Medieval Arabic Praise Poetry: Ibn Al-Rumi and the Patron's Redemption

This book gives an insight into panegyrics (madih), a genre central to understanding medieval Near Eastern Society. Poets in this multi-ethnic society, using Arabic as their written idiom, 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. Stylized and artistic, making it difficult to read, and not fitting the modern self-absorbed notion of poetry, this important topic has until now largely escaped scholarly attention.

Beatrice Gruendler is Professor of Arabic Literature at Yale University.