How does an epic begin in performance and in narration? Questions surrounding the beginning of an Arab oral epic performance differ from those surrounding the origins of the text. This essay explores several levels of beginning in the Sīrat Banī Hilāl epic, a cycle of heroic tales recited throughout the Arabic and Amazigh-speaking world, with reference to versions by the oral epic poet ʿAwaḍ Allāh ʿAbd al-Jalīl ʿAlī that I collected in Upper Egypt in the 1980s. By drawing on the writings of Pierre Cachia, a pioneering scholar in the study, transcription, and English translation of vernacular Arabic literature, I ask how the epic poet begins reciting an epic in performance and how the epic hero is born in text, performance, and scholarly histories. Answers may be found both in the history of Egyptian folklore studies and the tradition of praise-poetry ( madīḥ ) sung or recited by poets and storytellers to initiate oral epic performance.

中文翻译：

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赞美先知与赞美自我：Sīrat Banī Hilāl 与史诗般的表演叙事

史诗是如何在表演和叙述中开始的？围绕阿拉伯口头史诗表演开始的问题与围绕文本起源的问题不同。这篇文章探讨了 Sīrat Banī Hilāl 史诗的几个层次，这是一个在阿拉伯语和阿马齐格语世界中流传的英雄故事循环，参考了我在上层收集的口头史诗诗人 ʿAwaḍ Allāh ʿAbd al-Jalīl ʿAlī 的版本。 1980 年代的埃及。通过借鉴阿拉伯白话文学研究、转录和英译的先驱学者皮埃尔·卡奇亚 (Pierre Cachia) 的著作，我询问史诗诗人如何开始在表演中背诵史诗，以及史诗英雄如何诞生于文本、表演、和学术史。