This review examines the fundamental research of the North African oral epic tradition and printed versions of Sirat Bani Hilal ("The Tale [of the deeds of the tribe] of Banu Hilal"), as well as other popular "popular works" (the term of Academician A. E. Krymsky), belonging to three prominent specialists in North African Arabic oral folk art, - Prof. University of Sebha (Libya) ' Ali Muhammadu Burhaneh, Prof. 'Abd al-Hamid Burayou University of Algeria and Prof. University of Algeria Ruzalin Laile Quraysh. We will focus on the following works::

Sirat Bani hilal (zahira adabiyya). Dirasa adabiyya lugaviyya mukarina. I'dad ' Ali Muhammad Burhana. Manshurat kulliyat al-adab wa-t-tarbiya bi-jami'at Sabha (Sirat bani hilal (literary phenomenon)). Comparative literary and linguistic research 'Ali Muhammad Bur khany [Sebha], 1994, 573 p.

Burayu ' Abd al-Hamid. Ал-Батал ал-малхами ва-л-батала ад-дахиййа фи-л-адаб аш-шафави ал-джаза'ири. Dirasat haul khitab al-marwa'iyyah ash-shafawiyyah. Al-Ad', ash-shakl, ad-dalala. Algeria. Diwan al-matbu'at al-jami'iyya (Epic hero and victim heroine in Algerian oral literature. Studies on oral Algerian discourse. Execution, form, distinctive features), 1998. 223 p.

Quraysh Ruzalin Laila. Mufahrasat Sirat bani hilal al-kubra. Би-л-и'тимад 'ала тиба'ат мисриййа ва лубнаниййа мукаввана мин бакайа-л-махтутат аш-шамиййа ал-аслиййа. Al-Juz ' al-awwal. Al-Sira fi-l-Mashriq [Algeria]. Diwan al-matbu'at al-jami'iyya (Index to the Great Sirat bani hilal. Taking into account the Egyptian and Lebanese editions published on the basis of rudimentary fundamental Syriac manuscripts (Part 1. Syrah in the East of the Arab World). 2010(1). 432 p.

Quraysh Ruzalin Laila. Mufahrasat Sirat bani hilal al-kubra bi-l-i'timad 'ala tiba'at misriyya wa lubnaniyya mukawwana min baqaya-l-mahtutat ash-shamiyya al-asliyya. Al-Juz ' as-sani. At-Taghriba [Algeria]. Diwan al-matbu'at al-jami'iyya (Index to the Great Sirat bani hilal. Taking into account the Egyptian and Lebanese editions published on the basis of rudimentary fundamental Syriac manuscripts. Part 2. Trek to the West). 2010 (2). 318 p.

Despite all the differences in the research manners of these specialists, their works form a certain idea about the nature of the epic works themselves, and about the peculiarities of their existence in the countries of North Africa.

Sirat bani Hilal is one of the most popular Arabic "folk novels" in the 19th and first third of the 20th centuries, performed in city coffee shops and other public places by professional storytellers based on recorded texts that were later published [Filyntinsky, 1991, pp. 627-632; Schleifer, 1967, pp. 399-400; Onaeva, 1974]. The historical basis of the Hilal epic is the invasion of the Arab tribes of Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym to North Africa, which took place in the XI century.1. In the al-Maghreb countries, as evidenced by

1 Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym are two related Ssafro-Arab tribes originally living in al-Hijazs. In the eighth century, a number of related groups of both tribes migrated to Egypt. In the middle of the XI century, according to historical legend, at the instigation of the Fatimid Wazir al-Yazuri, Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym made a devastating invasion of North Africa, where by that time the Zirid state (972-1148) had broken away from the Fatimid Caliphate. Most of the Arabs now living in North Africa are thought to be descended from the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym [Idris; Lcckcr].

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works of ' A.M. Burkhany and 'A. Burayu, at least until recently, there were oral versions of this epic. The existence of the Syrah, as well as other "common folk" epic works, is an essential feature of the verbal folk culture of a number of countries in the Arab Al-Maghreb. This phenomenon is explained by the preservation of many traditional socio-cultural institutions in the Al-Maghreb countries.

