Medieval Arabic Praise Poetry

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.

Beatrice Gruendler

Part 1: Setting the Stage 1. Background 2. The Form: The Abbasid Praise Qasida 3. The Approach: Mad'ih and Pragmatics 4. The Protagonists: Ibn al-Rum'i and His Patron, Ubaydall'ah b. Abdall'ah 5. The Mah'ih Exchanged between Ibn al-Rum'i and Ubaydall Part 2: Speech and Characterization 6. Speech as Action 7. The Dramatis Personae Part 3: The Dramaturgy 8. The Scene 9. The Episode and its Witnesses 10. 'The Passion of Him Whose Parting Has Grayed its Affection' Translation of £191 11. 'They Aimed at My Heart From the Gaps of Veils' Translation of £1042 x Preliminaries Part 4: Verbal Ornament 12. Supporting Figures of Speech 13. Phantasmagoria Part 5: Ibn al-Rum'i's Ethics of Patronage 14. On the Mirror of Mad'ih 15. Mutual Duties and Rights of Benefactor and Protégé 16. Acts and Words between Panegyrist and Model Conclusion: Dramaturgy as a Rhetoric of Ethics