The Politics of Mystical Poetics: Bahrāmshāh b. Masʿūd’s (r. 1117–1157) Patronage of Sanāʾī’s (d. 1131 or 1135) Mystical Poetry

Abstract

Abstract: Scholarship on the intersection of Islamic mysticism and politics often focuses on the way Sufi authors preach their mystical teachings to rulers. This article draws attention to the role of court poetry composed by authors who are not considered to have been practicing Sufis in promoting and popularizing mystical teachings at royal courts by examining Sanāʾī’s court-patronized poems as early specimen of mystical works that had a political dimension. This political dimension allowed Sanāʾī to promote and legitimize his royal patron Bahrāmshāh (r. 1117–1157) as a perfect ruler. The study highlights the propaganda value of Sanāʾī’s poetry for Bahrāmshāh. Simultaneously, it investigates the ways in which Sanāʾī asserts his agency in his patron-client relationship with Bahrāmshāh. By engaging with a rhetorical feature common in adab writings – that is, Parrhesia or frank speech – Sanāʾī portrays himself as a candid, Sufi-like advisor, who is detached from the material world and can therefore criticize and counsel Bahrāmshāh without fear of punishment. This show of charisma then provides the poet with an opportunity to preach his model of kingship to the ruler and promote his mystical advice as indispensable for proper royal conduct. According to Sanāʾī, an ideal ruler is a perfect man (or a valī ) who is a vessel of God. In his panegyrics, he portrays Bahrāmshāh as a valī and perfect man, thereby legitimizing his royal patron over his rival and lord, the Seljuq Sultan Sanjar (r. 1118–1157). Sanāʾī mystico-political poems therefore functioned as a form of cultural capital through which the poet navigated his complex relationship with the court of Ghazna.