A LIVING TRADITION OF THE EXISTENCE OF ARABIC NORTH AFRICAN ORAL EPIC WORKS

One of the features of the culture of modern Algerian society, notes 'A'. Burayu, lies in the fact that in its various social strata and groups, oral stories are widely used (although nothing more specific about them ). Burayu doesn't report it). They are performed at evening meetings of members of the same family, quarterly gatherings, a bazaar, a coffee shop, a shop, a craftsman's workshop, a state institution, a mosque. Such stories can be spread among people of different generations and passed down from younger to older. An important source of oral narratives is sometimes people who have received a traditional Muslim education , such as theologians, Sufis, students of madrasas and novices of zawiyahs. Such bearers of traditional culture willingly take part in quarterly evening gatherings. Stories of Bedouin origin are often brought to rural and urban environments by recent nomads who are transitioning to a sedentary lifestyle. Initially, such narratives still exist among members of some family-related group of Bedouin origin (Arab, ' ashira; in Algeria proper - 'ashr); such stories relate the glorious deeds of the clan members in the past (Burayu, p. 5-6). In some parts of the country, there is a lively tradition of fairy tales. Usually they are told in the home circle by a certain woman (Burayu, p. 13-14).

Nevertheless, the main epic oral genre that still exists in Algeria today is maghazi-narratives about the military deeds of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions, the Ashabs3 Historically, works of the maghazi genre dominated quantitatively over compositions of other genres performed in Algeria (Burayou, p. 11, 29). The texts of works of this genre, the researcher believes, were once created by storytellers of folk literature. In the course of many years of oral existence, they underwent significant changes, once they acquired a written form (Burayu, pp. 29-30). The oldest extant texts of the genre are magazi ' A. Burayu counts works published in Tunis and Cairo; there are also separate Beirut editions. These essays do not contain a specific date of writing. At the same time, they have quasi-historical titles and reproduce obviously forged isnads4 ' A. Burayu believes that such publications go back to certain manuscripts that recorded once-existing oral versions of works of the maghazi genre (Burayu, p. 4). 6, 30, 60, 63). An Algerian researcher notes that there is a significant difference between written (printed) texts and texts obtained as a result of field recordings of storytelling sessions. Thus, he emphasizes, maddahs (folk storytellers) are the true authors of the versions of maghazi that they present to the public (Burayu, p. 10).

In addition to maghazi, North Africa also had similar genre narratives about ascetics and ascetics-Marabums, as well as folk novels Sirat ' Lntara ("The Life of Antara", Sirat al-Zahir Baibars ("The Life of az-Zahir Baibars"), Sirat al-amir Zat al-Himma ("The Life of the Lady of Zat al-Himmy"), Sirat Sayf ibn Zi Yazan ("The Life of Sayf ibn Zu Yazan", "The Book of Fairy tales of the Thousand and one Nights" [Filyitin-

Zawiya 2 (Arabic, "corner") - a Sufi monastery; a complex of buildings where a Sufi (Marabut) lived and where he taught his novices (Murids). During the colonial era, a significant number of Zawiyahs in al-Maghreb were destroyed [Knysh, 1991, p. 72]. Currently, the Algerian authorities encourage the activities of zawiyas, as they consider these traditional institutions to be their allies in countering Islamic extremism.

3 These "vernacular", semi-folklore maghizi should be distinguished from the actual early Arab-Muslim historical writings of the maghizi genre, which were formed as early as the seventh century, which described the military campaigns organized by the Prophet Muhammad during the stay of the CDF in Medina (see about them: [Hids]).

Isnad 4 (Arabic) "support") - a chain of names of authoritative experts of a particular tradition; an important element of the system of transmission of traditions in Arab-Muslim culture. The isnads that have come down to us were formed by the 9th century [Robson].

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St. Petersburg, Russia. 603-614, 650-657, 634-642, 614-627, 501-595], pseudo-historical works of Futuh ap-Yaman5, Futuh Ifrshiya6, Sirat al- , Majmu' latif zarif8, etc.

Works of the genre of shops, notes 'A. Burayou were especially popular in Algeria during the colonial era, especially in large cities, in a marginalized popular environment, where it was difficult to get an education and where it was not customary to read books (Burayou, p. 9, 47).

