{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/mhm/mhm06.htm","path":"isl/mhm/mhm06.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/mhm/mhm06.htm","text":"The Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t of Bad\u00ed\u2018 al-Zam\u00e1n al-Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed, tr. W.J. Prendergast [1915]\nMAQAMA, plural Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t, from \u2026 he stood, primarily signifies an occasion of standing, or a place where one stands upright. Standing appear to have been not only the natural, but the conventional position of the speaker, e.g.\n(2) I have heard that \u2018Al\u00ed ibn al-\u1e24usain was standing admonishing the people. 3\n(3) Come near and eat, or, if thou wilt, stand and speak. 4\nThe practice of standing to speak goes back to Homeric times:--\nAccording to Ibn Qutaiba (A. H. 276) reports of the literary discussions held in the assemblies of men of learning and culture received, early in the \u2018Abb\u00e1sid period (A. H. 132-656), the name Maq\u00e1ma. 2\nThese literary reunions appear to have been a recognized institution. Saif al-Daula used to hold an assembly every night to which men of learning came and conversed in his presence; 3 and Tha\u2018\u00e1lib\u00ed, in referring to the literary splendour of Bukh\u00e1ra in Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed's time, mentions a remarkable gathering of the chief scholars of the day at the Court of that State. 4\nMaq\u00e1ma probably acquired the more restricted meaning of a discourse, exhortation or oration, between the time of J\u00e1\u1e25iz (ob. A.H. 255) and that of Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed (ob. A.H. 398).\nThe extracts given below illustrate the various uses of the word from the time of the pre-Isl\u00e1mic poet Zuheir (end of the sixth century A.D.) to that of the author (end of the eleventh century A.D.) It is thus used by early writers:--\n\u2026\n And if he is present in the maq\u00e1ma--assembly or council--on the day of final decision,\n Thou wilt see the equal of Luqm\u00e1n the sage.\u00a02\n\u2026\n Solitary ones who have not heard the barking of the dogs of maq\u00e1ma--a company of Bedaw\u00edn.\u00a05\n\u2026\n So wait for the end of his maq\u00e1ma--a discourse. The word here refers to a stirring sermon which \u2018\u00cds\u00e1 ibn Hish\u00e1m had been listening to.\u00a02\n\u2026\n And him who enters the maq\u00e1m\u00e1t--companies or assemblies of respectable people.\u00a03\n\u2026\n And of their distinguishing marks is the vileness of their maq\u00e1m\u00e1t--assemblies of chief men, or speeches.\u00a04\n\u2026\n Verily he who has dictated four hundred maq\u00e1m\u00e1t on mendicity.\u00a05\nAlthough the maq\u00e1m\u00e1t were composed chiefly for assemblies of the learned and for the entertainment of the great, the word maq\u00e1ma is applied by Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed himself to the species of composition first associated with his name, and not to the people who assembled to listen to his discourses. It is in this restricted sense that it has come down to us.\nAs the extracts from different authors do, however, show that the word has the triple signification of an oratorical address or harangue, a collection of champions, or a company of people, I have preferred a transliteration to the rendering by the familiar, but unsatisfactory, term assembly.\n11:2 Kit\u00e1b al-Am\u00e1l\u00ed, ii, 73.\n11:3 Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t of al-Hamadh\u00e1n\u00ed, p. 130.\n11:4 Maq\u00e1m\u00e1t of al-\u1e24ar\u00edr\u00ed, p. 21.\n12:1 Iliad, Book xix, line 79.\n12:2 Brockelman, Gesch. der Arab Litteratur, i, 94.\n12:3 Ibn Khallikan, i, 105.\n12:4 Yat\u00edma, iv, 33.\n12:5 Shu\u2018ar\u00e1 al-Nasr\u00e1niah, p. 573.\n12:6 Ab\u00fa Tamm\u00e1m (Beyr\u00fat edition), p. 82, last line.\n13:1 Ab\u00fa Tamm\u00e1m (Beyr\u00fat edition), p. 211, line 4.\n13:2 Ibid., p. 256, line 4 from the end.\n13:3 Hamasa, p. 95.\n13:4 Book of Misers (Lyden edition), p. 218, line 23.\n13:5 Hayw\u00e1n, part iv, 154,\n13:6 Kit\u00e1b al-Am\u00e1l\u00ed, i, 95.\n14:1 Text, p. 25.\n14:2 Ibid., p. 135.\n14:3 Ibid., p. 160.\n14:4 Letters, p. 106.\n14:5 Ibid., p, 390.","title":"The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: Introduction: III. The Word ...","type":"page"}