Ghinnawa

Last updated

Ghinnawas (literally "little songs") are short, two line emotional lyric poems written by the Bedouins of Egypt, in a fashion similar to haiku, but similar in content to the American blues. [1] Ghinnawas typically talk of deep, personal feelings and are often an outlet for personal emotions which might not be otherwise expressible in Bedouin society. Ghinnawas may also be sung. Lila Abu-Lughod, the Palestinian American anthropologist who studied the Awlad Ali Bedouins in Lower Egypt in the late 1970s and collected over 450 ghinnawas, has published the most comprehensive work on ghinnawas to date. [1]

Contents

Ghinnawa is a form of folk poetry, in the sense that anyone in Awlad Ali society could author a ghinnawa. In a broader context, the ghinnawa may be looked upon as non-standard discourse that is a means of coping with social reality, similar to other discourse forms in the Arab world like the hikaya folktales of Tunisia or the gussa allegories of the Bedouin of the Sinai Peninsula. [2]

Themes

Ghinnawas usually have sad themes - typically being the lament of lost love, unless sung at celebrations like a circumcision or a wedding. Ghinnawas are sung by women, boys and also on rare occasions by men. [3] Ghinnawa semantics are well-defined only in context, because of their personal nature. Contents of ghinnawas are considered personal, even sensitive to the extent that Lila Abu Lughod was warned "never to reveal any women's poems to men". [4]

Social expression

The Awlad Ali do not have a strong history of public displays of emotion. Modesty or deference and boasting or anger are typically the most commonly expressed public emotion. Most other forms of expression take place through ghinnawas. [1]

Delivery and structure

Ghinnawas may be written down, which is often the case for intergender communication, but can be spoken as substitute to normal conversation, or sung. The structure of the ghinnawa is very different in written and oral forms.

Structurally, ghinnawas are approximately 15-syllable couplets. They can be broken up into 2 hemistiches. If the written form be represented as :

1234
56789

the oral form unspools into 16 lines as follows:

78
78
789
78
6789
78
78
6789
78
78
781
1234
78
78
56
56789

Each ghinnawa typically has many variations, and may even be sung with minor variations in a single singing. [1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society, by Lila Abu-Lugodh, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1986
  2. Between segmentation and desegmentation: Sound expressions among the Berbers in the Sous region (Southwestern Morocco), by Horiuchi Masaki, Cultures Sonores d'Afrique (ed. J. Kawada), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, 1997
  3. The Ghinnawa: How Bedouin Women's' Poetry Supplements Social Expression by Martha Blake
  4. Songs from the nomadic heart, Literary Review of Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin society by Lila Abu-Lughod; by Inea Bushnaq; New York Times, February 15, 1987


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epic poetry</span> Lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily detailing extraordinary and heroic deeds

An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classical Chinese poetry</span> Traditional Chinese poetry

Classical Chinese poetry is traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese and typified by certain traditional forms, or modes; traditional genres; and connections with particular historical periods, such as the poetry of the Tang dynasty. The existence of classical Chinese poetry is documented at least as early as the publication of the Classic of Poetry (Shijing). Various combinations of forms and genres have developed over the ages. Many or most of these poetic forms were developed by the end of the Tang dynasty, in 907 CE.

When speaking of the music of Syria, it is important to remember that there are certain musical traditions and practices that have been present in Syria longer than others. There have been musical influences introduced into Syria through multiple eras of conquest and influences from surrounding cultures in modern-day Syria. Lying near Egypt and Israel, and connected to southern Europe by the Mediterranean, Syria became host to many distinct cultural musics through trade and route. The music present in Syria is related greatly to poetry, influenced greatly by the Bedouin nomadic tribes, the maqam system in Arabic classical music, as well as influenced greatly by the geopolitical movement and conflict in the Middle East. Syrian music generally has a singer who is accompanied by three or four instruments. The texture is usually thin but can become denser depending on the use of each instrument. Music is tightly linked to poetry in Syria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lament</span> Literary genre

A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something that they regret or someone that they have lost, and they are usually accompanied by wailing, moaning and/or crying. Laments constitute some of the oldest forms of writing, and examples exist across human cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oral literature</span> Oral literature

Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used varying descriptions for oral literature or folk literature. A broad conceptualization refers to it as literature characterized by oral transmission and the absence of any fixed form. It includes the stories, legends, and history passed through generations in a spoken form.

