Islamic court writers merged biography of ruler with self-autobiography

Evidence

Associated with the royal memoir is a rather special genre: the autobiograph­ ical biography, a book written by someone who is primarily a literary figure, who is closely associated with the ruler, and who writes a book that is at the same time a biography of the ruler and an autobiography of the writer, the two stories being commingled in order to show, among other things, the intimate position of the writer with the ruler. The best example of this genre is ‘Imad al-Din’s book about his life with Saladin. If he had been modern, he might have called it “My Life with Saladin” or “Saladin and I”; he actually called it al-Barq al-Sha¯mı¯. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1894

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘autobiographical biography’, a genre where the writer’s story is fused with the ruler’s to display intimacy.