Handing a Glass Around

From Walīd Ibn Yazīd to Ziyai From Mostar

Abstract

The motif of handing a glass around is among the motifs appearing at the very beginning of classical period of Arabic poetry. By spreading and branching, the said motif entered national literatures of other peoples-members of Oriental-Islamic cultural circle as well, Persian and Turkish first of all. Although it is primarily immanent in love lyric verse and wine poetry, the motif of handing a glass around went into full swing and underwent a meaningful transformation in sufic poetry. This paper traces the process of amplification of the motif of handing a glass around in various literary traditions, types and periods, from its first use in Walīd ibn Yazīd’s poetry to a gazel by Ziyai from Mostar in Persian, which confirms that the studied motif is found in the literature of the Bosniaks in Oriental languages. By spreading, branching and varying in various literary traditions and periods, the motif of handing a glass around earned the status of topos, one of those firmly established general spots which reflect very complex and dissected literature of the Oriental-Islamic circle as a universal supralinguistic literary system.