Abu Simbel commissions Baal to write poetry

Abu Simbel’s commission to Baal begins amid Jahilia’s public celebration of poetry, then turns into a private negotiation at the House of the Black Stone. The Grandee asks the city’s most feared satirist to provide a literary service, but Baal objects that an artist should not serve the state. Abu Simbel answers by exposing the contradiction in that distinction: Baal already writes poems for violent patrons. His final appeal, that they serve the same mistress, unsettles Baal without resolving what the commission is or whether Baal will accept it.

The Poetic Marketplace

Jahilia is crowded with poets preparing for its annual competition. Some perform rajaz, whose four-syllable metre is associated with the pace of a camel; others recite qasidahs about mistresses, desert adventures, and hunting the onager. Pilgrims throw coins at performers, while chiefs commission satires against rivals and neighboring tribes. The competition gives this noisy marketplace a formal prize: its seven winning verses will be displayed on the walls of the House of the Black Stone.

Baal moves through this setting with an established reputation rather than an uncertain one. He is already the satirist whose tongue is most feared in Jahilia, and his exchanges with Abu Simbel show that this reputation reaches the city’s most powerful men. Baal jokes about the Grandee’s preoccupation; Abu Simbel jokes back about Baal’s youth and fame, but his lightness carries the weight of authority. Baal answers that a poet names what cannot be named, points to fraud, takes sides, and provokes argument. His claim presents poetry as a force that acts on the world, not merely a performance for passing pilgrims.

Abu Simbel Secures a Private Audience

Abu Simbel does not open with his request. When a curtained litter passes, he takes the opportunity to draw Baal aside, presenting the approach as if he had hoped to find him and wanted a word. Baal recognizes the Grandee’s skill in making a sought-out person feel like the pursuer. Abu Simbel then guides him toward the House of the Black Stone, moving the encounter away from the public stream of performers and listeners.

The setting sharpens the contrast between Baal’s public voice and Abu Simbel’s private leverage. In the streets, poems circulate as paid entertainment and factional attack; at the House, a powerful patron can make literary work a matter of personal obligation. Abu Simbel describes his request as a literary commission and acknowledges that the arts of rhymed malice and metrical slander are beyond his own abilities. The description appeals to precisely the skill that has made Baal useful and dangerous in Jahilia.

Baal’s Objection and Abu Simbel’s Counter

Baal stiffens at the proposal, insisting that an artist should not become a servant of the state. Abu Simbel does not answer by denying the political character of the commission. Instead, he points to Baal’s existing work: Baal earns his living writing assassination songs, including poems celebrating vengeance after murder. In Jahilia, the death of a man can set mourning and blood-feud customs in motion; when revenge is accomplished, a poem of celebration is customary, and poets supply that verse for patrons who may lack the skill to compose it themselves.

Abu Simbel’s taunt therefore draws on a genuine tension in Baal’s profession. Baal has already accepted commissions in which poetry serves the interests of powerful people and gives public language to violence. Baal refuses to be shamed by the comparison, calling that work a cultural matter. His reply preserves a distinction between forms of patronage, even as Abu Simbel’s argument pressures him to justify where the distinction lies.

The Shared Mistress

At the entrance to the House of the Black Stone, Abu Simbel lowers his voice and appeals to a connection that he frames as common service to the same mistress. The scene does not identify her or explain the bond. It does, however, register Baal’s immediate response: the confidence with which he has defended his professional independence breaks, and his face loses color. Abu Simbel appears not to acknowledge the change as he leads him inside.

The commission thus ends at the point of pressure, not agreement. The exchange establishes Abu Simbel’s power to approach Baal through several channels at once: the value of Baal’s poetic skill, the precedent of his paid work, and an unexplained shared allegiance. Baal’s objection remains audible, but the final appeal makes clear that the negotiation is not only about whether an artist may serve the state. The scene leaves the commission’s precise subject and outcome unstated, while making Baal’s sudden unease the strongest indication that Abu Simbel has touched a deeper obligation.