Mahri Poetry Archive

The Mahra

Mahri Language

Classification of Poems

Index of Poems

Published Poems

Bibliography

Sam Liebhaber

Born to be Digital?
With the exception of the recently published Dwn of jj Dkn, poetry in the Mahri
language is an oral art form and the experience of writing does not intrude upon the
composition and transmission of Mahri poetry. From a meta-poetic standpoint, this
means that individual poems are not imagined as texts by Mahri poets and their audiences
but rather as as utterances; they lack existential autonomy outside of the moment of
performance. While a transcribed version of a Mahri poem may adequately convey the
meaning of individual lines and the overall message of the poem, such a written text
would be alien to the poets own conception of his or her work. Written texts derived
from Mahri poetic performances are misleading facsimiles of the original, in the same
way that a written description of a work of visual art cannot substitute for the original
canvas. Audio and video documentation are the only media that capture this oral poetic
tradition as it is meant to be heard and seen: without the mediation of script and
consequent formal requirements of print media.

From a scholarly perspective, there are negative consequences that stem from attempting
to capture a Mahri poem on the page. For instance, a printed poetic text gives the
impression that individual words are the fundamental building blocks of a poetic line and
that words may be analyzed as discrete units easily demarcated from one another. Going
further, a printed text gives the impression that every metrical foot is occupied by an
unalienable constituent element of a meaningful word or phrase. In short, the act of
writing an oral poetic text requires us to adopt the assumption that every syllable, word,
or phrase may be parsed in the service of comprehensibility and that moments of textual
unintelligibility are to be understood as inadvertent and unwanted errors.

While the absolute majority of lines in any given Mahri poem that I recorded
are explicable at the lexical level, poems often included metrical feet that evoked
meaningfulness but whose meaning could not be clearly articulated by my native Mahri
speaking consultants; most typically, the boundaries between words could not be
determined. At the same time, such portions of poetic junk DNA were not regarded as
faults but rather as an intrinsic and unremarkable component of a poetic utterance.
Nor did they appear to compromise the quality of the poem itself; the overall message of
the poem (or line) might still be comprehensible to my consultants, even if individual
metrical feet defied their attempts at syllable-by-syllable explication.

This aspect of oral performance can only be communicated via audio and visual
recordings. A printed page imposes meaning, order, and boundaries that may not actually
exist in actual performance. And insofar as an oral poem only exists through the meta-
poetic imagination in performance, how a poem is heard is inseparable from the poem
itself. While removing the haziness from a poetic performance may not cause the act
itself to collapse into meaninglessness, a poetic text thus cleansed of it may no longer
claim any part of its original conception.

Secondly, the network of links provided within the framework of this digital online
repository invite exploration into the generative warp and woof of the oral poetic act.
Thanks to the variety of ways that a poem may be indexed in this archive by topic,
genre, structural features, shared vocabulary, poet, and region the poems may be
perceived as being simultaneously generated from a number of different matrices (social,
aesthetic, linguistic, etc.). In this way, the online digital archive format enables a closer
analogue to the processes of thought and memory that generate oral poems than the
paratactic/linear-sequential presentation of poetic specimens utilized in traditional print
monographs. In browsing through the poems in this collection, a visitor can be brought
more closely into the cognitive realm of the poet in which multiple vectors of creativity,
memory, and habit come together all at once to forge a novel poetic creation.

Accordingly, each poem in this archive is cross-referenced according to a series of

parameters that undergird all poems and poetic genres (line structure, content, length, and
performance type), rather than classified according to abstract or extra-poetic features,
such as the composers identity or genre. In fact, poems belonging to specific genres
account for a minority of Mahri poems that are ever composed and performed; most
poems cannot be identified as belonging to a specific genre. Moreover, poems that do not
belong to a named genre follow a different path towards their articulation since they do
not emerge from clearly delineated and often ritualized performance events
that impose their own requirements (a specific melody, for instance). Whereas a poet
who composes a verse belonging to the rezt genre must adhere to a specific melody,
line structure, and topic, the same poet is free to combine the parameters as he or she
wishes when composing a poem that does not appertain to a specific genre. In
visual terms, a poem occurs at the intersection of a variety of different axes: some points
of intersection are pre-programmed these are the genres whereas others reflect the
unique, non-generic circumstances of an individual poets inspiration. By adopting this
classificatory scheme, the way in which poems are presented in this archive diverges
from the traditional format of published accounts of Arabian vernacular poetry in which
poems are grouped paratactically by a single characteristic. In the traditional print
format, the constitutive elements which generate a single poetic utterance are less
apparent. What we see printed on the page stems from a literate meta-poetic imagination,
not the Mahri poets own sense of how poems are created and circulated.

The fact that a richly indexed and inter-referential digital archive approximates the
poetic-creative act in al-Mahra yields a surprise: the lowest tech systems of knowledge
such as oral poetry are best suited to their recapitulation in an online, digital format.
The middle ground print media is simply poorly adapted to capturing the processes of
oral poetic composition or similar forms of cultural production. In this way, we find that
oral poetry is well-partnered with the digital poetic format, not merely for the sake of
access, but rather for the way in which the digital format recapitulates how it is conceived
by its practitioners.

Mahri or Mehri?

Despite the fact that Mehri is used in virtually all scholarly writings dedicated to this
language (including the online Ethnologue where it is indexed as Mehri [ISO 639-3:
gdq]), I have chosen to depart from convention by referring to the language as Mahri
and not Mehri. Although Mehri hews more closely to a theoretical pronunciation by
a native speaker, I never heard this term used by native speakers as a label for their own
language. Instead, native speakers use the region-specific terms for the three basic
dialects of Mahri: mehryet (western Mahri), mehriyt (eastern Yemeni Mahri) and
mehryyet (Omani Mahri). The concept of a single Mahri language only exists from a
non-native perspective, and in Arabic at least, this language is referred to as mahr (or
more grammatically as al-mahriyya). When speaking about their language in a general
sense, native Mahri speakers will typically use the Arabic term.

Secondly, the demographic heartland of the Mahri tribes, roughly coterminous with
the current Yemeni Governorate of al-Mahra, is exclusively referred to as al-Mahra in
historical sources. The Mahra may refer to specific locations or topographical features
within their territory in the Mahri language, but they reserve the Arabic label al-Mahra
for the region of eastern Yemen in which their language is (or was, until the last decade or
so) the primary language. This was true for the politically sovereign Afrr Sultanate of
Qishn and Soqr, which even amongst the local population bore the shorthand title:
the Sultanate of al-Mahra. Indeed, one rarely hears the collective term for Mahri
speakers in the Mahri language; traditionally, lineage, family or regional origin were
more relevant for personal or tribal identification than belonging to the internally
segmented population of Mahri speakers.

I have therefore chosen to rely on the Arabic nomenclature for the Mahri language
(mahr) and its speakers (the collective denominal adjective: al-mahra) due to the fact
that these terms possess historical validity, official status and are used widely by the
Mahra themselves.
Mahri Language

The Mahri language is one of the few, living remnants of the pre-Arabic language
substrate that once stretched across the southern quarter of the Arabian Peninsula. This
substrate included a number of the Ancient South Arabian (ASA) languages familiar to us
from epigraphic sources as well as the ancestral language(s) that gave rise to the
Ethiosemitic languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea. With the spread of Arabic speakers into
Southern Arabia at the cusp of the first millennium CE and the subsequent confirmation
of Arabic as the prestige language of the Arabian Peninsula in the first centuries of the
Islamic era, the indigenous South Semitic languages of the Arabian Peninsula began to
withdraw to pockets in the mountains, deserts and islands of Yemen, Dhofar and the
Arabian Sea.

The precise affiliation of the Mahri language within the Semitic language family remains
a topic for debate. Until recently, scholarly consensus had assigned the Mahri language to
the South Semitic subgroup (Faber, 1997 & Rodgers, 1991). Within the South Semitic
subgroup, Mahri and its closest living relativescommunally labeled the Modern South
Arabian (MSA) languageswere believed to constitute its eastern lobe, while the
Ethiosemitic and Ancient South Arabian (ASA) languages were believed to constitute its
western and central lobes respectively. More recent scholarship has reclassified the MSA
languages as an independent branch of a West Semitic subgroup that is parallel to the
Ethiosemitic and Central Semitic (Arabic, ASA, Hebrew, et al.) branches (Rubin, 2008).

