Dominion Built of Praise

Is writing a poem of praise or panegyric a worthy occupation? The author of the present book, Jonathan Decter, clearly shows that medieval Arab and Jewish poets believed the praise of a political or religious authority or a renowned scholar to be an integral part of their literary activities. The availability of numerous compositions over a long period shows that, following his Arabic colleagues, the Hebrew poet applied parallel praise techniques to the leading personalities in the Jewish community within the Islamic Mediterranean. Laudatory statements in poetic form were not meant to be actual historical representations, but were still significant: as poetic sources, they can be used to investigate the social cohesion, tradition, morality and authority of the Jewish individual or collective in medieval Islamic society. Moreover, the lyrical descriptions of the praised person (or group) may include an ideal image of Jewish leadership, mirroring the past and the present, and taking into account the unequal position of Jewish leaders vis-à-vis Muslim rulers

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · Dominion · Legitimacy · Literature · Panegyric · Poetry · Political science · Praise · Sophistication · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Classics · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Law · Medieval and Classical Philosophy