Download or read book The Market in Poetry in the Persian World written by Shahzad Bashir and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-23 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Poetic speech is a pearl, connected to the king's ear.' This statement gestures to words as objects of material value sought by those with power and resources. The author provides a sense for the texture of the Persian world by discussing what made poetry precious. By focusing on reports on poets' lives, they illuminate the social scene in which poetry was produced and consumed. The discussion elicits poetry's close connections to political and religious authority, economic exchange, and the articulation of gender. At the broadest level, the study substantiates the interdependency between cultural and material reproduction of society.