ABSTRACT

This book gives an insight into panegyrics, a genre central to understanding medieval Near Eastern Society. Poets in this multi-ethnic society would address the majority of their verse to rulers, generals, officials, and the urban upper classes, its tone ranging from celebration to reprimand and even to threat.

part 1|76 pages

Setting the Stage

chapter 1|10 pages

The Background

Poetry and poets in early Abbasid society

chapter 2|13 pages

The Form

The Abbasid praise qaṣīda

chapter 3|16 pages

The Approach

Madīḥ and pragmatics

chapter 4|6 pages

The Protagonists

Ibn al-Rūmī and his patron ʿUbaydallāh b. ʿAbdallāh

part 2|45 pages

Speech and Characterization

chapter 6|15 pages

Speech as Action

chapter 7|28 pages

The Dramatis Personae

part 3|73 pages

The Dramaturgy

chapter 8|20 pages

The Scene

chapter 9|11 pages

The Episode and Its Witnesses

part 4|30 pages

Verbal Ornament

chapter 12|20 pages

Supporting Figures of Speech

chapter 13|8 pages

Phantasmagoria

part 5|39 pages

IBN AL-Rūmī's Ethics of Patronage

chapter 14|4 pages

In the Mirror of Madīḥ

chapter 16|16 pages

Acts and Words Between Panegyrist and Model

chapter 5|3 pages

Conclusion

Dramaturgy as a Rhetoric of Ethics