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SUFI POETRY IN SOMALI PDF

266 Pages·2013·8.48 MB·English
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SUFI POETRY IN SOMALI: ITS THEMES AND IMAGERY By ABDISALAM YASSIN MOHAMED Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Loridon, 1977 ,',: :' j_,.> 1,·-1 2 • ABSTRACT Somalia has been a Muslim country probably for over a thousand years and has a well developed Sufi movement "\vhich plays an important social role and has been a stimulus to creativity in the field of poetry composed both in Arabic and in Somali. Somali Sufis have always regarded Arabic, the sacred language of Islam, with great love and reverence, yet they have found it unsuitable as a means of reaching wider audiences, since only a limited I I. : number of Somalis can fully understand it. Inspired by the desire to communicate their spiritual fervour and their knowledge of Islamic doctrines to every one, Somali Sufis have composed oral poetry in their mother tongue and used it as a form of religious instruction and praye'r. The appeal of their poetry to Somali audience lies in the cultural syncretism which it represents. Its themes are taken from the universal teaching of Islam and from Sufism while its imagery is predominantly drawn from the natural environment and traditional culture of Somalia. Furthermore, it follows the pattern of versification used in secular alliterative poetry, which is totally unaffected by the Arabic models of scansion. The secular alliterative poetry has a long tradition and is a living all-pervasive force in Somali culture; Somali Sufis have thus used a well established channel of artistic communication to convey their spiritual message. Their success has been considerable and their poetry in Somali, far from waning under the impact of the modern age, has been increasing in its popularity even in recent years. 3 • The aim of this thesis is first of all to contribute to the documentation of this almost unexplored field and to demonstrate the nature of the cultural syncretism ir its two most important aspects: its themes and its imagery. The thesis relates the Sufi poetry in Somali to other relevant aspects of Somali culture and includes a corpus of original texts, together with translations and an notations. 4. CONTENTS Abstract 2 Acknowledgments 7 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 8 1. Documentation and Sources 9 II. Transcription 15 I II. Translation 17 IV. Presentation 20 PART TWO: CULTURAL SETTING 22 I. The Sufi Way 23 II. The Sufi Orders in Somalia 30 I II. The Impact of Sufism on Somali 34 Secular Poetry IY. ; : The pre-Islamic Elements in Sufi 47 poetry in Somali v. The Sufi Poetry in Arabic Written 50 by Somalis VI. The Sufi Poetry in Somali Composed 53 by Men VII. The Sufi Poetry in Somali Composed 54 by Women VIII. Formal Characteristics of Sufi Poetry in Somali 58 PART THREE: THEMES OF SUFI POETRY IN SOrvlALI WITH REPRESENTATIVE EXAMPLES 62 .I. Poems Concerning God 63 Text 1. ADAM and IjAwi\.J 64 Text 2. Thanksgiving 89 Text 3. God, the Majestic One 91 5 • Text 4. o God, Save Me 97 Text '5 . Religious Advice 98 Text 6 . 0 God, the Glorious One 112 Text 7 . 0 Lord 114 II. Poems in Praise of the Prophet 116 Text 8 . 0 Most Gracious of 117 All Creatures Text 9. 0 Prophet 125 Text 10. Softener [of the Heart] 129 Text 11. The Perfect Prophet 146 Text 12. The Light of God 157 I tr . Poems in Praise of the Saints 158 Text 13., Daughter of the Prophet 159 Text 14. Wife of cALI 164 Text 15. ijAWA;:> was Saying 166 Text 16. Mother I;IAWAo 167 Text 17. Crown of Saints 169 Text 18. Sheekh Barkhad1e 174 Text 19. Sheekh Suufi 179 Text io. Sheekh Cabdisalaam Xaaji Jaamac 183 Text 21. Sheekh Cali Cabdiraxmaan 186 -~. IV. Poems with Miscellaneous Inspirational Themes 190 v 191 Text 22. Alif Said Text 2,3 . Pride and Greed 196 Text i4. The Story 203 210 Text 2.5 . Astonishment and Wonder 218 V. Conspectus of Themes 6 . PART FOUR: THE IMAGERY 222 I. The Main Characteristic of the Imagery 223 / II. Images Drawn from the Somali Environment 