A ''kharja'' or ''kharjah'' ( ; ; ; also known as a ''markaz'' 'center'), is the final couple of ''abyāt'', or verses, of a '' muwaššaḥa'' ( 'girdle'), a

poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

of the strophic

lyric Lyric may refer to: * Lyrics, the words, often in verse form, which are sung, usually to a melody, and constitute the semantic content of a song * Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that expresses a subjective, personal point of view * Lyric, from t ...

genre from

al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

. The ''kharja'' can be in a language that is different from the body; a ''muwaššaḥ'' in literary Arabic might have a ''kharja'' in vernacular

Andalusi Arabic Andalusi Arabic or Andalusian Arabic () was a variety or varieties of Arabic spoken mainly from the 8th to the 15th century in Al-Andalus, the regions of the Iberian Peninsula under the Muslim rule. Arabic spread gradually over the centuries ...

or in a mix of Arabic and

Andalusi Romance Andalusi Romance, also called Mozarabic, refers to the varieties of Ibero-Romance that were spoken in Al-Andalus, the parts of the medieval Iberian Peninsula under Islamic control. Romance, or vernacular Late Latin, was the common tongue for th ...

, while a ''muwaššaḥ'' in Hebrew might contain a ''kharja'' in Arabic, Romance, Hebrew, or a mix. The ''muwashshah'' typically consists of five strophes 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. The ''kharja'' appears often to have been composed independently of the ''muwashshah'' in which it is found.

Characteristics of the kharja

About a third of extant ''kharjas'' are written in Classical Arabic. Most of the remainder are in Andalusi Arabic, but there are about seventy examples that are written either in

Iberian Romance languages The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance or sometimes Iberian languages Iberian languages is also used as a more inclusive term for all languages spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, which in antiquity included the non-Indo-European Iberian language. are ...

or with significant Romance elements. Generally, though not always, the ''kharja'' is presented as a quotation from a speaker who is introduced in the preceding stanza. It is not uncommon to find the same ''kharja'' attached to several different ''muwashshahat''. The Egyptian writer Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk (1155–1211), in his ''Dar al-Tirāz'' (a study of the ''muwashshahat'', including an anthology) states that the ''kharja'' was the most important part of the poem, that the poets generated the ''muwashshah'' from the ''kharja'', and that consequently it was considered better to borrow a good ''kharja'' than compose a bad one. ''Kharjas'' may describe love, praise, the pleasures of drinking, but also ascetism.

Corpora

Corpus of Arabic ''muwaššaḥāt''

Of the approximately 600 known secular Arabic ''muwaššaḥāt'', there are almost 300 ''kharjas'' in vernacular Andalusi Arabic and over 200 in Standard Arabic (), though some of the vernacular ''kharjas'' are essentially Standard Arabic with a vulgar gloss. About 50 are in

or contain some Romance words or elements.

Corpus of Hebrew ''muwaššaḥāt''

About half of the corpus of the more than 250 known ''muwaššaḥāt'' in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

have ''kharjas'' in Arabic. There about roughly 50 with ''kharjas'' in Hebrew, and about 25 with Romance. There are also a few ''kharjas'' with a combination of Hebrew and Arabic.

Others

In their experimentation of the ''muwaššaḥ'' genre, the Mashriqi writers Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk and as-Safadi made ''kharjas'' in different languages using Persian and Turkish.

Romance kharjas

Though they comprise only a fraction of the corpus of extant ''kharjas'', it is the Romance ''kharjas'' that 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 scholar Samuel Miklos Stern and

Arabist An Arabist is someone, often but not always from outside the Arab world, who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and Arab culture, culture (usually including Arabic literature). Origins Arabists began in Al Andalus, medieval Muslim ...

Emilio García Gómez is generally thought to have cast new light on the evolution of

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

. The Romance ''kharjas'' are thematically comparatively restricted, being almost entirely about love. Approximately three-quarters of them are put into the mouths of women, while the proportion for Arabic ''kharjas'' is nearer one-fifth.Jones, Alan, 1981-82, ‘Sunbeams from Cucumbers? An Arabist’s Assessment of the State of Kharja Studies’, La corónica, 10: 38-53

Debate over origins

Since the ''kharja'' may be written separately from the ''muwashshah'', many scholars have speculated that the Romance kharjas were originally popular Spanish lyrics that the court poets incorporated into their poems. Some similarities have been claimed with other early Romance lyrics in theme, metre, and idiom. Arabic writers from the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

like Ahmad al-Tifashi (1184–1253) referred to "songs in the Christian style" sung in al-Andalus from ancient times that some have identified as the ''kharjas''. Other scholars dispute such claims, arguing that the ''kharjas'' stand firmly within the Arabic tradition with little or no Romance input at all, and the apparent similarities only arise because the ''kharjas'' discuss themes that are universal in human literature anyway.

