The Poetry of Arab Women: from the Pre-Islamic Age to Andalusia

169 Pages·2019·0.735 MB·English

by  Wessam Elmeligi

The Poetry of Arab Women
from the Pre-Islamic Age
to Andalusia
This is a compilation of poetry written by Arabic women poets from pre-
Islamic times to the end of the Abbasid caliphate and Andalusia, and offers
translations of over 200 poets together with literary commentary on the
poets and their poetry.
This critical anthology presents the poems of more than 200 Arabic
women poets active from the 600s through the 1400s CE. It marks the first
appearance in English translation for many of these poems. The volume
includes biographical information about the poets, as well as an analysis of
the development of women’s poetry in classical Arabic literature that places
the women and the poems within their cultural context. The book fills a
noticeable void in modern English-language scholarship on Arabic women,
and has important implications for the fields of world and Arabic literature
as well as gender and women’s studies.
The book will be a fascinating and vital text for students and researchers in
the fields of Gender Studies and Middle Eastern studies, as well as scholars
and students of translation studies, comparative literature, literary theory,
gender studies, Arabic literature, and culture and classics.
Wessam Elmeligi is Assistant Professor NTT at the Department of
Classical Mediterranean and Middle East at Macalester College in St.
Paul, Minnesota, and Associate Professor at the English Department, the
Faculty of Education, Damanhur University, Egypt. With a PhD in literary
theory, his research interests include comparative literature, narratology,
psychoanalysis, gender and women’s studies, visual analysis of film and
art, digital humanities, as well as translation. He has published articles and
book chapters on Naguib Mahfouz, Radwa Ashour and the modern Arabic
novel, Bernard Shaw and Arabic adaptations of the English theatre, and the
Arabian Nights. He has also written and illustrated two graphic novels, Y&Y
and Jamila.
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www.routledge.com/Focus-on-Global-Gender-and-Sexuality/book-series/
FGGS
The Poetry of Arab
Women from the
Pre-Islamic Age
to Andalusia
Wessam Elmeligi
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Wessam Elmeligi
The right of Wessam Elmeligi to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-32357-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-45131-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For those of you who
Scribbled poems on a wall,
Wishes do come true.
Believe the poems, then.
For I believe them all.

