Al-Khansa'

{{Infobox person

| name = al-Khansāʾ

| image = Al-Khansa.jpg

| native_name = {{lang|ar|الخنساء}}

| caption = {{nowrap|1917 drawing of al-Khansa' by Kahlil Gibran}}

| birth_date = {{c.|575}}

| birth_place = Safeena, Arabia
(present-day Mahd Al-Dhahab Madinah Region, Saudi Arabia)

| death_date = {{c.}} 645/646.

| death_place = Najd, Arabia
(present-day Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)

| occupation = Poet

}}

Tumāḍir bint ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn al-Sharīd al-Sulamīyah ({{langx|ar|تماضر بنت عمرو بن الحارث بن الشريد السُلمية}}), usually simply referred to as al-Khansāʾ ({{langx|ar|الخنساء|links=no}}, meaning "snub-nosed", an Arabic epithet for a gazelle as metaphor for beauty) was a 7th-century tribeswoman, living in the Arabian Peninsula. She was one of the most influential poets of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods.{{Cite web|title=Al-Khansāʾ {{!}} Arab poet|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Khansa|access-date=2020-08-30|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}

In her time, the role of a female poet was to write elegies for the dead and perform them for the tribe in public oral competitions. Al-Khansāʾ won respect and fame in these competitions with her elegies, and is widely considered as the finest author of Arabic elegies and one of the greatest and best known female Arab poets of all time.{{cite book|title=Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology|translator=Geert Jan van Gelder|location=New York|publisher=New York University Press|year=2013}}{{cite book|author=Ghada Hashem Talhami|title=Historical Dictionary of Women in the Middle East and North Africa|language=en|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ddqaCdZdZ0C|year=2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|page=202|isbn=978-0-8108-6858-8 }} In 629, she went to Medina with a deputation from her clan and, after meeting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, embraced the new religion. Her poetry was later recorded by Muslim scholars, who were studying unaltered Arabic of her time in order to explicate the language of early Islamic texts.

Life

Al-Khansāʾ was born and raised in the Najd in the Arabian Peninsula into a wealthy family of the tribe of Sulaym, and was the daughter of the head of the al-Sharid clan. According to both contemporary as well as later judgement, she was the most powerful female poet of her time. In pre-Islamic society, the role of a female poet, such as al-Khansā’, was to compose elegies for the tribesmen who fell in the battlefield. Her extraordinary fame rests mainly on her elegiac poetry composed for her two brothers, Sakhr and Mu‘āwiya, who were killed in tribal skirmishes of Banū Sulaym with Banū Murra and Banū Asad, predating Islam.

In 612, her brother Muʿawiyah was killed by members of another tribe. Al-Khansāʾ insisted that her brother, Ṣakhr, avenge Muʿawiyah's death, which he did. Ṣakhr was wounded in the process and died of his wounds a year later. Al-Khansāʾ mourned her two brothers' deaths in poetry, writing over a hundred elegies about the two of them alone, and began to gain fame for her elegiac compositions, especially due to her powerful recitals. The contemporary Arab poet al-Nabigha said to her, "You are the finest poet of the jinn and the humans." ({{langx|ar|إنك أشعر الجن والإنس|links=no}}).{{cite book|author=Ibn Qutaybah|author-link=Ibn Qutaybah|title=al-Shiʿr wa-al-shuʿarāʾ|language=ar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKZGCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT219|year=1987|publisher=Dār ʾAḥyāʾ al-ʿUlūm|location=Beirut|page=218}} Similarly, another anecdote says that al-Nabigha told al-Khansāʾ, "If Abu Basir{{cite book|url=http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Asha|article=Asha|title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia|year=1979}} had not already recited to me, I would have said that you are the greatest poet of the Arabs. Go, for you are the greatest poet among those with breasts".{{cite book|author=Butrus al-Bustānī|author-link=Butrus al-Bustānī|title=Udabā' al-Arab fi al-Jāhiliya wa sadr al-Islām|language=ar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zmoiDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT202|year=1968|publisher=ktab INC.|page=209}} She responded by saying, "I'm the greatest poet among those with testicles, too".{{cite book|author=Hasna Reda Makdashi|title=Arab Women Writers A Critical Reference Guide, 1873-1999|language=en|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MB6gphBXU0kC|year=2008|publisher=American University in Cairo Press|isbn=978-977-416-146-9 }}

