ABSTRACT
Numerous literary people were patronized at the great court of al-ib, and literature was produced, performed, and criticized. Al-ib was part of an elite society that valued literary competence and especially poetry as a sublime mode of artistic expression. Michael Cook based on early sources, have given way to environments characterized by complexity and sophistication. The adaptation of the field concept to this medieval Islamic arena required dispensing with positions in favor of concentration on the available genres. The commodification of poetry and the understanding of the processes of poetic creation in economic language is not an anachronistic Marxist interpretation. Bourdieu's concept of the field, while inspiring and beneficial, had to be modified in order to fit the present literary field. Environments dominated by formality tend to preserve cultural patterns, to encourage scripted reaction, and thus to hinder the development of cultural repertoires.
