Nazhūn bint al-Qulāʽiya al-Gharnātiya ( Arabic: نزهون بنت القلاعي الغرناطية, 12th-century) was a Granadan Qiyan and poet, noted for her outrageous verse.
Little is known about Nazhun's life. Medieval Arabic biographical dictionaries and accounts of her poetry are the main sources. Ibn al-Abbar has her as a (near-)contemporary of the twelfth-century Ḥamda bint Ziyād al-Muaddib. [1] Anecdotes about Nazhun also feature Abu Bakr al-Amā al-Makhzumi as Nazhun's teacher of the arts of satire; he seems to have been alive in the twelfth century, at some point after 1145; [2] indeed, Nazhun 'figures so prominently' in biographical entries about al-Makhzumi that 'his fame seems to be completely intertwined with hers'. She was supposedly the daughter of a qadi (judge). [3]: 4, 13 fnn 5, 8, 10
Although little of her work survives, Nazhun is, among medieval Andalusian women poets, probably second only to her contemporary Hafsa Bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya in the quantity of her work preserved: classical sources attribute to her twenty-one lines of verse from seven poems. In addition, the later Ùddat al-jalīs by Àlī ibn Bishrī attributes to her a muwashshaḥa of twenty-five lines, [3]: 13 fn 7 giving her the distinction of being the only female poet in the collection. [4] She usually appears getting the better of male poets and aristocrats around her with her witty invective. In Marla Segol's words, "as a rule, Nazhun represents her body in ways that disrupt conventional strategies for control of women’s speech and sexuality, and protests the merchandising of women’s bodies." [5] The study of her work has been hampered by scholars either not comprehending, or choosing not to expound on, its obscenity and double entendres. [3]: 6
In the translation of A. J. Arberry, one of her various ripostes runs: [6]
The poet al-Kutandi challenged the blind al-Makhzumi to complete the following verses:
- If you had eyes to view
- The man who speaks with you—
The blind man failed to discover a suitable continuation, but Nazhun, who happened to be present, improvized after this fashion:
- However many there may be
- All dumbly you’d behold
- His anklets’ shining gold.
- The rising moon, it seems,
- In his bright buttons gleams,
- And in his gown, I trow,
- There sways a slender bough.
Modern collections of significant bodies of Nazhun's work include:
The following table charts the main early sources on Nazhun and her poetry:
Text type | Editor | Title | Edition/translation |
---|---|---|---|
muwashshaḥa anthology | Alī Ibn Bishrī | Uddat al-jalīs | S. M. Stern, 'Muwashshaha li-sh-shd'ira l-Andalusiyya Nazhun' [A muwashshah by the Andalusian poet Nazhun], Majalle-ye 'Ulum-i Isldmiyya [Aligarh] (June 1960), pp. 1–8 |
Dı̄wān al-Muwashshaḥāt al-Andalusiyya, ed. by S. Ghāzī (Alexandria: Munsha’at al-Ma‘ārif, 1979), pp. 551–52. | |||
Alī Ibn Bishrī, The Ùddat al-jalīs of Àlī ibn Bishrī: An Anthology of Andalusian Arabic Muwashshaḥāt, trans. by Alan Jones (Cambridge: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, 1992), 360–61. | |||
poetry anthology | Ibn Saʻīd al-Andalūsī (1213–86) | Rāyāt al-mubarrizīn wa-ghāyāt al-mumayyizīn | El libro de las banderas de los campeones, de Ibn Saʿid al-Magribī, ed. by Emilio García Gómez (Madrid: Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, 1942), p. 60 (chapter 82). |
ʻAlī ibn Mūsá Ibn Saʻīd al-Andalūsī Abū al-Hasan (1987). Rāyāt al-mubarrizīn wa-ghāyāt al-mumayyizīn. Tlasdar. pp. 159–61. [علي بن موسى بن سعيد الأندلسي أبو الحسن (1987). محمد رضوان الداية (ed.). رايات المبرزين وغايات المميزين. طلاس للدراسات والترجمة والنشر. pp. 159–61.] | |||