'A. Buray was able to record three versions of Sirat bani hilay: two Arabic versions that exist in the eastern part of the Algerian Sahara (near the Tunisian border) and a Berber version (in the local language of Amazigh), written in Great Kabyliya from the rural storyteller Zuhra Sidi Ahmad (who comes from the Ashraf9 class) and translated into Arabic by her son 'Abd al-Malik Sidi Ahmad. The current versions of the epic in Algeria are a collection of episodes (mawakif), the characters of which are many famous characters of Sira: Ziyab (the main character of the story about the conquest of Tunis by Banu Hilal in the "canonical" Sira), Ghanim al-Hilali (his father), al-Jaziya (the first beauty among the women of Banu Hilal and active a member of the conquest campaign), Caliph al-Zinati (the ruler of Tunis in Sira), Ridah (according to our data, a character with this name is absent in the "canonical" text of Sira. - D. M.), etc. (Burayu, pp. 47-48, 54-57, 58). The class affiliation of a Berber storyteller is a natural thing. After all, the Ashraf were often also Marabouts (leaders of Sufi communities), in the recent past (and perhaps even today). They had spiritual power over the Berber tribes and acted as guides of Arab culture in the Berber environment (Burayu, p. 55).

The researcher's attention was drawn to three episodes from oral versions of Sira.

An episode contained in one of the Arabic versions.

A wicked old woman, at the instigation of az-zinatiyah, replaces the younger Ziyab with the son of az-Zinati Khalifa. Thus, Ziyab is brought up by az-zinatiyah, and the son of the chief of the sedentary, az-Zinati Khalifa, is brought up by Banu hilal. One day, when the boys were playing, Ghanim al-Hilali saw that his imaginary son was playing a blacksmith, while the imaginary son of al-Zinati Khalifa was playing a knight. From the point of view of Bedouin society, the son of a warrior cannot even playfully imitate the unseemly occupation of blacksmithing, and the son of a despicable sedentary person cannot even play knight. Therefore, the true hero Ghanim al-Hilali immediately understands who his true son is, and returns his child.

Without noting in any way the purely folklore character of the retold plot, which is found among various peoples 10, ' A Burayu emphasizes that this narrative exalts the values of nomadic Bedouin society, the main figure of which is the warrior, and belittles the values of a settled society, one of the foundations of which is respect for the craft, especially the blacksmith's craft (Burayu, p.54).

The first episode of the Berber version of the epic.

There was a certain man who had a son named Balkhilali (i.e. Ziyab al-Hilali - DM). Once the man and his wife argued with whom Balkhilali looked more like his father (so the husband claimed) or the uncles on the mother's side (so the wife claimed). To resolve the dispute, the husband offered three riddles : if the wife solves them, then the truth is on her side; if she fails, then the husband will divorce her. Going to the brothers,

5 This refers to Futuh al-Yaman al-ma'ruf bi Ra's al-Ghul ("The Conquest of Yemen", known as "The Head of Ghul"). It is attributed to the 13th-century author Abu'l-Hasan Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Bakri al-Basri, who wrote a number of other works on the history of the Prophet and his companions, intended for a common audience (Brockelman, 1937. Bd. I. S. 616; Mikulsky, 2004).

6 In the history of Arabic-Muslim writing, two works are known with the title "The Conquest of Ifriqiya". One of them is attributed to the famous historian Abu 'Ali Muhammad b.' Omar al-Waqidi (lived at the turn of the VIII-IX centuries), the other to the author of the XIII century Abu'l-Hasan Ahmad b. ' Ali b. Muhammad al-Bakri al-Basri [Brockclmann, 1902. Bd. II. S. 208, 216]. Most likely, this refers to the second of the mentioned works.

7 This monument could not be identified in any way.

8 Apparently, this refers to some difficult-to-attribute collection of entertainment, the compilation of which is attributed to a certain Sharaf al-Din b. Jamal al-Din Yusuf. The manuscript of this collection is in the British Museum [Brockclmann,, 1938. Bd. II. P. 57].

Ashraf9 (plural of Arabic, Sharif; dosl. "noble")- descendants of the Prophet Muhammad [Rszvan, 1991, p. 294].

10 This plot (motif) is recorded in the index of the largest American expert on world folklore S. Thompson: type K1900-1999 ("imposture"); motif "the tsar's son and the blacksmith's son are substituted" - K1921. 1 [Motif-Index of Folk-Literature..., 1957, vol. 4, p. 455].

