Based on the recently published Of Lost Cities: The Maghribī Poetic Imagination (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, November 2024), this book talk interactively explores the often-overlooked role of the medieval Maghrib (North Africa) in shaping Arabic and Mediterranean elegiac and nostalgic poetry, poetics, and premodern exilic writings. Beginning with the renowned Arabo-Sicilian poet Ibn Ḥamdīs al-Siqillī (d. 527 AH/1133 CE) and his moving laments about Sicily (Ṣiqilliyyāt), this talk will examine the Maghrib’s crucial role in shaping the tradition of city elegy (rithāʾ al-mudun) and nostalgia for one’s homeland (al-ḥanīn ilā al-awṭān) in both Sicily and al-Andalus (Iberia). Central to this discussion is the exilic and nostalgic poetry of Ibn ʿAbdūn al-Warrāq al-Sūsī (d. 401 AH/1010 CE), who tenderly reminisced about his native city, Sousse—modern-day Tunisia—while living in exile in Balarm (Palermo). Within this broader framework, I will also highlight the poetic contributions of exiled Maghribi poets such as Ibn Rashīq (d. 456 AH/1064 CE), Ibn Sharaf (d. 459 AH/1067 CE), al-Ḥuṣrī al-Ḍarīr (d. 488 AH/1095 CE), and Ibn Faḍḍāl (d. 479 AH/1086 CE), all of whom migrated to Sicily and/or al-Andalus (Iberia) following the Hilalian invasion of Kairouan and Ifrīqiya in 449 AH/1057 CE. By repositioning the Maghrib as a critical axis in the medieval Arabic and Mediterranean literary landscape, this talk challenges dominant scholarly frameworks that have long privileged the Mashriq (Islamic East) and al-Andalus (Iberia), revealing the region’s indispensable role in the dissemination and development of Arabic poetry and exilic literature in the premodern period.
Friday, April 4th 2025, 12:00pm – 1:30pm
ICC 241
CCAS Boardroom
‘Between Arabia, al-Andalus, and Sicily, There Was Always the Maghrib!’: The Forgotten Poetic Heritage of the Medieval Maghrib
Dr. Nizar F. Hermes (University of Virginia)
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