͑Ulayya bint al-Mahdī (160−210/ 777−825), the younger sister of the Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd, and ͑Arīb (181−277/ 797−890), a first enslaved, later manumitted woman, are exceptional figures of the musical and poetic arts performed at the court of the early Abbasids. This study draws substantially on their biographical entries in the Kitāb al-Aghānī by Abū l-Faraj al-I“fahānī, one of the most important 10th-century sources for cultural history. Informed by postcolonial feminism and critical literary theory, the author investigates why and how women entered the androcentric historiographical writings of the Islamic Middle Ages and what happened to their life stories within the framework of powerful textual presentations. Localizing the close ties between gender, social status, and historiographical re-presentation, the author is able to identify Muslim women from this early period as historical agents and, moreover, show that their artistic contributions and specific knowledge are not only an integral part of Islamic history but essential for contemporary feminist discussions.
Ulayya bint al-Mahdi (160-210/777-825), the younger sister of the Caliph Harun ar-Rashid and Arib (181-277/797-890), a first enslaved, later manumitted woman are exceptional representatives of the musical and poetic arts at the court of the early Abbasids. Their biographical entries in the Kitab al-Agani by Abu l-Farag al-Isfahani - one of the most important tenth century sources for cultural history - are a substantial foundation for the study at hand. Based upon approaches of postcolonial feminism and critical literary theory the author investigates why and how women entered the androcentric historiographical writings of the Islamic Middle Ages and what happened to their life-stories within the frame of powerful textual presentations. Lauré al-Samarai localizes the close ties between gender, social status and historiographical re-presentation in order to acknowledge Muslim women of early periods as historical agents. Their hitherto almost unknown contributions and specific knowledge are not only an integral part of Islamic history but essential for contemporary feminist discussions.
Literatures in Context is a peer-reviewed book series devoted to Near Eastern and North African literatures. The editors want the title of the series to be understood programmatically. They presuppose a concept of world literature that includes Near Eastern and North African literatures. What is more, they assume that literatures are in many ways marked by intertextuality, that they constitute readings of extremely diverse earlier texts, and that they are posited within a field of tensions, much broader than their respective national language. For the earlier eras of Near Eastern and North African literatures, this field of tensions geographically covers the regions of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor. In modern times, it has become a space of interaction that has long since included “global” Western literatures (and realities). This does not imply that the modern Near Eastern and North African literatures have severed themselves from their predecessors. Instead it is precisely the tension between different sets of references in modern Near Eastern and North African literatures, or their “local historical context”, which is a great part of their attraction, that remains a crucial field of research for the modern scholar.
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