Contents
Acknowledgments xiv
1 Introduction: writing a critical anthology of
women poets in translation 1
2 Poets of the pre-Islamic period 16
1 ʿAbla bint Khālid at-Tamīmiyya 16
2 Ad-Daʿjāʾ bint Wahb 16
3 Al-Basūs bint Munqidh al-Bikriyya 16
4 Al-Fāriʿa bint Muʿāwiya al-Qushairiyya 17
5 Al-Jaidāʾ bint Zāhir al-Zubaidiyya 17
6 Al-Khansāʾ bint Zuhair bin Abī Sulmā 17
7 An-Nawwār al-Jul 18
8 Asmāʾ al-Mariyya 18
9 As-Sulaka Umm as-Sulaik 18
10 Bārra bint ʿAbdu-l-Muṭṭalib 19
11 Ḍāḥiya al-Hilāliyya 20
12 Dahknatūs bint Luqaiṭ 20
13 Dijāja bint Ṣafwān 20
14 Fāṭima bint Murr al-Khuthʿamiyya 21
15 Fāriʿa al-Muriyya 21
16 Hazīla al-Judaisiyya 21
17 Hind al-Julāḥiyya 22
18 Hind bint al-Khus 22
19 Ḥusaina bint Jābir bint Bujair al-ʿIjlī 22
20 Ibnat aḍ-Ḍaḥāk bin Sufyān (Ḥabība bint aḍ-Ḍaḥāk) 23
viii Contents
21 Jalīla bint Murra ash-Shaibāniyya 23
22 Jāriyat Humām ibn Murra 24
23 Karma bint Ḍilʿ 24
24 Lailā al-ʿAfīfa 24
25 Lailā bint Mirdās 25
26 Manfūsa bint Zaid al-Khail 25
27 Raiṭa bint ʿĀṣiyya 25
28 Rayṭa bint Jadhl aṭ-Ṭaʿān 26
29 Ṣafiyya al-Bāhiliyya 26
30 Ṣafiyya bint Thaʿlaba al-Shaibāniyya 27
31 Subaiʿa bint al-Aḥab 27
32 Suʿdā al-Asadiyya 27
33 Suʿdā al-Lakhmiyya 28
34 Sulaimā bint al-Muhalhal 29
35 Sumayya Zawjat Shaddād al-ʿAbsī 29
36 Ṭāriqa 30
37 Tumāḍir bint ash-Sharīd as-Salmiyya 30
38 ʿUfaira bint ʿAffān al-Judaisiyya 31
39 Ukht al-Aswad bin Ghaffār (Ghafīra bint Ghaffār) 31
40 Umaima bint ʿAbdu-l-Muṭṭalib 32
41 Umāma bint Dhī-l-Iṣbaʿ 32
42 Umāma bint Kulaib at-Taghlibiyya 33
43 Umm Abī Judāba 33
44 Umm aḍ-Ḍaḥāk al-Muḥāribiyya 34
45 Umm al-Aghar bint Rabīʿa at-Taghlibiyya 34
46 Umm aṣ-Ṣarīḥ al-Kindiyya 35
47 Umm Mūsā al-Kilābiyya 35
48 Umm Nāshira at-Taghlibiyya 35
49 Umm Thawāb al-Huzāniyya 36
50 ʿUmra bint al-Khunābis at-Taghlibiyya 36
51 ʿUtba bint ʿAfīf 37
52 Wahība bint ʿAbdu-l-ʿUzzā 38
53 Zainab bint Farwa at-Tamīmiyya 38
54 Zarqāʾ al-Yamāma 38
3 Crossover poets 41
1 ʿAfrāʾ bint ʿUqāl al-ʿUdhriyya 41
2 Al-Khansāʾ 42
Contents ix
3 Arwā bint ʿAbdu-l-Muṭṭalib 42
4 Ash-Shaimāʾ bint al-Ḥarth as-Saʿdiyya 43
5 Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr 43
6 Durra al-Hāshimiyya 44
7 Ḥawma bint al-ʿAjjāj 44
8 Hind bint ʿUtba 45
9 Hind bint Uthātha bin ʿAbbād bin al-Muṭṭalib
bin ʿAbd Manāf 45
10 Ḥurqa bint an-Nuʿmān bin al-Mundhir 45
11 Nutaila 46
12 Ṣafiyya bint ʿAbdu-l-Muṭṭalib 47
13 Ṣafiyya bint Musāfir 47
14 Salmā bint Badr bin Mālik 47
15 Ukht al-Ḥuṭam 48
16 Umm Jamīl bint Umayya 48
17 Umm Kulthūm bint ʿAbd Wud al-ʿĀmiriyya 48
18 ʿUmra bint Duraid bin aṣ-Ṣamma 49
4 Poets of the early Islamic period 51
1 ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr 51
2 Ar-Rabāb bint Imruʾ-l-Qais 51
3 Asmāʾ Ṣāḥibat Jaʿd 52
4 Fāṭima az-Zahrāʾ 53
5 Fāṭima bint al-Ḥusain 53
6 Ibnat Lubaid bin Rabīʿa al-ʿĀmirī 54
7 Khawla bint al-Azūr al-Kindiyya 54
8 Nāʾila bint al-Furāfiṣa 55
9 Sīrīn ibnat Ḥassān 55
10 Umm-ul-Aswad al-Kilābiyya 56
11 ʿĀʾisha bint ʿAbdu-l-Mudān 56
12 Umm Ḥakīm bint Yaḥyā 57
13 Umm Ḥamāda al-Hamadhāniyya 57
14 Umm ʿUqba Zawjat Ghassān bin Jahḍam 57
15 ʿUmra bint Ruwāḥa 58
16 Zainab bint al-ʿAwwām 58
17 Zainab bint ʿUqail bin Abī Ṭālib 59
5 Analysis: poetics of rejection 61