Al-Asmaʿi, or Asmai; an early philologist and one of three leading Arabic grammarians of the Basra school. Celebrated at the court of the Abbasid caliph, Hārūn al-Rashīd, as polymath and prolific author on philology, poetry, genealogy, and natural science, he pioneered zoology studies in animal-human anatomical science. He compiled an important poetry anthology, the Asma'iyyat, and was credited with composing an epic on the life of Antarah ibn Shaddad. A protégé of Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi and Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala', he was a contemporary and rival of Abū ʿUbaidah and Sibawayhi also of the Basran school.

The qaṣīda is an ancient Arabic word and form of writing poetry, often translated as ode, passed to other cultures after the Arab Muslim expansion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korean poetry</span> Poetry performed or written in the Korean language or by Korean people

Korean poetry is poetry performed or written in the Korean language or by Korean people. Traditional Korean poetry is often sung in performance. Until the 20th century, much of Korean poetry was written in Hanja and later Hangul.

Feminist anthropology is a four-field approach to anthropology that seeks to transform research findings, anthropological hiring practices, and the scholarly production of knowledge, using insights from feminist theory. Simultaneously, feminist anthropology challenges essentialist feminist theories developed in Europe and America. While feminists practiced cultural anthropology since its inception, it was not until the 1970s that feminist anthropology was formally recognized as a subdiscipline of anthropology. Since then, it has developed its own subsection of the American Anthropological Association – the Association for Feminist Anthropology – and its own publication, Feminist Anthropology. Their former journal Voices is now defunct.

Swahili literature is literature written in the Swahili language, particularly by Swahili people of the East African coast and the neighboring islands. It may also refer to literature written by people who write in the Swahili language. It is an offshoot of the Bantu culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mangal-Kāvya</span> Group of Bengali Hindu religious texts

Mangal-Kāvya is a group of Bengali religious texts, composed more or less between 13th and 18th centuries, notably consisting of narratives of indigenous deities of rural Bengal in the social scenario of the Middle Ages. The Mangal-Kāvyas usually give prominence to a particular deity amalgamated with a Vedic or Hindu mythological god and the narratives are usually written in the form of verses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algerian literature</span>

Algerian literature has been influenced by many cultures, including the ancient Romans, Arabs, French, Spanish, and Berbers. The dominant languages in Algerian literature are French and Arabic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afsaneh Najmabadi</span> Iranian-American historian and gender theorist

Afsaneh Najmabadi is an Iranian-born American historian, gender theorist, archivist, and educator. She is the Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lila Abu-Lughod</span> Palestinian-American anthropologist

Lila Abu-Lughod is a Palestinian-American anthropologist. She is the Joseph L. Buttenweiser Professor of Social Science in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York City. She specializes in ethnographic research in the Arab world, and her seven books cover topics including sentiment and poetry, nationalism and media, gender politics and the politics of memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of Qatar</span> Overview of the culture of Qatar

The culture of Qatar is strongly influenced by traditional Bedouin culture, with less acute influence deriving from India, East Africa and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf. The peninsula's harsh climatic conditions compelled its inhabitants to turn to the sea for sustenance. Thus, there is a distinct emphasis placed on the sea in local culture. Literature and folklore themes are often related to sea-based activities.

Nabaṭī, historically also known as najdi, is a vernacular Arabic poetry that stems from the Arabic varieties of the Arabian Peninsula. It exists in contrast to the poetry written according to the classical rules of literary Arabic.

Hissa Hilal is a Saudi Arabian poet. Previously published under the pseudonym Remia, she gained fame outside the Arab world in 2010 when she recited a poem against fatwas on Million's Poet, an Emirati reality television poetry competition, and became the first woman to reach the program's finals.

Muhammad Fanatil al-Hajaya is a Bedouin poet from Jordan. He writes poetry on international relations and has published five books of poetry. Hajaya has been loosely attached to Jordan's Hashemite Court and often reads his poetry on national and ceremonial occasions. Though he lived a nomadic desert life as a young man, he now lives in the village of Sadd al-Sultani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qatari literature</span>

Qatari literature traces its origins back to the 19th century. Originally, written poetry was the most common form of expression, but poetry later fell out of favor after Qatar began reaping the profits from oil exports in the mid-20th century and many Qataris abandoned their Bedouin traditions in favor of more urban lifestyles.

Poetic devices are a form of literary device used in poetry. Poems are created out of poetic devices via a composite of: structural, grammatical, rhythmic, metrical, verbal, and visual elements. They are essential tools that a poet uses to create rhythm, enhance a poem's meaning, or intensify a mood or feeling.