Mahri is the most widely spoken MSA language with a nearly contiguous territory of
speakers that stretches from al-Mahra in eastern Yemen to Jiddat al-arss in central
Oman (including diaspora communities in the Gulf States). The other Modern South
Arabian languages are Bari, ri/Jibbli, arssi, Hobyot and Soqri, all of which
are native to either Yemen or Oman. Bari and Hobyot are virtually undocumented
(with the exception of Morris, 1983) and are likely on the verge of extinction. Though
separated geographically from the core Mahri speaking territory, arssi is mutually
intelligible with Mahri and should probably be re-classified as a dialect of Mahri (Rubin,
2010: 6). Though spoken in smaller numbers than Mahri, ri/Jibbli and Soqri
speakers are consolidated in regions bounded by discrete, geographical features (the
mountains of Dhofar for the former and the Arabian Sea for the latter); this fact may
vouchsafe their security in the near future.

Linguistic Features
Thanks to its isolation on the southern margin of the Semitic world, the Mahri language
has preserved some conservative features that have been lost in the more centrally located
Semitic languages of the Levant, the Syrian Plateau and the northern reaches of the
Arabian Peninsula. For instance, Mahri distinguishes verbal mood by means of an
opposition between monosyllabic and bisyllabic verbal stems (e.g. subjunctive yektb
[he should write] vs. indicative ykteb [he writes]), which corresponds to aspectual or
tense distinctions reconstructed for Proto-Semitic. This retained archaism has been lost
in all Semitic languages except for two other languages of the Semitic periphery:
Akkadian and Ethiosemitic.

The conservatism of Mahri is most evident in its phonology. Mahri (and the other
Modern South Arabian languages) are unique amongst the living Semitic languages in
that they preserve reflexes of nearly all the consonants that have been reconstructed for
Proto-Semitic. For instance, the Modern South Arabian languages are the only living
Semitic languages to maintain a three-way distinction between the lateral sibilant //, the
alveolar sibilant /s/ and palato-alveolar sibilant //. In addition to the Modern South
Arabian languages, the phonetic distinction between these three sibilants {s, , } is
indicated in the Ancient South Arabian monumental and cursive scripts and was
apparently audible in Biblical Hebrew, where it played a role in distinguishing Gileadites
from Ephraimites (the shibboleth of Judges 12:6).

Complimenting the lateral sibilant //, the Modern South Arabian languages have retained
an emphatic lateral phoneme // that corresponds to the Arabic phoneme // (Ar. d).
In fact, it is the original, lateralized articulation of d which earned for Arabic the
moniker of The Language of d (lughat d), rather than its contemporary
articulation as a pharyngealized counterpart to /d/ (Ar. dl).

The Modern South Arabian languages have also preserved a glottalized articulation for
the emphatic consonants (unlike their pharyngealized articulation in Classical Arabic),
another retained archaism shared by the Akkadian and the Ethiosemitic languages. The
staccato pop of the glottalized emphatic consonants and hiss of the lateralized sibilant
give the Modern South Arabian languages their distinctive sound, for which local Arab
monolinguals likened them to the language of birds (Thomas, 1929, 105).

Not all of Mahris unique South Semitic features are retained archaisms. For instance,
Mahri has generalized a /-k/ suffix in the perfective verbal conjugation rather than the /-t/
suffix found in Arabic and the NW Semitic languages of the Levant. In this regard,
Mahri and the other MSA language have evolved along the path of the Ethiosemitic
languages and a number of Yemeni Arabic colloquial dialects which were likely
influenced by pre-Arabic, South Semitic substrate languages.

Some recorded samples of speech in the different Modern South Arabian languages:
Mehri r Harss Soqr

Number of Speakers

Due to permeable geographic, tribal and linguistic boundaries, it is difficult to derive a

precise figure for the number of Mahri speakers. The Yemeni Central Statistical
Organization sets the population of Governate of al-Mahra at 105,000 individuals in
2010. This figure does not distinguish between Mahri speakers and Arabic monolinguals
living in the Governorate of al-Mahra. According to the CSOs data, the number of
Mahri speakers in Yemen would be substantially lower than what I have proposed
elsewhere (187,000 speakers in Liebhaber, 2011, 252). My estimate is based on
population numbers and growth rates provided by al-Ahdal (al-Ahdal, 12) and al-
Qumayr (al-Qumayr, 2000, 30), although neither al-Ahdal nor al-Qumayr cite the
provenance of their data. Neither the CSOs nor my calculations take Omani Mahri
speakers or Mahri speakers living in the diaspora into account; both populations would
significantly increase the overall number of Mahri speakers (though perhaps not double
them). An approximate figure of 100,000 Mahri speakers has been suggested by Anda
Hofstede, Marie Claude Simeone-Senelle (Simeone-Senelle, 1997, 378) and Aaron Rubin
(Rubin, 2010, 1). The Ethnologue online entry for ISO 639-3: gdq (Mehri) gives a
figure of 70, 643 Mahri speakers in Yemen and 135,764 Mahri speakers worldwide in
2000. These figures fall within a reasonable range, although the methodologies by which
they were calculated are not indicated.

Endangerment

Until fifteen years ago, the vitality of the Mahri language was vouchsafed thanks to its
geographic isolation. Bounded to the north by the Empty Quarter and the Arabian Sea to
the south and by mountains and desert to the east and west, the tribes of al-Mahra made
their home in an isolated corner of Arabia that neither attracted outside attention nor
enabled casual commerce. When the market for frankincense dwindled away in the pre-
modern era, the Mahra turned to fishing, rearing camels and working abroad in the Gulf
States for their livelihood.

Yemeni Unification in 1991 put a sudden end to the isolation of the Mahra. Paved roads,
cell phones and effective central governance have pulled al-Mahra into the orbit of the
Republic of Yemen whose sole recognized language is Arabic. Schooling, civil
administration, military affairs and business are all conducted in Arabic; indeed, tacit
policies exclude the Mahri language from the public arena. At worst, the Mahri language
is perceived by many Arabic-monolingual Yemenis to threaten the unity of the modern
Yemeni state in which a communal, Arab identity presupposes a communal, Arabic
language. Confronted with an overwhelming need to speak Arabic and educational and
religious institutions that inculcate its usage, most young Mahra born after Yemeni
Unification are more comfortable expressing themselves in Arabic than in their maternal
language.

Secondly, powerful language ideologies are at work to undermine the status of the Mahri
language as a distinct language worthy of preservation. Throughout the Arabic speaking
world, only the written and oratorical register of Arabic (al-arabiyya) is held in esteem;
the unwritten languages of daily life are regarded as inelegant and chaotic patois. Since
the Mahri language lacks a literary tradition, it fails to achieve the status of language
(Ar. lugha) that is awarded to the other written, indigenous languages of the Middle East,
such as Aramaic or Coptic. Instead, the Mahri language is relegated to the status of
dialect, (Ar. lahja), a term of sociolinguistic disparagement for the unwritten, regional
idioms of Arabic. Coupled with the disappearance of vital, indigenous languages in the
Middle East (excluding North Africa) in the last half of the 20th century and the success of
Arab nationalism in advocating a communal Arabic language, linguistic diversity in the
Arab world has come to be viewed as laying exclusively within the dialectal continuum
of spoken Arabic. This has led to the overall neglect of the Modern South Arabian
languages (and Mahri amongst them) in popular and academic descriptions of language
diversity in the Middle East.

Key to Transcriptions
 Arabic Mahri

Transliteration Transliteration IPA

b b b

t t t

th

j /g

kh

d d d

dh

r r r

z z z

s s s

sh
Formal Structure

/
Mahri poetry may be divided into three types depending on the number of stichs per line
and whether the lines have an invariable pattern or are strophic poems in which the
refrain and interposed verses have different line lengths. In other words, all Mahri poems
are either composed of tristich lines, hemistich lines or are strophic songs. Poems
composed of hemistich lines are by far the most common in Mahri poetics and are
formally similar to Arabic literate and vernacular amd (columnar) poems (ie., the
hemistich qada). Poems composed of tristich lines are the most esteemed format for
Mahri poetry and tend to be associated with traditional poetics. Just about any Mahri
poem can be turned into a strophic song; however, lyric poems consciously composed
with a sense-bearing refrain and multiple verses are a relatively recent phenomenon in al-
Mahra and are based on Arabic-language models. Traditional work songs (ahzj)
likewise fall under the category of strophic songs.

