The Persian Prison Poem: Sovereignty and the Political Imagination

Through a series of insightful and sophisticated readings, this book reveals the worldliness of premodern Persian poetry. It traces the political role of poetry in shaping the prison poem genre (habsiyyat) across 12th-century Central, South and West Asia. Bringing theorists as wide ranging as Kantorowicz, Benjamin and Adorno into conversation with classical Persian poetics, this book offers an unprecedented account of prison poetry before modernity, and of premodern Persianate culture within the framework of world literature and global politics.

ISBN-13: 9781474484022

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Publication Date: 07-17-2023

Pages: 312

Product Dimensions: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.67d

Series: Edinburgh Historical Studies of Iran and the Persian World