When a young woman named Al-Dahnā, living in the Arabian Peninsula during the Umayyad Islamic period, was asked why she was unhappy with her marriage, she did not hesitate or shy away from giving an honest answer: her husband was inexperienced in bed. Standing before the governor of al-Yamāma, a district east of Najd on the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Dahnā had to justify her request for divorce, not from just any man, but from a well-regarded poet who worked with high-ranking Umayyad officials. In his defense, her husband, al-Ajjāj, accused her of being difficult, claiming that if he wanted to sleep with her, he had to fight for it. In retaliation, Al-Dahnā wielded the power of poetry, and the vigor of the Arabic language, to voice her reasons for seeking a divorce. At a time in Islamic history when poetry held immense significance, she expressed her grievances poetically, stating, “I swear that he does not take me in his arms, nor does he kiss me or sniff me. No passionate motion comforting me, making my toe rings fly into my sleeve.” As a woman, she spoke with her full feminine voice,…
How Arab Women Used Erotic Poetry to Express Sexual Desire in Early Islamic Society
March 30, 2025
