THE DOVE’S NECKLACE
Eduardo Paniagua has adapted Ibn Hazm’s poems from translations by Emilio
García Gómez (1905-1995) and Jaime Sánchez Ratia. Al Mutamid’s poems have
been adapted from translations by Juan Varela (1824-1905) and Emilio García
Gómez. The melodies are arrangements by Eduardo Paniagua based on music
from the Andalusi tradition of Morocco and Tunisia, and on cantigas and
traditional songs from Andalusia and Extremadura.
Ibn Hazm
Abu Mu?ammad ?Ali ibn A?mad ibn Sa?id ibn ?azm, known among Christians as Abén
Házam (Córdoba 994 - Montíjar, Huelva 1064), was an Andalusi philosopher, theologian,
historian, storyteller and poet, considered the ‘Father of Comparative Religion’.
His ancestors were Muladís, Hispanic Christians converted to Islam. He was born
towards the end of the 10th century before the crisis of the Caliphate of Cordoba. His
grandfather moved to the capital of the Caliphate and his father, Ahmad, was Almanzor's
vizier. Ali received his education at the Cordovan court of the al-Zahira palace. As a
member of the aristocracy, he was on the side of the Umayyads in the Cordovan civil
war waged against the new Amiri lineage of Almanzor. His father, Ahmad, died in 1012
and Ali was exiled to Almeria at the age of 18, from where he supported a new Umayyad
pretender to the Caliphate and was taken prisoner in the Zirid kingdom of Granada. From
there he withdrew to Játiva, where in 1022 at just 28 years of age and at the behest of
his friend Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, he wrote the book that is now a thousand years old,
The Dove’s Necklace.
In 1023, Cordoba elected Abderraman V as the new Caliph, who appointed Ibn Hazm to
be his vizier. However, the Caliph’s rule lasted only one month and after the ruler was
executed, Ibn Hazm was again imprisoned. Ali gave up politics to devote himself to the
legal and theological studies of the Zahirid school, giving lessons together with his
teacher Abu-l-Jiyar of Santarén in the Mosque of Córdoba, until in 1027 he was reported
for contravening the official Maliki school.
Disenchanted with politics and teaching, he abandoned public life and devoted his time
to visiting the various taifa kingdoms as an activist and scholar. In 1039, after taking
refuge in Mallorca, he fell out with scholars and kings such as Al Mutadid of Seville, father
of Al Mutamid. So much controversy led to the drastic burning of his books. This inspired
Ibn Hazm's famous lines: ‘Stop setting fire to scrolls and papers and show your science
so that the one who knows may be seen. Even if you burn the paper, you will never burn
what it contains, since I carry it within me, it always travels with me when I ride, it sleeps
with me when I rest, and in my tomb it will be buried’. (Translation into Spanish by José
Miguel Puerta Vílchez).
He continued the life of a wandering sage until the end of his days when, exiled by Al-
Mutadid, he retired with his children to the family country house in Montíjar.
Work: He produced a huge number of works of thousands of pages. He wrote historical
works, such as Epistle in praise of al-Andalus, The Bride’s Embroidery, Arabic lineages
and his most important work, Critical history of religions, sects and schools, in which he
outlined the features of anti-religious, including anti-Islamic, philosophical systems. This
work was the first treatise on the comparative history of religions to be written in any
language.
He wrote numerous philosophical works, basing his thought on Aristotle. Relating truths
to theology, he approached and preceded the postulates of St. Thomas. His Epistle on
the lawfulness or unlawfulness of singing and instrumental music, is also worth
mentioning. In this work, he compares the positions of the schools of Islamic
jurisprudence and the positions of the Eastern and Andalusian faquis on the acceptance
or rejection of music and the sale and purchase of highly qualified singing slaves (alqiyan),
women who were renowned for their refined education. These arguments led him
to position himself in favour of music as a discipline, including music among the sciences
of the Pythagorean quadrivium, together with Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy.
