Muḥammad Ibn Dāniyāl al-Mawṣilī – Arabic Aristophanes of Shadow Theatre
Muḥammad Ibn Dāniyāl al-Mawṣilī – Arabic Aristophanes of Shadow Theatre

Author(s): Sebastian Gadomski
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Fine Arts / Performing Arts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Ibn Dāniyāl; Arabic shadow theatre; Arabic medieval shadow plays
Summary/Abstract: Ibn Dāniyāl al-Mawṣilī (1248–1310) is one of the few Arab authors of theshadow theatre plays, whose literary works have survived to our days. Dueto the subject and language of his dramas he is sometimes compared toAristophanes.Ibn Dāniyāl al-Mawṣilī faced countless adversities coming to Egypt as animmigrant from war-torn Iraq in the second half of the 13th century. Thanksto his great talent and constant work, he became one of the most original andpopular poets in Cairo at his time. Ibn Dāniyāl worked as an ophthalmologistwhile poetry and shadow theatre were sources of additional income for him.Among his friends and patrons were many ministers, high-ranking officialsand judges. On the other hand, he was very close to the world of the Cairoartistic bohemia, lovers of wine and good fun. The poet was famous for hiselegies, panegyrics and satire, which he used most masterfully, combiningliterary language with dialect. He used a wide spectrum of stylistic andsemantic capacities of Arabic, showing a colorful picture of Egyptian societyin the late 13th and early 14th century.The presented paper examines Ibn Dāniyāl’s theatrical output and showsit in the context of the socio-political situation of Egypt during the reignof Aẓ-Ẓāhir Rukn ad-Dīn Baybars in the second half of the 13th century.

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