Rayhana 'The Mad': Her Persona and Poetry

Hammond, Marle; van Gelder, Geert Jan

Abstract

: This article on the intriguing second-/eighth-century Iraqi Muslim ascetic poet Rayḥāna al-Majnūna, or Rayḥāna “The Mad,” consists of two parts: (1) a study contextualizing her persona and corpus and arguing that her historical and folkloric identity as a black woman poet situates her at a creative nexus of wisdom, madness, and worship, and (2) appendices including translations of her poems and their anecdotal frameworks as they are preserved in three medieval sources: ʿUqalāʾ al-majānīn by Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥabīb al-Nīsābūrī (d. 406 H/1015–16 CE), Ṣifat al-ṣafwa by Ibn al-Jawzī (d. circa 597 H/1201 CE), and Talkhīṣ al-mutashābih by al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463 H/1071 CE). It is hoped that the translations will give the reader direct knowledge of Rayḥāna’s distinctive poems and that the contextual analysis will support informed interpretations of both the poems and the narratives in which they are embedded through its attention to various discursive prisms including textual traditions relating to mental health, religious devotion, and women’s writing.

Citation

Hammond, M., & van Gelder, G. J. (2024). Rayhana 'The Mad': Her Persona and Poetry. Der Islam: Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East, 101(2), 409-438. https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2024-0022

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 8, 2024
• Publication Date: Oct 10, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jun 1, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 1, 2024
• Print ISSN: 0021-1818
• Electronic ISSN: 1613-0928
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 101
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 409-438
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2024-0022
• Keywords: Rayḥāna al-Majnūna, ʿUqalāʾ al-majānīn, black women’s poetry, Umayyad/Abbasid Iraq, asceticism, madness
• Publisher URL: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/islam-2024-0022/html