Sentiment Analysis of the Image of the Franks (ifranj) in the Arabic Folk Epic Sīrat D ˍāt al-Himma

Abstract

The method of sentiment analysis opens up great prospects for historical and anthropological research, primarily for studying the problems of the construct of the image of the Other. To test this method on the material of the Arabic language, I chose the Arabic folk epics as they are a conflux of the cultural memory of Arab population of Levant and Egypt, insufficiently investigated from the point of view of historical anthropology. The narratives of the Arabic folk epics combine an ancient Arabian tribal folklore, as well as fabulous and legendary stories of ancient Semitic and Persian origin, in addition to the chronicles from different periods of the history of Islam. The epic Sīrat Dˍ āt al-Himma (“The Life of Ḏāt al-Himma”) was taken as an example to analyze the contexts about the Franks in this type of sources, and to conceptualize the patterns of creating the emotive image of the Frank-Crusader. The main patterns of creating the image of the Other in the epic are the opposition of the followers of the true and heretical faiths, the attribution of deviant and bestial behavior to the Franks, and the depiction of them as carriers of demonic superpowers. The tropes and stylistic devices of metaphor, epithet and hyperbole, used in these cases, are joined to evoke laughter, fear and hatred of the Franks at the same time in the listener of the folk epics, making comic relief one of the most recurrently used techniques as it usually involves all abovementioned emotions.