The number of syllables per stich varies from poem to poem and this variable determines
the melodies to which a poem may be sung. My consultants generally referred to the
differences in the syllable count per line as bur (the different meters based on
syllable length and count) through analogy with literate Arabic prosody. I have analyzed
the prosody of Mahri poetry and the interplay between it and Arabic prosody in the
following publications: Rhythm and Beat and Mahri Prosody Revisited.

Tristich Hemistich Strophic

Tristich

Poems based on a tristich line (three isometric sense-units divided by a brief pause) are
almost always occasional compositions addressed to a public audience. The following
example is from Gunfight in Niawn, which responds to a gunfight between of a group
of Mahra and members of the Yemeni security forces in 1997:

er eh dryet l // be-ryeb -arbt // we-ttawd -mest

I have a friend who doesnt know // living in the western towns // at the edges of Mast

Tristich poetry in al-Mahra rarely deals with expressions of pure sentiment such as
ghazal (love declaration), itb (rebuke of a lover), and waf (description of a beloved).
These fall under the jurisdiction of the other two formal categories of Mahri poetry:
hemistich and strophic verse. This point was stressed to me in a conversation with the
Mahri poet Al Nir Belf who emphasized that tristich poetry addresses a specific
occurrence (adath muayyan), while new poetry (strophic sung-poetry), lacks a
central occurrence (l yjad adath). Instead, tristich poems reflect upon an actual
event typically a murder or another grave injustice that requires a collective response.
In the form of d we-krm krm tribal odes, tristich poems act as historical annals in
Mahri society while at the same time fulfilling an immediate persuasive function.

The tristich line appears to be unique to Mahri poetics and is not found in Arabic poetics.
Mahri poetry utilizing tristichs should not be confused with Arabic trimeter rajaz. For
one, the individual stichs of a Mahri tristich poem are of a different order of quantity:
four heavy syllables plus 3 intervening light syllables: | | (x3). Secondly,
the individual stichs of a Mahri tristich poem possess a grammatical and conceptual
independence not found in a foot of Arabic trimeter rajaz. This distinction is clearly
expressed in collective chants of tristich verse where a breathing pause is audible in
between each stich.

Poems composed of tristich lines tend to be viewed as the most socially and aesthetically
potent forms of poetry. The most prestigious genre of Mahri poetics the d we-krm
krm tribal/historical ode is almost always composed in tristich lines. Amateurish poets
of middling caliber generally compose poetry in hemistichs, leaving tristich poems to the
professionals.

Rezt:

Collective Rezt: Wedding Party in ar

Collective Rezt: Wedding in Mayff

Exchanged Rezt: The Purloined Slaves

Exchanged Rezt: The Waning Years of the Afrr Sulnate

d we-krm krm:

Tribal Ode: Atop the Peak of arbt

Tribal Ode: The Battle of bbt

Tribal Ode: Conventional Invocation

Tribal Ode: The Gunfight in Niawn

Sam(n):

Tribal Ode: Wahba Raiders

Unmarked Genre:

Humorous Couplets: Bir Laay

Humorous Couplet: Sdn the Fool

Legal Proceeding in Poetry: Divorce and Remarriage

A Message from Sinr

The Rebellious Son

Tribal Ode: The Gunfight in Niawn

Formal Stucture: Tristich

Content: Occasional

Length: Multi-line Polythematic

Recorded Performances: Sung and Recitation

Genre: d we-krm krm

This poem was composed by Slim Mu al-Sulaym in 1997 in response to a gun fight
in the port-town of Niawn (Ar. Nishn) between local Mahra and a group of North
Yemeni troops stationed there. An argument between a political security officer and a
fish seller became heated and the officer discharged his pistol in the air. The Mahra
nearby heard the shots and ran to the scene, loading and cocking their own weapons as
they did so. Feeling threatened, the Northern Yemeni troops who had responded to the
commotion began to shoot at the armed Mahra. The fighting escalated to the point that
heavy machine guns were brought to bear and a number of local shops and residences
near the port were severly damaged. By the time the confrontation had ended, four
Mahra had been killed and two more had been wounded. This event is described by al-
Ahdal in his book as adithat Nishn al-dmiyya (Nishns Bloody Incident [al-
Ahdal, 111]).
This poem follows the general outlines of a traditionald we-krm krm tribal poem in
an abbreviated fashion. This poem breaks from the conventions of tribal odes in one
significant way. The traditional actors of a tribal ode, (the poets tribe, their tribal allies
and their tribal enemies), are transferred in this poem to non-tribal entities: the collective
Mahra versus an obliquely referenced national army. This poem contains a rare reference
to the Mahra as a unified community: e-mhrh (the Mahra)[10]. This is an
unintended consequence of political campaigns against tribalism in al-Mahra since the
onset of the republican period in the late sixties. As demonstrated in this poem, tribal
identity has been sublimated into a pan-Mahri regional identity (in alliance with al-
Mahras erstwhile foes, the l Kathr) that stands in opposition to the Yemeni military.

In light of its sensitive political content, this poem cloaks its subject through references
that only its intended audience (Mahri speakers from western al-Mahra) would
comprehend. The subject of the first line is er (comrade, friend, spouse Ar. ashr),a
term that can be used to refer to people without revealing their name, (including that of
the speaker if he is uncomfortable about revealing his identity). Secondly, the poet never
mentions the site of the incident (Niawn) by name; instead, he refers to the surrounding
areas such as Aras, Mb and Maklayt. A kenning listener is expected to triangulate
the location of the incident through these hints and by others that are laced throughout the
poem. For instance, the poet speaks from a vantage point in the outlying districts of
western Mast [1], (not to be confused with the Omani Muscat), and must therefore
be facing the approaching thunderclouds (akll [4]), which typically come from an
easterly direction. Based on these indications, a Mahri listener familiar with current
events and geography will understand that the poet is looking down on Niawn from a
vantage point on the east-facing flanks of Jabal Fartak.

Despite the fact that this poem avoids explicit mention of the bloody incident, the final
line [14] is meant to echo the partisan tone of a traditional Mahri d we-krm
krm poem. Rather than beginning with the signature formula of the d we-krm krm
genre, the poem ends with a variant of it: we-rma we-krm (And now, O Generous
One[14]). The rest of the line, mawn men eawf / b-karmaym awrt (I have a
refuge from fear / in the Black Mountain[14]), amplifies the partisan sentiment since it
echoes the famous dndn exchange between a poet of bs and a poet of Raft, the
latter of whom claims to have a refuge from fearin Lel and the domains of awf
( mawn men eawf / b-lelg w-bt awf).

Sung by Muammad Mushajil under the title al-Mahriyya and released on his third
cassette album, Dum al-ayn (2004). The melody to which Muammad Mushajil
sings er eh dryet l is based on the traditional melody of d we-krm krm tribal
poems. The melody of this performance renders the poem recognizeable to a Mahri
audience as a partisan tribal-historical poem, despite the deliberate cloaking of its
content.

Recitation by young Mahri speaker, name unknown, recorded on the road to awf,
October 2003.

1) er eh dryet l // be-ryeb -arbt // we-ttawd -mest

2) we-mabb hayya beh // hs yqbel we-hr // zm wab e-ft

3) mr wezmenk men eid // hl -br rh lk // n t mn lt

4) nem ertbb w-hen // men mer -ekl // nweh deh n bt

5) emlet ers // men erem e-k // yellen ebyt [1]

6) r lem eh nm // men ef e-ryi // we-tawleb -blt [2]

7) we-myel l-ers // we-mb w-mekleyt // we-hzyem -melt

8) eyyet ybem bs // w-yelles bd eed // we-k-ma e-t

9) afyn nrem ts // hl ema e-dwl // we-b-sets welt [3]

10) w-ryed b-seyn // ke--nka -tm // ref e-mhrh drt [4]

11) we-byel e-mhrh // rysen kd // mwet mh w-law yt [5]

12) w-l-kr br eh br // men er awl // hez be-ssyeryt

13) we--berh mhektb // men hl bl meey // we-meyyed b-eyyt

14) we-rma we-krm // mawn men eawf // b-kermeym awrt

1) I have a friend who doesnt know // living in the western towns // at the edges of
Mast

2) My friend, I say welcome // when he draws near and shows up // Give me a

summary of the news!

