This paper proposes a three-dimensional model of canon formation in the medieval Persianate world through a case study of the poet laureate ʿUnṣurī at the court of Maḥmūd and Masʿūd of Ghazna. Focusing on talmīḥ (allusive reference), it argues that intertextual practice functioned as a strategic and creative technology of literary authority within a poetic field. Drawing on premodern Perso-Arabic poetics, especially Shams-i Qays’s theorization of talmīḥ as semantic condensation apprehended through “glance” (naẓar, lammaḥa), the study reconstructs an emic theory (Greek: theōria, ‘vision’) of intertextuality grounded in visual epistemology.

Building on Bourdieu’s concept of the literary field and Sela-Sheffy’s work on canonization, the paper distinguishes three modes of allusion: filiative (genealogical alignment), affiliative (selective comparison), and antagonistic (competitive reconfiguration). These modes map onto two broader canon-making dynamics: consolidation and prefiguration. By analyzing how contemporaries and successors positioned themselves vis-à-vis ʿUnṣurī, the paper demonstrates how micro-level poetic acts generated meso-level hierarchies and contributed to macro-level canon stabilization. Comparative gestures to Sanskrit kavipraśaṃsā further suggest the model’s wider methodological applicability beyond the Persianate sphere.

Authors:
Kristof Szitar, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland

About the Presenter(s)
Kristof Szitar, PhD candidate ( Lausanne).
Project:“Heresy, Slavery, Sexuality and Religious Otherness: The Works and Reception of the Ghaznavid Court Poet ʿUnsuri.(Dissertation project)
Interest: Literary History, Persian, Urdu, Religious Studies.

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