TEXTS IN THE MAWLID COLLECTION IN HARAR: SOME FIRST CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS

Abstract

In my paper I would like to try to describe in a philological and comparative perspective the content of the constellation of texts most commonly known under the title of "Mawlid sharaf al-‘alamin." The collection is preserved and transmitted in a quite relevant number of manuscripts kept in Harar, in Ethiopia and abroad and in at least four different printed editions. It contains the basic textual material recited and sung in Harar during Mawlūd feasts and other Mawlūd related ceremonies. The main literary features of the texts of the collection will be dealt with. The complex and variegated nature of the infl uences and of the different suggestions that were at work in the process of formation and development of the "Mawlid sharaf al-‘alamin" will be highlighted. Moreover, the relationship between the written tradition and the musical and liturgical functions of the texts of the collection will be analyzed. The role that the collective performances of the "Mawlūd" played in catalyzing a process of change in the structure and the content of the written tradition will be tentatively studied.