Al-Mughrib fī ḥulā l-Maghrib | Ibn Saʿı̄d al-Maghribı̄, Al-Mughrib fı̄ Ḥulā al-Maghrib, ed. Sh. Ḍayf, 2 vols (Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, 1953–55), I 223–28, II 121. | ||
biographical dictionary | al-Maqqarı̄ ( c. 1578–1632), citing Ibn Sa‘īd's Al-Ṭāli‘ al-Sa‘ı̄d fı̄ Tārı̄kh Banı̄ Sa‘ı̄d | Nafḥ al-Ṭı̄b min Ghuṣn al-Andalus al-Raṭı̄b | al-Maqqarı̄, Nafḥ al-Ṭı̄b min Ghuṣn al-Andalus al-Raṭı̄b, ed. by I. ‘Abbās (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1968), I 139, 190-93, IV 295-98 |
biographical dictionary | Ibn al-Khaṭı̄b (1313-74), citing Ibn Sa‘īd's Al-Ṭāli‘ al-Sa‘ı̄d fı̄ Tārı̄kh Banı̄ Sa‘ı̄d | Al-Iḥāṭa fı̄ Akhbār Gharnāṭa | Ibn al-Khaṭı̄b, Al-Iḥāṭa fı̄ Akhbār Gharnāṭa, ed. Muh‘Aammad ‘Abd Allah ‘Inān, 4 vols (Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, 1955), I 425-27, 432, II 504-5, III 344-45 |
biographical dictionary/anthology | Ibn al-Abbar (1199–1260) | Kitāb Tuḥfat al-Qādim | al-Balfı̄qı̄, Al-Muqtaḍab min Kitāb Tuḥfat al-Qādim li Ibn al-Abbār Abı̄ ‘Abdillāh Muḥammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Quḍā‘ı̄ al-Andalusı̄, ed. by I. al-Abyārı̄ (Cairo: al-Maṭba‘a al-Amı̄riyya, 1957), pp. 164-65. |
Nazhūn bint al-Qulāʽiya al-Gharnātiya ( Arabic: نزهون بنت القلاعي الغرناطية, 12th-century) was a Granadan Qiyan and poet, noted for her outrageous verse.
Little is known about Nazhun's life. Medieval Arabic biographical dictionaries and accounts of her poetry are the main sources. Ibn al-Abbar has her as a (near-)contemporary of the twelfth-century Ḥamda bint Ziyād al-Muaddib. [1] Anecdotes about Nazhun also feature Abu Bakr al-Amā al-Makhzumi as Nazhun's teacher of the arts of satire; he seems to have been alive in the twelfth century, at some point after 1145; [2] indeed, Nazhun 'figures so prominently' in biographical entries about al-Makhzumi that 'his fame seems to be completely intertwined with hers'. She was supposedly the daughter of a qadi (judge). [3]: 4, 13 fnn 5, 8, 10
Although little of her work survives, Nazhun is, among medieval Andalusian women poets, probably second only to her contemporary Hafsa Bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya in the quantity of her work preserved: classical sources attribute to her twenty-one lines of verse from seven poems. In addition, the later Ùddat al-jalīs by Àlī ibn Bishrī attributes to her a muwashshaḥa of twenty-five lines, [3]: 13 fn 7 giving her the distinction of being the only female poet in the collection. [4] She usually appears getting the better of male poets and aristocrats around her with her witty invective. In Marla Segol's words, "as a rule, Nazhun represents her body in ways that disrupt conventional strategies for control of women’s speech and sexuality, and protests the merchandising of women’s bodies." [5] The study of her work has been hampered by scholars either not comprehending, or choosing not to expound on, its obscenity and double entendres. [3]: 6
In the translation of A. J. Arberry, one of her various ripostes runs: [6]
The poet al-Kutandi challenged the blind al-Makhzumi to complete the following verses:
- If you had eyes to view
- The man who speaks with you—
The blind man failed to discover a suitable continuation, but Nazhun, who happened to be present, improvized after this fashion:
- However many there may be
- All dumbly you’d behold
- His anklets’ shining gold.
