RESTRUCTURING THE SOCIETY Sudayf ibn Maymūn’s Panegyric Performance before the Caliph Abū al-ʻAbbās al-Saffāḥ Ali Alnahhabi Recent studies in the field of Classical Arabic Poetry have turned their attention to the performative aspects of the qaṣīdah, particularly in light of the literary anecdotes (akhbār) that purport to provide a performance context. Rather than limiting the analysis to the poetic textual surface, these studies approach the qaṣīdah by analyzing all aspects involved in its performance This paper seeks to add to the insights of these recent studies through analyzing the panegyric performance of Sudayf ibn Maymūn’s poem “The Foundation of Dominion Has Become Steady” in the court of the first ʻAbbāsid Caliph Abū al-ʻAbbās al-Saffāḥ (r. 749–754) as depicted by the literary tradition. The classical literary Arabic compendia often associate the poet Sudayf ibn Maymūn (ca. 700–764) with the alleged slaughter of the Umayyad dynasty in the beginning of the ʻAbbāsid caliphate. They present the poet’s performance at the court of Abū al-ʻAbbās al-Saffāḥ as successful performance that succeeded in instigating the Caliph to revoke the amnesty that was given to the remaining members of Umayyad family—ultimately led to their slaughter. In this paper, I seek to investigate this success by analyzing the verbal and nonverbal elements that constitute Sudayf’s “envisioned” performance. I argue that Sudayf’s poem celebrates the establishment of the ʻAbbāsid Caliphate and the birth of a new Caliphal discourse that claims legitimacy based on the religious rights of the Hāshemites. The poem performatively calls for the revocation of the amnesty of the Umayyad family as being both morally just and politically necessary. Both the anecdote and the poem serve to defend and legitimize the ʻAbbāsid slaughter of the Umayyads—the poet presents it as a moral obligation—avenging slain ʻAbbāsids, a religious duty—following God’s judgment of the Umayyads and a political imperative—the Umayyads are still stinging from their wounds and will eventually turn against the ʻAbbāsids—their show of loyalty is mere pretense. The ritually negotiated context of the poem performatively restructures the hierarchy of the ʻAbbāsid society, a hierarchy that was in different order before the presentation of the poem as the akhbār indicate. Finally, the poet’s costume and actions during the presentation of the poem as depicted by the literary tradition collaborate well with the pragmatic function of the poem, a collaboration that makes Sudayf ibn Maymūn’s performance conceived as successful.