By Fate
It was destined for me, many years ago, to come across old papers written in a fine hand within the folds of a handwritten collection, in the handwriting of the famous Hama poet Muhammad Al-Hilali, before I later found several copies of his diwan printed in an old lithographic edition at the Hama Press on 15 Rajab 1330 AH.
In the same manner, fate made it possible for me to gather rich material on the biography of the poet Al-Hilali, whom I consider one of the greatest poets of Hama and the Levant as a whole, and among the most refined in craft.
During this process of collecting, fate accompanied me once again when I began gathering some of the muwashahat that were performed in the middle of the last Gregorian century. I came across a rare muwashah titled “Wake the Revelers,” performed by Sabah Fakhri, one of the masters of muwashahat, adwar, and Arabic maqamat. He performed many adwar, qudud, and muwashahat whose authors and original poets were not given enough attention, despite the fact that they are among the gems of Arabic literature and poetry, and were written by some of the most prominent Arab poets in the Levant.
These adwar and qudud were chosen with remarkable precision by people of refined taste, who modified some of their elements and verses to suit the chant, dawr, or qadd. Although it is not possible here, as usual, to enrich this research with a full count of them, anyone who listens closely will notice that many are connected to the city of Hama. This appears repeatedly in more than one poem, whose traces can be found in the original printed and manuscript books and diwans.
The muwashah “Wake the Revelers” is a fresh and graceful chant, marked by harmony of meaning and beauty of composition. Sabah Fakhri performed it in mosques without musical accompaniment, in the maqam of Hijaz Kar. It praises the Al-Azm family in Hama, and its original text, as found in the diwan of the poet Al-Hilali, is as follows:
Dawr
Wake the revelers, my friend, the caller of joy has called
From the hands of the beauties, the light of the cup has shone
Dawr
Especially as the clouds pour their tears over the plains
And the gardens of flowers smile with mouths of chamomile
Dawr
The star of beauty turned, in the darkness, the sun of day
The glow of his cheeks shone, giving me both light and fire
Dawr
O speaker of love, speak to my blamer: love is no shame
For chaste passion teaches its people to cast restraint aside
And he concludes by saying:
Recite the exaltation of the station, for Al-Nasouh son of Al-Izam
And upon the remover of darkness, who shames the full moon
Dawr
Bless and grant peace, O Lord, and likewise upon the noble family
As Al-Hilali concludes his verse with the beauty of a fine ending
Our beloved “people of Homs” refused to let us enjoy the purity of this muwashah, which had reached such beauty and delicacy, so the hungry and gluttonous poet Mustafa Zayn Al-Din Al-Barmi Al-Himsi opposed it, saying:
Bring the lambs closer to me, the caller of the stomach has cried
For from the meat of sacrifices, the sorrow of hunger has departed
Especially as the fat strikes forth, drinking it heals wounds
And the special kumaj is dipped with beautiful qabawat
The rice mansaf has lit up the table with its radiance
And over it the ghee has circled, so inhale the scent of spices
And upon the stuffed dish, thunder forward, my friend, and cast restraint aside
And toward the kibbeh, advance, for its redness has captivated us
Biography of the Poet Al-Hilali
As for the author of the muwashah “Wake the Revelers,” he is the distinguished Hama poet Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hilali Al-Hamawi (d. 1311 AH): Muhammad ibn Hilal ibn Hammoud ibn Mustafa ibn Abbas ibn Ismail Mulla Al-Bukhari by origin, Hamawi by city and homeland, Damascene by death, known as Al-Hilali.
He was born in the city of Hama in 1235 AH, into a large scholarly and religious family. His grandfather Hammoud was a jurist and imam at Al-Ashqar Mosque in Hama. His uncle Muhammad Zuhair served as mufti in Hama and taught at Al-Ashqar Mosque after his father. His great-grandfather Mustafa was a distinguished scholar to whom the fatwa of the district of Hama was entrusted.
Al-Hilali grew up in Hama. He studied jurisprudence under his father and his uncle Sheikh Zuhair, and studied grammar, morphology, and logic under the scholar Ibrahim Effendi Al-Malki Al-Hamawi (d. 1307 AH). He mastered literature and its styles, composed poetry in a delicate manner that delighted souls, kept company with men of letters, and joked with witty people. His literary jokes and poetic wit include poems that reveal the refinement of his taste, the sharpness of his intelligence, the alertness of his thoughts, and the breadth of his ability.
He praised many notables, princes, and rulers, as poets commonly did, and elegized many people, dating their deaths in verse. He also dated the construction of many public buildings, including houses, baths, homes, and general structures.
