Muwashshah (Arabic:مُوَشَّحmuwaššaḥ 'girdled'; pluralمُوَشَّحَاتmuwaššaḥāt; alsoتَوْشِيْحtawšīḥ 'girdling,' pl.تَوَاشِيْحtawāšīḥ) is astrophic poetic form that developed inal-Andalus in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. Themuwaššaḥ, embodying the Iberianrhyme revolution, was the majorAndalusi innovation inArabic poetry,[1] and it was sung and performedmusically. Themuwaššaḥ features a complex rhyme and metrical scheme usually containing fiveaghṣān (أَغْصَان 'branches'; sing.غُصْنghuṣn), with uniform rhyme within each strophe, interspersed withasmāṭ (أَسْمَاط 'threads for stringing pearls'; sing.سِمْطsimṭ) with common rhyme throughout the song, as well as a terminalkharja (خَرْجَة 'exit'), the song's finalsimṭ, which could be in a different language.[2]Sephardic poets also composedmuwaššaḥāt inHebrew, sometimes ascontrafacta imitating the rhyme and metrical scheme of a particular poem in Hebrew or in Arabic. This poetic imitation, calledmuʿāraḍa (مُعَارَضَة 'contrafaction'), is a tradition in Arabic poetry.
Thekharja, or themarkaz (مَـْركَز 'center') of themuwaššaḥ, its final verses, can be in a language that is different from the body; amuwaššaḥ in literary Arabic might have akharja in vernacularAndalusi Arabic or in a mix of Arabic andAndalusi Romance, while amuwaššaḥ in Hebrew might contain akharja in Arabic, Romance, Hebrew, or a mix.
Themuwaššaḥ musical tradition can take two forms: thewaṣla of theMashriq and theAndalusinubah of theMaghrib.[3]
While theqasida and themaqama were adapted from theMashriq,strophic poetry is the only form ofAndalusi literature known to have its origins in theIberian Peninsula.[4] Andalusi strophic poetry exists in two forms: themuwaššaḥ: a more complex version in Standard Arabic with the exception of the concluding couplet, or thekharja, andzajal: a simpler form entirely in vernacular Arabic.[4] The earliest knownmuwaššaḥs date back to the eleventh century.[4]
It was exported to the east, and celebrated there by figures such asIbn Sanāʾ al-Mulk andibn Dihya al-Kalby.[4] The corpus ofmuwaššaḥs is formed by pieces inHebrew andAndalusi Arabic.[4]Tova Rosen describes themuwaššaḥ as "a product and a microcosm of the cultural conditions particular toal-Andalus.[4] The linguistic interplay between the standard written languages—Arabic and Hebrew—and the oral forms—Andalusi Arabic,Andalusi Romance, Hebrew, and otherRomance languages—reflect the fluidity and diversity of the linguistic landscape of al-Andalus.[4]
The earliest known source on themuwashshah isIbn Bassam’s 'Dhakhīra fī mahāsin ahl al-Jazīra [ar]'. He ascribes the invention of themuwashshah to the 10th century blind poet Muhammad Mahmud al-Qabri or ibn ‘Abd Rabbih.[4]: 170 Nonetheless, there are no extantmuwashshah poems attributed to these authors.[5]: 563
Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk (d. 1211), author ofDār aṭ-ṭirāz fī ʿamal al-muwashshaḥāt (دار الطراز في عمل الموشحات), wrote the most detailed surviving musical description of themuwashshaḥ.[6][7] He wrote that some of themuwashshaḥāt had lyrics that fit their melodies (sometimes throughmelisma), while others hadimprovised nonsense syllables to fill out the melodic line—a practice that survives to the present with relevant sections labeled asshughl (شُغل 'work') in songbooks.[6]
Examples ofmuwaššaḥ poetry start to appear as early as the 9th or 10th century. It is believed to come from the Arabic root w-š-ḥ (وشح) which means any thing that a woman might wear on her neck from a necklace to a scarf, and the verb Tawašḥ means to wear.[8][9] Some relate it to the word for a type of double-banded ornamental belt, thewišaḥ, which also means a scarf in Arabic.[8] The underlying idea is that, as there is a single rhyme running through the refrain of each stanza, the stanzas are like objects hung from a belt.
