The field of classical Arabic literature emerged in an 18th and 19th century climate of colonialism, under the aegis of French, English and German orientalists preoccupied with philology to the exclusion of their humanities. Thus, Johann Herder's (d. 1803) humanistic mandate for observation and ethnography spurred the fields of anthropology and folklore, but seemed to fall on deaf orientalists, who tragically went on to interpret Arabic cultural memory as fake history. This paper places Arabic studies in dialogue with the humanities to interpret cultural memory as an artistic subjective enterprise. As such, it focuses on the rise of a particular phenomenon in 9th and 10th century Arabo-Islamic society that witnessed an unprecedented number of canonical poets empowering middling men (a'y?n, a?s?b or a?r?f) to form alliances, pursue private interests and exert pressure on the organs of state and society. In particular, I employ Habermas's theory of the public sphere to explain transformations that might seem like random events. Among them, poets developed what Habermas calls “a private interiority of self that is audience oriented.” In short, poets began voicing vulnerabilities and private interests that could attract the empathic engagement of others with kindred fears and vulnerabilities. This paper focuses on a group of poems by al-Buturi (d. 897) surrounding his highly interested yet public transfer of allegiance in 890 from the Abbasid court in Baghdad to the Tulunid court in Cairo. These poems, performed in perpetuity in face-to-face interactions at literary salons, created a cultural memory of privateness, noble self-interest, and individuality. Conventionally, scholars have viewed this allegiance switch as banal politics, yet this paper argues that his new loyalty for the Tulunids coincides with their tax control of Syria, where al-Buhturi owned property and served in local governance. He publicly sings of these personal stakes, claiming for himself and his admirers a sphere of influence, sometimes lyrically in love-ghazal, sometimes heroically in praise hymns (madih) for Ahmad b. Tulun and his vassals. We have in this group of odes a high profile, stylized and early display of private interests, for which the poet elicits and receives public sanction in perpetuity. Contrary to appearances, it is not Ibn Tulun who is the chief addressee, but rather a 9th century public, who also feared for their property interests and identified with him. It is this audience that validates al-Buhturi’s vision, perpetuating a cultural memory of heroic-lyric self-interest in the face of state power.