Ali-Fehmi Džabić as a critic of classical Arabic poetry
Ali-Fehmi Džabić as a critic of classical Arabic poetry

Summary/Abstract: Ali-Fehmi Džabić (1853-1918) is undoubtedly one of the most prominent figures among our authors writing in the Arabic language. His commentary in the field of the classical Arabic poetry present him as one of literary critics who, although far away from their homeland and their mother tongue, managed to master this field to such an extent that they aroused the admiration and respect of all connoisseurs of this field. There are a number of works devoted to Ali-Fehmi Džabić and his activities; however, they mainly treat his political activities as the leader of the movement of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina for religious and waqf- -ma‘ārif autonomy. It was in this capacity that he left for Istanbul, which the National Government used to proclaim him an unauthorised emigrant, preventing him from returning to his homeland ever. His departure for Istanbul marks a new period in the work of Ali-Fehmi Džabić as a professor of the Arabic language and literature and as an anthologist and literary critic specialised in the classical Arabic poetry. This paper discusses his work entitled Tilbat at-tālib fī šarh Lāmiyya Abī Tālib a commentary on Abū Tālib’s religious poem Lāmiyya. Following his commentary on each verse separately, we can identify Džabić’s methodology by the following principles: a) In the field of language: – Word and sentence syntax, – Morphological word analysis, – Lexicology, – Etymological word structure; b) In the field of the historical context – Genealogy of certain persons, – Quotations from the Qu’ran, – Islamic tradition, – Other remarks and explanations; c) In the field of literature and literary criticism: – Verses of other authors, – Quotations from other commentaries, – Objections to other commentators, – Criticism of poems, – Quotations from the other work of the author, – Metre and rhyme. We believe that this work presents Džabić as an excellent connoisseur of Arabic and classical Arabic literature – poetry in particular, history of Arabs and Islamic civilisation, as well as a connoisseur of other literary critics and their works, whose views he sometimes justly objects to and confronts with. He thus represents a prototype of a critic-commentator among our authors writing in Arabic. Following the commentary and comparing examples quoted in it, one must come to the conclusion that Džabić is a commentator offering an explanation of the text to his reader – i.e. elements important for understanding poetry from the aspect of hermeneutics.

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