The art of conversing with power in al-Ṣūlī’s Kitāb al-awrāq

Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī (d. 335/946) worked at the court of three ʿAbbāsid caliphs between the years 289/902 and 329/940, serving as a chess player, a tutor and a table companion. In his chronicles he often reports conversations he had with fellow courtiers as well as with members of the caliphal household and the political and military élite. He also records conversations which he witnessed between other people at court and around it. In many cases one of the speakers is more powerful than the other. This paper examines a sample of such conversations, focussing on the strategies employed by speakers in a subordinate position in order to obtain a reward or avoid a punishment.