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the woman received from them a variant of guesses. On the way home, she met her son (Balkhilali), who revealed to her the true meaning of the riddles. I returned home and informed my husband. He immediately guessed that it was Balkhilali who helped his mother, and drove his son out of the house, giving him, however, a hundred sheep. Balkhilali went to his uncles and twice shared with them the offspring from this herd, in both cases being the winner. Banished by his uncles, Balkhilali entered the service of the owner of a certain city named Ridah, married her, and defended her city from the owner of a neighboring city named az-Zinati, whom he killed. Outraged at Ridah's cruel treatment of al-Zinati's captive daughter, Balkhilali left his wife, went to a female sorceress named al-Jaziya, killed the beasts of prey guarding her, married her,and left her, leaving her behind. In Balkhilali's absence, al-Jaziya gave birth to a baby girl. The land dried up without it, and the cattle stopped breeding. Once Balkhilali passed by those places. The children who were playing got scared and ran away, except for one girl. She said that she is not afraid of anyone, because her father is a brave, invincible hero of Balkhilali. Here again the land began to give birth, and the cattle-to multiply. Al-Jaziya asked Balkhilali to return to her home. He agreed. They made a great feast and lived happily ever after (Burayu, pp. 49-52).

The second episode is from the Berber version of the epic.

Ziyab grew up with az-zinatiyah. His father recognized him and took him in. Then he became angry with his son. To save Ziyab, the mother sent her son to her brothers, and the hero began to graze their cattle. Realizing that Ziyab was needed, his father called him in. In his native tribe, Ziyab met the beautiful al-Jaziya. After testing the youth's quick wit and cunning, al-Jaziya agreed to marry him. On the wedding night, Ziyab, in turn, tests al-Jaziyah, and she could not stand the temptation. Then he left his wife. For this, the native clan ('ashr) condemned the knight. He became angry and went out into the desert with a group of young men and gave himself up to hunting and feasting with them. Then the Banu Hilal were attacked by the az-tnatiyyah and enslaved. The kindred sent for Ziyab, asking for his help. Ziyab returned, engaged al-Zinati Khalifa, and killed him, saving the tribesmen from the humiliation they had suffered (Burayu, p. 52).

From the point of view of 'A. Burayu, the above episodes from the Berber version of the Sira conceal the confrontation between nomads and sedentary people, highlighting the contradiction between the child's belonging to the paternal family group and the maternal clan; preference is given to paternal kinship (patrilineality). This, according to the Algerian researcher, reflects the process of mixing Hilal, Arab (Bedouin, alien) and Berber (settled, native) elements. However, the situation of the interpenetration of both cultures and the formation of a single society is still depicted from the point of view of the Banu Hilal, and not the Berbers. This is expressed in the confrontation of the Hilalites (Balkhilali and his father) with the Berbers of az-zinatiyya, Balkhilali's mother and his uncles, in the form of riddling-guessing riddles. The riddles, the Algerian researcher notes, contain secret information and are understood only by initiates, members of the Banu Hilal tribe. That is why Balkhilali's father makes them and his son guesses them. But the hero's mother and uncles, who are descended from al-zinatiyya, are strangers and cannot give a correct answer (Burayu, pp. 56-57) .11
It seems that the interpenetration of Arab and Berber cultures is expressed to a greater extent in the fact that the characters of the Arab epic became the heroes of Berber folklore narratives that are not related in any way to the "original" version of Sirat Bani Hilal. Thus, the influence of alien culture on the culture of the indigenous population was very significant.

REASONS FOR THE POPULARITY OF ARABIC ORAL EPICS IN NORTH AFRICA

As emphasized by 'A. Burayu, in the colonial era, works of the maghazi genre performed a serious educational function. In the conditions of the dominance of French colonial culture, when the Algerian national identity was being eradicated, it was folk literature that remained the guardian of the original Algerian cultural traditions. The maghizi showed examples of heroism, supported the popular audience's desire for disobedience to the colonialists, and expressed the idea of jihad. But this idea, the Algerian researcher notes, was the banner of the Algerian national liberation movement from ' Abd al-Qadir 12 to the National Liberation Revolution of 1954-1962. The storytellers recalled the glorious past of both the Algerians themselves and the Muslim Arabs in general. Often, insurgent movements broke out after

11 I think that this is a very profound observation that has a universal character. It is known that in the folklore of many peoples, the debate with riddles expresses a ritual confrontation between two groups participating in a certain action: a Russian wedding ceremony, Christmas mysteries played in a number of localities in Germany [Vsslovsky, 2008(1), pp. 232-233, 242].

12 ' Abd al-Qadir (1808-1883) - national hero of Algeria; in 1832-1845 he led the armed struggle of the Algerians, which broke out in the west of the country, against the French colonialists [Lutsk, 1966, pp. 150-156].

