Muwashshah ( ' 'girdled'; plural '; also ' 'girdling,' pl. ') is a strophic poetic form that developed in al-Andalus in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. The ', embodying the Iberian rhyme revolution, was the major Andalusi innovation in Arabic poetry, and it was sung and performed musically. The muwaššaḥ features a complex rhyme and metrical scheme usually containing five ' ( 'branches'; sing. '), with uniform rhyme within each strophe, interspersed with ' ( 'threads for stringing pearls'; sing. ') with common rhyme throughout the song, as well as a terminal kharja ( 'exit'), the song's final simṭ, which could be in a different language. Sephardic poets also composed ' in Hebrew, sometimes as contrafacta imitating the rhyme and metrical scheme of a particular poem in Hebrew or in Arabic. This poetic imitation, called ' ( 'contrafaction'), is a tradition in Arabic poetry.
The kharja, or the markaz ( 'center') of the ', its final verses, can be in a language that is different from the body; a muwaššaḥ in literary Arabic might have a kharja in vernacular Andalusi Arabic or in a mix of Arabic and Andalusi Romance, while a muwaššaḥ in Hebrew might contain a kharja in Arabic, Romance, Hebrew, or a mix.
The muwaššaḥ musical tradition can take two forms: the waṣla of the Mashriq and the Andalusi nubah of the Maghrib.
History
While the qasida and the maqama were adapted from the Mashriq, strophic poetry is the only form of Andalusi literature known to have its origins in the Iberian Peninsula. Andalusi strophic poetry exists in two forms: the muwaššaḥ: a more complex version in Standard Arabic with the exception of the concluding couplet, or the kharja, and zajal: a simpler form entirely in vernacular Arabic.
Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk (d. 1211), author of Dār aṭ-ṭirāz fī ʿamal al-muwashshaḥāt (), wrote the most detailed surviving musical description of the muwashshaḥ. He wrote that some of the muwashshaḥāt had lyrics that fit their melodies (sometimes through melisma), while others had improvised nonsense syllables to fill out the melodic line—a practice that survives to the present with relevant sections labeled as shughl ( 'work') in songbooks. Some relate it to the word for a type of double-banded ornamental belt, the ', which also means a scarf in Arabic. Ibn Arabi and ibn al-Ṣabbāgh composed esoteric muwashshahs that used wine and love as allegories for divine yearning. About 50 are in Andalusi Romance or contain some Romance words or elements. and Joseph ibn Tzaddik. It may end with a longa. Famous Muwashshah songs still played in the Arab World today include Lamma Bada Yatathanna and Jadaka al-Ghaithu.
Famous poets
A composer of ' is known as a ' ( 'girdler'; pl. '). Famous ' include:
- Al-Tutili
- Avempace
- Avenzoar
- Todros ben Judah Halevi Abulafia (Hebrew)