Embodied Politics: The Carnal Prince in Kay Kāʾūs's Qābūsnāma

This article contextualizes the eleventh-century Persian Qābūsnāma , by the Ziyārid prince Kay Kāʾūs b. Iskandar (r. 441/1049–1050–ca. 480/1087), within the transregional tradition of medieval "Mirrors for Princes." It argues that the Qābūsnāma provides a distinctive synthesis of political exempla drawn from the Persianate wisdom tradition, humoural medicine, and physiognomy to produce a vision of practical politics which rests on notably embodied strategies: the positioning of the prince's body for the projection of power; the use of subject bodies as a resource; the control of subjects through the reading of physiognomic signs; and the aim of achieving political balance by regulating the king's bodily indulgence and abstention. In this way, politics is seen as an intrinsically corporeal practice in which bodily regulation is central to good rule.