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after an oral folk work was performed in a certain area (Burayu, pp. 18, 20-24, 44, 70). In this regard, it is quite understandable why the symbols and realities contained in the works of the maghazi genre were opposed to the symbols associated with French colonialism, and denied them. Moreover, sometimes in the works of this genre, the principles of the Muslim faith were briefly stated (Burayu, p. 25, 71).

PERFORMERS OF ORAL ARABIC NORTH AFRICAN EPIC WORKS

The existence of works of oral folk art anywhere is impossible to imagine without the figure of a storyteller. North African works of oral folk literature are no exception.

Very valuable information about the Sira narrators is found in the study of the Libyan professor ' A. M. Burkhana, who for the first time in the history of science turned to the study of oral versions of Sirat bani Hilal that existed (or still existed in the 1980s-1990s) in Libya (Burkhana, p. 17). The folklorist made a tape recording of eight versions of the epic. The ninth version, published by him, was written down by an unnamed collector of folklore; the place of its fixation 'A.M. Burkhana says nothing.

About his informants (the researcher calls them the classical Arabic word ravin, or ravi; plural: ruwat) 'A.M. Burhana gives the following information: name; tribal affiliation; place of residence (I managed to localize six places of residence of the storytellers and, accordingly, the existence of Sira; it turned out that all of them are located in the coastal part of the country, to the east Tripoli); literacy/illiteracy (five turned out to be literate, three illiterate); whether the narrator is a folk poet (out of six, three turned out to be poets who create in a dialect, three were not involved in poetic creativity; nothing is said about two more); performance style (such information is given by 'A.M. Burkhana about seven experts Sirs, rating them all very highly); a person or group of individuals from whom the storyteller has taken overSire (six learned to perform the epic from their fathers or paternal uncles, one from certain people whose names he does not remember, nothing is said about another narrator in this regard); age (all six of whom such data are given are elderly people, nothing is said about the age of two more); various biographical information (two were outside of Libya during the Italian rule; one participated in many battles with the Italians, he went on trade to Tunis, near Kairouan; one never went outside of Libya; one was born in Chad, just like his father; one never went outside One is highly religious; one preserves the Bedouin way of life, raises camels and sheep, has a city house arranged in a traditional way, where he lives with his family when not in the desert) (Burhana, pp. 10-14).

When visiting the Sira experts, about whom he already had preliminary information, ' A.M. Burhana used traditional Bedouin hospitality and settled in their homes. The performance of the epic, according to the researcher, was one of the elements of this hospitality. As they began to speak, the Ruvat hosts begged the learned guest to apologize for reciting the Sira as best they could. The folklorist himself expressed the wish that the hosts would invite other guests to the performance sessions, mostly neighbors; this was necessary so that the ruvat would be inspired by the presence of many listeners and the performance would be performed in the best possible way. While listening to this or that version of Sira and recording it on a tape recorder, ' A. M. Burkhana simultaneously carefully recorded it on paper, trying not to miss anything (Burkhana, p. 14, 124).

Thus, the Libyan ravi is a tribal rhapsod that pleases the ears of fellow tribesmen and neighbors out of love for art, for their own pleasure, and not in order to earn a living.

Numerous materials cited by ' A. M. Burhana, at first glance, indicate the persistence of the tradition of Syrah in Libya. However, from the words of the folklorist himself, it follows that this impression is not entirely true. This tradition is rapidly disappearing, which, in his opinion, is explained, on the one hand, by the dominance of modern mass media, on the other - by the transformation of Libyan culture: young people are no longer interested in the national epic (Burkhana, p.17).

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Information about folk storytellers given by 'A'. Burayu, draw a fundamentally different image of the performer of oral folk works. According to the materials collected by the Algerian researcher, there are still two types of storytellers in his native country - professional and amateur. In the popular environment, the term maddah is most often used to refer to professional storytellers. Sometimes such a storyteller is also referred to by the term gavval. However, the Algerian author believes that the term maddah actually refers to performers of epic works, while gavwal is more likely a performer of song works (Burayu, p. 11).

