“Sarooj” (§1.9) is Sarūj, now called Suruç, a town in southwestern Turkey near the border with Syria. Perhaps not coincidentally, given Abū Zayd’s fondness for wine, the town was known for its viniculture. Its real-life alternation between Christian and Muslim rule may have recommended it to al-Ḥarīrī, whose hero claims to have been exiled from there and returns there in the last Imposture. But there are other, better-known cities that changed hands too, and it remains unclear why al-Ḥarīrī chose it as his hero’s birthplace (Zakharia, Abū Zayd, 140). Al-Ḥarīrī had no known connection to the place, unless the report of his meeting a real-life refugee from Sarūj is true (Yāqūt, Muʿjam, 5:2203). Although Zakharia is right to point out the story should not be taken to mean that Abū Zayd was a real person (Zakharia, “Norme”), there is no reason why al-Ḥarīrī cannot have taken the name from that of a real-life refugee and mendicant. Equally, he may have chosen the name because it coincidentally shares three letters with the Arabic root s-r-j, making it usable for playing games with such words as sarj, saddle, and sirāj, lamp.
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Calloway, Cab, and Irving Mills. “Minnie the Moocher.” Performed by Cab Calloway and his orchestra. Recorded March 3, 1931. Released by Brunswick BR 6074.
Fleischer, Dave, dir. Minnie the Moocher. Animated by Willard Bowsky and Ralph Sommerville. Released by Paramount Pictures, 1932.
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Zakharia, Katia. Abū Zayd al-Sarūǧī, imposteur et mystique. Relire les Maqāmāt d’al-Ḥarīrī. Damascus: Institut français d’études arabes de Damas, 2000.
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Imposture 2
A Basran Boswell
In some ways the English literary pair that most resembles al-Ḥārith and Abū Zayd is James Boswell (d. 1795) and Samuel Johnson (d. 1784). In both cases we have a narrator eager to learn from, and to impress, an older contemporary famous for his command of language. The senior member of the pair does not disappoint when it comes to eloquence, though in both cases he occasionally exploits his admirer or treats him with contempt. This Imposture, which is Englished after Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson, involves a game similar to one played in Johnson’s literary circle: taking an existing poem and improving on it, usually on the spot. In the original, the first couplet cited is by the Abbasid court poet al-Buḥturī (d. 284/897), and the verses intended to top it are put into the mouth of Abū Zayd. In English, the first couplet is by Edmund Spenser (d. 1599) and the toppers by Philip Sidney (d. 1586). The common element is the comparison of teeth and tears to pearls. As Abū Zayd continues to improve on the verses, the similes become more and more elaborate. In English, the series culminates in Sidney’s Sonnet LXXXVII, which, like Abū Zayd’s poem, describes a lovers’ parting. The English also includes a few phrases from Chappelow’s 1767 translation of this Imposture.
2.1Elhareth Eben Hammam communicated this curious anecdote:
No sooner had the amulets, by which children are shielded from a malignant Nature, been removed from my neck, and replaced with the turband that marks the young man, than I began to frequent the lodging-places of literature, where I intended to acquire such polish as might avail me in polite society, and to amass a store of knowledge that might maintain me should I find no other means of support. So ardent was my love of letters, and so eager my desire to dress myself in their suit of cloaths, that I omitted no degree of importunity in making myself known to poor scholars as well as to men of fortune and rank, for I was desirous of being introduced to any one, who might impart knowledge, or instill discernment. I continued thus for some time, warmly cherishing a dream of hope, and seeking such improvement as my forwardness could procure.
2.2After my arrival in Hulwán, having brought to the test the society I found there, and reckoned in the scale pompous and shabby alike, I found myself in the company of Abuzeid of Serugium. He was a man of extraordinary mutability, at times giving out that he was of Asiatick royal blood, and upon other occasions that he was a chieftain of the Saracens. Compelled by irresistible necessity, he appeared now in the guise of poet, now in that of gentleman. The disagreeable impression that this lack of candour made upon the mind was however effaced by his extraordinary manner of address, his exuberant talk, his celebrated eloquence, his pleasing attentions, his exquisite flattery, his quickness of wit, his copious learning, and his capacious intellect. So engaging was his conversation, that every one overlooked his disadvantages, and so various his knowledge, that all sought his acquaintance. It must be admitted, that such was the force and vigour of his address, that most were unwilling to contradict him, and that the general eagerness to obtain his complaisance arose from fear of being checked by one of his sallies. Yet being most desirous of increase in my stock, and of the opportunity of consulting a sage, I outstripped all others in cultivating his acquaintance, and was assiduous in my attachment to him. For he was, as a certain poet writes:
A friend, that eased the burden of my care,
And bid the joyful days: Arise, ye fair!
His comforts made he mine, no kin by birth,
That I should ne’er thirst, nor want for mirth.
2.3We continued in this manner for a considerable time, he every day contriving to offer me some instruction or delight, or explaining some matter that I had ill-construed. But Fortune at long last compounded him a Bishop of want, misery, and destitution, which obliged him to quit Chaldea. Thus routed upon the field, and resolved to go once again abroad, he departed on camel-back, with my heart as if on a tether drawn along behind. To any other who afterwards seemed desirous of my familiar acquaintance, I spoke as did the poet, viz:
O