Constitutive of the 50 equally composed stories of al-Hariri’s »Maqâmât« (literally »gathering, convention«) is a multitudinous, mostly anonymous audience. Its main character is the gifted speaker Abu Said, who, more often than not, makes surreptitiously a living from his speeches and sermons to people of diverse social strata. While the literary opus is chiefly concerned with the demonstration of a brilliant command of the Arab language, the illustrated manuscripts of the 13th century focus on the narrative situation and the portrayal of the mostly public audience. Lermer’s contribution complements studies on the contemporary reception of the »Maqâmât« with some observations on how the setting of the real lectures are being mirrored in the imagined ones of the miniatures and vice versa.