Astrology in Literature: How the Prohibited became Permissible in the Arabic Poetry of the Mediaeval Period. Abeer Abdullah A. ai-Abbasi Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctoral of Philosophy. The University of Leeds Department of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. July 2008 The candidate confrrms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement.