Abstract:
Amatory is a well-known theme of Arabic poetry in which woman is depicted as an
exemplar of sensual perfection. In this paper I investigate texts which contradict amatory
in classical Arabic poetry up to the end of the 3rd hijri century. I focus on those which
satirize a given woman, and exclude the texts in which the gender of women as a whole
is satirized.
I hypothesize that the main motivation for this type of poetry is what I call: “the
Anxiety of the champion poets”. I analyze its multiple physiological stimulus in an attempt
to understand the justification of the unexpected satire of women who is usually either
spoken about in love or guarded but not satirized! I then analyze the satirical motifs to
assess their semantics and whether they contradict amatory and panegyric and whether
they correspond to satire of men or not.
I aim also to situate this type of poetry with the Arabic poetry generally and to assess
whether it amounts to a phenomenon. I use several critical methods in this paper including:
physiological, thematic and cultural.