"Words Sweeter Than Honey": The Go-Between in Al-Saraqustī's "Maqāma 9"

Abstract

This article focuses on the go-between character, Umm ®Amr, in ÒMaq¨ma 9Ó by the Andalusi writer al-SaraqusßÂ, ibn al-Aátarkâw (d. 1143). Umm ®Amr is one of the rst literary manifestations of a character that continued to gain popularity in the medieval literature of the Iberian Peninsula, culminating in the gure of the old whore, Celestina, protagonist of the medieval Spanish work that bears her name. Elements common to the later Spanish tradition that appear in this maq¨ma are the go-betweenÕs avaricious personality, her rhetorical skills, and the context of lovesickness in which she operates. Umm ®Amr appears in the rst part of ÒMaq¨ma 9Ó in the role usually played by the trickster al-SadâsÂ. She initiates the trick by luring al-S¨¾ib with her eyes and then enticing him with her speech. She makes promises, gives orations, composes poetry, and haggles. Umm ®Amr kindles al-S¨¾ibÕs re, and then promises to help him nd a cure for his burning love, while all the time stringing him along and further enhancing his desire by talking of the beloved and giving him false hopes. Umm ®Amr is greedy, persuasive, and proud of her professional skills as a procuress in much the same way Celestina or Trotaconventos (the gobetween of the Libro de buen amor) is, and, like both those gures, Umm ®Amr is characterized as a potential healer of the protagonistÕs lovesickness.

Más allá de la dicotomía del sic et non: inventio, dispositio y elocutio en el Libro de buen amor

“…(Zahareas y Pereira 1990: 297) Otro claro ejemplo de las adueñaciones genéricas del autor lo leemos en el planctus 10 por Trotaconventos, cuyo acto discursivo se dirige al lector en un tono increpante y de imprecación 'que sólo se suaviza cerca del final al recordar el triunfo de la Vida que significa la Resurrección de Cristo' (Carrizo Rueda 1987: 92):9 Sobre la tradición árabe y hebrea en el Libro véase el estudio deHamilton (2009), publicado en La Corónica. 10 María Emilia García Jiménez recoge la definición de Lecoy de este tipo de literatura: 'pièces lyriques où un suivant deplore la disaparition d'un être cher ou respecté, d'un parent, d'un ami, d'un protecteur' (1994: 13), lo cual contrasta ampliamente con el uso dado por Juan Ruiz.LUP_BHS87_4_02_Munoz-Basols.indd 401 03/06/2010 10:28…”