Interrogation in Ibn Zaydun's Love Poetry

Abstract

This research dealt with one of the well-known rhetorical phenomena, which was observed and researched in the diwan of the poet Ibn Zaydun, owing to his renowned delicate sensibility influenced by the picturesque nature in which he lived, as well as the pangs and pains of love and passion he suffered after the end of his relationship with Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, and how interrogation deviates from its original purpose to rhetorical dimensions expressing the poet's sorrows. Indeed, Ibn Zaydun's literary life, his delicate sensibility, the nature of Andalusia, and his love for Wallada qualified him to be the foremost poet of Andalusia; his poetry is an echo of his delicate emotions, his love for his land and its nature, and his love for Wallada; thus, Ibn Zaydun's ghazal and amatory verses combined the love of nature with the love of Wallada. His artistic style appeared as independent ghazal poems or long and medium-length amatory introductions to eulogies, which collectively constitute one-third of the diwan's content. The use of linguistic embellishments by Ibn Zaydun, including interrogative tools in love poems and their deviation to metaphorical meanings, significantly enhanced the splendor and beauty of his amatory poetry.