Medieval Arabic female poets

Medieval Arabic female poets are, compared with the number of known male poets in the medieval Islamic world, few: there has been 'an almost total eclipse of women's poetic expression in the literary record as maintained in Arabic culture from the pre-Islamic era through the nineteenth century'.[1] However, there is evidence that compared with medieval Europe, women's poetry in the medieval Islamic world was 'likely unparalleled' in 'visibility and impact'.[2] Accordingly, recent scholars emphasise that women's contribution to Arabic literature requires greater scholarly attention.[3]

Their work tends to be in two genres: the rithā’ (elegy) and ghazal (love-song), alongside a smaller body of Sufi poems and short pieces in the low-status rajaz metre.[4] According to Samer M. Ali,

In retrospect we can discern four overlapping persona types for poetesses in the Middle Ages: the grieving mother/sister/daughter (al-Khansāʾ, al-Khirniq bint Badr, and al-Fāriʿah bint Shaddād), the warrior-diplomat (al-Hujayjah), the princess (al-Ḥurqah, ʿUlayyah bint al-Mahdī, and Walladah bint al-Mustakfī), and the courtesan-ascetic (ʿArīb, Shāriyah, and Rābiʿah al-ʿAdawīyah). Rābiʿah’s biography in particular projects a paradoxical persona that embodies the complimentary opposites of sexuality and saintliness.[5]

Attestation

The work of medieval Arabic-language women poets has not been preserved as extensively as that of men, but a substantial corpus nonetheless survives. Abd al-Amīr Muhannā named over four hundred female poets in his anthology.[6] That much literature by women was once collected in writing but has since been lost is suggested particularly by the fact that al-Suyuti's fifteenth-century Nuzhat al-julasāʼ fī ashʻār al-nisāʼ mentions a large (six-volume or longer) anthology called Akhhar al-Nisa' al-Shau‘a'ir containing 'ancient' women’s poetry, assembled by one Ibn al-Tarrah (d. 720/1320). However, a range of medieval anthologies do contain women's poetry, including collections by Al-Jahiz, Abu Tammam, Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, and Ibn Bassam, alongside historians quoting women's poetry such as Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Yaqut al-Hamawi, and Ibn 'Asakir.[7]

Known female poets

The following list of known women poets is based on Abdullah al-Udhari's Classical Poems by Arab Women.[8] It is not complete.

The Jahilayya (4000 BCE–622 CE)

The Islam Period (622–661 CE)

The Umayyad Period (661–750 CE)

The Abbasid Period (750–1258 CE)

(797–890 CE)

The Andalus Period (711–1492 CE)

References

  1. ↑ Clarissa Burt, 'Arts: Poets and Poetry: Arab States', in Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, ed. by Suad Joseph (Leiden: Brill, 2003-2007), V: 77-80 (p. 77).
  2. ↑ Samer M. Ali, 'Medieval Court Poetry', in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, ed. by Natana J. Delong-Bas, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I 651-54 (at p. 653).
  3. ↑ Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology, ed. and trans. by Abdullah al-Udhari (London: Saqi Books, 1999), p. 13; Tahera Qutbuddin, 'Women Poets', in Medieval Islamic Civilisation: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Josef W. Meri, 2 vols (New York: Routledge, 2006), II 867, http://nelc.uchicago.edu/sites/nelc.uchicago.edu/files/2006%20Women%20Poets%20(Med.%20Islamic.%20Civ.%20Enc.).pdf; Samer M. Ali, 'Medieval Court Poetry', in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, ed. by Natana J. Delong-Bas, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I 651-54 (at p. 652). https://www.academia.edu/5023780.
  4. ↑ Tahera Qutbuddin, 'Women Poets', in Medieval Islamic Civilisation: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Josef W. Meri, 2 vols (New York: Routledge, 2006), II 865, http://nelc.uchicago.edu/sites/nelc.uchicago.edu/files/2006%20Women%20Poets%20(Med.%20Islamic.%20Civ.%20Enc.).pdf.
  5. ↑ Samer M. Ali, 'Medieval Court Poetry', in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, ed. by Natana J. Delong-Bas, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I 651-54 (at p. 653). https://www.academia.edu/5023780.
  6. ↑ Samer M. Ali, 'Medieval Court Poetry', in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, ed. by Natana J. Delong-Bas, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I 651-54 (at p. 653). https://www.academia.edu/5023780.
  7. ↑ Tahera Qutbuddin, 'Women Poets', in Medieval Islamic Civilisation: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Josef W. Meri, 2 vols (New York: Routledge, 2006), II 867, http://nelc.uchicago.edu/sites/nelc.uchicago.edu/files/2006%20Women%20Poets%20(Med.%20Islamic.%20Civ.%20Enc.).pdf.
  8. ↑ Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology, ed. and trans. by Abdullah al-Udhari (London: Saqi Books, 1999) ISBN 086356-047-4.
  9. ↑ Mahd is included in Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology, ed. and trans. by Abdullah al-Udhari (London: Saqi Books, 1999), pp. 26-27. She is unlikely to have existed: Roger Allen, review of: Approaches to Classical Arabic Poetry - Identification and Identity in Classical Arabic Poetry, M. C. Lyons, Gibb Literary Studies, 2 (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1999) and Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology, Abdullah Al-Udhar (London: Saqi Books, 1999), Review of Middle East Studies, 35 (2001), 201-3 (at p. 202). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026318400043352. Rather she is a chronicle character who is portrayed uttering a muzdawaj warning the people of ʿĀd of their impending destruction by Allah, in accordance with the prophecies of the prophet Hud.
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