000			02370cam a22002175i 4500
008			230508s2023 mau 000 0 eng
020			_a9783110752243
040			_aDLC _beng _erda _cNVIC
100	1		_aGowaart Van Den Bossche
245	1	0	_aLiterary Spectacles of Sultanship: _bHistoriography, the Chancery, and Social Practice in Late Medieval Egypt
260			_aBerlin; _aBoston: _bDe Gruyter, _c2023
300			_a231 p., _bill. _c23 cm
490	0		_aIslam - Thought, Culture, and Society; _vVolume 10
505			_aChapter 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
520			_a"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." --Provided by publisher.
650			_aMamluk sultans _xSira literature _zEgypt
650			_aChancery _yMamluk Egypt
650			_aHistoriography _yMamluk Egypt
650			_aSocial practice _yMamluk Egypt
942			_2ddc _cBK
999			_c16635 _d16635