Abbasid politics and performative panegyric: The poetry of 'Ali ibn Jabala

Abstract

The poet 'Ali ibn Jabala, also called al-'Akawwak, was a little known but significant poet who lived during the late 8th and early 9th centuries. This article examines his poetry in its political and cultural context to delineate the literary devices exploited by the poet in his poems of praise. Moreover, this paper interprets existing prose anecdotes claiming that al-'Akawwak’s panegyric poem to the caliph al-Ma'mun’s commander, Abu Dulaf al-'Ijli, made the caliph so furious that he ordered the poet’s execution, despite the poet having never composed any verses overtly criticizing the caliph. The argument is made that, within the tense political atmosphere of the time, the style that the poet embraced in praising the two commanders, Abu Dulaf al-'Ijli and Humayd al-Tusi, intensified al-Ma'mun’s anger toward the poet.