The Narration of the maqāmāt: A Reading of ʾAbū Bakr b. Muḥsin Bā ʿAbbūd’s al-Maqāmāt al-hindiyya (1715) through Propp

Abstract

This article conducts a reading of ʾAbū Bakr b. Muḥsin Bā ʿAbbūd al-ʿAlawī’s al-Maqāmāt al-hindiyya (1715), employing Vladimir Propp’s model of narrative functions. Although Proppian functions have frequently been harnessed to deconstruct essential components and plot architecture within the maqāma genre, the article emphasises the intrinsic limitations of this approach, especially when the focus is restricted to the analysis of isolated units rather than the entire collection. In accordance with various literary analyses, this research interprets the maqāma as a genre that orchestrates individual narrative units to synthesise a more expansive, novel-like overarching narrative. Within this intricate framework, the text accentuates the interconnected events between the narrator and the trickster. The emphasis lies on the multifaceted transformation experienced by both characters: the first encountering and engaging with the world’s complexity, and the second undergoing a progressive moral conversion, culminating in his eventual demise. In the process, the article posits that the inherent quality of the maqāma of Bā ʿAbbūd, inspired by the models of al-Ḥarīrī, shows the flexibility of the genre. Within the predictability of its narratives, the maqāma is a genre able to become a vessel for diverse thematic discourses that the author seeks to convey.