How Travel Literature Contributed to Interaction Between Different Cultures – Al-Muwashaha as a Model

Abstract

The muwashshah is a distinctive poetic form in Arabic literature that differs from traditional lyric poetry because it follows specific technical rules, often uses colloquial or foreign language in its ending (kharja), and is closely connected with music and singing. Although it became well known, many classical sources of Arabic literary history only mentioned it briefly without giving a full definition.

Travel literature and cultural exchange between the East and the West helped transmit this poetic form to Al-Andalus. Through the journeys of poets and writers, Andalusian poets became familiar with Eastern poetic traditions and developed the muwashshah into a unique style that reflected the Andalusian cultural and artistic environment.

Notable figures associated with its development include Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih and Ibn Quzman. Literary historians, however, disagree about the true origin of the muwashshah, leading to several theories about its beginnings, the most famous being the Eastern theory, Maghrebi theory, and Andalusian theory