The Stages of the Joke in Pre-Islamic Literature

The joke has been subject to the law of evolution and progress, and it passed through many stages before reaching what it is today in the literatures of the nations.

The first stage was the mimicking of defeated enemies after the raids that certain nomadic tribes used to launch, in order to mock them and scorn their cowardice. In the ancient caves of Spain there have been found drawings, believed to be the oldest drawings in the world, representing defeated enemies; it is thought they were drawn in the days when man could express what was in his mind only by gestures and by sounds bearing no relation to language.

The second stage was the mimicry of infirmities, or the imitation of those with bodily defects in their gait, their movements, and their stillness, to raise laughter.

The third stage — languages having by then been formed — concerns mockery of moral defects, or infirmities of character. In it religions came into being, and thereupon appeared men who used religion for their own private profit, so that the anger of the members of their communities fell upon them, and the clever among them took to mocking such men in little stories that provoke laughter and scorn, in revenge and retaliation for their twisting of religion's moral and humane rules for the sake of gain and the filling of their pockets with money at the expense of the naive and the simple. Those who did this most in their literature were the Jews, whose books are full of mockery of the highest order.

In pre-Islamic Arabic literature there is evidence that the Arabs kept pace with these stages that have been mentioned. First, they made much of jesting with those who had bodily infirmities and mocking them. Blindness, lameness, and other infirmities befell the inhabitants of the Arabian deserts in great numbers, owing to the frequency of their fighting, the scarcity of water among them, and the blowing of sandstorms that often blinded the eyes — so much so that we find that poets of theirs like Hassan ibn Thabit and al-Khansa did not escape blindness, and many others besides. And the literary joke advanced among the pre-Islamic Arabs until it reached the level of riddles and puzzles.

They said of fire: What is the name of a thing that has no mouth and no teeth, yet if it is set in the treetops it devours them down to the trunks? They also made riddles about the egg, the hare, the bull, the ants, the sandgrouse, the horse, and the eagle.

They related stories about the jinn, and among them the proverb was coined about Khurafa, a man to whom the jinn used to talk. Al-Mufaddal al-Dabbi said that this Khurafa was a contemporary of the Prophet, and that he told him some of his tales, and he was pleased with them.

Most of the pre-Islamic Arabs' jokes fall upon defects of character, and in this there is evidence of their literary advancement. The poet Labid, while still a boy, mocked a mule and, in belittling and describing it, left nothing more for anyone to add.

In prose, likewise, they made much use of proverbs, most of which contain brilliant humor.

In sum, most of the pleasantries of the pre-Islamic age turn upon folly, or the silencing retort, or the likening of an enemy to an animal — this in the two departments of invective and the boasting-contest. As for jokes of rhetorical wit, they were rare in that age of before history.

The fourth stage: playful humor. You find its trace in the poetry of Imru' al-Qays and al-Munakhkhal al-Yashkuri; likewise the poetry of invective and the boasting-contest is not free of humor and sarcasm, and it is distinguished by being innocent of obscenity. Zuhayr said in satirizing the family of Hisn:

I know not — though I think I shall come to know —
are the family of Hisn men, or women?

The pre-Islamic Arabs were among the quickest of people at repartee, and among those who felt the keenest discomfort if there were fools among their kinsmen. The story of Umar ibn al-Khattab and his killing of his maternal uncle at the battle of Badr is famous — done to be rid of his folly. The earliest in time of the wits of the pre-Islamic Arabs was Luqman, surnamed "the Wise." It has been said that he was Greek in origin. This man was asked, "Who taught you wisdom?" He said, "He whose conduct was corrupt."

And Aktham ibn Sayfi, the philosopher of the Arabs, forbade his people to jest, saying: "Jesting does away with dignity."

In this saying there is proof of the Arabs' strong inclination toward gravity. Certain Arab tribes were famous for folly, among them the Azd and the Banu Ijl. In 'Uyun al-Akhbar there is a great deal of the stories of their folly, for whoever wishes to read of it.