Among the most famous figures he mentioned in his poetry were Sultan Abdul Aziz, Sultan Murad, Sultan Abdul Hamid, Sharif Awn Al-Rafiq, Emir of Mecca, the hadith scholar Badr Al-Din Al-Hasani, the scholar Mahmoud Effendi Al-Hamzawi, Mufti of Damascus, Emir Abdul Qader Al-Jazairi and his sons Muhammad Pasha and Muhyi Al-Din Pasha, the scholar Muhammad Amin Al-Jundi, Mufti of Damascus, Ahmad Hamdi Pasha, governor of Syria, Muhammad Rushdi Pasha Al-Shirwani, governor of Syria, Haqqi Pasha ibn Ali Yawar Pasha, governor of Sivas, Muhammad Pasha Al-Yousef, governor of the Balqa district, Emir Ali ibn Faris Al-Shihabi, and many others too numerous to mention in this brief account.
Among the notable people of Hama whom he praised or dated were Holo Pasha, governor of Hama, the notable Abdul Qader ibn Hussein Al-Azm, the scholar Nouri Pasha Al-Kilani, Abdullah ibn Hassan Al-Kilani, Muhammad Agha Al-Bakir Al-Barazi, Muhammad Bek Al-Azm, Muhammad Wajih Al-Kilani, Muhammad Agha Al-Udhn, Mahmoud Pasha Al-Barazi, Ahmad Agha Al-Ashiq, Mansour Agha Al-Hamawi, Ahmad Mu’ayyad Pasha Al-Azm, Kanj Agha Al-Tayfour, Abdullah Agha Al-Hashim, his teacher Sheikh Ibrahim Effendi Al-Malki, Faris Effendi Al-Ahdab, Sheikh Yusuf Effendi Al-Armanazi, Muhammad Bek Al-Baroudi, Hassan Effendi Al-Baroudi, and many others.
In 1298 AH, Al-Hilali left Hama for Damascus. Its parks pleased him, and its joys delighted him, so he settled there, kept company with its writers, praised its notables and princes, and gained from them such prestige and acceptance that it encouraged him to remain there until his death on Monday, 29 Dhu Al-Hijjah 1311 AH. He was buried in Al-Dahdah Cemetery.
Before his death, he recited two noble verses that indicate the soundness of his faith and his good hope in the vast grace of the One who grants forgiveness:
You died as a Muslim, so do not fear because of sins
Far be it that your God would show you misery
Had He wished to cast you into Hellfire
He would not have inspired your heart with monotheism
May God fulfill his hopes, forgive his sins, improve his state, bestow upon him His generosity and favor, and admit him into the spaciousness of His gardens.
Many skilled poets dated his death, among them the late scholar Sheikh Abdul Majid Effendi Al-Khani Al-Dimashqi, who said:
Al-Hilali, master of poets, has passed away
The star of lofty literature, whose fame spread wide
Muhammad, branch of the moons of knowledge, and those
Who in Hama are protectors of virtue and greatness
A moon of noble rank, whose lights have set
In this verdant garden when he journeyed by night
So it is no surprise if his chronogram calls out:
“Indeed, Al-Hilali, master of poets, has passed away”
The total of the final hemistich according to abjad calculation is the date of his death:
32 + 496 + 107 + 73 + 602 = 1311 AH.
Among the most famous muwashahat that spread on tongues, besides the one already mentioned, is his famous muwashah “Lillah Lillah Ya Bunayya,” in praise of the Al-Kilani family in his city of Hama, which begins:
How happy is the morning, with the full-moon-like appearance
And from it the sun sends forth, brilliant stars
Until he says:
Hasten, my companion, hasten, to the sons of Abdul Qader
Those of noble station, and pleasing souls
A people whose radiance revealed, the secret of a gray falcon
So enter their sanctuary and drink, a divine wine
References
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(1) “Diwan Al-Hilali,” printed on 15 Rajab 1330 AH at Hama Press, funded by Saeed Al-Na’san, Ahmad Al-Sabouni, and Hammoud Al-Zabraouti (p. 227). See also: “Hilyat Al-Bashar” (p. 1533), “Tadhkirat Al-Ghafil fi Istihdar Al-Ma’akil” (pp. 132–134), and “Adab Al-Nukta” by جورج كدر (p. 64).
(2) See “Hilyat Al-Bashar” by Al-Bitar (pp. 1533–1534), “Tadhkirat Al-Ghafil fi Istihdar Al-Ma’akil” (pp. 132–134), and “Adab Al-Nukta” by جورج كدر (p. 64).
(3) For his biography, see: “Nafhat Al-Basham” by Al-Qayati (p. 114), “Diwan Al-Hilali” (p. 1), “Diwan Tadhkirat Al-Ghafil” by Muhammad Al-Khalid Chalabi Al-Homsi (pp. 15–24), “Al-A‘lam” by Al-Zirikli (7/132), “Mu‘jam Al-Mu’allifin” by Kahhala (12/93), “A‘lam Hama” by Qadri Al-Kilani (3/1292–1304), “Tarikh ‘Ulama’ Dimashq fi Al-Qarn Al-Rabi‘ Al-Hijri” by Al-Hafiz and Abaza (3/46–47), “Min Mashahir wa ‘Ulama’ Hama” by Al-Shaqqi (2/783–785), in addition to an expanded biography in our book on the scholars and notable figures of Hama in the fourteenth Hijri century.