[Andalusi Studies] women's swinging songs

Tue Jul 18 12:13:33 PDT 2023

Moroccan Jewish women, especially before marriage, sang on swings in the inner courtyards of their houses, in the early spring. In Judeo-Spanish they often sang narrative ballads (romances), taking turns, with a little rhyme in between one girl and another. Not sure what they sang in Arabic/French speaking areas. One woman's reminiscence,  in French, was "my father made me a swing but wouldn let me sing."

Judith Cohen
www.judithcohen.ca<http://www.judithcohen.ca>

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Today's Topics:

   1. Query regarding women's "swinging songs"  (chansons de
      l'escarpolette) (Dwight Reynolds)
   2. New paper on Maimonides' glossary with Romance    glosses
      (Jose Martinez Delgado)

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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2023 12:31:51 -0700
From: Dwight Reynolds <dreynold at religion.ucsb.edu>
To: Andalusi_Studies at lists.uoregon.edu, Dwight Reynolds
        <dreynold at ucsb.edu>
Subject: [Andalusi Studies] Query regarding women's "swinging songs"
        (chansons de l'escarpolette)
Message-ID:
        <CANrNbrLDanb7gnk0tnv466W_WkQzJPjk7+HOdaXXLEbQQMDodg at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Women's "swinging songs":

Gilbert Meynier in his "*L'Alg?rie, c?ur du Maghreb classique. De
l'ouverture islamo-arabe au repli (698-1518)*", ?ditions La D?couverte,
Paris, 2011 includes the following list of genres of Arabo-Andalusi poetry:

*"Fleurissent, outre les quatrains classiques (rub?'?yy?t), les wa?la(s),
suites de pi?ces vocales et instrumentales, les pan?gyriques en vers
(qa??da[s]), le balancement des murajjah?t, le scintillement du genre
muwashshah, chansons de quelques strophes de contenu apolog?tique ou/et
amoureux, et le zajal, po?sie famili?re, plus sensuelle et plus crue, ?
distance du surmoi courtois europ?en."* (p.126)

In a footnote explaining the term *murajjah?t *he writes: "*Litt?ralement,
chant des femmes qui se balancent sur l'escarpolette (marj?ha)*".
[Literally, songs of women swinging on swings]

These songs are known in Algeria as *?awf?* (see for example, Mourad
Yelles-Chaouche, *Le ?awf?: po?sie feminine et tradition orale au Maghreb.
*Algiers: Office des Publications Universitaires, 1990).  And I have noted
in several recent publications the similarity between these poems and the
bilingual kharjas found in some Andalusi muwashshahat (for example, *The
Musical Heritage of al-Andalus*, 2022, pp. 160-61) -- short couplet,
tercets or quatrains composed in the voice of a young unmarried girl, often
complaining to her mother about the trials of love, her desires for a
handsome young man, or complaining about the way men treat her.

At the time, however, I had never heard or read any reference to Andalusi
"swinging" songs -- I have not argued for any direct (i.e., genealogical)
connection, but merely noted the similarity and hypothesized that such oral
genres of women's poetry may have been common in various regions of the
western Mediterranean.

*Have any of you come across references to this as a genre of Andalusi
poetry or know of examples?*

Many thanks,
Dwight

******************************************************************
Dwight F. Reynolds, Distinguished Professor
Arabic Language &  Literature
Department of Religious Studies
University of California, Santa Barbara
<dreynold at ucsb.edu>
******************************************************************
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2023 07:08:37 +0100
From: Jose Martinez Delgado <pdelgado at ugr.es>
To: Andalusi_Studies at lists.uoregon.edu
Subject: [Andalusi Studies] New paper on Maimonides' glossary with
        Romance glosses
Message-ID: <d8551b14b56cdcd30d2f667c9f9da7a1 at ugr.es>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed

Dear Colleagues
Please let us share with all of you our new publication on Maimonides'
glossary with Romance glosses.
We hope it will be of some interest to you.
https://sefarad.revistas.csic.es/index.php/sefarad/article/view/1189
Best regards
Pepe
--
Jos? Mart?nez Delgado
Dep. de Estudios Sem?ticos, 11
Fac. de Filosof?a y Letras
Campus Universitario de Cartuja
Granada 18071
Tfno. + 34 958 243 577
Fax + 34 958 243 583

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