The book offers an interdisciplinary perspective on Near Eastern Literatures and participates in their ongoing dialogue with literary theory. It presents 19 different readings of Arabic, Persian and Turkish works from the classical and modern periods, throwing new light on the texts as well as discussing chosen theoretical models, their applicability, and interconnection.

Nine essays explore the ways in which individual Arabic and Persian authors between the 9th and 17th centuries (with examples drawn from the Abbasid to the Safavid dynasties) chose rulers and other political leaders as the recipients for their writings, instrumentalizing or recreating literary traditions in order to forge and establish the status of an authority for themselves, to fulfill their own requirements and aspirations, and finally to meet the demands of their addressees.