(Arab.: ‘ornamented’).
A strophic song with refrain (see Syria, §2(ii)(a); Lebanon; Arab music, §II, 4(ii), with music example). The word goes back to the 12th century at least, being found in the treatise of Ibn Bassām (d 1147). The form originated at Cabra, near Córdoba, in the 9th century; it enjoyed a vogue in Muslim Spain in the 11th century, and spread subsequently throughout the Arab world, where it survives in oral tradition. The mūwashshah may be accompanied by the samah dance.
See Zajal.
L.I. al-Faruqi: ‘Muwashshah: a Vocal Form in Islamic Culture’, EthM, xix (1975), 1–29
E. Gerson-Kiwi: ‘Musical Settings of the Andalusian Muwashshah Poetry in Oral Tradition’, Festschrift Kurt Blaukopf, ed. I. Bontinck and O. Brusatti (Vienna, 1975), 33–47
T. Rosen-Moked: The Hebrew Girdle Poem (Muwassah) in the Middle Ages (Haifa, 1985)
A. Jones and R. Hitchcock, eds.: Studies on the Muwassah and the Kharja (Reading, 1991)
Y. Yahalom: A Collection of Hebrew Muwassah from the Middle Ages (Jerusalem, 1991)
JACK SAGE/SUSANA FRIEDMANN