Typically, Arabic poetry has a single meter and rhyme across the poem and is structured according to couplets, not strophes. The muwashah however, is generally divided into five stanzas with a complex rhyme scheme. Each stanza consisted ofaghsan (sing:ghusn), lines with a rhyme particular to that strophe andasmat (sing:simt), lines with a rhyme shared by the rest of the poem.[5]: 564 Conventionally, themuwashshah opened with amaṭlaʿ (مَطْلَع‘the beginning’) and closed with akharja (‘exit’). The kharja was in a vernacular language such as colloquial Arabic or Romance. It often was voiced by a different poetic speaker.[4]: 168
The meter of the muwashah can be one of the classical meters defined byal-Khalil or the poet can devise a new meter.[4]: 167–168 This subject is debated amongst scholars, some of whom argue for the use of a Romance metrical system based on syllable stress.[5]: 565
Typical themes for amuwashshah include love, panegyric, and wine. Somemuwashshah poems are devoted to a single theme while others combine multiple themes. One common thematic structure is love, followed by panegyric, and then love.[4]: 169 The kharja also plays a role in elaborating the poem’s theme. At the end of a love poem, the kharja might be voiced by the beloved.[5]: 564 The easternmuwashshah tradition includes themes such as elegy and invective.[10]Ibn Arabi andibn al-Ṣabbāgh composed esotericmuwashshahs that used wine and love as allegories for divine yearning.[4]: 175
Of the approximately 600 known secular Arabicmuwaššaḥāt, there are almost 300kharjas invernacular Andalusi Arabic and over 200 in Standard Arabic (فُصْحَى), though some of the vernacularkharjas are essentially Standard Arabic with a vulgar gloss.[11]: 185 About 50 are inAndalusi Romance or contain some Romance words or elements.[11]: 185
About half of the corpus of the more than 250 knownmuwaššaḥāt inHebrew havekharjas in Arabic.[11]: 185 There about roughly 50 withkharjas in Hebrew, and about 25 with Romance.[11]: 185 There are also a fewkharjas with a combination of Hebrew and Arabic.[11]: 185
An important number of the muwashshah poems written in al-Andalus were composed in Hebrew. Like themuwaššaḥāt composed in Arabic, those in Hebrew might also contain linguistically distinct kharjas, either in Romance, Arabic, or a combination of Hebrew and Arabic.[11]: 185 Because of its strophic structure, it was similar to some Hebrew liturgical poetry.[4]: 166 Starting in the 11th century, the Hebrew muwashshah was also used for religious purposes. The first extant Hebrew muwashshahs are attributed toSamuel ibn Naghrillah.[4]: 171 Other prominent Hebrew muwashshah authors includeJudah Halevi,Todros ben Judah Halevi Abulafia[12] andJoseph ibn Tzaddik.[4]: 173
The first author to compose a devotional muwashshah wasSolomon ibn Gabirol, about two centuries prior to the development of religious muwashshah poetry in Arabic. He was followed in this tradition byMoses ibn Ezra,Abraham ibn Ezra, and Judah Halevi, among others. The poems were designed for use in prayer services and were elaborated themes of particular benedictions.[4]: 175 Unlike other Hebrew muwashshahs, the kharja of a devotional muwashshah was in Hebrew.[4]: 174
Musically, the ensemble consists ofoud (lute),kamanja (spike fiddle),qanun (box zither),darabukkah (goblet drum), anddaf (tambourine): the players of these instruments often double as a choir. The soloist performs only a few chosen lines of the selected text. InAleppo multiplemaqam rows (scales) and up to threeawzān (rhythms) are used and modulation to neighboring maqamat was possible during the B section[clarification needed]. Until modernization it was typical to present a completewaslah, or up to eight successivemuwaššaḥ including an instrumental introduction (sama'i orbashraf).[13] It may end with alonga. Famous Muwashshah songs still played in theArab World today includeLamma Bada Yatathanna andJadaka al-Ghaithu.
A composer ofmuwaššaḥāt is known as awaššāḥ (وَشّاح 'girdler'; pl.وَشّاحُونwaššāḥūn). Famouswaššāḥūn include:
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