Classical Poems by Arab Women

Arab women poets have been around since the earliest of times, yet their diwans (collected poems) were kept in the shadows. Spanning more than 5000 years, from the pre-Islamic to the Andalusian periods, Classical Poems by Arab Women presents rarely seen work by over sixty women writers who boldly refused to be silenced. From sorrowful eulogies to gleeful scorn, this collection offers a rich excursion into the vibrant, exclusively female worlds of pleasure, passion and pain, suppressed for centuries by religious and political bigotry. With poems in both English and Arabic, this bespoke gift edition celebrates feminine wit and desire, and pays homage to the significant contribution women have made to Arabic literary tradition.