- The rising moon, it seems,
- In his bright buttons gleams,
- And in his gown, I trow,
- There sways a slender bough.
Modern collections of significant bodies of Nazhun's work include:
The following table charts the main early sources on Nazhun and her poetry:
Text type | Editor | Title | Edition/translation |
---|---|---|---|
muwashshaḥa anthology | Alī Ibn Bishrī | Uddat al-jalīs | S. M. Stern, 'Muwashshaha li-sh-shd'ira l-Andalusiyya Nazhun' [A muwashshah by the Andalusian poet Nazhun], Majalle-ye 'Ulum-i Isldmiyya [Aligarh] (June 1960), pp. 1–8 |
Dı̄wān al-Muwashshaḥāt al-Andalusiyya, ed. by S. Ghāzī (Alexandria: Munsha’at al-Ma‘ārif, 1979), pp. 551–52. | |||
Alī Ibn Bishrī, The Ùddat al-jalīs of Àlī ibn Bishrī: An Anthology of Andalusian Arabic Muwashshaḥāt, trans. by Alan Jones (Cambridge: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, 1992), 360–61. | |||
poetry anthology | Ibn Saʻīd al-Andalūsī (1213–86) | Rāyāt al-mubarrizīn wa-ghāyāt al-mumayyizīn | El libro de las banderas de los campeones, de Ibn Saʿid al-Magribī, ed. by Emilio García Gómez (Madrid: Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, 1942), p. 60 (chapter 82). |
ʻAlī ibn Mūsá Ibn Saʻīd al-Andalūsī Abū al-Hasan (1987). Rāyāt al-mubarrizīn wa-ghāyāt al-mumayyizīn. Tlasdar. pp. 159–61. [علي بن موسى بن سعيد الأندلسي أبو الحسن (1987). محمد رضوان الداية (ed.). رايات المبرزين وغايات المميزين. طلاس للدراسات والترجمة والنشر. pp. 159–61.] | |||
Al-Mughrib fī ḥulā l-Maghrib | Ibn Saʿı̄d al-Maghribı̄, Al-Mughrib fı̄ Ḥulā al-Maghrib, ed. Sh. Ḍayf, 2 vols (Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, 1953–55), I 223–28, II 121. | ||
biographical dictionary | al-Maqqarı̄ ( c. 1578–1632), citing Ibn Sa‘īd's Al-Ṭāli‘ al-Sa‘ı̄d fı̄ Tārı̄kh Banı̄ Sa‘ı̄d | Nafḥ al-Ṭı̄b min Ghuṣn al-Andalus al-Raṭı̄b | al-Maqqarı̄, Nafḥ al-Ṭı̄b min Ghuṣn al-Andalus al-Raṭı̄b, ed. by I. ‘Abbās (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1968), I 139, 190-93, IV 295-98 |
biographical dictionary | Ibn al-Khaṭı̄b (1313-74), citing Ibn Sa‘īd's Al-Ṭāli‘ al-Sa‘ı̄d fı̄ Tārı̄kh Banı̄ Sa‘ı̄d | Al-Iḥāṭa fı̄ Akhbār Gharnāṭa | Ibn al-Khaṭı̄b, Al-Iḥāṭa fı̄ Akhbār Gharnāṭa, ed. Muh‘Aammad ‘Abd Allah ‘Inān, 4 vols (Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, 1955), I 425-27, 432, II 504-5, III 344-45 |
biographical dictionary/anthology | Ibn al-Abbar (1199–1260) | Kitāb Tuḥfat al-Qādim | al-Balfı̄qı̄, Al-Muqtaḍab min Kitāb Tuḥfat al-Qādim li Ibn al-Abbār Abı̄ ‘Abdillāh Muḥammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Quḍā‘ı̄ al-Andalusı̄, ed. by I. al-Abyārı̄ (Cairo: al-Maṭba‘a al-Amı̄riyya, 1957), pp. 164-65. |