His most famous work is ?awq al-?amama or The Dove’s Necklace, a literary gem in
prose and the first known treatise on love and lovers. The book is actually entitled The
turtledove's necklace and the shadow of the cloud. This long title in the Semitic language
is very suggestive, since it combines opposing symbols of the ephemeral and passing
with the profound and spiritual. The ring of coloured feathers around the turtledove’s
neck as a divine decoration of fleeting carnal love, the prestige the dove won for its
services to Noah as messenger in his Ark in the flood, and the dove as the Holy Spirit in
the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan. The ephemeral shadow of the cloud that
passes quickly by, like life or some kind of love, or like the divine shadow of the cloud
that accompanied the chosen people in the desert. The title in Andalusi is even more
suggestive, being a subtle couplet ‘Tawq al-hamáma wa-zill al-gamáma’, which literally
means: I carry your intimate friendship with the same honour with which the turtledove
wears its ring of feathers.
The book reflects on the true essence of love, seeking to discover what is common and
unchanging through the centuries and civilizations.. The book can also be considered a
diwan, or poetic anthology on the theme of love, as it contains his elegant and refined
poems with autobiographical details. Ibn Hazm was a man of deep religious convictions
and largely criticised the relaxation of customs in Al-Andalus. The book develops an
exquisite way of conceiving beauty, love and literature, mixing Neoplatonism with
stoicism. Love arises because the soul is beautiful and seeks beauty, and if it is true love,
it is eternal. Love that stops at physical beauty is carnal love, which has little value for
him.
The dove’s necklace influenced the Occitan troubadours and their concept of ‘courtly
love’, the gaya ciencia (the poetic art) of William IX of Aquitaine (1071-1126), as well as
the Archpriest of Hita and his Book of Good Love (1330). The historian al-Marrakusi, in
his 13th century History of the Almohads, calls Ibn Hazm ‘the most famous of all the wise
men of Al-Andalus’. In fact, his influence was profound in both the Muslim and Christian
worlds: ‘Go in evil hour, jewel of China. My ruby of Al-Andalus is enough for me’.
Al-Mutamid
Muhammad ibn 'Abbad al-Mu'tamid (Beja, Portugal, 1040 - Aghmat, Morocco, 1095).
Ruler of the taifa of Seville (1069-1090). He was the second son of al-Mutadid (1042-
1069), and became heir when his father ordered the execution of his older brother for
alleged treason. At the age of twelve, his father sent him to be the governor of Silves, in
the Algarve, to be educated by the poet Abu Bakr Ibn Ammar of Silves (1031-1086),
known by the Christians as Abenámar, who was to become a friend and favourite.
In the second year of his reign, al-Mutamid annexed the Taifa of Cordoba, which posed
a threat to the Taifa of Toledo, whose king, Al-Mamun seized the city of Cordoba in 1075.
Al-Mutamid reconquered Cordoba in 1078, while all the possessions of the kingdom of
Toledo located between the Guadalquivir and the Guadiana became part of the kingdom
of Seville. Feeling threatened by Alfonso VI of León, who had conquered Toledo in 1085,
Al-Mutamid decided to ask the African Almoravids for help, since he had helped them to
defeat the Christians at Sagrajas (1086). Al-Mutamid went back to Marrakech and it was
his turn to ask for help. The Almoravids returned to the peninsula in 1088, but this time
they conquered all the taifa kingdoms one by one. Al-Mutamid was deposed in 1090 and
banished and imprisoned in Aghmat.
Poeta. Al-Mu'tamid was a remarkable poet from his youth until his exile, and because
he was a king he never needed patrons. During his reign, culture flourished in Seville.
Poets and literati such as Ibn Zaydún (1003-1071), the Sicilian Ibn Hamdis (1056-1133),
Ibn al-Labbana of Denia (d.1113) enjoyed favour at his court, which was also visited by
intellectuals such as Ibn Hazm (994-1063), one of the central figures of Andalusi culture,
the geographer Al-Bakri (1040-1094) and the astronomer Azarquiel of Toledo (1029-
1087). Strolling one day on the banks of the Guadalquivir with his friend Ibn Ammar, the
two played at improvising poems.
As a light breeze rose on the river, al-Mutamid said: "The wind weaving loricas in the
waters". Ibn Ammar had no time to reply, for they both heard a female voice completing
the rhyme: "What a breastplate if they were to freeze!". The voice came from a beautiful
young woman named Rumaykiyya, a slave of a muleteer. Al-Mutamid was immediately
smitten, took her to his palace and made her his chief wife with the name of Itimad, and
she accompanied him all his life.
Eduardo Paniagua