Overview

A probing inquiry into medieval court struggles, this book shows the relationship between intellectual conflict and the geopolitics of empire. It examines the Persian Buyids' takeover of the great Arab caliphate in Iraq, the counter-Crusade under Saladin, and the literature of sovereignty in Spain and Italy at the cusp of the Renaissance. The question of high culture-who best qualified as a poet, the function of race and religion in forming a courtier, what languages to use in which official ceremonies-drove much of medieval writing, and even policy itself. From the last moments of the Abbasid Empire, to the military campaign for Jerusalem, to the rise of Crusades literature in spoken Romance languages, authors and patrons took a competitive stance as a way to assert their place in a shifting imperial landscape.

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9781474425223

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Reviews

"There is much to praise here...The basic idea that medieval courts negotiated their own identity through their literature(and through literary debates) - or, at the very least, that it is possible to unpick the way in which a medieval court negotiated its identity through an analysis of its literature - is entirely plausible and persuasive...this is a book that achieves the important objective of challenging its readers both to consider new questions and to ponder the surviving sources from new perspectives.--Nicholas Morton, Nottingham Trent University ""Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean"" Defines the relationship between poetry and politics by asking new questions, focusing on the semantic field of contest, and examining the explicit regulations, the 'rules of the art', and the way they intertwine with the political and legal projects that govern the circulation of power, from the chancery to the Empire. This comparative study will help us think anew the bigger competitions in the Mediterranean basin during the Middle Ages.-- ""Jesus R. Velasco, Columbia University"" This is an impressive book in terms of its scope, innovative close readings, and broad conceptualization.--Jonathan Decter, Brandeis University ""Medieval Encounters 27"""

There is much to praise here...The basic idea that medieval courts negotiated their own identity through their literature (and through literary debates) - or, at the very least, that it is possible to unpick the way in which a medieval court negotiated its identity through an analysis of its literature - is entirely plausible and persuasive...this is a book that achieves the important objective of challenging its readers both to consider new questions and to ponder the surviving sources from new perspectives. -- Nicholas Morton, Nottingham Trent University, Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean

There is much to praise here...The basic idea that medieval courts negotiated their own identity through their literature (and through literary debates) - or, at the very least, that it is possible to unpick the way in which a medieval court negotiated its identity through an analysis of its literature - is entirely plausible and persuasive...this is a book that achieves the important objective of challenging its readers both to consider new questions and to ponder the surviving sources from new perspectives. -- Nicholas Morton, Nottingham Trent University, Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean

Author Information

Samuel England is Assistant Professor of Arabic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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