Bedouins without Arabic: Language, poetry and the Mahra of southeast Yemen

The Mahri language of Southeast Yemen is one of the few remaining indigenous languages of the Arabian Peninsula. The geographic isolation of the Mahri language has ensured its survival to the present time; this isolation has also caused it to be overlooked in Arab-Islamic formulations of language and history. The Mahri language remains unwritten, despite the fact that it has roughly 100,000 speakers and is by most measures a vital language. However, as paved roads, cell phones and national governance have made their way to al-Mahra, Mahri speakers must now contend with political and linguistic configurations that challenge the traditional linguistic and social landscape of al-Mahra. Looking to reach an accommodation with national models of "Yemeni heritage," the Mahra have simultaneously embraced and eschewed their own, particularizing oral culture.; This dissertation undertakes two primary tasks. The first is to offer a survey of Mahri oral culture with reference to traditional modes of poetic composition and sung performance. Like other tribal poetic traditions in Arabia, Mahri poetry is a complete suite of expression and the primary mode of communicating social order. Formal structure, musical accompaniment and even poetic vocabulary locate composer and performance in the rich world of intertribal and interpersonal networks.; The second objective of this dissertation is to describe Mahri poetics in the post-revolutionary (1967) and post-unification (1990) eras. The leading phenomenon of this last period has been the coalescence of the "New School": a group of poets and performers who have defined the Mahri stance vis a vis national ideas of culture and heritage. One important contribution of the "New School" has been the invention of a writing system for the Mahri language. The shift from oral performance to written text has entailed a restructuring of poetic grammar, syntax and lexicon. This is amply demonstrated in the Mahri-language Diw an of H&dotbelow;agˇgˇ Dak on, presented in its entirety in this dissertation.; Between these two approaches, I hope to provide a holistic accounting of Mahri poetry and song from historical, linguistic and ethno-poetic perspectives. At the same time, the gathered corpus of 45+ poems will lay the groundwork for future analysis of the Mahri language and the oral culture of Southern Arabia.