3) He says: Ill give you the truth // of everything that happened there // if youll take the
story from me

4) The rain-star about to burst and thunder // at the edge of the eastern clouds // the
downpour is about to come

5) They fall upon Ars // from mouths of the black thunderheads // they come through
the roofs of the houses

6) Other rain-stars have arrived with them // on the storms of winds // that become like
those of desert
7) It rains on Ars / and Mb and Maklayt // and Hzyam and Malf

8) They enjoy their reputation // they carry it from their ancestors // and from every
direction

9) Journalists broadcast it // in every country // when the news comes on at its hour

10) The newspapers in the markets // everyone who comes buys them // about the fame of
Mahra that keeps on coming around

11) The tribes of al-Mahra // their word is certain // whether dead or alive

12) The Kathr also have the news // from the very moment it happened // and are ready
with their cars

13) That which is, is written // written in ink by our God // and bound by His yt

14) And now, O Generous One, // I have a refuge from fear // in the Black Mountain [of
Karmeym awrt]

[1] yellen < .L.L.: xll/yxll: (roof), to be penetrated by rain, let in rain; (rain) to
come throughabyt xllt: the house is letting in water (Johnstone, 1987, 439).

[2] lem < .L..: xl/yxwlt: to stay with, go and stay with people; to mix
(ibid., 442); blt < B.L.[V].: desert wind, balt: North wind (ibid., 49).

[3] nrem < N..R.: Ar. nashara.

[4] -tm < ..M.: tm/ytm: to buy (ibid., 369).

[5] mh < M..: m: well , indeed (ibid., 260).

Rezt

Formal Structure: Tristich

Content: Occasional

Length: Couplet

Performance: Chanted (collective) or Recited (individual)

While some Mahra use the term rezt to refer to any couplet of poetry composed of
tristich lines, this term more accurately refers to two performative modes of tristich
couplets: collective maydn (Ar. town square) performances and individual
exchanges or duels (Ar. maraddt). The former type, rezt maydn, is the collective
performance genre par excellence of al-Mahra. This is the defining cultural activity of al-
Mahra since it reaffirms the social and familial bonds of the Mahri speaking community
through the exchange of ritual greetings and reciprocal acknowledgement. At any
gathering of social significance, squads of 10-15 men form a line flanking a poet who
stands in their midst. Once the line has coalesced, the men let out a whoop that signals
their approach and preparedness for an exchange of extemporized rezt. The line
marches towards a similarly composed line of men, all of whom may already be chanting
a welcoming (Ar. tarb) rezt. If other groups join them, they form a rough square
and take turns chanting responses to each others rezt.

Prior to the establishment of a central authority in al-Ghaydha, rezt maydn were also
performed at the bargaining table whenever grievances were aired and negotiations
carried out. The Mahri poet Al Nir Belf described the role of rezt in
performance as courtroom proceedings (Ar. al-makama). Accordingly, when bilateral
diplomacy failed to resolve a conflict between two tribes, both would seek recourse to a
third disinterested party (marja). On the day of the judgement, both tribes would proceed
to the marja andestablish their claims by chanting rezt maydn. Since the
government has assumed the role of inter-tribal arbitrator, the practical value of rezt has
diminished since very few civil servants are familiar with the Mahri language, (not to
mention its poetic traditions). In the current political environment, rezt are mainly used
for celebratory expressions of welcome and mutual compliment to be exchanged at
celebrations (Ar. shart) such as weddings, the arrival of an important delegation or in
state-sponsored festivals.

Rezt couplets may also be exchanged by individuals face-to-face or via intermediary

in a non-choreographed and non-collective setting. Exchanged rezt couplets can be
antagonistic or complimentary; the topic depends on the event that inspired them. Most
importantly, the topic of individual exchanged rezt couplets needs to be suitable for
public reception (ie. non-lyric) since broad circulation is presumed. Skilled practitioners
of exchanged rezt are highly revered in al-Mahra; engaging in this practice is a virtual
requirement for important political figures. If the poetic talent and social prestige of the
two poets was high enough and the event particularly noteworthy, a rezt engagement
could spawn a generation of transmitters who would relate the exchange blow for blow
in individual performance. Once the workhorse for public political dialogue in pre-
republican al-Mahra, it use is in decline as younger Mahris opt for Arabic or non-
versified responses to socially or politically significant events.
Collective Rezt: Wedding in Mayff

Collective Rezt: Wedding Party in ar

Exchanged Rezt: The Purloined Slaves

Exchanged Rezt: The Waning Years of the Afrr Sulnate

Collective Rezt: Wedding in Mayff

Formal Stucture: Tristich

Content: Occasional

Length: Couplet

Recorded Performances: Collective Chant

Genre: Rezt

Exchange of collective rezt (rezt maydn) performed at a wedding held in

Mayff, June 2004 and recorded by Sam Liebhaber.

When chanted collectively, the couplets are very difficult to understand word-for-word.
Therefore, after devising a new couplet, the poet will share it with his team who then
pass it down the line from person to person. After they have chanted their couplet for a
few minutes, the poet will visit the other teams and share his couplet with the poet from
each. The poets in turn spend the next few minutes formulating a response. The first
poet who devises a response will share his new couplet with his team who then begin to
chant it, while the previously chanting team falls silent. The following clip shows jj
Dkn visiting the poets of the other teams and sharing his couplet with them. The clip
then shows one poet pondering his response and improvising a response, which is sent
down the line, person by person.

The following short clips contain the couplets transcribed below. The brides family,
represented by jjs team (see clip 2) are welcoming a group of visitors from e
(in the direction of Feydam) to the celebration. The guests belong to the Bt r alliance
and include members of the following tribes: Raft, Kuddah and Mmet. The visitors
can be heard chanting their couplet in clip 1.

Clip 1:
1) eyber hs ml we-er // w-hedaw ebeslt // le-r -mawlyn

2) [jj couldnt make out the 2nd line in the recording]

1) The guest when he loaded [the camel] and brought along [he friends] // the sturdy
female camels stepped along // for the sake of the noble ones

2) [jj couldnt make out the 2nd line in the recording]

eyber (pl. bret?): guest

heh er, hoh errek, heh yerr: to pull [a rope], Ar. saaba, jarra, taqaddama

heh daw, yed, hoh dak: to step down, Ar. dsa

ebslt (s. beslet): strong female camels, Ar. mayt quwiyyt, bsilt

mawlyn (sing. mawl): same as Arabic, al-uam, noble, excellent people

In clip 2, jj responds to the guests with a welcoming couplet (Ar. jawb tarb):

1) eyber ma heyya beh // hs em we-br // we-s hashb

2) br r -eawle // w-eawseb heh sb // le-sten e-wb

1) The guest, welcome to him // when he honored us and arrived // and faced the waves

2) Indeed I have looked for him // I have taken him into account // for the times of the
[marriage] duties [ie. celebrations]

heh em, yamen, hoh amek: Ar. sharrafa, waff

s, yeasyen, hoh asyik: Ar. wjaha

hashb (s. sehb): waves

heh l, yawle, hoh lek: to look at/for, Ar. naara

In clip 3, jj calls for an end to the exchange of rezt so they everyone can eat. jj is
specifically addressing another group that has shown up.

1) knen ke-mawmel kel // we-mtell we-l // w-e hb w-heh nsb

2) r ewat mne l // t le-ble er // hel yfre we-yb

1) I hope that the entire cargo ship [all of the people, particularly the poets] // from the
2nd to last person to the one following [him] // whoever comes, he is [like] family [a
relative]

2) But the time doesnt permit me // until I reach [satisfy] everyone // so that hes happy
and it pleases him

nsb: Ar. azz, l, not necessarily a relative

er, pl. r: Ar. khir

mawmel: in this poem, it means a giant cargo boat, or anything that carries a lot of
cargo, used symbolically for all of the people who are arriving

heh mne, ymenyen, hoh amenyek: Ar. khayyara, manna, an manaytak

Collective Rezt: Wedding in ar

Formal Stucture: Tristich

Content: Occasional

Length: Couplet

Recorded Performances: Collective Chant

Genre: Rezt
Welcoming collective rezt (Ar. rezt maydn tarb) recited by three different
groups of celebrants at a wedding party in ar, recorded by Sam Liebhaber, January
2004.

