Rising to Greet You: Some Comedies of Manners

Many narratives from the ‘Abbāsid period touch on the negotiation of social niceties. ‘Rising to greet you’ deals with three such texts from al-Tanūkhīʹs (d.389/994) Nishwār al-mu ā ara. In two of them a hostʹs transparent pretext for not rising when a guest calls leads to an at least partly humorous give and take. Neither party suffers insult, and civilized relations are preserved. In the third text the man who refuses to rise intends manifest insolence. Having thus removed the bar that the forms of courtesy set against egomaniacal passions, he launches himself on a course that ends in his destruction.