Maqāmāt Performances – Al-Hariri’s Assemblies (Arabic World)

• A tradition of highly stylized, performative prose—maqāma—originating in the Abbasid era, perfected by al-Hariri of Basra. These satirical, morally charged tales of the rogue Abu Zayd, delivered in eloquent rhymed prose (sajʿ), were oratorical spectacles that combined dramatic impersonation, ethical ambiguity, and dazzling linguistic performance.

Thinking Through Michel Foucault (1926-1984)’s Philosophy on the Art Essence

In the Maqāmāt, Foucault would have seen not merely literary games, but a profound field of subject-formation—one where the care of the self is enacted through the mastery of speech, wit, and ethical improvisation. The rogue figure of Abu Zayd, often cloaked in beggarly guise or clerical deception, navigates the contradictions of social virtue and individual cunning. In this light, maqāma becomes a discursive technology of the self—training the subject not to obey a fixed moral code, but to perform intelligence, adaptability, and parrhesiastic audacity.

Foucault’s idea of truth-telling as ethical self-formation finds resonance in these performative tales: Abu Zayd tells inconvenient truths while playing with illusion. His artistry is not moralistic, but reflective—his character is constructed through verbal agility, not penitence. This aligns with Foucault’s later philosophy: that the subject is not given, but formed through exercises—askēsis—and artistic stylization of life.

Moreover, the audience’s role is active. The performance challenges them to decipher ambiguity, to suspend moral judgment, and to participate in interpretation—a practice Foucault associates with epimeleia heautou, the care of oneself as reflective engagement with meaning and ethics.

Maqāmāt theatre is not merely literary flourish. It is a ritual of becoming a subject through language—of experiencing ethical ambiguity, and honing one’s self as both speaker and listener, actor and interpreter.