1a. bl albeyye tk // d yawder w-yehmm // we-hde le f[1]

2a. w-newl men amwe // wet neem ln lbd // b-n -habz[2]

1b. ayber hes tenawf // be-hr -brt // teden hayyerm[3]

2b. etteh rme awawl // be-mdnet anb // hel kesb we-l [*krm][4]

1c. ayber ettel ke-nb // we-n -heh dd // rkeb we-z ml[5]

2c. w-lyh memmnn // yayem ert // we-mul l-boh myl[6]

1a. Lord, I ask you // He who is able and capable [of performing any deed] // and makes
[the weather] calm and clear

2a. He quiets down the waves // when the rain-stars are triggered for us // with a sea-
storm on the East Wind.

1b. Unexpected news, you load up // on the back of pack-animals // and travel down the
roads

2b. Until arriving just now // at the large town // where there is profit and gain
[*generosity].

1c. The guests packed up and went with the news // people of dear relations // the
traveller has brought [his] kin

2c. To those who are precious // and take the grosser weight // that tips the scales to this
very place.
Group (a), the family of the bride, welcomes the guests with a couplet signifying their
hope that the journey was an easy one. The poet, Sdayn Kalt, beseeches God (bl) to
quiet the waves during the summer monsoon season (arf). ar is a fishing village,
and during the monsoon months the ocean is closed to traffic due to strong winds,
powerful winds and ripping tides. Knowing the time of the season is critical for the
fishermen of al-Mahra since the ocean can go from placid to deadly and stay that way
for months in a single day during the transitional periods. Each month is broken into a
period of twelve days, and each period has its corresponding constellation (neem).
The sea-storms, (n), come when the rain-constellations are struck or
triggered(lbd). When the storms do come, they arrive on the East Wind (ezyb), which
is perhaps rendered here with metathesis and the archaic definite article as habz.

The poet of Group (b), the family of the groom, playfully describes their journey as a
type of business trip. Thus, the family of the groom loaded up their beasts-of-burden and
set out as soon as they heard the good news. ar is a small village, describing it as
mdnet anb (a big city) is probably tongue-in-cheek, but not kesb we-l [or krm]
(profit and gain), which points to both the value of the bride-to-be and also the hosts
generosity. This couplet can also be understood as a description of the groom who has
loaded his camel with merchandise to trade with the people of the city (ar) for a
profit (his bride). Thus, the groom is depicted as a young man of means and ambition
who is willing to take a journey for substantial gain.

In a similar vein, the guests of Group (c) emphasize their kinship to the parties involved;
n -heh dd and z are two phrases that signify the closeness of their mutual blood
ties. Building off of the imagery from the previous couplet, the poet of Group (c) uses
the language of the marketplace. Their hosts are thus precious (memmnn) and the
poets regard is like a scale, on which their friendship to the hosts has taken the grosser
weight (yayem ert). The implication here is that the hosts ought to requite the
high opinion held for them by both Groups (b) and (c) in the form of a lunch of rice and
meat. In short, this exchange has the hallmarks of friendly banter between close friends
and family: humorous, affectionate and slightly badgering.

[1] yehmm < H.M.M.: hm/yhmm/yhmm: to be able (to do s.th.) (Johnstone, 1987,
157); le < W...: wa/ywa/y: to be, become (ibid., 426).

[2] newl < N..L.: to withdraw, take away [retirer](Landberg, Glossaire

Danois, 2776)?; lebd < L.B.D.: wbd/ylbd/ywbd: to shoot, strike; make, knock
together (Johnstone, 1987, 250); n: sea storm, when weather changes uncertain
etymology; habz: the East Wind < .Z.Y.B.: azyab: North Wind (Landberg,
Glossaire Danois, 76)?

[3] ayber < .B.R.: br/yawber/ybr vn. ybr: to meet, come to meet
(Johnstone, 1987, 131), used here in the sense of all of a sudden; tenawf < Q.F.Y.: to
set out, to lift (baggage) over ones head, af/yayfn/yaf: to go away; to turn o.s
backf: to finish st., put st. behind one; to throw st. backwards over os headto
take os family behind the mountain (ibid., 226), also Ar. iqtaf atharahu [to follow
so.s tracks] (Ibn Manr, Lisn al-Arab, 6:166); teden: to travel down (a road), <
D...: Ar. al-dakhdakha: to pick up the paceto pass by quickly (ibid.,3:227);
hayyerm < .R.M.: wrem (def.) rm/yrm: road; way to obtain satisfaction
(Johnstone, 1987, 7).

[4] anb < N.W.B.: nb/nyb: big (ibid., 306).

[5] ettal < .L.L.: ttel/ytll/ytl: to transhume, migrate, move os home (ibid.,
379); n: relationship, kinship, Ar. nasb, uncertain etymology; dd < .D.D.:
considerable, dear, Ar. ghl < Ar. add? z: tribe, people, kin, Ar. qawm, uncertain
etymology.

[6] yayem <.B..: /y/yyn: to take (Johnstone, 1987, 472).

Exchanged Rezt: The Purloined Slaves

Formal Stucture: Tristich

Content: Occasional

Length: Couplet

Recorded Performance: No recording

Genre: Rezt

Exchanged rezt couplets related to Sam Liebhaber by Suhayl Zabent in a

conversation, July 2008. No recording available.

These couplets were exchanged between Al bir Erab, muqaddam of the Zabent tribe
and Amr bir mrten, muqaddam of the eyde/Jid tribe in Qishn. As related by
Suhayl Zabent, a few young men of the Zabent tribe visited a suburb of Qishn called
Yentf, and while staying there, they helped themselves to a few things. In addition to
taking some paltry items, they also stole slaves belonging to the eyde tribe. When the
young men returned to abart with their loot, Al bir Erab their muqaddam
ordered them to return everything to their rightful owners in Qishn and went himself to
apologize to Amr bir mrten. Al bir Erab begins his apology with the following
couplet:

1) Al bir Erab:

sb l-yentf / w-yednut edeyt / -hbes yemm[1]

we- -ber rh / bh men sd / w-kel fel yetmm[2]

Im headed for Yentf / and the glimmering white wd of Yednt, / that whose flash-
flood surges

The mistake that happened / [well pay] the price of it from [our] body / so that every
issue will be settled

2) Amr bir mrten:

bir awn ws beh / men edi -hrkn / t mtell beh lm[3]

hl sebyt / we-br medm / frhem e-sm[4]

The massive camel is broad enough for it / [even] from blows to its columns [legs] /
except for the last one [which] was grievous (i.e., stealing the slaves)

[Erab] let them wander freely [like animals] / [into] gardens that were guarded / which
[the farmers] had ploughed and worked into furrows.

[1] sb < .S.B.: my intention/my wish = Ar. ana mutarajj; edeyt: the
shimmering of a cleft in the mountains due to the bleached, white rocks of the wd that
lay in its bed; bes: its flood = Ar. sayl(u)h; yemm < Ar. amma.

[2] l: reparation, Ar. thaman al-kha; fel (pl. hefl): issue, concern, no verbal
derivatives.

[3] ws < W.S..: Ar. wsi; hrkn (sing. rken) < R.K.N.: Ar. rukn; mtell < T.L.Y.: Ar.
al-akhr; lm < .L.M.: Ar. mulim.

[4] hl (yhal) < .L..: to set loose (animals); sebyt (masc. sb): to wander
around thoughtlessly, Ar. yahm, (fem. since it describes the thieves as animals, not as
rational humans); br: a small plot of muddy soil ready for the planting, watched over
and guarded; Ar. n mars; frhem (hh fr, yawfer) < .F.R.: to plow, Ar. aratha;
sm (ysem) < .S.M.: to pile soil into furrows, Yem. Ar. khalaba.

