Literary Spectacles of Sultanship : Historiography, the Chancery, and Social Practice in Late Medieval Egypt / Gowaart Van Den Bossche.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Van Den Bossche, Gowaart, author.

Series:

Islam -- thought culture, and society ; Volume 10.

Islam - Thought, Culture, and Society Series ; Volume 10

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Egypt--History--1250-1517--Biography.

Egypt.

Egypt--History--1250-1517 Historiography.

Egypt--Politics and government--640-1882.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (244 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berlin, Germany : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, [2023]

Summary:

The so-called Mamluk sultans who ruled Egypt and Syria between the late thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries AD have often been portrayed as lacking in legitimacy due to their background as slave soldiers. Sultanic biographies written by chancery officials in the early period of the sultanate have been read as part of an effort of these sultans to legitimise their position on the throne. This book reconsiders the main corpus of six such biographies written by the historians Ibn ʿAbd al-Ẓāhir (d. 1293) and his nephew Shāfiʿ ibn ʿAlī (d. 1330) and argues that these were in fact far more complex texts. An understanding of their discourses of legitimisation needs to be embedded within a broader understanding of the multi-directional discourses operating across the texts. The study proposes to interpret these texts as "spectacles", in which authors emplotted the reign of a sultan in thoroughly literary and rhetorical fashion, making especially extensive use of textual forms prevalent in the chancery. In doing so the authors reimagined the format of the biography as a performative vehicle for displaying their literary credentials and helping them negotiate positions in the chancery and the wider courtly orbit.

Contents:

Intro

Acknowledgements

Contents

Note on transliteration and abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1 The sīra corpus: Authors and texts

Chapter 2 The discourse of Sīra: Historiography, memory, and performance

Chapter 3 Sīra as an act of narrative construction

Chapter 4 Sīra as chancery practice: Composition and compilation

Chapter 5 Sīra as literary communication

Chapter 6 Sīra as courtly phenomenon

Chapter 7 Final conclusions

Bibliography

Appendix

Index.

Notes:

Dissertation Ghent University 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

3-11-075302-2