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maqāmah
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Maqāmāt of al-Ḥarīrī drawing from the Maqāmāt
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Maqāmāt of al-Ḥarīrī
Maqāmāt of al-Ḥarīrī Discussion near a village, from the 43rd maqāmah of the Maqāmāt (“Assemblies”) of al-Ḥarīrī, miniature painted by Yaḥyā ibn Maḥmūd al-Wāsiṭī, 1237; in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

maqāmah

Arabic literature
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Article History
Arabic:
“assembly”
Key People:
Alaa al-Aswany
al-Ḥarīrī
al-Hamadhānī

maqāmah, Arabic literary genre in which entertaining anecdotes, often about rogues, mountebanks, and beggars, written in an elegant, rhymed prose (sajʿ), are presented in a dramatic or narrative context most suitable for the display of the author’s eloquence, wit, and erudition.

The first collection of such writings, which make no pretense of being factual, was the Maqāmāt of al-Hamadhānī (d. 1008). It consists mainly of picaresque stories in alternating prose and verse woven round two imaginary characters. The genre was revived and finally established in the 11th century by al-Ḥarīrī of Basra (Iraq), whose Maqāmāt, closely imitating al-Hamadhānī’s, is regarded as a masterpiece of literary style and learning.

This article was most recently revised and updated by J.E. Luebering.