe (Las Harjas andalusíes)offered a complete scholarly apparatus, variations taken from different manuscripts, thorough discussion, and thoughtful speculation.^[22]

LP Harvey,Alan Jones, andJames T. Monroehave also made influential contributions to the study of thekharjas.^[22]

References

^kharjah.Encyclopædia Britannica.
^Zwartjes, 1997, Love Songs from al-Andalus: History, Structure and Meaning of the Kharja (Leiden: Brill)
^Fish Compton, Linda, 1976, Andalusian Lyrical Poetry and Old Spanish Love Songs: The Muwashshaḥ and its Kharja (New York: University Press), p.6
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^eMenocal, María Rosa; Scheindlin, Raymond P.; Sells, Micheal (2012).The literature of al-Andalus.Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1-139-17787-0.OCLC 819159086.
^^a ^bJones, Alan, 1981-82, ‘Sunbeams from Cucumbers? An Arabist’s Assessment of the State of Kharja Studies’, La corónica, 10: 38-53
^Dronke, Peter, 1978, The Medieval Lyric, 2nd edition (London: Hutchinson), p.86
^Monroe, James, 1975, ‘Formulaic Diction and the Common Origins of Romance Lyric Traditions’, Hispanic Review 43: 341-350.
^KHARJAS AND VILLANCICOS Archived2011-06-06 at theWayback Machine,by Armistead S.G., Journal of Arabic Literature, Volume 34, Numbers 1-2, 2003, pp. 3-19(17)
^http://www.jubilatores.com/poetry.pdf^{[bare URL PDF]}
^Zwartjes, 1997,Love Songs from al-Andalus: History, Structure and Meaning of the Kharja(Leiden: Brill), p.294
^Jones, 1988,Romance Kharjas in Andalusian Arabic Muwaššaḥ Poetry(London: Ithaca Press)
^Whinnom, Keith, 1981-82, ‘The Mamma of the Kharjas or some Doubts Concerning Arabists and Romanists’, La corónica, 11: 11-17.
^Zwartjes, Otto (1994). "La alternancia de código como recurso estilístico en las xarja-s andalusíes".La Corónica.22(2): 1–51.
^Hitchcock, Richard (1980). "The" Kharjas "as Early Romance Lyrics: A Review".The Modern Language Review.75(3): 481–491.doi:10.2307/3727967.JSTOR 3727967.
^R. Cohen & S. Parkinson, "The Galician-Portuguese Lyric" inCompanion to Portuguese Literature,ed. Stephen Parkinson, Cláudia Pazos Alonso and T. F. Earle. Warminster: Boydell & Brewer, 2009.
^Fish Compton, Linda, 1976, Andalusian Lyrical Poetry and Old Spanish Love Songs: The Muwashshaḥ and its Kharja (New York: University Press), pp.10-14
^^a ^bEd (2012-04-24),"Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk",Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition,Brill,doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_sim_3358,retrieved2024-02-24
^Knysh, Alexander. “Ibn Al-Khaṭīb.” Chapter. InThe Literature of Al-Andalus,edited by María Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, and Michael Sells, 358–72. The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
^"كتاب عدة الجليس: ومؤانسة الوزير والرئيس | WorldCat.org".search.worldcat.org.Retrieved2024-02-24.
^Abu-Haidar, Jareer (1978)."The Kharja of the Muwashshaḥ in a New Light".Journal of Arabic Literature.9:1–13.doi:10.1163/157006478X00011.JSTOR 4182991.
^^a ^b ^cJones, Alan (2021-10-02)."Samuel Miklos Stern and Andalusian poetry".Journal of Modern Jewish Studies.20(4): 454–461.doi:10.1080/14725886.2021.1984837.ISSN 1472-5886.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^fArmistead, Samuel G. (1987)."A Brief History of Kharja Studies".Hispania.70(1): 8–15.doi:10.2307/343643.ISSN 0018-2133.JSTOR 343643.
^Harvey, L.P. (1992)."ALAN JONES, Romance Kharjas in Andalusian Arabic Muwaššah Poetry: a Paleographical Analysis, Ithaca Press, London, for the Board of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Oxford University, 1988. Pp. x + 306; EMILIO GARCÍA GÓMEZ, El escándalo de las jarchas en Oxford, Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, 1991 ( = Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia, CLXXXVIII, 1991). Pp. 104".Journal of Arabic Literature.23(1): 71–74.doi:10.1163/157006492X00132.ISSN 0085-2376.