Interesting remark of 'A. Burayu says that, although the profession of performing oral folk works has existed for centuries, in official state licenses for storytelling, introduced during the era of French colonial rule (without such licenses it was impossible to perform in bazaars and other public places), maddahs are called troubadours, or wandering poets, in the French medieval manner. Currently, storytellers are accepted into trade unions of people of creative professions. Thus, both in the colonial era and at the present time, the work of maddahs was and is still being monitored by police and administrative control (Burayu, p.9, 11).

A professional storyteller is a male citizen who speaks to a male audience that gathers in coffee shops, shops, markets and squares - in various parts of Algeria. During the colonial era, Maddahs were also often found in the border areas of Tunisia and Morocco with Algeria, where large groups of Algerian refugees lived (Burayou, p. 12, 62-63). According to the folklorist, a sign of a professional storyteller is that he receives payment for the performance of a work or excerpt from it; the payment received is a source of income for maddahs. The professional nature of the narrator's work is well understood by him: interrupting the performance in certain places to address the assembled audience, Maddah says:: "We work," "We feed on our efforts, ""We earn our living by the sweat of our brow." If the audience, in the narrator's opinion, gives too little reward, he showers them with reproaches: "We only get what is due to us, we do not ask for alms." If someone, sometimes even a policeman, interferes with the performance, one of the listeners can say: "Do not interfere with the person's work" (Burayu, p.10-11).

As in any other creative field of activity, Maddahs vary in the degree of giftedness. Their repertoire is also different, selected according to individual aptitude (Burayu, p. 7).

Speaking to the public with a particular composition, the narrator must somehow indicate the author of the performed opus. According to the observations of 'A. Burayu, it is not uncommon for Maddah to attribute such a composition to himself. In addition, there is a certain set of ancient sheikhs-storytellers, to whom the current ruwat attribute the maghizs they perform. The names of such" progenitors " of storytelling art are pronounced at the end of the session; they also began to be recorded at the end of texts of popular works reproduced in later Tunisian publications. The most famous of these legendary maddahs are Bu Tabl, Sheikh as-Sayyih, Sheikh Ibn Tawata. A. Burayu believes that these are quite real storytellers, presumably living in the XIX century, but to whom, however, the works attributed to them do not belong (Burayu, pp. 8-10).

The oldest and most famous Maddahs are highly respected in the professional community. Students come to them from all over the country. After retiring at the end of his life, the narrator can continue to perform something from his repertoire from time to time in the family circle or in his native quarter (Burayu, p.14).

Until a few decades ago, there was another type of narrator in Algeria: the narrator of Bedouin narratives (Sirat bani Hilal, Sirat ' Antara, and the like). Such narrators came to villages and towns in the summer to speak for a fee in coffee shops, squares, and other public places. Bedouin storytellers, apparently typologically similar to those described by the Libyan researcher ' A. M. Burhana, but still representing a later stage of the existence of the storytelling tradition, since they acted for a fee, began to disappear as the Bedouins moved to settlement (Burayu, p. 12). There is no information about the preservation of the tradition of storytelling among the settled Bedouins in the reviewed work.

Considering the phenomenon of urban maddahs, ' A. Burayu dwells on the problem of educating a future professional storyteller or amateur storyteller. According to the information he provides, both professionals and those for whom narrative art is a hobby,

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they are brought up in the family and in their own neighborhood, the main element of the traditional North African urban structure. Initially, the future real maddah most often learns the basics of storytelling from a neighbor or an amateur relative. After that, he goes to study with some professional storyteller (Burayu, pp. 6-7, 12).

CHARACTER AND STYLE OF THE STORYTELLER'S WORK

The analyzed studies contain interesting observations on how the folk storyteller works - how he remembers the text of the work and how he performs it. In this regard, 'A. M. Burhana notes that, at least in Libya, the vast majority of folk poets and storytellers are illiterate or semi-illiterate. Because of this, they almost never rely on a written text, but rather memorize a particular work as a result of repeated listening to it. While listening to a work, the narrator still does not remember it in its entirety, but learns its general character, relying on the rhythm, verse size, rhyme, and other purely sound parameters of the oral text. After that, when the rhapsodist reproduces this folk composition himself, he partially repeats what he has heard verbatim, and partially improvises. That is why, the Libyan researcher emphasizes, Sira is constantly updated. From the point of view of traditional performers and listeners, this folk epic is a common heritage. Therefore, anyone who performs it inevitably adds something of his own (Burkhana, p. 257). According to 'A. M. Burkhana, it was the oral nature of its existence that contributed to the fact that the original "historical core"of 13 Sira was overgrown with legendary details - after all, the carriers of the performing tradition added more and more episodes to the epic (Burkhana, p.258).

