I am the Librarian for Islamic Art & Architecture at the Harvard University Fine Arts Library. I am also a scholar of medieval Arabic popular literature. My dissertation, completed in 2018, is titled "Wives, Witches and Warriors: Women in Arabic Popular Epic." Address: Acton, MA, United States
Popular literature, being a preferred form of entertainment among commoners during the medieval p... more Popular literature, being a preferred form of entertainment among commoners during the medieval period in the Islamic world, offers an important and understudied vantage into the ethical system of a population that is vastly underrepresented in both contemporary and modern literature. As opposed to elite literature, which mostly restricts women to unimportant roles when it includes them at all, popular literature features women heavily, in both starring and supporting roles of varying complexity.
By examining female characters in the Arabic epic storytelling genre known as the sīrah, this paper aims to formulate a definition of female transgressiveness in the public imagination of common medieval citizens. Close reading reveals that transgression is determined by intention rather than action: a princess who seduces a hero to conceive a heroic son is lauded, for example, while a princess who seduces men for sexual pleasure is portrayed as monstrous. A mother who abandons her son because she fears the influence of non-Muslim countrymen later becomes her child’s honored advisor; a mother who does the same to prevent her son from usurping her power becomes a reviled villainess.
In the sīrah, violent, manipulative, opinionated, and independent women are accepted, even admired, if their intentions align with the main goals of the narrative (usually the spread and protection of Islam). These traits become cause for condemnation, however, when they run counter to these purposes. In revealing the female motivations considered acceptable and unacceptable to the male composers and storytellers who shaped these tales, a surprisingly egalitarian ethic takes shape in which the piety and selflessness of all characters, as opposed to more gendered ideals, determine their role in the narrative structure.
This dissertation consolidates the known corpus of the medieval Arabic popular epic (sīrah shaʿbī... more This dissertation consolidates the known corpus of the medieval Arabic popular epic (sīrah shaʿbīyah) in order to examine the roles of its female characters and how they relate to power. Borrowing from feminist theory, the study takes as its organizing principle the categories of “power-over,” “power-to,” and “power-with,” showing that how a woman is judged for expressing power depends upon how her actions fit into one of these three categories. Moreover, each expression of power tends to be connected to a woman’s familial relationships: sexually available women are usually classified as expressing “power-over,” while the nonsexual relationships of sisters and daughters exemplify “power-to.” The character of the selfless mother represents the ultimate expression of “power-with.” By comparing these characterizations to portrayals of women in religious, historical, and adab works also created during the Middle Periods of Islamic history, we can conclude that the modern perception of w...
Popular literature, being a preferred form of entertainment among commoners during the medieval p... more Popular literature, being a preferred form of entertainment among commoners during the medieval period in the Islamic world, offers an important and understudied vantage into the ethical system of a population that is vastly underrepresented in both contemporary and modern literature. As opposed to elite literature, which mostly restricts women to unimportant roles when it includes them at all, popular literature features women heavily, in both starring and supporting roles of varying complexity.
By examining female characters in the Arabic epic storytelling genre known as the sīrah, this paper aims to formulate a definition of female transgressiveness in the public imagination of common medieval citizens. Close reading reveals that transgression is determined by intention rather than action: a princess who seduces a hero to conceive a heroic son is lauded, for example, while a princess who seduces men for sexual pleasure is portrayed as monstrous. A mother who abandons her son because she fears the influence of non-Muslim countrymen later becomes her child’s honored advisor; a mother who does the same to prevent her son from usurping her power becomes a reviled villainess.
In the sīrah, violent, manipulative, opinionated, and independent women are accepted, even admired, if their intentions align with the main goals of the narrative (usually the spread and protection of Islam). These traits become cause for condemnation, however, when they run counter to these purposes. In revealing the female motivations considered acceptable and unacceptable to the male composers and storytellers who shaped these tales, a surprisingly egalitarian ethic takes shape in which the piety and selflessness of all characters, as opposed to more gendered ideals, determine their role in the narrative structure.
This dissertation consolidates the known corpus of the medieval Arabic popular epic (sīrah shaʿbī... more This dissertation consolidates the known corpus of the medieval Arabic popular epic (sīrah shaʿbīyah) in order to examine the roles of its female characters and how they relate to power. Borrowing from feminist theory, the study takes as its organizing principle the categories of “power-over,” “power-to,” and “power-with,” showing that how a woman is judged for expressing power depends upon how her actions fit into one of these three categories. Moreover, each expression of power tends to be connected to a woman’s familial relationships: sexually available women are usually classified as expressing “power-over,” while the nonsexual relationships of sisters and daughters exemplify “power-to.” The character of the selfless mother represents the ultimate expression of “power-with.” By comparing these characterizations to portrayals of women in religious, historical, and adab works also created during the Middle Periods of Islamic history, we can conclude that the modern perception of w...
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By examining female characters in the Arabic epic storytelling genre known as the sīrah, this paper aims to formulate a definition of female transgressiveness in the public imagination of common medieval citizens. Close reading reveals that transgression is determined by intention rather than action: a princess who seduces a hero to conceive a heroic son is lauded, for example, while a princess who seduces men for sexual pleasure is portrayed as monstrous. A mother who abandons her son because she fears the influence of non-Muslim countrymen later becomes her child’s honored advisor; a mother who does the same to prevent her son from usurping her power becomes a reviled villainess.
In the sīrah, violent, manipulative, opinionated, and independent women are accepted, even admired, if their intentions align with the main goals of the narrative (usually the spread and protection of Islam). These traits become cause for condemnation, however, when they run counter to these purposes. In revealing the female motivations considered acceptable and unacceptable to the male composers and storytellers who shaped these tales, a surprisingly egalitarian ethic takes shape in which the piety and selflessness of all characters, as opposed to more gendered ideals, determine their role in the narrative structure.
By examining female characters in the Arabic epic storytelling genre known as the sīrah, this paper aims to formulate a definition of female transgressiveness in the public imagination of common medieval citizens. Close reading reveals that transgression is determined by intention rather than action: a princess who seduces a hero to conceive a heroic son is lauded, for example, while a princess who seduces men for sexual pleasure is portrayed as monstrous. A mother who abandons her son because she fears the influence of non-Muslim countrymen later becomes her child’s honored advisor; a mother who does the same to prevent her son from usurping her power becomes a reviled villainess.
In the sīrah, violent, manipulative, opinionated, and independent women are accepted, even admired, if their intentions align with the main goals of the narrative (usually the spread and protection of Islam). These traits become cause for condemnation, however, when they run counter to these purposes. In revealing the female motivations considered acceptable and unacceptable to the male composers and storytellers who shaped these tales, a surprisingly egalitarian ethic takes shape in which the piety and selflessness of all characters, as opposed to more gendered ideals, determine their role in the narrative structure.