Another way of saying: A reverie on the poetry of al-Andalus

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Notes

1. Marla Segol (2009) sees “the content of her body-text [as] a manifesto against the seclusion of women, a message intensified by the fact that she placed it upon her outermost garment. In the right inscription, she declares her freedom of movement in public, and on the left, in private. The first line of the right inscription contradicts the Quranic assertion that women were ‘one degree lower than men’. Instead, Wallada claims her own revelation, invoking God’s sanction, affirming her belonging in the world in which she moved. The second line refers to her rejection of the veil. Echoing the sentiment of Aisha, it relates a sense of pride in her physical form and its mobility, again in direct opposition to the idea of female seclusion. The left side breaches the physical boundaries of seclusion, describing a reciprocal relationship between the poet and her beloved(s). Here, she consents to be a beloved, allowing her lover to kiss her cheek, and a lover, bestowing the coveted kiss. Needless to say, this was not possible in the secluded world of most upper-class women of the period, nor was it possible from behind the veil” (160).

2. I listened to him most through Coleman Barks’s reinterpretations, though Murad kept insisting I should prefer Jawad Mojaddedi.

3. “When the West Wind ripped the river’s tunic / the river overflowed its banks / to pursue and take revenge; / but the doves laughed, and made fun / from a sheltering thicket, / and the river, shame-faced, / crawled back into his bed / to hide under its veil.” Ibn Safr al-Marini (Franzen 1989, 48).

4. “The meandering waterway / with its silvery waters / shows a sparkling smile. / It resembles a necklace / unclasped and thrown aside.” Ibn Zaydun (Franzen 1989, 34).

5. “Like a young tree in springtime / her slim waist sways / over the sand dunes of her hips.” The Ummayyad Prince Marwan ibn ’Abd al-Rahman (Franzen 1989, 10).

6. “Look at the ripe wheat / bending before the wind / like squadrons of horsemen / fleeing in defeat, bleeding / from the wounds of the poppies” Ibn Iyad (Franzen 1989, 5).

7. “The river of diaphanous water / murmuring between its banks / would have you believe / it is a stream of pearls. / At midday tall trees / cover it with shadows / turning it the color of metal. / So now you see it, blue, / wrapped in brocade, / lie a warrior in armor / resting in the shade of his banner.” Muhammed ibn Ghalib al-Rusafi (Franzen 1989, 9).

8. “When she looks at the real moon / it’s as if she were looking / at her own face in a mirror.” Safwan ibn Idris (Franzen 1989, 67).

9. Wallada’s poet lover Ibn Zaydun tells her “We were two secrets / held by the heart of darkness / until the tongue of dawn / threatened to denounce us.” (Franzen 1989, 33).

10. “During the night love’s hands / wrapped us in a garment of embraces”. Ibn Khafaja (Franzen 1989, 15).

11. “The letter K no longer designates a narrator or a character but an assemblage that becomes all the more machine-like, an agent that becomes all the more collective because an individual is locked into it in his or her solitude” (Deleuze and Guattari 2000, 18).

12. “The rulers of Cordoba had to undertake military initiatives on two fronts in the tenth century: within the Iberian peninsula, against the Christian states of the north; and outside it, against the principalities of north Africa across the Straits of Gibraltar to the south” (Fletcher 1992, 54).

13. “I remembered Sulayma / when the ardor of the battle / was like that of my body / when I left her. I saw her slim waist / among the lances / and when they leaned toward me / I embraced them.” Abu I-Hasan ibn al Qabturnuh (Franzen 1989, 39).

14. The taḥrīd is a form of verse that incites the reader to fight.

15. “While many of the restrictions imposed on the muhsana were not taken directly from the Qur’an, and therefore did not constitute law, early commentaries providing behavioral guidelines were written in the form of legal codes called ummahat. These texts have formed the basis of all later jurisprudence. It is possible to count the places pious women could go on one’s fingers: the baths (for which they drew much criticism), to funerals (for which they also drew much criticism), to weddings, to visit relatives, to do laundry, and perhaps to the marketplace (from which they were strongly discouraged). Poorer women could not avoid many of these and other destinations, but the higher the social position of a woman, the harder it was for her to leave the house” (Segol 2009,150).

16. Hafsa bint Hajj ar-Rakuniyya, a 12th-century noblewoman, was perhaps the most celebrated and prolific woman poet of her time, although only 60 lines of verse, set among 19 different compositions, survive to date (Segol 2009, 158).

17. Shah attributed the story to Fudail ibn Ayad, a 9th-century reformed bandit turned Sufi sage.

18. My translation of Rabia Basri’s “You Have Infused My Being” (Jamal 2009, 9).

19. Andalusian poet Adi al-Riga, quoted by Rumi at the beginning of Mathnawi Book Four.