Maqama
( Arabic, assemblies, pl., 'maqamat')
are an (originally)
Arabic literary genre
of rhymed prose
with intervals of poetry
in which rhetorical extravagance
is conspicuous.
The 10th century author
Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani
is said to have invented the form,
which was extended by
al-Hariri
in the next century.
Both authors' maqamat
center on trickster figures
whose wanderings and exploits in speaking
to assemblies of the powerful
are conveyed by a narrator.
