This paper will argue that transgressive, colloquial, and jocular poetic forms have a key political function in the medieval Middle East. Although largely unacknowledged in extant scholarship, the social and political importance of this literature is demonstrable in the late Abbasid period, on which this study focuses. Al-SaaHib ibn 'Abbaad, the Buwayhid vizier and accomplished Arabic literary figure, is distinguished in the Arabic canon as a patron and author of ‘low’ literature. (‘Low’ is a loose translation of the labels-—e.g., sakhiif, fuHsh-—Arab rhetoricians give to ribald mujuun poetry and colloquial works such as the QaaSiida saasaaniyya, written at Ibn 'Abbaad’s behest.) His dual roles as author and political authority, as well as his documented taste for sexually explicit verse and lewd invectives, recommend him for this analysis of literature in political context. Ibn 'Abbaad’s status as Persian-descended Arabophone represents a challenge to his legitimacy in Arabic official culture. That legitimacy translates into political efficacy, as the very idea of political authority in his milieu hinges on Classical Arabic competence and eloquence. As this relation is destabilizing as the Abbasid empire fades, Ibn 'Abbaad faces the dual challenge of establishing his mastery of the rarefied Classical tradition, and maintaining dominance over his provincial subjects—-a group that includes prominent critics of his Mu'tazilii school; the great prose writer Abuu Hayyaan al-TawHiidii; and the famous street characters the Banuu Saasaan, whose encoded colloquial Arabic is glossed in the QaSiida Saasaaniyya. This paper posits that Ibn 'Abbaad’s penchant for ‘low’ Arabic forms, contrary to al-TawHiidii’s claim of a moral fault, is the vizier’s response to a set of political problems in his linguistically complex cultural environment. In Arabic registers that are canonically marginal and unclassical, he builds cultural capital (to use Pierre Bourdieu’s term), i.e., a social form of currency and legitimacy that he saves up, exchanges, and distributes in his court. This cultural capital is just as essential to late-Abbasid political life as is the more famous Abbasid praise poetry.

The Question of Literary Taste: A Close Look at the Court of al-???ib Ibn ?Abb?d Sociology of culture, and in particular the studies undertaken by Pierre Bourdieu, replaced the essentialist notion of taste long dominant in philosophical and literary aesthetics with a relational conception firmly tying taste to the dynamics of class inequalities. This important conceptual shift, rejecting the treatment of taste as spontaneous individual preferences and instead contextualizing and historicizing it to become inseparable from wider social groups and trends, has methodological implications beyond modern or Western societies, and is definitely pertinent to the study of medieval Arabic literature and literary criticism. This approach to taste (and the questions it yields) has not been adopted by scholars in the field. This may have to do with the tendency to study medieval literature literary criticism abstractly without attempting to connect them to the social settings of the era, for the fragmentary nature of the evidence and the difficulty of developing a suitable methodology. My paper is an attempt to demonstrate the importance of this approach through a proper test case. Al-???ib Ibn ?Abb?d (326-85/938-95) was a notable prose writer, poet and literary critic (among other things). The fact that besides possessing literary and linguistic competences he was also a vizier of two B?yid am?rs and a patron of one of the greatest courts in the 4th/10th century, in which poets and prose writers swarmed, raises several interesting issues connected with the question of taste: what was his personal literary taste and how was it connected with his social background? What bearings did it have on his protégés? Can we observe for the obvious power inequality an attempt on their part to adapt their production to his taste? If yes, what were the means by which he propagated his preferences to be adapted by the court poets? In brief, the conclusions reached show al-???ib’s taste as leaning to ‘natural’ (ma?b??) style in poetry while artful (or ‘artificial’: ma?n??) in prose, which is characteristic of his social group, namely, the secretaries (kutt?b); although the poets to a large extent respond to al-???ib’s preferred style, especially in formal events, the non-hegemonic artful style is still represented and poets known for it are co-opted. That indicates a non-dogmatic approach on the part of the patron, who despite his widely-known stylistic preferences does not pursue a rigid uncompromising selection, co-optation and evaluation processes.

