Zaynab al-Mariyya
Zaynab al-Mariyya (c. 11th–13th centuries) was an adība (woman of letters) and poet, most likely born in Almería, Andalusia, Spain.[1][2]
Among Andalusian women poets, she left behind some of the fewest details of her life. Her surname implies that she was born in Almería, and the lack of a known lineage could indicate that she was a slave.[3][4]
She is mentioned by the scholar Ibn Abd al-Malik al-Marrakushi, which means she lived before his time, possibly in the 11th or 12th century, as that was the height of economic and cultural splendor in Taifa of Almería under the reign of Abu Yahya Muhammad al-Mutasim. This would make Zaynab al-Mariyya a contemporary of al-Gassaniyya, another female poet in Almería.[5]
Of her work, only one poem remains, a courtly love poem:[3][4]
You who ride after your desire,
wait, and I will tell you what I suffer.
Men do not dispute the love they feel,
but my passion for them exceeds their own.
It is enough for me to see my beloved happy,
and for his love and his happiness
I will push on until the end of time.
References
[edit]- ^ Ávila, María Luisa (1989). "Las mujeres "sabias" en al-Andalus" (PDF). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (in Spanish).
- ^ Manuel Francisco Reina, ed. (2007). Antología de la poesía andalusí. Translated by Teresa Garulo; Miguel José Hagerty; Muhsin Al-Ramli. Madrid: Edaf. ISBN 978-84-414-1832-5. OCLC 434422720.
- ^ a b Ceba, Juan José (2008-06-18). "Poetisas de Al-Mariyya". Diario de Almería (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2021-02-17.
- ^ a b Nadales Álvarez, María Jesús (December 2006). "Mujeres en al-Ándalus". Isla de Arriarán. XXVIII: 159–184 – via Dialnet - Universidad de La Rioja.
- ^ Cenname, Anne (2021). Las jarchas romances: Voces de la Iberia medieval (in Spanish). Universidad Almería. ISBN 9788413510491.