Exchanged Rezt: The Waning Years of the Afrr Sul nate

Formal Stucture: Tristich

Content: Occasional

Length: Couplet

Recorded Performance: Recitation

Genre: Rezt

Recited by Abd al-Sad bin Afrr (Shaykh Hamza) and recorded by Sam Liebhaber
at Abd al-Sads home in Qishn, January 2004.

Recited by Amr Slim almten al-Jid, recorded by Sam Liebhaber at Amr Slims
home in Qishn, January 2004.

This is an exchange between Bir Fr Kalt, a sufi and caretaker of the shrine of al-
Mahw in ar, and Muammad Al bir Afrr, the Afrrs representative (nib) in
Qishn. Muammad Al is the uncle of Abd al-Sad bir Afrr. Detailed analysis of
this exchange can be found below.

a) Bir Fr:

1. tawwen nemdd esseyr // we-nble b-add // hl eerf ywl

2. we-rbn -heh fh // re le-msawre kel // w-metwer yekhl

b) Muammad bir Al:

1. eybar we-m -hh // be-wyem we-hd // br men l

2. r w-br era leh // we-dm her essed // be-z w-hefll

c) Bir Fr:

1. ter needh l // men eml -berh eh // we-nawmer yehl

2. r eyr ealmt // be mens yerdd // w-maksres yehbl

d) Muammad bir Al:

1. yd -ke-nnehr // ebr men ew // we-mettem hwl

2. we-rma ld zhedk // hs essbeh berkeh // we-rh mhawl

e) Bir Fr:

1. ryes yezhd eebk // w-awwet men nt // wel awre hebl

2. we-w -heh wey // yefh kel yawm // yawzer menthl[10]

f) Muammad bir Al:

1. hyem metda l // w-elmeth e-ssew // wel ayeh yedwl[11]

2. r w-demeh bb // be-mawde ey // we-dmem th bl[12]

g) Bir Fr:

1. rme h r // be-ssennt emamt // we-mnaw ewl[13]

2. we--hh brk edawr // af eyreh kel yawm // we-mw nw abl[14]

h) Muammad bir Al: (?)

1. kel -ld efker l // w-awleb le-dmm // we-demh -yedl[15]

2. el yel eawf // we-zmmer yeyd // we-mren yefl[16]

i) Bir Fr: (?)

1. mel t wl zyd // llen th rkb // we-l-ewber yeshl[17]

2. t wl le ykn // twayen kel yawm // w-berkhem ehl[18]

j) Muammad bir Al:

1. tewwen nemdd emawl // be-r mweeeyn // we-mreddef hedl[19]

2. we-zyen nekk // elyk henyb // sdd w-hfl[20]

A) Bir Fr:

1. Let us now continue our journey // and cast our fishing net // where it may arrive at the
sardine grounds

2. The discerning skipper // keeps control wherever action is called for // and the skilled
one has good sense.

B) Muammad Al:

1. The land and water are mine // by proofs and witnesses // that are free from fault

2. Except for that which is beyond the law // on borders established before me // by bands
of men and armies.
C) Bir Fr:

1. We dont deny what belongs to the traders // and the property that he owns // we say
that he deserves it

2. But [upon] the dangerous, dark sea // the swimmer must turn back // or the waves in
narrow places will smash him to pieces.

D) Muammad Al:

1. The bonds of time past // free from any uncertainty // whose terms were perfect and
complete

2. Now I dont understand them // as though the swimmer is in the sea // but the heads are
hidden.

E) Bir Fr:

1. The mindful fisherman knows his net // and the strength of its manufacture // and
doesnt overlook the fringes at the ends

2. Where its weak points are most severe // he checks it over every day // and tries to limit
any damage.

F) Muammad Al:

1. The grasping person is bound by nothing // his dorsal fin thrashes above the water-
line // his ill intentions do not lessen with time

2. Except if a doctor attacks him // with a large bore instrument // and is busy against him,
like an untreatable illness.

G) Bir Fr:
1. Now the communists have arisen // with an exchange of piercing iron // and their
massive tools of war

2. That one in the fortress // they strike it every day // and the percussions trouble the
mind.

h) Muammad bir Al: (?)

1. The one who acts without thinking about others // it burdens his conscience // woe unto
the one who bears it!

2. The weight of it sinks into his chest // his bodys strength is stricken with pain // and in
the end, it fails him.

i) Bir Fr: (?)

1. Even if the weight were increased // the beasts-of-burden could carry it // and the best
camels would do it with ease

2. Even if things are as they are // they are able to do it every day // though amongst them
are wrong-doers.

j) Muammad bir Al:

1. Its best we loosed the rope // with all the conditions agreed upon // and the tie bound
twice-over

2. The storage-rooms are closed // though they be spacious // they are blocked off and
locked.

By the 1960s, the authority of the Afrr Sulnate began to lose its luster as it faced
serious domestic criticism. For one, the social underpinnings of the Afrr Sulnate
were challenged by the militant anti-feudalism espoused by the National Liberation Front
(the NLF, al-Jubha), an umbrella revolutionary group that was the leading contender
for authority in post-colonial South Yemen. By the mid-60s, the NLF had gained the
upper hand against its rivals; it was firmly entrenched in the aramawt and had proven
its mettle against the British Special Air Services group in their counter-insurgency
campaigns in Radfn in 1963. Secondly, an organization of Mahri workers and students
who had returned from the Persian Gulf, the Mahra Youth Organization (Munaammat
shabb al-Mahra), pushed local sentiment towards union with the NLF and in doing so,
laid the groundwork for the transition from sulnate to Marxist republic.

This exchange of rezt captures the political and social uncertainty of the waning years
of the Afrr Sulnate and is a witness to the breakdown of traditional lines of
authority. Garbed almost entirely in maritime metaphors, this exchange discusses the
obligations of the tribal muqaddams to his suln and vice versa. Both sides seem to
agree that these obligations are no longer being met.

In (a), Bir Fr sets the metaphoric framework: their exchange will be like a fishing trip,
their creativity will be their nets and rezt couplets will be pulled from rich fishing
grounds. Continuing the metaphor, Bir Fr adds that the suln, (the ships captain,
rbn), can bring the ship safely home, provided that he is wise (fh) and skilled (or
well-advised, metwer).

The nib suln, Muammad bir Al, responds with a couplet that reflects a major
concern for the l Afrr: the security of property rights in the face of growing anti-
feudal, collectivist sentiment. In (b), Muammad bir Al sets out the first principle of
his, (i.e., the sulns) position: what is his, is his; beyond that, he makes no claims. His
property is a function of inherited rights, through tribal custom [al-arf] and through his
kin [z]), as well as by the force of his armed soldiers (hafll). In (c), Bir Fr
repudiates the most extreme rhetoric of the NLF and reaffirms the right of private
property; the traders (ter) shall not be deprived of the property (aml) which they have
earned (yehl). However, he warns that the suln is one person swimming against an
entire sea and that some compromise (yerdd) will be necessary, lest he be smashed to
pieces (yehbl).

The nib suln responds in (d) by turning the metaphor around: the suln is indeed a
swimmer lost at sea because the heads (rh)of the other swimmers, (i.e., the muqaddams
on whom he depends for guidance), have disappeared and abandoned him (mhawl). In
doing so, the muqaddams have forsaken the bonds of time past (yd kennhr) which
spelled out their duties and responsibilities to the suln, were free from error (ebr men
ew) and were always fulfilled (mettem hwl). Bir Frresponds in (e) by pointing
out that the mindful fisherman knows his net, (i.e., the suln should know his subjects);
in particular, the fisherman knows the sections that are weak and those that are strong.
The implication here is that if the social net is broken, it is because the suln has failed
to check it and to make repairs.
In (f), the nib suln takes a fairly belligerent line. He describes the threat to the
sulns authority as a shark swimming below the surface of the water whose dorsal fin
betrays its predatory intention. In a like way, the sulns enemies believe they are
silently moving in for the kill, yet their thrashing gives them away. To defend himself,
the suln will confront the danger like a doctor faces illness, but with large calibre
instruments and show the persistence of an infectious disease (bl). In (g), Bir Fr
follows with a reference to current affairs, namely, to the attacks led by the NLF (h)
against the British in Aden (that one in the fortress). However, Bir Fr describes this
fighting in negative terms, (the percussions trouble the mind), in order to demonstrate
to the suln that he takes a dim view of the conflict and prefers symbolic violence (such
as this poetic exchange), over violent revolution. And yet the threat remains hanging:
revolution is at the border of al-Mahra whether the suln wants it or not.