One of the major unresolved issues of Seljuq history is the balance of power between the Sultans and their great magnates in the period between the death of Malik-Shah in 1092 and the practical downfall of the Great Sultanate with the death of Sanjar in 1157. The issue of the fractious tendencies of the magnates and the extent to which they undermined Seljuq political stability is particularly fraught in relation to the Seljuq downfall, for which the alleged feudalism of the over-mighty amirs has been blamed. Yet very little research has actually examined the post-Malikshah period of Seljuq rule; and nearly all of that research has focused exclusively on the years of the succession struggle to Malikshah, which lasted from 1092 until 1105. Thus, many of the generalized conclusions about the state of the entire late Seljuq polity until the end of the Great Sultanate in 1157 are based on observations of the anomalous succession crisis years, or of relatively weak subordinate sultanates rather than the direct rule of the Great Sultan. As a result, the prevailing opinion among scholars is that the power of the Great Sultans was permanently and fatally weakened during the succession struggle to Malikshah, from which the Seljuqs never recovered. This paper will argue, contrary to currently accepted theory, that the Seljuq Great Sultans Muhammad (1105-1117) and, to a much greater degree, Sanjar (1117-1157), restored the power and authority of the Seljuq sultans, and succeeded in reversing the centrifugal or "feudal" tendencies which had taken root during the succession dispute. It will be shown that Sanjar was well able to hold his amirs in check until his grip over his magnates was weakened by old age. In order to prove this thesis evidence will be adduced from both literary and non-literary sources. The Persian and Arabic literary sources utilized will include dynastic histories such as al-Husayni's Ta'rikh al-Dawla al-Saljuqiyya, al-Bundari's Zubdat al-nusra, Ravandi's Rahat al-Sudur, and Zahir al-Din Nishapuri's Saljuqnama; general histories such as the works of Ibn al-Athir, Ibn al-Jawzi, Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi, Mirkhwand, Rashid al-Din, Qazvini, and others; local histories such as Zamchi Isfizari's Rawdat al-jannat fi awsaf madinat Harat and Bayhaqi's Tarikh-i Bayhaq. Evidence will also be adduced from the non-literary sources: namely, the abundant numismatic evidence, which has never before been exploited for this purpose, yet which is critical for the elucidation of political relations during the late Seljuq period.

Rudaki (859-940/941 CE), like many other classical Persian poets, uses the word wine in its many forms and all associated vocabulary in much of his poetry. However, he surpasses many descriptions of intoxication and celebration when he presents the process of wine making in a highly allegorical poem entitled "Mother of Wine," which is unique in terms of narrative quality, meanings, metaphors, and prosody. The poem -- written in the form of qasideh – is, despite general assumptions about this old form, very structured, organized, and unified in presenting its meanings. It seems to have been written to be performed before a live audience and thus reflects the discourse of the Samanids (819–999 CE; the first native dynasty after the Muslim Arab conquest of Persia) who saw themselves to be the continuation of the pre-Islamic Sasanians (224–651 CE). It does so through synchronic and diachronic portrayals and references. Moreover, the uniqueness of Rudaki's poem (translated entirely into English for this project) might be explained by his geographical and temporal context under the Samanids who in many ways differed from the Ghaznavids. After all, as an affiliate of the court of Nasr b. Ahmad (913-43 CE) of the Samanid dynasty, Rudaki very much functioned like a Sasanian minstrel, as a poet-musician, a role that gradually disappeared in the following periods. Through textual an dhistorical analyses, this paper maintains that in all likelihood, Rudaki's concept of wine is also possibly rooted in the pre-Islamic cultural nuances which were brought to the fore by the Samanid's renaissance. This paper also touches upon the reasons why the concept of wine changed a generation or so after Rudaki in the works of such great authors as Sana'i who also seems to have been inspired by the issues of his own time.