Ahmad Badi al-Zaman al-Hamadhani

968-1008

Maqamat writer

Sources

Prodigy . Ahmad Badi al-Zaman al-Hamadhani, whose middle name (Badi al-Zaman) means the Prodigy of the Age, was an Arabo-Persian writer born at Hamadan in 968. He began his early studies in Hamadan and soon showed an exceptional talent in Arabic and Persian language, as well as an excellent memory. At about twenty-two years of age, he settled at Rayy, where the atmosphere was suited to an ambitious writer, and received the patronage of the Buyid wazir. As was fashionable at the time, he may also have mingled with the local association of beggars and with the poet Abu Dulaf, who also enjoyed “slumming” with the local low life. While still in his early twenties al-Hamadhani lived in Nishapur and Jurjan, both famous Iranian intellectual centers, and made some important connections. As al-Hamadhani gained renown as a writer, he began traveling in intellectual court circles, reaching the status of favorite panegyrist, or poet of praise, at the court of Amir Salaf, and he also joined the court of Mahmud of Ghazna in that role. In 1008, at the age of just forty, al-Hamadhani died at Herat.

Maqamat . Al-Hamadhani gained a reputation as a poet and letter writer, but he is most often remembered as the creator of a distinctive genre in Arabic language, the Maqamat (Assemblies). Maqamat are short anecdotes or sketches composed in prose and poetry to show off the writer’s style. Beginning about 990, and continuing for many years, he wrote more than four hundred maqamat, from which fifty-two have survived. Maqamat are a rich source of social history, describing middle-class and common people, as well as intellectuals. They are often satirical and feature the exploits of picaresque figures, including low-life types, but some were also written in praise of patrons. Al-Hamadhani laid the groundwork for this genre, to which subsequent Arabic writers have contributed for nearly a thousand years.

Sources

R. Blanchere, “al-Hamadhani,” in Encyclopedia of Islam, CD-ROM version (Leiden: Brill, 1999).