ABSTRACT
In the relationship described thus far we have seen the poet giving his patron immaterial presents, such as devotion, loyalty, gratitude, honor, and justice and accepting, in return, material tokens of generosity. But even if the poet’s persona gives more then he receives, the exchange of generosity for gratitude is still centered on the patron’s gift and leaves the poet in a reactive position. The type of exchange does not allow him to advertise his specific merits as a poet, nor the specific beauties and powers of his poem. The poem is fixed in the transaction as a token of the poet’s moral response to the patron. The situation is different in the second relationship, that between the poet’s persona as a panegyrist and the patron as his model. Here the poet portrays his specific role with more authority and gives his poem its full weight as a piece of literature and a depiction of the reality of patronage. This second relationship presupposes a co-operation of poet and patron of which the poem is the result. There is variety in the order of the contributions, i.e. whether acts precede words or the reverse, and in their commensurability, i.e. whether acts and words truly fit each other. Ibn al-Rūmī will be found to insist on the truthfulness of his poetic speech.
