The Merchant of Art: An Egyptian Hilali Oral Epic Poet in Performance

Abstract

to make a larger claim about the nature of audience response to the particular episode, the story of c Āmir Khafāji, which was narrated by c Awaḍallah.I try to show how, and understand why, parallel moves govern the ways the audience adapted to my presence and the ways in which c Awaḍallah transformed the content of the tale.Studies of professional poets and storytellers have concentrated primarily on redactions of tale and text, or they have devoted themselves to assembling biographical information, or they have restricted themselves to descriptions of the poet's world view. 9In this study I want to consider the recitation in the context of a dramatic performance in which all participants, poet and audience -including ethnographer-have roles to play.I draw upon a good many theories regarding the nature of oral poetic composition, improvisation, and manipulation of oral-formulaic phrases. 10I am also much influenced by performance-centered folklore theories, that is, the ethnography of social discourse. 111 Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-c ibār wa dīwān al-mubtada' wa-al-khabar, trans.W. MacGuckin de Slane, Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale, 4 vols.(Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1925-26); see also H. R. Idris, "Hilāl," Encyclopedia of Islam, 1971 ed. 2 Historians have recently reevaluated the role of the Hilali Bedouins, i.e., whether the invading tribes are characterized as either devastators of North Africa or carriers of Islamicization.See Jacques Berque, "De nouveau sur les Banī Hilāl?"