Yaʿqūb b. al-Rabīʿ read by al-Mutanabbī and al-Mubarrad: A contribution to an Abbasid history of emotions

The now little-known early Abbasid poet Yaʿqūb b. al-Rabīʿwas famous for his elegies on his slave woman, Mulk. While scholars such as al-Mubarrad transmitted them, along with a biography patterned on the “sold slave-girl” tale-type, al-Mutanabbī plagiarised them and reversed their message. This yiel...