"Maqama" not only straddles the divide between prose and poetry, being instead a form of rhymed prose, it is also part-way between fiction and non-fiction. Over a series of short narratives, which are fictionalised versions of real-life situations, different ideas are contemplated. A good example of this is a "maqama" on musk, which purports to compare the feature of different perfumes but is in fact a work of political satire comparing several competing rulers. "Maqama" also makes use of the doctrine of "badi" or deliberately adding complexity to display the writer's dexterity with language. Al-Hamadhani is regarded as the originator of "maqama"; his work was taken up by Abu Muhammad al-Qasim al-Hariri, one of al-Hariri's "maqama" being a study of al-Hamadhani's own work. "Maqama" was an exceptionally popular form of Arabic literature, one of the few forms which continued to be written during the decline of Arabic in the 17th and 18th centuries.