18 November 2018
Michele Petrone analyzed in this paper the reception of a motive of Classical Arabic poetry (aṭlāl) in Ethiopian Islamic devotional literature. It is based on manuscript materials that are analyzed in the context of local production and performance of poetry. The motive of “ruins” is here seen as a mean to settle a sacred space at the beginning of a poem, evoking the presence of the Prophet and of Saints in the Sufi assembly.