تشفير القصيدة : قصيدة المديح وإعادة تشكيل هرم السلطة

Abstract EN

This paper studies the influence of the classical panegyric ode on the absolute power within the Arab-Islamic realm through examining two poems: first, al-Akwwak madi poem to Abi-DaIaf and its negative influence on the Abbasid caliph al-Mamün; second, Ashä Hamdän madi poem by Ibn al-Ashath and its negative influence on the Umayyad leader al-Hajjåj.

The study examines the prose anecdotes that accompany the madi poems to elicit from them the nature of the relationship between ruler, poet, and subjects through discussing the ability of both receivers- al-Mamün and al-Hajjäj- to decode the poems and highlight their negative influence on the stability of the Arab-Islamic realm.

Throughout the study, I bring current Western literary theories to bear in support of my arguments, on the one hand, and to compare with Eastern literary theories in explaining the Arabic literary text, on the other.

I use Suzanne Stetkevych's theoretical formulations on the relation between the classical Arabic panegyric ode to the poet's relation to the ruler and subjects within the Arab-Islamic realm.

In addition, I use her work of treating the prose anecdotes that accompany the poems as literary lore rather than historical facts to elicit from them the nature of the relationship between ruler, poet, and subjects.

I also use Peter Brown's concept on the role of rhetoricianlthe literati in Late Antiquity.

According to him, the role of the upper class/educated elite, e.g., poets, in the community is to establish and improve the balance between the rulers and their subjects.

The study examines the role of the poet, who is a representative of just such an elite, when he acts as a mediator between the two parties-the ruler and subjects.

Thus, the poet has a double role in the community, for he is now a representative of high authority when he helps to demonstrate and enhance the ruler's legitimacy among his subjects and, at the same time, a representative of the subjects when he intercedes on their behalf and persuades the ruler to grant them their religious and civil rights.