Dreams as a tool of self-representation in Mamluk oneirocritical treatises and biographical narratives

Abstract

This article examines the role of dream narratives in Mamluk oneirocritical treatises and biographical dictionaries as instruments for scholarly self-fashioning and for negotiating intellectual authority. By analyzing how specific dream symbols and interpretative strategies were used, it argues that dreams were not merely spiritual or literary devices, but culturally coded tools used by scholars and literati to assert professional aspirations and navigate competitive scholarly environments. The study foregrounds dreams as dynamic reflections of anxieties, ambitions, and rivalries related to socio-professional life. It highlights how these narratives operated both as symbolic performances of status and as channels for expressing desires and insecurities that were otherwise constrained by cultural norms of modesty and discretion. The analysis contributes to a better understanding of the interplay between knowledge, power, and self-representation in late medieval Islamic intellectual culture