Note 616 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
Maqáma (plural, maqámát) is properly 'a place of standing'; hence, an assembly where people stand listening to the speaker, and in particular, an assembly for literary discussion. At an early period reports of such conversations and discussions received the name of maqámát (see Brockelmann, Gesch. der Arab. Litteratur, vol. i, p. 94). The word in its literary sense is usually translated by 'assembly,' or by the French 'séance.'