Mosè, il falco e la colomba: edizione e traduzione del Ms. Gotha HB Ar. 2212

Abstract

This article completes a research on Islamic legends that started with the study of the legend of Moses, the hawk and the dove (“Mosè, il falco e la colomba: Origine, trasformazioni e intrecci di una storia della letteratura islamica”, in: QSA 20-21, 2002-2003), and that continues now with the study of the Qiṣṣat Mūsā preserved in the Ms. Gotha HB arab. 2212. This version, a strophic poem in alternating rhyme written down in Maghrebi script, represents a further stage of reworking of the legend and can be considered a representative witness of so-called popular Islamic religious literature of the post-classical period. The linguistic and extratextual data show that it was composed and/or written down by an Algerian maddāḥ. The poem is here critically edited and translated for the first time into a European language, accompanied by a study of this kind of compositions.