She was a contemporary of Muhammad, and eventually converted to Islam. It is said that Muhammad would ask her to recite some of her poetry for him, and he would love listening to her. Whenever she paused after a recital, he would gesture her to keep going and say, "Go on, Khunās!"{{cite book |last1=Ahmad Fariq |first1=Khurshid |title=History of Arabic Literature: Volume 1 |date=1972 |publisher=Vikas Publications |page=106 |isbn=9780706901795 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oAQOAAAAYAAJ&q=Khun%C4%81s+khans%C4%81}}{{cite book |last1=Ibn al-Athir |first1=Ali |title=Asad al-Ghabah fi Ma'rifat al-Sahabah |publisher=Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyah |page=7:90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwlKCwAAQBAJ&q=%D9%87%D9%8A%D9%87+%D9%8A%D8%A7+%D8%AE%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B3&pg=PT72}}{{cite book |last1=Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani |first1=Ahmad |title=Al-Isabah fi Tamyiz al-Sahabah |publisher=Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyah |page=8:110 |url=https://waqfeya.com/book.php?bid=10575}}{{cite book |last1=Ibn 'Abd al-Barr |first1=Yusuf |title=Al-Isti'ab fi Ma'rifat al-Ashab |publisher=Dar al-Jayl |page=1827 |url=https://waqfeya.com/book.php?bid=3930}} Muhammad even rated al-Khansāʾ over Imru' al-Qais, the most famous poet of the classical Arabic tradition, as the one with greater poetic abilities.{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Bonnie G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&q=Whatever+its+truth%2C+the+existence+of+this+narrative+points+to+a+profound+respect+for+the+poetic+skill+of+al-Khansa%CB%92%2C+as+well+as+for+the+social+values+expressed+in+her+poetry.&pg=RA2-PA18 |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History: Volume 3 |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195148909 |page=18}}

She was married at least twice, and had six children, all of whom were also poets and eventually converted to Islam. Four of them, Yazīd, Muʿāwiyah, ʿAmr, and ʿAmrah, were killed in the Battle of Qadisiyah. When she received the news, she allegedly said, "Praise be to God who honored me with their martyrdom. And I have hope from my Lord that he will reunite me with them in the abode of his mercy." ({{langx|ar|الحمد لله الذي شرفني بقتلهم، وأرجو من ربي أن يجمعني بهم في مستقر رحمته}}).{{cite book|last=Al-Dughmi|first=Muhammad Rakan|title=Al-Tajassus wa ʾaḥkāmuhu fī al-sharīʿah al-ʾislāmīyah|language=ar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e8lGCwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PT135|year=1985|publisher=Dār al-salām|location=Beirut|page=193}}

She died in 645{{Cite book |last=Fair |first=C. Christine |url=https://www.google.nl/books/edition/In_Their_Own_Words/zR2DDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=al-Khansa'%20645&pg=PA133&printsec=frontcover |title=In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba |date=2018-12-15 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-006203-3 |pages=133 |language=en}} or 646.{{Cite book |last=Gioseffi |first=Daniela |url=https://www.google.nl/books/edition/Women_on_War/ZH2FtB14fcEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=al-Khansa'%20646&pg=PA104&printsec=frontcover |title=Women on War: An International Anthology of Women's Writings from Antiquity to the Present |date=2003 |publisher=Feminist Press at CUNY |isbn=978-1-55861-409-3 |language=en}}

Poetry and importance in the history of Arabic literature

The poems of al-Khansā’ are short and marked by a strong and traditional sense of despair at the irrevocable loss of life. Apart from her poetical talent, her significance lies in having raised the early Arabic elegiac tradition to the level of qarīd{{clarify|date=January 2023}} poetry instead of sadj‘{{clarify|date=January 2023}} or radjaz{{clarify|date=January 2023}}. Her style and expression, which assured her a superiority in this genre, became stereotyped in the later rithā’ poetry. As an outstanding poet and female figure in the history of Arabic literature, the position of al-Khansā’ is unique.{{Cite web|last=Lynx Qualey|first=Marcia|date=2020-08-30|title=Sunday Classics: Al Khansa, the 'Greatest Among Those with Breasts' (& Testicles, Too)|url=https://arablit.org/2020/08/30/sunday-classics-al-khansa-the-greatest-among-those-with-breasts-testicles-too/|access-date=2020-08-30|website=ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly|language=en}} Al-Khansa’s elegies were later collected by Ibn al-Sikkit (802–858 CE), a literary scholar of the early Abbasid era. Nearly a thousand lines of her poetry remain.{{Cite web|title=Al-Khansa' {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/al-khansa|access-date=2020-08-30|website=www.encyclopedia.com}}

Editions and translations

James Montgomery, Loss Sings, The Cahiers Series, 32 (Sylph Editions, 2019), {{ISBN|1909631272}}
In 2021, it was announced that Yasmine Seale would translate al-Khansa's work for the Library of Arabic Literature series.'[https://arablit.org/2021/07/31/yasmine-seale-to-translate-al-khansa-for-lal-series/ Yasmine Seale to Translate Al-Khansa for LAL Series]', ArabLit Quarterly (31 July 2021).

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20110727202602/http://www.chowk.com/Life/Hazrat-Khansaa "A Great Arab Poetess of Elegy", an essay about Al-Khansa]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110709090305/http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/khansa.html Other Women's Voices collection, contains links, secondary sources, and excerpts]
[http://www.projectcontinua.org/al-khansa/ Project Continua: Biography of al-Khansa]

Category:575 births

Category:640s deaths

Category:6th-century Arabic-language poets

Category:7th-century Arabic-language poets

Category:Women companions of the Prophet

Category:Women poets of the medieval Islamic world

Category:Converts to Islam

Category:Arab women

Category:Medieval women poets

Category:Poets of the early Islamic period

Category:Arabic-language women poets

Category:Arabic-language poets