In (h), the nib suln (?) warns Bir Fr (?) against making decisions without
considering all of the others, (his tribal dependents), and then describes the effect of
poor decisions as a burdensome weight that gets heavier with time and eventually leads to
the disintegration of health (yefl). This is a fairly common trope in Mahri poetry (see
Atop the Peak of arbt); the negative consequences of selfish, anti-social decisions are
expressed in insomnia and melancholy. In (i), Bir Fr (?) counters that no weight is too
heavy for beasts-of-burden and certainly not for the pedigreed camels of al-Mahra.
Indeed, Bir Fr (?) can endure the burdens of responsibility, even if ignorant wrong-
doers (ehl) should attempt to thwart him.

The nib suln concludes the exchange before it gets out of hand. He asks that the
rope between them (the tension), be loosed and their conflicts resolved. He offers a
compliment to himself and his competitor: although they have locked up the storage-
rooms (zyen) of their creativity for the moment, he avers that both have ample
(hanyb) room for more. This final couplet is binding and the conversation is blocked-
off and locked (sdd w-hfl); it is appropriate for the sulns representative to get the
last word.

[10] menthl < men l < ..L., Ar. min al-ul.

[11] hoym < Ar. H.Y.M.: to roam around distractedly, to be crazy for; elmeth e-ssew:
to show the dorsal fin (above the waterline), < L.M..: to appear, shine and sew <
S...: surface, Ar. sa al-bar?; yedwl < D.W.L.: dwyl, dwylt/dwl, dwtn:
to be old, worn out (ibid., 75).

[12] demeh: to attack, oppose < Ar. D.H.M.: to attack suddenly; mawde: a bore used
in ship making; ey (ellative) < , y: big, old, oldest, senior (ibid., 391);
bl: a miserly, stingy illness, i.e., a disease that wont let its victim go, Ar. mara
bil.
[13] h < Ar. shiy, communists; sennt: an exchange (of fire), throwing < Ar.
S.N.N.?; emamt: piercing, sharp iron, shrapnel, < Mahri mt: poison < Yem. Ar.
.M..: taammaa: to harbor hatred for so. [nourrir une haine contre qn.]mi:
hot [chaud]am: heat of the fight (am li-l-arb) [lardeur du combat]um:
a stinging jellyfish [mduse] (Landberg, Glossaire Danois, 1:495), and possibly < Ar.
.M.T.:amt: ferociously hot [shadd al-harr] (Ibn Manr, 2:215); mnaw:
instruments, Ar. muaddt, < N...: Ar. munshaa, military installation.

[14] edawr < D.[V].R.:the seat of authority, Ar. majlis al-ukm, al-qila, i.e., Aden; mw
< W...: [things] landing, striking, falling; nw: to disturb, strike, pain [the head], < Ar.
N.B..?

[15] dmm: conscience < D.M.M.: amm: to give all the responsibility to so.
(Johnstone, 1987, 80)?;demh: Woe unto!, Ar. y wayla!; yedl: ydl/ydl: to
carry on the shoulders (ibid., 132).

[16] zmmer: core strength, virility, Ar. al-rajla, f al-kitf wal-rijl, < Z.M.R.: Ar. al-
zamr: good qualities/beauty in a man [al-usn f al-rijl]rajl zamir: a man of meagre
masculinity (Ibn Manr, 4:56)?; yeyd < ..D.: ayd: to become stiff (after
unaccustomed exercise) (Johnstone, 1987, 39).

[17] ewber (pl. br/brt) < .B.R.: a pack camel or ship.

[18] twayen (1st pers. past. wayek) < W..[V]: to be able, hw/yhwy/yhw:
to come to help; to call appeal for help to so. (ibid., 425).

[19] emawl: rope, Ar. abl; mreddef: bound twice over, Yem. Ar. muabal (doubled);
hedl: knot, tie, Ar. rab, atm.

[20] nekk < .K.K.: k: to close (a door), shut, shut in (ibid., 361).

Hemistich

The absolute majority of poems composed in the Mahri language have two stichs (two
isometric sense units) per line. Formally speaking, Mahri poems in hemistichs are
virtually identical to most forms of premodern literate and vernacular Arabic poetry
(Arabic amd [columnar] poetry, including the Arabic qaa and most forms of
colloquial naba poetry) when written on a page. There are fewer genre-marked
categories under the formal heading of hemistich poetry since poems composed of
hemistich lines are the baseline of Mahri poetics. Composing hemistich poetry requires
less poetic talent or inclination on the part of the composer; this means that the examples
of hemistich poetry in this archive run the gamut from the highest calibre of Mahri
poetics to middling or even mediocre poems (as judged by my consultants).

Whereas tristich poetry is restricted to occasional topics, hemistich poems cover every
potential topic of Mahri poetics. The fact that hemistich poems are open to a broad
spectrum of poetic topics, performances and talents means that they are generally viewed
as more quotidian than poems composed of tristich lines. This disparity is expressed in
different terms by Musin l af who writes: Rw [ie. hemistich qada] poetry is
considered by the Mahra to be more appropriate for the expression of intimate
conversations, burning passions and the grief of cruel days, different from rajaz [ie.
tristich rezt] poetry which is dedicated to praise [mad] and calumny [qad] and is
restricted to men and is not for women (l af, 1987, 71-72). While l af
specifies rw, an eastern Mahri term for a sung lyric poem, the basic point still applies:
tristich poetry (specifically rezt) occupies the highest rung in the hierarchy of social
and aesthetic prestige compared to other forms of hemistich poetry, particularly multi-
line, lyric qadas.

As indicated below, there are a few genre-marked categories within the domain of
hemistich poetry. However, one of these (nu det) is a recently circulated conceptual
category that is not recognized outside of a circle of Mahri poetic literati based in al-
Ghaydha.

Dndn:

Exchanged Dndn: Prophetic Poetry

Homesick in Najrn

Tribal Ode: A Three-Way Conflict

Tribal Ode: The Times We Live In

emrt:

Advice for wher

Ften and the Moon (Dwn of jj Dkn #10)

The Girls Have Abandoned Their Honor

Hays and the Saudi Prince

Jamla and the Suln

Little Jewel Said

Shes a Work of Art

Nu det:

I Want to Write a Line (Dwn of jj Dkn #8)

Desire (Dwn of jj Dkn #9)

Her Looks and Stature (Dwn of jj Dkn #11)

Genre Unmarked:

Asking A Mothers Permission

The Charm of Old Age

The Desire of the Four Poets

The Dog Days of Summer

The Epic of Anz, s Kedayts Pickup Truck

Fed Up With Mahri

Fu Mahri: A Short Lyric Poem

Homesick in Hyderabad

I Think They Ate My Cow

Legal Proceeding in Poetry: Divorce and Remarriage

The Occupation of Iraq

Poetic Exchange: Race Relations in al-Mahra

Poetry in Hobyot?

A Prayer for a Favor

The Rescue of b

A Slippery Father

Tea With Milk

The Trials and Rewards of Fieldwork

Yearning for Balt

Genre Unmarked from the Dwn of jj Dkn:

For A Long Time (Dwn jj Dkn #1)

Everyday I Come Complaining (Dwn jj Dkn #2)

I Want to Ask the Wedding Party (Dwn jj Dkn #3)

O My Love (Dwn jj Dkn #4)

Passion for the Ladies (Dwn jj Dkn #5)

I Used To Think Man Could Endure (Dwn jj Dkn #6)

Why Are You Working In A Dust Cloud? (Dwn jj Dkn #7)

You Are My Death (Dwn jj Dkn #12)

Enough, My Heart (Dwn jj Dkn #13)

Leave My Darling Be (Dwn jj Dkn #14)

O My Eyes (Dwn jj Dkn #18)

Strophic Songs
In the traditional poetic praxis of al-Mahra, strophic songs are distinct from all other
forms of Mahri poetry due to the fact that they cannot be chanted or recited. Melody is
intrinsic to strophic songs to the degree that they cannot be performed without melodic
accompaniment. Traditional strophic songs in al-Mahra are restricted to work songs
(ahzj) and celebratory songs whose performance never falls outside of the prescribed
cultural act or physical labor they are meant to accompany. From a formal perspective,
strophic songs consist of brief isometric, mono-stich lines that alternate with a repeated,
choral line. The choral line may or may not be sense bearing; sometime the choral line is
composed of quasi-nonsense syllables that evoke the melodic template to the song .

