Which came first, the Zajal or the Muwaššaḥa? Some evidence for the oral origins of Hispano-Arabic Strophic poetry

Up to this point, I have summarized some theoretical arguments, derived from certain structural features of the texts at hand, to suggest why the zajal might antedate the muwaššaḥa, from which the latter could be derived. Nonetheless, until now, we have had little documentary proof that the zajal did in fact precede the muwaššaḥa chronologically, with which to counter the objections of the partisans of the Arabic thesis. In what follows, I shall present some recently garnered evidence in support of the above arguments, “in order to respond to the ‘Avez-vous un texte?’ of Fustel de Coulanges and his less intelligently positivistic offspring (Rico 1975:557).”--Page 43

The underside of arabic panegyric: Ibn Quzmān's (unfinished?) «Zajal no. 84»

Ibn Quzmān's «Zajal No. 84» has hitherto been viewed as a poem lacking its final, panegyrical section, due to an assumed accident in the manuscript's transmission. According to such a view, the poem has come down to us in an incomplete form. By analyzing certain prominent thematic features contained in the poem, and showing that they fit closely together, exhibiting a complex but carefully organized structure of the kind known as ring-composition, the following article attempts to suggest that there are strong reasons why «Zajal No. 84» may not be incomplete, but that it may, instead, have been composed with the deliberate omission of the ending one would normally expect in an Arabic panegyric. This strategy may have been adopted by the poet, the article proceeds to suggest, in order to stimulate the reader/listener to consider deeper theological, philosophical, and moral implications in a work that, on the surface, deceptively appears to be nothing more than an exercise in buffoonery, devoid of any social concerns. Ultimately, the article attemps to explore the literary value of the poem, and the extraordinary merits of its author.El zéjel n.° 84 de Ibn Quzmān se ha considerado hasta ahora como un poema inacabado, al que le falta la sección final de panegírico, debido a un supuesto accidente en la transmisión del manuscrito. Según esta teoría, el poema ha llegado incompleto a nuestros días. Este artículo, a través del análisis de algunas de sus características temáticas sobresalientes, estrechamente relacionadas y que muestran una estructura compleja y cuidadosamente organizada, pretende mostrar que existen fuertes razones para sugerir que el zéjel n.° 84 no está inacabado, sino que se compuso omitiendo, de forma deliberada, la parte final que se espera encontrar usualmente en un panegírico árabe. Se sugiere a continuación que este recurso fue adoptado por el poeta para estimular, en el oyente/lector, la aparición de unas consideraciones de tipo teológico, filosófico y moral a través de una obra que, superficialmente, parece ser tan sólo de carácter bufonesco y sin preocupación social alguna. Finalmente, el artículo intenta explorar el valor literario del poema y el extraordinario mérito de su autor

Algunas observaciones sobre la atribución de autoría árabe del Cantar de mio Cid

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Elementos de la literatura árabe en la estructura del Libro de buen amor (II)

This article examines several aspects of Arab- Islamic culture, about which Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita, and putative author of the Libro de buen amor, betrays evidence of some knowledge. It goes on to suggest that, while the LBA’s literary materials are largely of Western origin, its structure is indebted to a unique combination of certain Oriental literary genres, thereby making it a culturally hybrid work. The article further suggests that the LBA may be read according to three levels of meaning, in accordance with the Averroistic approach to, and conception of, truth, of which the highest, or philosophical level, involves a veiled critique of the doctrine of ecclesiastical celibacy, adopted by the Western Church only a century before the Archpriest composed his work.En este artículo se examinan algunos aspectos de la cultura arabigoislámica de los cuales Juan Ruiz, Arcipreste de Hita, presunto autor del Libro de buen amor, demuestra poseer cierto conocimiento. De resultas se sugiere que, mientras los materiales literarios constituyentes del Libro son de raigambre occidental, su estructura se debe a una combinación de ciertos géneros literarios orientales, de lo cual el Libro resultaría ser una obra culturalmente híbrida. Además, se sugiere que el Libro debe interpretarse según tres niveles de significado, de acuerdo con la metodología desarrollada por Averroes para captar la verdad, y que, de esos tres niveles, el más elevado, a saber, el filosófico, nos conduce a una crítica velada de la doctrina del celibato eclesiástico, adoptada por la iglesia occidental sólo un siglo antes de la época en que el Arcipreste escribiera su obra

Elementos de la literatura árabe en la estructura del Libro de buen amor (I)