When performing the Sira, the narrator inevitably follows his own style: he reproduces some episodes in their entirety, in verse form, others briefly, in prose ("in his own words"); sometimes, for greater expressiveness, he uses proverbs and sayings well-known to listeners (Burkhana, pp. 240-241). Sometimes, having reached a certain place of frivolous content, the narrator asks the audience if this episode can confuse anyone, because the son is shy of the father, and the nephew is shy of the uncle, or vice versa. The choice of episodes often depends on the character of the ravia itself (Burhana, p.124).14
There is a slightly different execution of the shop. Algerian Maddahs, who perform such compositions, resort to numerous techniques that contribute to the dramatization of the narrative. The storyteller is constantly moving through the space formed by the circle of collected characters.-

13 Concerning the problem of the genesis of the Sira, it is necessary to take revenge that, apparently, some epic narrative about the deeds of the ancestors who conquered North Africa, existed among the descendants of the conquerors, Bedouins of various divisions of the Banu Hilal, already by the time of the great historian and thinker Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). In this connection, it is worthy of all attention that his remark that among the Hilali people in his time there were "news" (akhbar) about the campaign of their forefathers in al-Maghrib. These " izvestia "are associated with poems composed in a special, new poetic koine, different from fush. The characters of such narratives are persons known from extant versions of Syrah (specifically, the historian calls al-Jaziyah and se-al-Sharif) [Tarikh Ibn Khaldun, pp. 25-27]. In addition, among the examples of contemporary Bedouin poetry, Ibn Khaldun cites verses attributed to ash-Sharif and the daughter of al-Zinati Khalifa Sa'ds [Muqaddimat Ibn Khaldun, pp. 807-808]. These poems are stylistically very similar to the poetic passages contained in the extant text of the epic [Sirat bani hilal; Taghribat bani hilal]. Compare in particular the lament of Sa'da, daughter of the Tunisian leader al-Zinati Khalifa, about her dead father [Muqaddimat Ibn Khaldun, p. 808] and the verses put into Sa'da's mouth by the authors of Taghribat bani hilal [Taghribat bani hilal, p.260]. So it may well be that the handwritten tradition of the Sira, on the basis of which the printed editions of this monument were carried out, goes back to the recording of that early version of it, the existence of which is indicated by passages from the writings of Ibn Khaldun. Apparently, the Hilalite epic continued to exist continuously among the North African Bedouins and their descendants, undergoing a gradual transformation. The syrah recorded by ' A. Burhanoy and his colleagues, represents one of the most recent oral forms of this epic. Such reflections of the author of these lines were prompted by the remark 'A'. Burayu says that Ibn Khaldun is considered the only Arab historian who mentioned the Sira and cited excerpts from contemporary oral histories [Burkhana, 2011, p. 181].

14 This manner of performing the epic corresponds to a very ancient principle followed by rhapsods in many verbal cultures-singen und sagen (to speak and say), when poetic passages alternated with prose ones (see Vsselovsky, 2008 (2), pp. 118-120).

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of existing listeners. He helps himself to tell stories by actively moving his hands and staff. Dramatizing the narrative, the folk narrator imitates the speech of people of different genders and ages, speaks in a "male" or "female" voice, and actively uses facial expressions. The performance can be accompanied by playing musical instruments, which also helps to draw images of various characters (Burayu, p. 8, 69).

The narrative tone of Maddahs is particularly serious, notes 'A'. Burayu, differs in the performance of heroic episodes. The narrator tries to emphasize as much as possible the tragic nature of the struggle depicted. Usually, at the end of the agon, he gets a sense of satisfaction from the audience: the hero wins either because he is stronger, or as a result of the intervention of good otherworldly forces (Burayu, p.66).

The most skilful storytellers, who observe the original rules of performing art, try to follow the traditional predicate style as strictly as possible and not resort to new performing techniques (Burayu, p.9).

As a rule, a performance session is devoted to a story about a certain military feat, which is contained in a particular composition of the genre of poetry. Such a story is called gazva (military campaign). The execution of the gazva is divided into several parts. Initially, Maddah narrates a specific episode in verse, accompanying himself on one of the traditional musical instruments. Then he interrupts the recitation and retells the poetic narrative in prose. After that, it proceeds to the next verse fragment of the performed gazva. After completing the narration of a serious-dramatic or tragic - episode, the narrator arranges a kind of intermission and begins to pour out jokes, tell funny stories about animals, and tell about the deeds of holy ascetics. In this way, he not only lets the audience relax, but also collects a fee from it, and also attracts new listeners (Burayu, pp. 65-66).