External links

Editions of the Kharjas and Bibliography

Corriente, Federico,Poesía dialectal árabe y romance en Alandalús,Madrid, Gredos, 1997 (contains all extantkharjasin Romance and Arabic)
Stern, Samuel Miklos,Les Chansons mozarabes,Palermo, Manfredi, 1953.
García Gómez, Emilio,Las jarchas romances de la serie árabe en su marco: edición en caracteres latinos, versión española en calco rítmico y estudio de 43 moaxajas andaluzas,Madrid, Sociedad de Estudios y Publicaciones, 1965,ISBN 84-206-2652-X
Solà-Solé, Josep Maria,Corpus de poesía mozárabe,Barcelona, Hispam, 1973.
Monroe, James & David Swiatlo, ‘Ninety-Three Arabic Harğas in Hebrew Muwaššaḥs: Their Hispano-Romance Prosody and Thematic Features’,Journal of the American Oriental Society,97, 1977, pp. 141–163.
Galmés de Fuentes, Álvaro,Las Jarchas Mozárabes, forma y Significado,Barcelona, Crítica, 1994,ISBN 84-7423-667-3
Nimer, Miguel,Influências Orientais na Língua Portuguesa,São Paulo, 2005,ISBN 85-314-0707-9
Armistead S.G.,Kharjas and villancicos,in «Journal of Arabic Literature», Volume 34, Numbers 1-2, 2003, pp. 3–19(17)
Hitchcock, Richard,The "Kharjas" as early Romance Lyrics: a Review,in «The Modern Language Review», Vol. 75, No. 3 (Jul., 1980), pp. 481–491
Zwartjes, Otto & Heijkoop, Henk,Muwaššaḥ, zajal, kharja: bibliography of eleven centuries of strophic poetry and music from al-Andalus and their influence on East and West,2004,ISBN 90-04-13822-6

[1] rjah.Encyclopædia Britannica.

[2] Zwartjes, 1997, Love Songs from al-Andalus: History, Structure and Meaning of the Kharja (Leiden: Brill)

[3] Fish Compton, Linda, 1976, Andalusian Lyrical Poetry and Old Spanish Love Songs: The Muwashshaḥ and its Kharja (New York: University Press), p.6

[:10-4] Menocal, María Rosa; Scheindlin, Raymond P.; Sells, Micheal (2012).The literature of al-Andalus.Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1-139-17787-0.OCLC 819159086.

[autogenerated1-5] Jones, Alan, 1981-82, ‘Sunbeams from Cucumbers? An Arabist’s Assessment of the State of Kharja Studies’, La corónica, 10: 38-53

[6] Dronke, Peter, 1978, The Medieval Lyric, 2nd edition (London: Hutchinson), p.86

[7] Monroe, James, 1975, ‘Formulaic Diction and the Common Origins of Romance Lyric Traditions’, Hispanic Review 43: 341-350.

[8] KHARJAS AND VILLANCICOS Archived2011-06-06 at theWayback Machine,by Armistead S.G., Journal of Arabic Literature, Volume 34, Numbers 1-2, 2003, pp. 3-19(17)

[9] ttp://www.jubilatores.com/poetry.pdf^{[bare URL PDF]}

[10] Zwartjes, 1997,Love Songs from al-Andalus: History, Structure and Meaning of the Kharja(Leiden: Brill), p.294

[11] Jones, 1988,Romance Kharjas in Andalusian Arabic Muwaššaḥ Poetry(London: Ithaca Press)

[12] Whinnom, Keith, 1981-82, ‘The Mamma of the Kharjas or some Doubts Concerning Arabists and Romanists’, La corónica, 11: 11-17.

[13] Zwartjes, Otto (1994). "La alternancia de código como recurso estilístico en las xarja-s andalusíes".La Corónica.22(2): 1–51.

[14] Hitchcock, Richard (1980). "The" Kharjas "as Early Romance Lyrics: A Review".The Modern Language Review.75(3): 481–491.doi:10.2307/3727967.JSTOR 3727967.

[15] R. Cohen & S. Parkinson, "The Galician-Portuguese Lyric" inCompanion to Portuguese Literature,ed. Stephen Parkinson, Cláudia Pazos Alonso and T. F. Earle. Warminster: Boydell & Brewer, 2009.

[16] Fish Compton, Linda, 1976, Andalusian Lyrical Poetry and Old Spanish Love Songs: The Muwashshaḥ and its Kharja (New York: University Press), pp.10-14

[:0-17] Ed (2012-04-24),"Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk",Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition,Brill,doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_sim_3358,retrieved2024-02-24

[18] Knysh, Alexander. “Ibn Al-Khaṭīb.” Chapter. InThe Literature of Al-Andalus,edited by María Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, and Michael Sells, 358–72. The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

[19] "كتاب عدة الجليس: ومؤانسة الوزير والرئيس | WorldCat.org".search.worldcat.org.Retrieved2024-02-24.

[20] Abu-Haidar, Jareer (1978)."The Kharja of the Muwashshaḥ in a New Light".Journal of Arabic Literature.9:1–13.doi:10.1163/157006478X00011.JSTOR 4182991.

[:1-21] Jones, Alan (2021-10-02)."Samuel Miklos Stern and Andalusian poetry".Journal of Modern Jewish Studies.20(4): 454–461.doi:10.1080/14725886.2021.1984837.ISSN 1472-5886.

[:2-22] Armistead, Samuel G. (1987)."A Brief History of Kharja Studies".Hispania.70(1): 8–15.doi:10.2307/343643.ISSN 0018-2133.JSTOR 343643.

[23] Harvey, L.P. (1992)."ALAN JONES, Romance Kharjas in Andalusian Arabic Muwaššah Poetry: a Paleographical Analysis, Ithaca Press, London, for the Board of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Oxford University, 1988. Pp. x + 306; EMILIO GARCÍA GÓMEZ, El escándalo de las jarchas en Oxford, Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, 1991 ( = Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia, CLXXXVIII, 1991). Pp. 104".Journal of Arabic Literature.23(1): 71–74.doi:10.1163/157006492X00132.ISSN 0085-2376.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]