Dramatic poetryThis popular use and adaptation to the demands of the street leads us to the
last strategy of dramatization, dramatic multivoicing, as ‘Abd al-Xabnr and
the Iraqi Buland al->aydarlpracticed it. The former’s Ma’smt al->allmj
(Murder in Baghdad1964) has received a lot of critical acclaim;^71 not so the
latter’s sophisticated >iwmr al-Ab‘md al-thalmthah (Dialogue in Three
Dimensions1972). ‘Abd al-Xabnr rewrites the story of al->allmj to come to
terms with the plight of the intellectual under authoritarian rule. Sufism
becomes a threat when it divulges the unspeakable and undermines hege-
monic discourse. ‘Abd al-Xabnr’s poetic drama depicts the Sufi dilemma
under the strictures of authoritarian discourse. Admittedly making use of
T. S. Eliot’s poetics, and of Murder in the Cathedralin particular,^72 ‘Abd
al-Xabnr has al->allmj as the counterpart to Eliot’s Archbishop Thomas
Becket. Both poetic dramas have clerics, priests, and choruses. Both prob-
lematize the role of ideas in undermining authority. ‘Abd al-Xabnr’s poetic
work speaks obliquely against the constraints imposed on poetry to compart-
mentalize it within amateurish nationalist and leftist concepts of identity and
utility. Speaking of these concepts at a later period, Adnnls comes to an
understanding of this sense of identity as follows: “... identity engenders a
reading based on the nostalgia for an original unity: the unity of the nation,
the language, the homeland, and of power.”^73 He further describes this
reading as an ideological one that can be applied to any conceptualizations of
notions and beliefs that culminate as master narratives. “This ideological
reading perceives the poetic text as a battleground between ideas and cur-
rent tendencies; it makes the poetic text a political text.”^74 ‘Abd al-Xabnr’s
poetic drama effectively manipulates the historical narrative to draw atten-
tion to similar situations in contemporary life where authors and writers are
under surveillance for their ideas and writings.^75 In the following extract,
al->allmj disputes the claims that he is courting rebels and opponents to the
regime:
The men you name are leaders of the nation;
They are also my friends, and have my love.
They promised me if they should come to power
They will live righteously and not do ill;
They will grant people their rights,
And the people will grant them theirs.
(Ibid. 17)Shibli is not satisfied with the answer.
Furthermore, how do you know that once they’re in power
The wine of authority might not go to their heads,POETIC DIALOGIZATION