Earnest and Jest from Political Crisis to Marriage Problems: Ibn Abī Ṭāhir Ṭayfūr's (Instances of) The Eloquence of Women

Abstract:This article explores the significance of the rhetorical counterpoints of earnest (jidd) and jest (hazl) in the medieval Arabic literary tradition, as expressed in Aḥmad ibn Abī Ṭāhir Ṭayfūr's Book (of Instances) of the Eloquence of Women (Kitāb Balaghāt al-Nisā'), which was written in the late ninth century CE. This work comprises volume 11 of the three volumes that remain (volumes 11-13) of a longer work by Ibn Abī Ṭāhir Ṭayfūr entitled Prose and Poetry (al-Manthūr wa-l-Manẓūm). In the present article I investigate how the rhetorical modes of jest and earnest function in sections of the book that focus on the literary reception of political crisis and marriage problems, in which rhetoric is used as a way to manage conflict. The analytical part of this article considers the role of gender and social status in the use of rhetoric in early medieval Arabic literature, the intersection between the modes of jest and earnest in the context of a range of Arabic literary aims and cultural values, and the present writer's perspective on literary change.