224 and Traditional Culture IIi. Images Drawn from Other Sources 242 IV. Conspectus of Images 244 APPENDIX A. Annotated Glossary of Islamic Terms 247 APPENDIX B. Annotated Glossary of Proper Names 249 REFERENCES 255 NOTES 264 .7 • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to Sheekh c Caaqib Cabdilaahi who has kindly allowed me to use some of his unpublished poetry. I would also like to thank Khadiija Faarax Maxamuud who put at my dis posal her repertoire of Sufi women's poems called sitaad. My especial gratitude is for Dr. B.W. Andrzejewski who has given me advice and guidance in the preparation of this thesis and who has permitted me to use oral Sufi poetry which he recorded in Somalia during 1968-69. I would like to add that, for a man who has combined his skills as a teacher with sympathetic understanding, I have been fortunate to have Dr. B.W. Andrzejewski as my supervisor. 8. PART ONE INTRODUCTION .9 _ I Documentation and Sources Although the existence of Sufi oral poetry in Somali has been noticed by some scholars, the whole documentation of this field is limited to the recording of a few poems,l and no attempt has been made so far to analyze it or to place it in a wider context of Somali culture. It is not even known at what period of history Somali began to be used as the medium of Sufi poetry_ The problem will probably remain unsolved, since no documentary evidence is availabl~_ Nonetheless~ there is a strong conviction among the Somali Sufis that the use of Somali in Sufi poetry is of great antiquity. Although I have heard such views from a great number of people, especially men of religion, I have thought it advisable to consult some of the leading Somali authorities in this field. I have interviewed Aw Diiriye Bashbash, a religious elder and a reputable antiquarian who is said to be over \ 100 years old and who lives in Burco, Cabdi Cabdilaahi Muuse, a well known poet and a traditional historian who is originally from Bureo but who now resides in Jiddah, and Khadiija Faarax Maxamuud, a poetess and a lady Sufi who lives in Hargeysa. They all belong to the QADIRRIYYAH Order, and all of them maintain that, according to oral tradition known to them, the Somalis have simultaneously composed Sufi poems in Arabic and Somali from the earliest times when Islam laid its foundations in Somali~. Accord- ingly, they say, each of the two languages has separately 10. developed its stocks of poems, usually sung, and the two separate repertoires have never contradicted each other nor have they opposed each other's vigorous growth and· developmen~. It may therefore be suggested that within the Somali socio-religious context, the Arabic/Somali dichotomy in Sufi poetry represents symbiosis rather than conflic·t. While the Sufi poetry in Arabic written by Somalis is well-documented and easily accessible,l the Sufi poetry in Somali has been very much neglected. The present thesis. aims at remedying this situation by contributing to the documentation on the subject and by showing the relationship between this branch of Somali literature and its secular counterpart, a relationship which is of particular importance to the study of Somali culture in general. For the writing of this thesis, I have used three main source.s. Firstly, I have utilized some of the oral poems which were recorded on tapes in Somalia ~n 1968-9 and are now copied and deposited at the Tape Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, (Catalogue N~. SOM/XII/2-4). Secondly, I have used an unpublished collection of religious poems by Sheekh Caaqib Cabdilaahi,2 a well known Sufi poet, who first recorded his poems in an alphabet which he had seen in a dream. Due to its highly esoteric nature Sheekh Caaqib's script did not spread, but it became a useful means to record his own poetry and the many other works of Somali oral literature which he has collected. He used the texts thus made as an aid to memory when he chanted his poems at prayer meetings and when instructing his pupil~. When

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