The Qalandar King: Early Development of the Qalandariyy_t and Saljuq Conceptions of Kingship in Amir Mo_ezzi's Panegyric for Sharafsh_h Ja_fari

Abstract

Abstract Historical treatments of the �rogue lyrics� ( qalandariyy_t ) of medieval Persian poetry typically identify their origin in the Sufi poetry of B_b_ T_her, Abu Sa_id, and San__i and portray them as a poetic instantiation of the intellectual and antinomian critiques of the formalistic modes of piety practiced in the increasingly powerful institutionalized Sufi orders. However, the qalandari panegyrics of the Saljuq court poets Borh_ni and Amir Mo_ezzi�arguably the earliest datable examples of this poetry�analyzed in this article complicate this narrative. They utilize the heterotopic poetics of the qalandariyy_t not to subvert or critique, but rather to augment the sociopolitical authority of the ruler of Qazvin, constructing a new and distinctly Saljuq model of Islamic kingship, a Qalandar King.