The Women of the Arabs | Page 4

El Khunsa, which gave
her the title of princess of Arab poetesses. The translation I have made
quite literal.
"Ah time has its wonders; its changes amaze, It leaves us the tail while
the head it slays; It leaves us the low while the highest decays; It leaves
the obscure, the despised, and the slave, But of honored and loved ones,
the true and the brave It leaves us to mourn o'er the untimely grave.
The two new creations, the day and the night, Though ceaselessly
changing, are pure as the light: But man changes to error, corruption
and blight."
The most ancient Arab poetess, Zarîfeh, is supposed to have lived as
long ago as the Second Century, in the time of the bursting of the
famous dyke of Mareb, which devastated the land of Saba. Another
poetess, Rakâsh, sister of the king of Hira, was given in marriage, by
the king when intoxicated, to a man named Adi.
Alas, in these days the Moslem Arabs do not wait until blinded by wine,
to give their daughters in marriage to strangers. I once overheard two
Moslem young men converging in a shop, one of whom was about to
be married. His companion said to him, "have you heard anything
about the looks of your betrothed?" "Not much," said he, "only I am
assured that she is white."
In a book written by Mirai ibn Yusef el Hanbali, are the names of

twenty Arab women who improvised poetry. Among them are Leila,
Leila el Akhyalîyeh, Lubna, Zeinab, Afra, Hind, May, Jenûb, Hubaish,
Zarifeh, Jemîleh, Remleh, Lotifeh, and others. Most of the verses
ascribed to them are erotic poetry of an amatory character, full of the
most extravagant expressions of devotion of which language is capable,
and yet the greater part of it hardly bearing translation. It reminds one
strikingly of Solomon's Song, full of passionate eloquence. And yet in
the poetry of El Khunsa and others, which is of an elegiac character,
there are passages full of sententious apothegms and proverbial
wisdom.
CHAPTER II.
STATE OF WOMEN IN THE MOHAMMADAN WORLD.
Our knowledge of the position of women among the Mohammedans is
derived from the Koran, Moslem tradition, and Moslem practice.
I. In the first place, the Koran does not teach that women have no souls.
Not only was Mohammed too deeply indebted to his rich wife Khadijah,
to venture such an assertion, but he actually teaches in the Koran the
immortality and moral responsibility of women. One of his wives
having complained to him that God often praised the men, but not the
women who had fled the country for the faith, he immediately
produced the following revelation:
"I will not suffer the work of him among you who worketh to be lost,
whether he be male or female." (Sura iii.)
In Sura iv. it is said:
"Whoso doeth good works, and is a true believer, whether male or
female, shall be admitted into Paradise."
In Sura xxxiii:
"Truly, the Muslemen and the Muslimate, (fem.) The believing men
and the believing women, The devout men and the devout women, The

men of truth and the women of truth, The patient men and the patient
women, The humble men and the humble women, The charitable men
and the charitable women, The fasting men and the fasting women, The
chaste men and the chaste women, And the men and women who oft
remember God; For them hath God prepared Forgiveness and a rich
recompense."
II. Thus Mohammedans cannot and do not deny that women have souls,
but their brutal treatment of women has naturally led to this view. The
Caliph Omar said that "women are worthless creatures and soil men's
reputations." In Sura iv. it is written:
"Men are superior to women, on account of the qualities With which
God has gifted the one above the other, And on account of the outlay
they make, from their substance for them. Virtuous women are
obedient.... But chide those for whose refractoriness Ye have cause to
fear ... and scourge them."
The interpretation of this last injunction being left to the individual
believer, it is carried out with terrible severity. The scourging and
beating of wives is one of the worst features of Moslem domestic life.
It is a degraded and degrading practice, and having the sanction of the
Koran, will be indulged in without rebuke as long as Islamism as a
system and a faith prevails in the world. Happily for the poor women,
the husbands do not generally beat them so as to imperil their lives, in
case their own relatives reside in the vicinity, lest the excruciating
screams of the suffering should reach the ears of her parents and bring
the husband into disgrace. But where there is no fear of interference or