A Genealogy for Poetic Property

This chapter builds on Ibn Sallām’s application of several terms that have become part and parcel of the mounting intertextual lexicon. At the root of these terms, the cases that invite their application, there is a desire to possess what could be another person’s property. The chapter draws attention to the increasing reference to the literary vocation, ḥirfat al-adab . More pivotal are the self-institutionalized philologists and critics, the experts, who act as arbiters and speak therefore for the public regarding what is happening in the literary market. Even if they act as advocates for one poet against another, they usually have recourse to a justification that, in the case of al-Āmidī, for example, blames al-Buḥturī for taking over, akhadha , too many verses from Abū Tammām’s poetry; this blame is only a stepping stone to the process of accusing the latter of invading the poetry of obscure poets. A terminological lexicon appeared in the form of instructive manuals that would soon become the subject of further detraction or redirection.