Texts of Islam

The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maqámát: XLV. The Maqáma of Kings

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This is an excerpt from the *Maqámát* (Assemblies) of Badí' al-Zamán al-Hamadhání, a medieval Arabic literary form consisting of short rhymed-prose narratives, translated by W.J. Prendergast in 1915. The genre blends storytelling with virtuosic linguistic display, and this collection is among the earliest and most celebrated examples of the maqāma tradition. The narrator, 'Ísá ibn Hishám, recounts a chance meeting with the roguish traveler Abú'l Fatḥ al-Iskanderí on a desert road, where initial menace dissolves into companionship as the two exchange stories about the generosity of various rulers across Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, and beyond. The encounter culminates in an elaborate panegyric — delivered in verse — praising a king (apparently Khalaf ibn Aḥmad) for superhuman liberality, piety, and noble lineage. The translator's footnotes add a critical counterpoint, noting that historical sources paint this praised ruler as treacherous and cruel, exposing the text's panegyric as courtly flattery rather than factual portraiture. Readers drawn to classical Arabic prose style, the maqāma genre's mix of adventure and rhetorical showmanship, or the tension between literary idealization and historical reality will find this excerpt representative of both the form's pleasures and its conventions.

The Maqamat of al-Hamadhani: The Maqámát: XLV. The Maqáma of Kings

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