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Maurice A. Pomerantz, New York University, Abu DhabiIn Licit Magic: The Life and Letters of al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād (d. 385/995) Maurice A. Pomerantz explores the biography and literary output of a major tenth-century Muslim statesman, literary patron, and intellectual. His nearly two-decade reign as vizier on behalf of two Buyid amirs was an important period for the flowering of Arabic letters, Muʿtazilī theology and Shīʿism in Western Iran. Making use of Ibn ʿAbbād’s large corpus of letters (rasāʾil), Pomerantz explores the role that eloquence played in the conduct of administration, the maintenance of social networks of elites, and persuasion. Licit Magic argues that the eloquent expression that Ibn ʿAbbād displayed in his letters was central to his exercise of power.Biographical noteMaurice A. Pomerantz, Ph.D. (2010), University of Chicago, is Assistant Professor of Literature at New York University, Abu Dhabi. He is the editor of The Heritage of Arabo-Islamic Learning (Brill, 2016).ReadershipAll interested in the history of Muslim statecraft, and the history of the tenth-century, and anyone interested in the office of the vizier, and the political, social and literary dimension of letters (rasāʾil).Table of contentsAcknowledgmentsContentsList of AppendicesChapter 1 An Introduction to Ibn ʿAbbād and His LettersA Letter of Longing for an Absent Friendal-Ṣāḥib Ibn ʿAbbād: Finding a ContextIbn ʿAbbād and Arabo-Islamic EpistolographyIbn ʿAbbād Inside and Outside His LettersIbn ʿAbbād in His Own Words?Plan of the BookPart I: A Buyid Politician, Polymath and PatronChapter 2 A Life in PoliticsBirth, Family and Early Education of Ismāʿīl b. ʿAbbādIbn ʿAbbād’s Studies in Rayy with Abū l-Faḍl Ibn al-ʿAmīdScribe and Scholar in BaghdadRivalry with Abū l-Fatḥ for Succession to the Vizierate of RayyIbn ʿAbbād Becomes Vizier in RayyIbn ʿAbbād and the Rise of ʿAḍud al-DawlaVizier for Fakhr al- Dawla: 373–85/983–95The End of an EraChapter 3 A Muʿtazilī PolymathDialectical Theology (kalām)Legal Schools (madhāhib) and the ImamateLexicography (al-lugha)History (tārīkh)Poetry (shiʿr)Poetic Criticism (naqd al-shiʿr)Qurʾānic InterpretationḤadīth and its CriticismGrammar (naḥw)Foreign Sciences (ʿulūm al-awāʾil)Ibn ʿAbbād as a Scholar in the Fourth/Tenth CenturyChapter 4 A Patron and Social NetworkerIbn ʿAbbād’s Patronage SystemIbn ʿAbbād’s CourtThe Library of Ibn ʿAbbādThe Patron at CourtIbn ʿAbbād as a Social NetworkerIbn ʿAbbād as a Courtly IntellectualPart II: An Epistolographer and AdībChapter 5 A Letter Writer and His LettersThe Vizier as an EpistolographerThe Letters of Ibn ʿAbbādFA = al-Fuṣūl al-adabiyya wa-l-murāsalāt al-ʿabbādiyya (The literary excerpts and the ʿAbbādian correspondence)KB = Kamāl al-balāgha (The perfection in rhetoric)YD = Yatīmat al-dahr fī maḥāsin ahl al-ʿaṣr (The unique pearl of time concerning the excellencies of the poets of the age)The Transmission of Individual LettersChapter 6 Sulṭāniyyāt: Governmental and Administrative LettersGovernment Proclamations, Edicts, and Other Formal DocumentsGovernment CorrespondenceSulṭāniyyāt: Two Discourses of PowerChapter 7 Letters of Friendship (Ikhwāniyyāt)Formal Ikhwāniyyāt and the Rhetoric of Courtly FriendshipLetters to Boon Companions (nudamāʾ)Letters of Jesting (mudāʿabāt)Letters of CongratulationLetters of Condolence (taʿāzī)Letters of Intercession and PatronageLetters to Muʿtazilī ScholarsLetters to ʿAlid SharīfsIkhwāniyyāt: Between Elites and CommunityChapter 8 Ibn ʿAbbād as EpistolographerThe Structure of Individual Letters in the Collection of Ibn ʿAbbādSajʿ: Rhymed and Rythmic ProseIqtibās: Quotations from the QurʾānErudite Allusion in LettersPoetic Allusion in the LettersPoetry into Prose: Varieties of Ḥall al-Naẓm in Ibn ʿAbbād’s RasāʾilConclusionAppendix 1 Translation of a Letter of ConquestAppendix 2 A Guide to the KM CollectionBibliographyIndices