parricide

General aesthetica in fabula
Specific parricide
Author of Literary Work Anonymous – Written down and edited by: AL-ABNŪDĪ, Abdel-Rahmān
Title of Literary Work As-Sīrā Al-Hilāliyya. 5 vols. Cairo, Akhbār Al-Yaum 1988. Vol. 2, pp. 112 - 141. Quoted as: Sīra(t) Banī Hilāl.
Title (Original Language) السيرة الهلالية. النصوص الشفاهية للشعراء الشعبيين. الجزء الثاني، ص 112 – 141.
Author (Original Language) مجهول. دونها: الأبنودي، عبد الرحمن. 5 أجزاء. القاهرة، أخبار اليوم 1988.
Category Epic poem - text
User Role Board
Quotation Language English
Literary Work Quotation Vol. 2, pp. 112 - 141.
Comment This epic poem in Saïdī Arabic Dialect about the tribe of Banī Hilāl goes back to the 10th century. It is one of the main epics of the oral tradition of Upper Egypt and like them partly retold in prose and partly recited and sung with musical accompaniment. The language of the text-corpus consisting of a symbolic number of one million verses mutates every two to three centuries to the actual state of the dialect and in this procedure the episodes' details get slightly modified and enriched. This is of great importance as the audience was listening to the epic poems permanently during all festivities being the only form of collective entertainment in Upper Egypt before the Radio and TV-era and even after that one of the most prominent. In Sīrat Banī Hilāl the Leitmotiv of father and son unknowingly fighting against each other appears three times in different generations. It obviously seems to be borrowed from the ancient Greek Myth of Oedipus, known in Upper Egypt through the historic relationships with Ancient Greece and not least through the reign of Ptolemaic dynasties between 305 and 30 BC following the campaign of Alexander the Great. During this era many items from Ancient Greek mythology are to be found in Egyptian Hellenistic art and literature as a visit to the Coptic Museum in Cairo would reveal. Shortly after the birth of Abū Zaid, the central figure and hero in this epic, his parents were torn apart. Abū Zaid being born black skinned the tribe accused his mother of adultery and his father Rizq, the Hilālian tribe's boldest fighter, was too weak to argue against his tribe's sense of honor. He retained his twelve year old daughter and asked his wife to take the young born son and leave the tribe's realm for no return. Rizq's wife, Khadra, wandered around in the desert till she was rescued by a generous headman who housed her according to her rank and adopted her son to be raised among his own. Abū Zaid became a fierce warrior like his father and overtopped all other warriors. So when the tribe of his foster-father was attacked by Banī Hilāl he was picked out to cover for the tribe's warriors. It was usual in confrontations between tribes to forward single warriors to duel to avoid bloodshed. In the first occurrence of a duel between father and son in this Sīra, Abū Zaid was fighting against his father Rizq. The duel lasted three days. Every day at sunset the duelists would go back to their tents to rest. During the three nights neither could rest. Abū Zaid was confessing to his mother that he was attracted to his enemy, that every time he backs out to strike him he felt his arm stiffening or he lost concentration. On the other side of the battle-field Rizq was confessing to his daughter similar feelings. Since the expulsion of his wife he was tormented by remorse and had chosen a hermit's life in the desert abandoning his tribe. He was complaining to his daughter about losing his warrior's skills for every time he felt he had overpowered that boy he was hold back by a strange feeling of sympathy. At the sunset of the second day Abū Zaid kidnaped Rizq’ s daughter Shīha to humiliate him and sent her to his mother’ s tent. Khadra who from the beginning knew with whom her son was dueling was relieved and sent Shīha back to Rizq. Thus was revealed for all the identity of both duelists. The separated family was reunited and the parricide avoided. In both other occurrences of this Leitmotiv happening some generations later in this epos the same course recurred. According to literary sociology the epos of Sīrat Banī Hilāl is constituting a tribal legend. It traces the history of Banī Hilāl migrating from the Arabic Peninsula to Upper Egypt and from there crossing the Western desert to the North African coast to settle down in Tunisia. But the point of discussing this Leitmotiv here goes beyond a comparative statement or an evidence of literary sociology. In all three mentions of the Leitmotiv the duels did not close neither with the death nor even with the surrender of one of the duelists. It seems to me that throughout centuries the anonymous authors of this epos were constantly insisting on a collective perception that literature should not show the realization of patricide. Blood relationships are presented here as a bond beyond personal consciousness or social manors, as a self-acting biological, hence an autonomous natural law. Though this epic poem being transmitted by oral tradition was not bound to any official censure throughout the ages it still reflects through its modification of the borrowed Leitmotiv a clearly defined concept about the role of poetry and its potent impact on receivers. Breaking a taboo in fiction might lead to breaking it in reality. Poetry figures here as a model or reference for the community.
Published Works Hoda Issa. Literarische Ikonologie 11/ 2022.
Contributor Hoda Issa