“Square Like a Bubble”: Architecture, Power, and Poetics in Two Inscriptions by Kalim Kāshāni

Abstract

The career of the poet Kalim Kāshāni (d. 1061/1651) exemplifies two significant developments in the social and cultural life of the Persianate world of the seventeenth century. First is the oft-noted mobility of poets, scholars, and administrators between Safavid Iran and Mughal India. Second is the revival of the verbal description of architecture (ekphrasis) as a major mode of panegyric poetry. As the ruling elite invested heavily in constructing palaces and cities as a projection of their imperial power, poets increasingly integrated these projects into their celebrations of their patrons. Taking advantage of both of these trends, Kalim rose from being a minor regional poet to the highest rank in the cultural establishment of the court of Shāh Jahān. Close readings of two of Kalim’s architectural inscriptions, from the beginning and end of his career, reveal two different approaches to the verbal representation of architecture and to the expression of political power.