From our analysis, it seems to us that the tradition of performing epic works that exists in Algeria is a phenomenon stadially later than the Libyan storytelling tradition.

* * *

Somewhat apart from the research of 'A.M. Burkhana and' A. Burayu is worth the work of R. L. Quraysh. It is an index of the narrative elements of all the full and abridged editions of Sirat Bani Hilal available to the author. The reason that led the Algerian researcher to compile such an index is that all existing editions of the Sira lack a reference device (Kuraiga, 2010 (1), p. 3). The index consists of two volumes: the first contains narrative elements of the Sira concerning the adventures of Banu Hilal in al-Mashriq, the second-a campaign in the Middle East. al-Maghrib and settlements on local lands (Quraysh, 2010(1), p. 4).

The author has included the following narrative elements of Sira in the index: story, episode, episode element. Narrative elements are numbered. The introduction to the paper contains definitions of narrative elements.

The text of the Sira consists of stories, each of which appears to be independent, but is a certain stage leading the narrative in the Sira from the beginning to the end. In turn, each of the stories is divided into two or three chapters. Previously, stories were printed in separate issues containing" torn " text, without beginning or end, which was commercially profitable. The index preserves the" natural " sequence of stories. In the first volume of the index, these narrative elements are numbered in Roman numerals from I to XXXII. In the second case-from I to XXII, as well as indexed by the Latin letter T (abr. from Taghrib "trek to the west") (Quraysh, 2010 (1), pp. 5-6).

R. L. Quraysh notes that the constituent parts of stories are episodes. Within the framework of this story, sequentially arranged episodes are indexed in capital letters of the Latin alphabet. Then the content of each episode is briefly retold in one phrase. The proper names of Sira characters are recorded exactly in the form in which they are present in the text of this episode (i.e., the author takes into account the variability of character names) (Quraysh, 2010 (1), pp. 9-10).

The index also takes into account narrative elements - the motives that make up a particular episode. These narrative elements are indexed in Arabic numerals (Quraysh, 2010 (1), p. 11).

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At the end of the section of the index containing narrative elements of a particular story, there is a special "local" index that includes the names of the characters of this story and the geographical names mentioned in it (Quraysh, 2010 (1), p. 11).

The index also takes into account elements of the Syrah style - stable epithets, verbal formulas, hyperbolized numbers. The names of characters are given in a common, unchangeable form (not including I'rab) (Quraysh, 2010(1), pp. 12-13).

To simplify the search for narrative elements of the Sira, indexed in the order of their implementation in the text of the monument, a special index has been compiled containing all these elements. This general index includes narrative and descriptive textual elements. The most important thematic blocks included in the summary index are: battle (general characteristics); campaign or victory of Banu Hilal; tribe; amazing; supernatural. Numerous secondary topics branch off from these main thematic blocks. For example, the first thematic block contains the following topics: the knight and his meaning, the knight's duel, the knight's armament, the knight's horse, and the knight's victory (Quraysh, 2010 (1), pp. 14-15).

Describing the index compiled by her, R. L. Quraysh notes that it presents the Sira in a form that facilitates knowledge of the content of the monument, and in itself is a research tool.

I think that the analysis of the works of our colleagues from North Africa will be useful both for Arabic philologists and for anyone interested in folk Arabic literature.

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Vsslovskiy A. N. Three chapters from historical poetics/ / Vsslovskiy A. N. Istoricheskaya poetika / Ed., vst. art. and notes by V. M. Zhirmunskogo. Izd. 3-E. M.: URSS, 2008(1).

Vsslovskiy A. N. Epicheskie povreteniya kak khronologicheskiy ment [Epic repetitions as a chronological moment]. Vsslovskiy A. N. Istoricheskaya poetika [Historical Poetics]. Ed., introduction and notes by V. M. Zhirmunsky, 3rd Ed. Moscow: URSS, 2008(2).

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Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exampla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and Local Legends I Ed. by S. Thompson; Revised and Enlarged. Indiana University. Vol. 4. J-K. Copenhagen: Roscnkilde and Bagger International Booksellers and Publishers, 1957.

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