Debate over language and reading

Modern translations of the Romance ''kharjas'' are 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. Further debate arises around the mixed vocabulary used by the authors. Most of the Romance ''kharjas'' are 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, and that the Romance ''kharjas'' must therefore be regarded as macaronic literature. A minority of scholars, such as Richard Hitchcock contend 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 how ''Muwashshahat'' and ''Kharjas'' were composed.

Examples

Romance

An example of a Romance ''kharja'' (and translation) by the Jewish poet

Judah Halevi Judah haLevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; ; ; c. 1075 – 1141) was a Sephardic Jewish poet, physician and philosopher. Halevi is considered one of the greatest Hebrew poets and is celebrated for his secular and religious poems, many of whic ...

: These verses express the theme of the pain of longing for the absent lover (''habib''). Many scholars have compared such themes to the Galician-Portuguese cantigas de amigo which date from c. 1220 to c. 1300, but “ e early trend ��towards seeing a genetic link between ''kharajat'' and ''cantigas d'amigo'' seems now to have been over-hasty.”

Arabic

An example of an Arabic ''kharja'': :How beautiful is the army with its orderly ranks :When the champions call out, ‘Oh, Wāthiq, oh, handsome one!’ The ''kharja'' is from a ''muwashshah'' in the ''Dar al-Tirāz'' of Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk.

History of ''kharja'' scholarship

Manuscript sources

Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk, a 12th century Egyptian poet, wrote an anthology and study of the ''muwaššaḥ'' and its ''kharja'' entitled '' Dār aṭ-ṭirāz fī ʿamal al-muwas̲h̲s̲h̲aḥāt'' ().'''' The Syrian scholar published an edition of the work in 1949.'''' Ibn al-Khatib, a 14th century Andalusi poet, compiled an anthology of ''muwaššaḥāt'' entitled ''Jaysh at-Tawshĩḥ'' (). Alan Jones published a modern edition of this work. An anthology of ''muwaššaḥāt'' entitled ''Uddat al-Jalīs'' ()'','' 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. Ibn Bassam wrote in () that the ''kharja'' was the initial text around which the rest of the ''muwaššaḥ'' was composed.

Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...

also mentions the ''muwaššaḥ'' and its ''kharja'' in his ''

Muqaddimah The ''Muqaddimah'' ( "Introduction"), also known as the ''Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun'' () or ''Ibn Khaldun's Introduction (writing), Prolegomena'' (), is a book written by the historian Ibn Khaldun in 1377 which presents a view of Universal histo ...

''.

Modern study

In 1948, the Hungarian linguist Samuel Miklos Stern published "" in the journal ''al-Andalus'', translated into English in 1974 as ''The Final Lines of Hebrew'' Muwashshaḥs ''from Spain''. Stern's interpretation of ''kharjas'' in Hebrew texts made them accessible to Romanists and had a great impact on the Spanish establishment and scholars of Romance in the West. Emilio García Gómez and Josep M. Solà-Solé compiled collections of ''kharjas.'' Gómez's 1965 book presented a corpus of all known ''kharjas'' at the time; although it did not include annotation or scholarly apparatus, it became canonical. Solà-Solé's offered a complete scholarly apparatus, variations taken from different manuscripts, thorough discussion, and thoughtful speculation. LP Harvey, Alan Jones, and James T. Monroe have also made influential contributions to the study of the ''kharjas''.

References

External links

Texts of fifty-five kharjas, with different transcriptions and translation to English French and German

Editions of the Kharjas and Bibliography

* Corriente, Federico, ''Poesía dialectal árabe y romance en Alandalús'', Madrid, Gredos, 1997 (contains all extant ''kharjas'' in 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, * 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, * Nimer, Miguel, ''Influências Orientais na Língua Portuguesa'', São Paulo, 2005, * 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 Arabic and Central Asian poetics Portuguese literature Spanish literature Culture of al-Andalus