A medieval Arabic poem is usually conceived of as an undertaking of one individual. Indeed, even if we take into account the role of the audience during performance in inducing certain changes, the ultimate responsibility and authorship still remains the poet’s. There are Arabic poetic forms, however, that are established completely on interaction and collaboration between individuals. These forms have thus far received only scant scholarly attention. My paper focuses on ijaza (“completion”) and tamliT (“finishing”), two almost-identical poetic forms in which two or more individuals participate in the composition process either as an assignment from the higher in rank to the lower or as a consensual peer endeavor. The most important medieval work collecting numerous examples of these forms is Badai' al-bada`ih, compiled by 'Ali b. Zafir (d. 613/1216), the key source on which this paper relies. In court settings of the medieval Islamic world interactive and collaborative poetry was a favorite entertainment activity at informal sessions held by patrons with their protégés. Composition of this poetry entailed full command of prosody, improvisatory skills, and quick wit, and was driven by a strong spirit of competition. To engage in composition of this sort, a patron had to be confident in his poetic skills. A failure on his part would certainly harm his reputation as a whole in a society that attached great importance to excellence in language and poetry. Aside from its entertaining value, the chief goal of the patrons initiating extempore collaborative composing was to demonstrate their excellence and superiority over other skilled individuals in order to gain societal prestige. The accounts reporting about the patrons’ outstanding performances were propagated orally and in a written form, perpetuating their name as highly skilled leaders and contributing to their political legitimacy and legacy. In this paper, I will emphasize collaborative-interactive composition at the courts of two well-known literary patrons of the Islamic world: the Buyid vizier al-Sahib Ibn 'Abbad (326-385/938-995) and the king of Seville al-Mu'tamid Ibn 'Abbad (reg. 461-84/1069-91). I will show how the upper hand in this type of composition was the patron’s as the initiator, the one who could choose the content and form of the composition, determine the length of each participant’s contribution, change it during the performance, and decide on its closure. I will also demonstrate how the protégés, despite being lower in rank, could manipulate the composition process to their advantage.