Beautiful or ugly? Wicked or virtuous? : chosen images of woman in Arabic literature up to Xth century

Images of woman have appeared in Arabic literature since the first verses of Arabic poetry had been created, they have been present both in qaṣīdas and occasional pieces. In Islamic literature different pictures of woman have been emphasized. The image of woman is not homogeneous. The aim of this paper is to describe three diverse images of woman which were created in ğāhiliyy qaṣīdas, ğāhiliyy and early Islamic invective poetry – satires (ar. hiğā’), and early Arabic prose. Mucallaqāt (ten) constitute source material used to present the first type of woman portrait as preserved in pre-Islamic poetry and additionally one poem by an-Nābiġa aḏ-Ḏubyānī and cAlqama ibn cAbada. As to the occasional poetry the researches have been carried out on the last chapter entitled “Maḏammat an-nisā’” from Kitāb al-ḥamāsa of Abū Tammām. The chapter contains eighteen poems most of them, but not all, as the title of the chapter suggests, dedicated against women. Source material to the third part of woman’s picture recorded in Arabic prose derives mainly from the early translations from pahlavi – famous Kalīla wa-Dimna collection of animal stories, Arabian Nights and some works of adab written up to Xth century. Preliminarily, characteristic feature of the studied source material is that the early texts focuse on description of woman’s body, her appearance whereas early Arabic prose is concerned with woman’s spirit, behavior and her morality. The paper preludes comprehensive studies on the typical images of woman as presented in various production of Arabic medieval literature.

Kobieta od samego zarania literatury arabskiej pojawia się jako jej bohaterka. Jest obecna w kasydach, wierszach okolicznościowych, wiele miejsca poświęca jej Koran. W czasach islamu wizerunek i rola kobiety w literaturze, zarówno poezji jak i prozie, podlegają licznym zmianom. Wpływ na to ma wiele czynników: islam, sytuacja społeczna, zmiana warunków życia, wreszcie wpływy literatury i kultury przedstawicieli narodów podbitych, które znalazły się w granicach kalifatu. Celem artykułu jest pokazanie wielobarwnego obrazu kobiety w literaturze i próba wskazania tych czynników, które wpłynęły na takie, a nie inne jego ujęcie. Badania są przeprowadzone na wybranych dziełach literatury arabskiej- prozie i poezji, co gwarantuje wszechstronność ujęcia tematu.