Sobre la utilidad de la poesía en al-Andalus: Las ijwāniyyāt, un género ignorado

Abstract

The epistolary genre, in Arabic literature, evolves into what has been called “the prose of secretaries”, composed by the Kuttab and covering different topics ranging from official and private documents. One variant are the ijwaniyyat, letters (rasa’il) addressed to friends for various reasons, as congratulations, invitations, requests for favours, gratitude, etc., which are written in rhymed prose sometimes interspersed with verses. These poems stand out from the prose of the letters, especially in al-Andalus, as from the twelfth century, and produce a poetic subspecies: the ijwaniyyat, reaching its full development during the Nasrid period, and are composed mainly by poets who are public servants of the administration. These poems are used as a major vehicle for social communication, which indicates the importance and usefulness of poetry in al-Andalus, especially in its final period.