Any hemistich poem can, in fact, be performed as a strophic song. The choral line will
take the form of metrical-filler syllables that reiterate the melodic template (hy dn i
dn or y sm sm, for instance), or it may be a single stich adapted from the
body of the poem. However, the poems classified as strophic songs can only be
performed as strophic songs; they have no existence outside of this category. Moreover,
the choral line itself is frequently intrinsic to the broader meaning and aesthetic structure
of the poem, even if it departs from the formal characteristics of the other lines in the
poem.

In the last decade, the Mahri poet jj Dkn has developed a new genre of Mahri poetry
that is imitative of an Arabic-vernacular poetic genre: the aram sung-poem (qada
ghiniyya). jj Dkns strophic sung-poems differ from traditional azj in terms of
their longer stanzas (three to four isometric mono-stich lines per stanza), sense-bearing
choral lines divided into hemistichs, and the fact that they are not associated with any
particular form of celebration or physical labor. As a result, that can be sung collectively
at any celebratory event or sung individually when a lyric mood strikes the singer. I
address the historical development of the modern genre of sung poem in Southern Arabia
in my article: The umayn Pulse Moves East: Yemeni Nationalism Meets Mahri Sung-
Poetry.

Qada ghiniyya:

Beautiful, Everything About You is Beautiful (Dwn of jj Dkn #15)

Watch Out and Be Warned (Dwn of jj Dkn #16)

Im Not to Blame (Dwn of jj Dkn #17)

I Have a Little Lady

Little Jewel Said

Traditional Work (Ar. ahzj) or Celebratory Songs:

Wedding Night Song

Work Song for Stitching and Repairing Fabric

Occasional

Dndn:

Exchanged Dndn: Prophetic Poetry

Tribal Ode: A Three-Way Conflict

Tribal Ode: The Times We Live In

d we-krm krm:

Tribal Ode: Atop the Peak of arbt

Tribal Ode: The Battle of bbt

Tribal Ode: Conventional Invocation

Tribal Ode: The Gunfight in Niawn

Rezt:

Collective Rezt: Wedding in Mayff

Collective Rezt: Wedding in ar

Exchanged Rezt: The Purloined Slaves

Exchanged Rezt: The Waning Years of the Afrr Sulnate

Sam(n):

Tribal Ode: Wahba Raiders

Unmarked Genre:

The Epic of Anz, s Kedayts Pickup Truck

Humorous Couplets: Bir Laay

Humorous Couplet: Sdn the Fool

I Think They Ate My Cow

Legal Proceeding in Poetry: Divorce and Remarriage

The Occupation of Iraq

Poetic Exchange: Race Relations in al-Mahra

The Rebellious Son

The Rescue of b

Sentimental

Poems that are essentially sentimental fall into two further sub-categories: specified
referent and non-specified referent. The purpose behind this bifurcation is to make the
complexity (and ambiguity) of the sentimental category more legible. For one,
sentimental poems in which the love-object (the referent) is specified that is, known
by name to the intended audience tend to be more common in the traditional poetic
practice of al-Mahra. Sentimental poems in which the love-object is not specified, either
through social decorum or because the love-object is merely an abstraction tend to be
more recent compositions and are imitative of cosmopolitan Arabic lyric poetry.
Sentimental poems with a named referent share an important similarity with occasional
poems since both address a specific reality outside of the poets aesthetic imagination.
On the other hand, poems without a specified referent may be completely imaginary and
figurative and are therefore a departure from traditional Mahri poetry.
Specified Referent

Non-specified Referent

Specified Referent

Dndn:

Homesick in Najrn

emrt:

Advice for wher

The Girls Have Abandoned Their Honor

Ften and the Moon (Dwn jj Dkn #10)

Jamla and the Suln

Little Jewel Said

Shes a Work of Art

Unmarked Genre:

Asking A Mothers Permission

A Prayer for a Favor

A Slippery Father

The Trials and Rewards of Fieldwork

Non-specified Referent

Nu det:

I Want To Write A Line (The Dwn of jj Dkn #8)

Desire (The Dwn of jj Dkn #9)

Her Looks and Figure (The Dwn of jj Dkn #11)

Qada ghiniyya:

Beautiful, Everything About You is Beautiful (Dwn of jj Dkn #15)

Watch Out and Be Warned (Dwn of jj Dkn #16)

Im Not to Blame (Dwn of jj Dkn #17)

Little Jewel Said

Unmarked Genre:

The Charm of Old Age

The Desire of the Four Poets

A Message from Sinr

Genre Unmarked from the Dwn of jj Dkn:

For A Long Time (Dwn jj Dkn #1)

Everyday I Come Complaining (Dwn jj Dkn #2)

I Want to Ask the Wedding Party (Dwn jj Dkn #3)

O My Love (Dwn jj Dkn #4)

Passion for the Ladies (Dwn jj Dkn #5)

I Used To Think Man Could Endure (Dwn jj Dkn #6)

Why Are You Working In A Dust Cloud? (Dwn jj Dkn #7)

You Are My Death (Dwn jj Dkn #12)

Enough, My Heart (Dwn jj Dkn #13)

Leave My Darling Be (Dwn jj Dkn #14)

O My Eyes (Dwn jj Dkn #18)

]
by Poet, Transmitter (Ar. rw) or Singer

Abd al-Sad bir Afrr (Shaykh Hamza) (rw)

Abd al-Sad bir Afrr (Shaykh Hamza)

Abd al-Sad bir Afrr, also known as Shaykh Hamza, is closely related to the Afrr
sulns of Qishn and Soqr and currently resides in Qishn. While many individuals
belonging to the Afrr ruling family who lived in Soqor were killed by Marxist cadres
in the early years of the PDRY and others (including the Suln himself) fled to Saudi
Arabia, a few members of the Afrr lineage remained in relative comfort in their
mainland capital, Qishn. Abd al-Sad bir Afrr projects a degree of social privilege
and the size of his house and retinue and the number of guests who enjoy his hospitality
attest the residual wealth and esteem enjoyed by the remaining members of the Afrr
lineage.

Abd al-Sad bir Afrr had excellent recall of a large quantity of poetry in Arabic and
Mahri that related to political events during the era of the Afrr Sulnate and could
speak at length on the historical context and significance of each poem. The recording
session that he organized at his home for my benefit which included a number of other
Mahri poets and rws was one of the most interesting and informative sessions I
experienced during my fieldwork.

Amad Al Mbrek (poet)

Al bir Erab bir Zabent (poet)

Al Slim al-Jid (rw)

Amr Slim almten al-Jid (rw)

Askar uayrn (singer)

Awa bir Al Awa (rw)

Bakht bir urn (singer and poet)

Bir Fr Kalt (poet)

jj Dkn (poet and rw)

s bir Amad bir s al-Qumayr (s Kedayt), (poet)

s bir Al bir Raft (rw)

Jumn Al bir erayf (poet)

rs Maw (poet)

Muammad Al bir Afrr (poet)

Muammad bir Marayf (poet, rw and singer)

Muammad Mushajil (singer)

Muammad Slim al-Jid (poet)

Muammad Rw al-Jid (poet)

Muabbi bir amtt bir amayt (poet)

Musallim bir Rmes (poet, rw and singer)

Nab Sadallh (poet)

Rabn birt Sad (poet and rw)

Sd Sheyl (poet and rw)

Sad bir Laay al-Jid (poet)

Slim Mut al-Sulaym (poet)

Slim bir Salm bir md (rw)

Suhayl Zabent (rw)

Tannf bir Sad amtt (poet)

Unknown Poets

Yay al-w Belf (poet)