Scenographic Aspects in a Story from the Kitāb al-Aġānī: the Encounter between Saǧāḥ and Musaylima

Abstract The question of space – of its visualisation and representation in literature, as well as the movement of bodies within it – concerns not only the concrete, i.e., physical dimension, but also the symbolic and imaginary spheres. The aim of this paper is to examine spatial perspectives and their strategic function in a narrative from the Kitāb al-Aġānī by Abū l-Faraǧ al-Iṣfahānī (d. 967) concerning the story of the two false prophets, Saǧāḥ and Musaylima, who upon Muḥammad’s death contended for succession to the leadership of the community of believers. In the story, the specific mode of visualising places (not least the tent set up especially for the meeting between the two) contributes to a peculiar conceptualization of power and its heterotopias.