banu hilal who lift their homes in yemen

[عبدالله الخليفي]

Banu Hilal story in present Arab world


Old Egyptian storyteller keeps tradition of epic poem of Banu Hilal tribe alive; the Iliad of Arab people.

By Acil Tabbara - CAIRO
In the courtyard of a restored Mameluk mansion in Cairo, an old man stirs his audience with the epic poem of the Banu Hilal tribe, a legend of past Arab bravery fit for a troubled present.
Wearing a brown jalabaya (robe) and white scarf, Sayed al-Dawi, spectacles on his wrinkled face, is among the last practitioners of a centuries-old oral tradition.
With his troupe intensifying drumbeats during great battle scenes, Dawi, who himself plays a viol, tells of Abu Zeid al-Hilali and his tribe who voyaged from Yemen to North Africa.
The Banu Hilal saga "is the Iliad of the Arab people," according to Egyptian poet Abdel Rahman al-Abnudi who has spent 35 years recording and publishing the oral tradition in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Arabia.
Abnudi, seated in a corner of the outdoor stage, interrupts the storyteller at times to explain the old verses in contemporary Arabic for a group of young Egyptians and a few Europeans who gathered here one night last week.
The event, sponsored by the ministry of culture, was part of efforts to save the oral tradition.
"The Banu Hilal epic represents the entire Arab nation," Abnudi said. "Abu Zeid al-Hilali personifies the Arab leader whom the nation looks up to and is looking for to unite it during crises and periods of danger."
The legendary Abu Zeid fought historic battles in Iraq, which strike a chord with Arabs who oppose the US-led coalition now occupying Iraq, he added.
"The 'Sira' (exploit) is not just entertainment, it plays a role in periods of crisis, which explains why it spread through Egypt at the time of the Crusades," Abnudi said.
He added that "storytellers are in fact poets who improvise while reciting."
The epic is composed of hundreds of thousands of verses, and the 69-year-old Dawi is among the last people who can recite them by heart. Decades ago, before television, they were a focal point of village life.
However, this tradition is being lost today and "whole parts of the Hilali story are being forgotten," mainly because of the death of the storytellers, according to a member of the Al-Warsha (Workshop) troupe.
The troupe, composed of young people who are trying to revive the Sira, "seeks to research popular tradition," said Hussein Yunes, an assistant producer for Al-Warsha.
The troupe writes down poems from the bards themselves or from recordings made before the old storytellers died.
Indeed, it was a group of young Egyptians dressed in jeans who told the Banu Hillal saga in contemporary Arabic during a show for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at the French Center for Culture and Cooperation in Cairo.
The story is about the powerful Banu Hilal tribe, who leave home in Yemen for the Hejaz, the area of Mecca and Medina in today's Saudi Arabia, and take part in the great battles of the early Islamic period.
In the 11th century, the tribe moves to Egypt where, according to historians, the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir urges them to reconquer Tunisia, which has just split from his empire.
The story centers around the mythic hero Abu Zeid al-Hilali, a black baby born to white parents, something which prompts his father to disown his mother.
During one battle, Abu Zeid, a great fighter, is on the verge of killing his father, whom he does not recognize, but fortune intervenes and their arms freeze at the crucial moment.
He then learns of his origins and returns to his tribe. The Banu Hilal story is one of the main Arab epics along with "The Thousand and One Nights" and, according to Hussein Yunes, "it represents an ideal of bravery."