Al-Andalusian Women In Muslim Spain

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In Muslim Spain, also known as al-Andalus, poetry served as a vehicle to liberation for the Arab Andalusian women who had the courage to portray themselves as free of any social deprivation. Arab Andalusian women poets were able to establish authority over their own persona by simply reciting and writing their own words. Their written words testify the ways in which they attained empowerment over their bodies. If a noblewoman had ownership over her body, a slave woman did not have this privilege, however, she did enjoy the freedom of movement that the noblewoman did not possess. Yet, through poetry both, the slave woman and the noblewoman, were able to attain what they were lacking-- the slave woman was able to express ownership over her body, meanwhile the noblewoman was able to obtain the sense of mobility. In other words, through poetry, both the …show more content…
During the pre-Islamic period, qiyan were the female slaves whose primary role was to entertain with their seductive dancing and singing while pouring wine to their masters and their guests. As Islam came around, the qiyan were no longer treated as slaves, but rather as servants, whose role still remained that of entertainment but according to new laws. In Islamic law all human beings are “persons” and at the same time all human beings are “slave” to God only - eliminating the possibility of owning slaves and treat them as if they are not human beings. As Cristina de la Puente explains, “in contrast with other legal systems were the legal personality is derived from the legal order itself, in Islam, it is divinely granted attribute; the human being is a “person” from the moment of his birth” (96). Therefore the lives of the qiyan had changed considerably after Islam had being embraced by the
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