This article examines several aspects of Arab-Islamic culture, about which Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita, and putative author of the Libro de buen amor, betrays evidence of some knowledge. It goes on to suggest that, while the LBA`s literary materials are largely of Western origin, its structure is indebted to a unique combination of certain Oriental literary genres, thereby making it a culturally hybrid work. The article further suggests that the LBA may be read according to three levels of meaning, in accordance with the Averroistic approach to, and conception of, truth, of which the highest, or philosophical level, involves a veiled critique of the doctrine of ecclesiastical celibacy, adopted by the Western Church only a century before the Archpriest composed his workEn este artículo se examinan algunos aspectos de la cultura arabigoislámica, de los cuales Juan Ruiz, Arcipreste de Hita, presunto autor del Libro del Buen Amor, demuestra poseer cierto conocimiento. De resultas se sugiere que, mientras los materiales literarios constituyentes del Libro son de raigambre occidental, su estructura se debe a una combinación de ciertos géneros literarios orientales, de lo cual el Libro resultaría ser una obra culturalmente híbrida. Además, se sugiere que el libro debe interpretarse según tres niveles de significado, de acuerdo con la metodología desarrollada por Averroes para captar la verdad, y que, de esos tres niveles, el más elevado, a saber , el filosófico, nos conduce a una crítica velada de la doctrina del celibato eclesiástico, adoptada por la iglesia occidental solo un siglo antes de la época en que el Arcipreste escribiera su obra

J.-Sp. puertas de rey (es) 'royal courts'

The expression puertas de rey (es), documented in only three versions of a single ballad collected on the Island of Rhodes in 1911, corresponds to Old Spanish puerta del rey 'king's court', which occurs in Calila e Dimna and the Libro de los çient capítulos. The semantic correspondence puerta = corte is known in many Near Eastern languages, both ancient and modern: Classical Arabic bāb al-malik; Ottoman Turkish qāpu; Persian and Urdu darbār; Assyrio-Babilonian bābu; Hebrew ša'ar and Aramaic ṭĕra'; Late Egyptian 'ryt; Old Persian *duvar; Classical Greek thúrai; North African Latin porta. The Old Spanish form doubtless originated in the Arabic source of Kalila wa-Dimna, while the Judeo-Spanish expression is a semantic caique (loan translation) based on Turkish qāpu, in line with numerous other Turkish and Pan-Balkan influences on Eastern Judeo-Spanish.La expresión puertas de rey (es), documentada sólo en tres versiones de un solo romance recogido en la isla de Rodas, en 1911, corresponde al antiguo español puerta del rey, con el sentido 'corte del rey', que consta en Calila y Dimna y en el Libro de los çient capítulos. El concepto puerta = corte existe en muchos idiomas antiguos y modernos del Próximo Oriente: árabe clásico bāb al-malik; turco otomano qāpu; persa y urdù darbār; babilonio bābu; hebreo ša'ar y arameo ṭĕra'; egipcio tardío 'ryt; antiguo persa *duvar; griego clásico thúrai; latín norteafricano porta. La forma antigua española sin duda tiene su origen en el mismo original árabe de Kalila wa-Dimna, mientras que la judeoespañola reflejará un calco semántico hecho a base del turco otomano qāpu, de acuerdo con otras muchas influencias del turco y de las lenguas balcánicas en el judeoespañol oriental

The theory of heating of the quantum ground state of trapped ions

Using a displacement operator formalism, I analyse the depopulation of the vibrational ground state of trapped ions. Two heating times, one characterizing short time behaviour, the other long time behaviour are found. The short time behaviour is analyzed both for single and multiple ions, and a formula for the relative heating rates of different modes is derived. The possibility of correction of heating via the quantum Zeno effect, and the exploitation of the suppression of heating of higher modes to reduce errors in quantum computation is considered.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Speed of ion trap quantum information processors

We investigate theoretically the speed limit of quantum gate operations for ion trap quantum information processors. The proposed methods use laser pulses for quantum gates which entangle the electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom of the trapped ions. Two of these methods are studied in detail and for both of them the speed is limited by a combination of the recoil frequency of the relevant electronic transition, and the vibrational frequency in the trap. We have experimentally studied the gate operations below and above this speed limit. In the latter case, the fidelity is reduced, in agreement with our theoretical findings. // Changes: a) error in equ. 24 and table III repaired b) reference Jonathan et al, quant-ph/ 0002092, added (proposes fast quantum gates using the AC-Stark effect)Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

A device for feasible fidelity, purity, Hilbert-Schmidt distance and entanglement witness measurements

A generic model of measurement device which is able to directly measure commonly used quantum-state characteristics such as fidelity, overlap, purity and Hilbert-Schmidt distance for two general uncorrelated mixed states is proposed. In addition, for two correlated mixed states, the measurement realizes an entanglement witness for Werner's separability criterion. To determine these observables, the estimation only one parameter - the visibility of interference, is needed. The implementations in cavity QED, trapped ion and electromagnetically induced transparency experiments are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure