In a long overdue book fully dedicated to the study of Muslim public rhetoric, Linda Jones offers a thorough review and insightful analysis of the genres and components of Islamic pre-modern preaching. Its most important contribution is, perhaps, the focus on the canonical Friday sermon (the khuṭba), rarely considered as a topic worthy of in-depth study; a bias due, according to Jones, to the tendency to single out the naming of the ruler as the quintessential characteristic of the khuṭba. But the book offers also a treasury of information on other types of orations: pre-Islamic Arabic speeches, non-canonical hortatory preaching (waʿẓ), homiletic storytelling (qaṣṣ), the nuptial khuṭba, public addresses during rogation rituals (such as the prayer for rain – ṣalāt al-istisqā'), political orations, jihād sermons and sermons announcing the cessation of warfare, condolence speeches, Sufi homilies, and finally, the khuṭba khatmiyya pronounced after the completion of the recitation of the Quran on Ramaḍān.
While scholars of Islam usually treat preaching and exhortation merely as an element of larger religious events, Jones insists on “considering preaching as a ritual act in its own right”. She presents in detail the religious and social significance of preaching on different occasions, and the rules of each genre. She also skilfully draws profiles of preachers and audiences, and the interactions between them. Treating the sermon both as a performance and as a text, Jones meticulously demonstrates the use of a wide range of bodily gestures and rhetorical-aesthetic devices. She deals with formulaic speech, rhymed prose, parallelism, repetition, voice modulation, word play, symbols, citation from Quran and ḥadīth, and contextualizes their application on varying occasions. Ten pages, for example, are devoted to the examination of the timing, themes, political allusions, Sufi discourse and rhetorical devices of the khuṭba that Ibn Marzūk delivered in the Alhambra Palace mosque in 753/1352 (pp. 113–23).
Such a work demands and indeed receives an interdisciplinary approach. Jones exhibits the combined skills of the historian (inspired by sociology and anthropology), the expert on Arabic literature and linguistics, and the student of culture and comparative religion. While frequent comparison with Christian medieval preaching, and the recourse to the rich scholarly work on Christian homiletics, proves insightful for Jones' argumentation, more reference to Jewish preaching, which took place not only at the same time but also in the same lands, could have added yet another perspective.
Jones joins a number of scholars who have challenged, for some decades, a binary opposition between “popular” culture and “official” or “elite” culture (though she hardly sets the discussion in this wider framework). She argues against the application of those binary categories to hortatory preaching (waʿẓ) versus canonical sermonizing (khaṭāba). Indeed, the social and intellectual profiles of preachers of both genres she draws show striking similarities and even overlapping careers. Moreover, she proves that both the canonical sermon and the non-canonical assembly of exhortation were accompanied by similar liturgical performance, and both received official sponsorship, yet depended on “social recognition” (see pp. 183–225). Having reached analogous results in my studies of preaching in the central Islamic lands (published in 2007), I cannot but agree.
The central aim of the book, in Jones' own words, is “to adequately interpret and assess the power and efficacy of medieval Islamic oratory” (p. 20; and in similar words on p. 258). While I have my doubts regarding the possibility of evaluating the reception of texts, let alone of oral performances in medieval Muslim societies, her identification of the key element in the performance of preaching is convincing. The eloquence and charisma of individual preachers notwithstanding, writes Jones, a pivotal role should be accorded to ritualization, namely to the construction of oratory as an authoritative ritual performance. This is reminiscent of Giles Constable's engaging article of 1994, “The language of preaching in the twelfth century” (Viator 42, 131–52), where he explains that medieval Christian preachers used Latin even if most of their audience did not understand it, as “it was the language not only of authority and orthodoxy, but also of mystery, sonority, and prestige”, and it accorded the sermon its “quasi-sacramental character”.
Jones notes that it is important not to exaggerate the power of the orator over his audience. She refers to his limited political influence and to his dependency on his patrons, and admits that notices about enthusiastic audiences are stereotyped. Still, I felt that she offers a romanticized view of the preacher, especially in sentences such as “The liturgical khuṭba in particular and pulpit oratory and hortatory preaching more generally were ritual performances that routinely offered Muslim communities diverse forums to renew their connection to the mythic community under the paradigmatic leadership of Muhammad and to reaffirm the spiritual connection with their fellow Muslims worldwide … The preacher … empowered his audience with spiritual tools to access the sacred through repentance, to muster the courage to defend the community from attack, and to reinforce the boundaries of their collective identity as Muslims” (pp. 257–8). Arguments such as “the khaṭīb … must master all the ‘body techniques’ and ‘embodied aptitudes’ associated with what might be called Muhammad's habitus of piety, humility, serenity, and other virtues” (p. 50) seem to me as a little overly influenced by theorization (the theories of Catherine Bell on ritual, Pierre Bourdieu on language and symbolic power, and Marsha Witten on religious discourse, are cited as her guides in the introduction). I suspect that the more frequent experience of the attendants was a predictable and barely visible or audible (for most of the audience) speech. Sincere excitement possibly did move participants, but one stimulated by the social, recreational and perhaps also political (in the local sense) aspects of the gathering, rather than by its spiritual, mythic and “quasi-magical” dimensions. As the sources are silent regarding routine occurrences, offering at best only a glimpse at a tiny fraction of medieval preaching events, most likely those that stood out, to support my speculation I will quote Ibn al-jawzi's sarcastic answer to the flattery of an admirer who complained that he had not slept the whole night in anticipation of the great preacher's sermon. “Yes”, says Ibn al-Jawzi (as recorded in his grandson's memoirs) “you wanted to amuse yourself (li-annaka turīdu an tatafarraja). It would have been better not to sleep because of the things you have heard (li-ajli mā samiʿta)!”
All those familiar with the dearth of sources that specifically deal with preaching in the medieval Middle East are apt to appreciate the painstaking collection of printed and extant manuscript sources for this study (see list on pp. 267–72), especially those of Andalusi and Maghribi origins (hence mainly Mālikī in madhhab). The formation of such a varied corpus, made up of texts of sermons preserved in literary works, biographical dictionaries, hagiographies, chronicles, travelogues, adab collections, judicial commentaries, anti-bidaʿ treatises, fatāwā, chancery manuals – is in itself a laudable achievement. Yet the recourse to all available texts poses subsequent methodological problems. Taking into account the paucity and the dispersed nature of material, and the creativity needed to glean information and to interpret discourse, the temptation to do so is understandable, and it had its merits. But can one manoeuvre freely between the tenth and the fourteenth centuries, between Malaga, Damascus and Baghdad, without losing grip of particular historical circumstances, and without compromising one's ability to evaluate social changes and religious dynamics over time? Indeed, there is no easy solution.
Like some of her protagonists, Linda Jones obviously masters the power of oratory, and her text is rich, engaging and lucid. For the impatient modern reader, the conclusions that end every chapter eloquently and efficiently summarize the main arguments of each chapter. All in all, The Power of Oratory is a very welcome and significant contribution to the growing bookshelf on medieval Muslim culture and society.
