Caricature as a Protest Discourse: A Study of Marginal Poets in the Abbasid Period

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of caricature imagery as a form of protest discourse in the poetry of marginalized poets during the Abbasid period. It explores how laughter, satire, and mockery—initially deployed in the caliphal courts as means of entertainment—evolved into symbolic tools of cultural resistance. The satirical poet, once welcomed at the court for amusement, often became a sharp critic of power and society. Poets such as Abu Dulama, Ibn al-Hajjaj, and Abu al-‘Ibar intentionally broke with traditional poetic aesthetics and employed caricature to expose authority, critique social norms, and even denigrate the self. This study draws on the concept of the "aesthetics of ugliness" as a reflective lens on marginal existence and focuses on three thematic axes: political caricature, social caricature, and self-caricature.