The Women of the Arabs | Page 4

time of the bursting of the famous dyke of Mareb, which devastated the land of Saba. Another poetess, Rakash, 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 Akhyal?yeh, Lubna, Zeinab, Afra, Hind, May, Jen?b, Hubaish, Zarifeh, Jem?leh, 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 of discovery, the blows and kicks are applied in the most merciless and barbarous manner. Women are killed in this way, and no outsider knows the cause. One of my Moslem neighbors once beat one of his wives to death. I heard her screams day after day, and finally, one night, when all was still, I heard a dreadful shriek, and blow after blow falling upon her back and head. I could hear the brute cursing her as he beat her. The police would not interfere, and I could not enter the house. The next day there was a funeral from that house, and she was carried off and buried in the most hasty and unfeeling manner. Sometimes it happens that the woman is strong enough to defend herself, and conquers a