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Congregation scene by al-Wasiti in the al-Ḥarīrī Maqāmāt showing a mosque with various animals.

There are only eleven illustrated versions of the Maqāmāt from the thirteenth and fourteenth century that survive to this day.  Four of these currently reside in the British Library in London, while three are in Paris at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (including the al-Harīrī's Maqāmāt). One copy is at the following libraries: the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, and the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg.    

These Maqāmāt manuscripts were likely created and illustrated for the specialized book markets in cities such as Baghdad, Cairo, and Damascus, rather than for any particular patron.  The audience for these manuscripts were of elite and educated classes, such as nobles or scholars, as the Maqāmāt was largely appreciated and valued for its nuanced poetry and language choice, rather than its manuscript illustrations.  The al-Harīrī Maqāmāt, also called the Schefer Maqāmāt, was illustrated by al-Wasiti and contains the highest amount of illustrations as well as being the most studied by scholars.  

Illustrations

These illustrations were added to this important textual source to add more grandeur and interest to the manuscripts, even though the text was usually performed orally in large groups, rather than read in solitude.  Common images across various Maqāmāt texts include: grand banquet events involving music and drinking, large groups congregated (sometimes in mosques), and general scenes involving the trickery of Abu Zayd as well as the frustration of Al Harith.  Particularly in the Saint Petersburg Maqāmāt, these scenes were meant to be humorous to those reading the text, as they often were loosely associated with the poem the image was correlated with.  These comical images were also shown through the over-exaggerated gestures, such as rigid elbows and knees, of the human figures portrayed as shown in the Vienna Maqāmāt.

The human figures expressed in these illustrations tended to be quite large in relation to the architecture they were occupying as well as typically against a blank, white background. Most of these images either took up an entire or half page, but were not incorporated within the text as a whole. The use of the double-page spread began to become popular during this time and were used extensively in these manuscripts.  The color palettes were typical of this time and were the schemes often employed in Qurans.

While some of the images refer to the previous text in the manuscript, scholars cannot necessarily determine the relationship between the image and the text when they do not appear to relate to each other. Although the illustrations have a clear correlation with the text, the text does not need these images to serve its purpose.  Therefore, these images can instead serve as a distraction to the reader rather than an aid. The difference of text and images is also used to cater to the taste of different groups of people. For example, the text is read by the audience who are experts of Arabic language and literature, while the images can be helpful for those with less formal education. However, when readers change their point of view from words supported by images to images supported by words, the themes of the text are prioritized rather than the direct textual information.

Scene in the Al-Hariri Maqāmāt illustrated by al-Wasiti that appears to show an interaction with Abu Zayd, Al Harith, and an authority figure. A bent caption frames the image.

Captions

Captions were used extensively in Maqāmāt manuscripts, however it is important to note that they were either added last, or perhaps even later in the manuscripts’ existence, rather than during its completion.  While the captions that were added to these illustrations did correspond to the text, they were often quite simplistic or only identified the figures in the image, especially in relation to other manuscripts at the time such as the Mamluk Kalila wa Dimna.  To use an example by Bernard O’Kane, there is a Maqāmāt illustration that shows a large crowd with underfed children and an elderly woman.  However, this woman is instead the trickster Abu Zayd who is using these children as a ploy for empathy from the congregation of people.  While you gain this knowledge from the text of the manuscript, the caption only reads “image of the old person and the youths,” instead of implying the larger context of the scene.

However, these captions could also have been used to clarify what the illustrator failed to render in the images, rather than just an explanation of the scene produced.  Captions also created a sense of picture framing in instances of small spaces for the text, often resulting in bent captions that created an enclosure for the picture.

Shadow Play

The illustrated Maqāmāt manuscripts made during the 13th century connects the idea of shadow play. This is shown through the emphasis of the outline, the dramatic behavior and mobile gestures of figures, the strong contrast between figures and the background, and the tendency of the figures being present in an unregulated setting. However, the Maqāmāt illustrations do not just emphasize the shadow and are instead full of bright colors, only using shadow to detail the environment around the figures. These similarities of the Maqāmāt illustration and shadow play may have some effect on the viewer of these illustrations. In other words, these images can help viewers understand the reason for a dramatic difference between the text and paintings by suggesting that these images were not made as an aid of the text, but rather as stand alone paintings.

Scene in the Al-Hariri Maqâmât illustrated by al-Wasiti in 1237. Golden haloes surround various figures to differentiate them from the background or to indicate their role as authority figures.

Influences

The Maqāmāt illustrations have stylistic characteristic of other religions such as Christianity and Judaism. One of the main instances of Christian inspiration originates from the use of gold circles surrounding a figure's head to denote its holiness, typically used for saints in early medieval Christian manuscripts.  While the Maqāmāt uses this element commonly throughout its pages, it was not mean to signify a sacred figure, but rather it is thought to create a distinction from the blank background because of its use for ordinary figures.  Another Christian motif employed in these manuscripts was the particular treatment of the sky also which also appeared in some Byzantine manuscripts. The Vienna Maqāmāt and several earlier Maqāmāt manuscripts also include some imagery from medieval Jewish culture, such as the inclusion of their particular type of gravestone.  At this time, typical Islamic gravestones were minimalistic without many inscriptions, while several Jewish cemeteries included a type of small stepped stone grave-marker; these particular types of gravestones were the ones more likely to be illustrated in these manuscripts than the small Islamic headstones.

However, the illustrations in Maqāmāt manuscripts also included influences from the Islamic world, notably from the city of Baghdad.  Specifically in the Istanbul Maqāmāt, several buildings do recall the architectural style and form of the city, notably shown through the Mustansiriya complex that appears to be replicated throughout the illustrations. The use of vegetal designs and specific rendering of authority figures also alludes back to the style of the Islamic world which can be seen through the Arabic translations of the Greek teachings of Dioscorides.