The Women of the Arabs | Page 3

hearing of the birth of a
daughter hide themselves "from the people because of the ill-tidings;
shall he keep it with disgrace, or bury it in the dust." (Sura xvi.)
It is said that the only occasion on which Othman ever shed a tear, was
when his little daughter, whom he was burying alive, wiped the dust of
the grave-earth from his beard!

Before the Seventh Century this practice seems to have been gradually
abandoned, but was retained the longest in the tribe of Temîm. Naman,
king of Hira, carried off among his prisoners in a foray, the daughter of
Kais, chief of Temîm, who fell in love with one of her captors and
refused to return to her tribe, whereupon her father swore to bury alive
all his future female children, which he did, to the number of ten.
Subsequent to this, rich men would buy the lives of girls devoted to
inhumation, and Sa Saah thus rescued many, in one case giving two
milch camels to buy the life of a new-born girl, and he was styled "the
Reviver of the Maidens buried alive."
The following Arabic Proverbs having reference to women and girls
will illustrate the ancient Arab ideas with regard to their character and
position, better than volumes of historic discourse:
"Obedience to women will have to be repented of."
"A man can bear anything but the mention of his women."
"The heart of woman is given to folly."
"Leave not a girl nor a green pasture unguarded."
"What has a girl to do with the councils of a nation?"
"If you would marry a beauty, pay her dowry."
"Fear not to praise the man whose wives are true to him."
"Woman fattens on what she hears." (flattery)
"Women are the whips of Satan."
"If you would marry a girl, inquire about the traits of her mother."
"Trust neither a king, a horse, nor a woman. For the king is fastidious,
the horse prone to run away, and the woman is perfidious."

"My father does the fighting, and my mother the talking about it."
"Our mother forbids us to err and runs into error."
"Alas for the people who are ruled by a woman!"
The position of woman among the Arabs before the times of
Mohammed can be easily inferred from what has preceded. But there is
another side to the picture. Although despised and abused, woman
often asserted her dignity and maintained her rights, not only by
physical force, but by intellectual superiority as well. The poetesses of
the Arabs are numerous, and some of them hold a high rank. Their
poetry was impromptu, impassioned, and chiefly of the elegiac and
erotic type. The faculty of improvisation was cultivated even by the
most barbarous tribes, and although such of their poetry as has been
preserved is mostly a kind of rhymed prose, it often contains striking
and beautiful thoughts. They called improvised poetry "the daughter of
the hour."
The queen of Arabic poetesses is El Khunsa, who flourished in the days
of Mohammed. Elegies on her two warrior brothers Sakhr and
Mu'awiyeh are among the gems of ancient Arabic poetry. She was not
what would be called in modern times a refined or delicate lady, being
regarded as proud and masculine in temper even by the Arabs of her
own age. In the eighth year of the Hegira, her son Abbas brought a
thousand warriors to join the forces of the Prophet. She came with him
and recited her poetry to Mohammed. She lamented her brother for
years. She sang of Sakhr:
"His goodness is known by his brotherly face, Thrice blessed such sign
of a heavenly grace: You would think from his aspect of meekness and
shame, That his anger was stirred at the thought of his fame. Oh rare
virtue and beautiful, natural trait, Which never will change by the
change of estate! When clad in his armor and prepared for the fray, The
army rejoiceth and winneth the day!"
Again, she lamented him as follows:

"Each glorious rising sun brings Sakhr to my mind, I think anew of him
when sets the orb of day; And had I not beheld the grief and sorrow
blind Of many mourning ones o'er brothers snatched away, I should
have slain myself, from deep and dark despair."
The poet Nabighah erected for her a red leather tent at the fair of Okaz,
in token of honor, and in the contest of poetry gave her the highest
place above all but Maymûn, saying to her, "If I had not heard him, I
would say that thou didst surpass every one in poetry. I confess that
you surpass all women." To which she haughtily replied, "Not the less
do I surpass all men."
The following are among the famous lines of