Nazhun al-Garnatiya bint al-Qulai’iya

Nazhūn bint al-Qulāiya al-Gharnātiya (, 12th-century) was a Granadan Qiyan and poet, noted for her outrageous verse.

Life Little is known about Nazhun's life. Medieval Arabic biographical dictionaries and accounts of her poetry are the main sources. Ibn al-Abbar has her as a (near-)contemporary of the twelfth-century Ḥamda bint Ziyād al-Muaddib. Anecdotes about Nazhun also feature Abu Bakr al-Amā al-Makhzumi as Nazhun's teacher of the arts of satire; he seems to have been alive in the twelfth century, at some point after 1145; indeed, Nazhun 'figures so prominently' in biographical entries about al-Makhzumi that 'his fame seems to be completely intertwined with hers'. She was supposedly the daughter of a qadi (judge).

Work

Although little of her work survives, Nazhun is, among medieval Andalusian women poets, probably second only to her contemporary Hafsa Bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya in the quantity of her work preserved: classical sources attribute to her twenty-one lines of verse from seven poems. In addition, the later Ùddat al-jalīs by Àlī ibn Bishrī attributes to her a muwashshaḥa of twenty-five lines, She usually appears getting the better of male poets and aristocrats around her with her witty invective. In Marla Segol's words, "as a rule, Nazhun represents her body in ways that disrupt conventional strategies for control of women’s speech and sexuality, and protests the merchandising of women’s bodies." The study of her work has been hampered by scholars either not comprehending, or choosing not to expound on, its obscenity and double entendres.

The poet al-Kutandi challenged the blind al-Makhzumi to complete the following verses: If you had eyes to view The man who speaks with you— The blind man failed to discover a suitable continuation, but Nazhun, who happened to be present, improvized after this fashion: However many there may be All dumbly you’d behold His anklets’ shining gold. The rising moon, it seems, In his bright buttons gleams, And in his gown, I trow, There sways a slender bough.

Editions Modern collections of significant bodies of Nazhun's work include:

Dīwān de Las Poetisas de Al-Andalus, ed. by Teresa Garulo (Ediciones Hiperión, 1986), pp. 110 ff. Nisāʾ min al-Andalus, ed. by Aḥmad Khalīl Jumʻah (Damascus: al-Yamāmah lil-Ṭibāʻah wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʻ, 2001), pp. 371–402 [نسـاء من الأندلس, أحمد خليل جمعة].

The following table charts the main early sources on Nazhun and her poetry: +Text typeEditorTitleEdition/translationmuwashshaḥa anthologyAlī Ibn BishrīUddat al-jalīsS. M. Stern, 'Muwashshaha li-sh-shd'ira l-Andalusiyya Nazhun' [A muwashshah by the Andalusian poet Nazhun], Majalle-ye 'Ulum-i Isldmiyya [Aligarh] (June 1960), pp. 1–8Dı̄wān al-Muwashshaḥāt al-Andalusiyya, ed. by S. Ghāzī (Alexandria: Munsha’at al-Ma‘ārif, 1979), pp. 551–52.Alī Ibn Bishrī, The Ùddat al-jalīs of Àlī ibn Bishrī: An Anthology of Andalusian Arabic Muwashshaḥāt, trans. by Alan Jones (Cambridge: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, 1992), 360–61.poetry anthologyIbn Saʻīd al-Andalūsī (1213–86)Rāyāt al-mubarrizīn wa-ghāyāt al-mumayyizīnEl libro de las banderas de los campeones, de Ibn Saʿid al-Magribī, ed. by Emilio García Gómez (Madrid: Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, 1942), p. 60 (chapter 82). []Al-Mughrib fī ḥulā l-MaghribIbn Saʿı̄d al-Maghribı̄, Al-Mughrib fı̄ Ḥulā al-Maghrib, ed. Sh. Ḍayf, 2 vols (Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, 1953–55), I 223–28, II 121.biographical dictionaryal-Maqqarı̄ (c. 1578–1632), citing Ibn Sa‘īd's Al-Ṭāli‘ al-Sa‘ı̄d fı̄ Tārı̄kh Banı̄ Sa‘ı̄dNafḥ al-Ṭı̄b min Ghuṣn al-Andalus al-Raṭı̄bal-Maqqarı̄, Nafḥ al-Ṭı̄b min Ghuṣn al-Andalus al-Raṭı̄b, ed. by I. ‘Abbās (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1968), I 139, 190-93, IV 295-98biographical dictionaryIbn al-Khaṭı̄b (1313-74), citing Ibn Sa‘īd's Al-Ṭāli‘ al-Sa‘ı̄d fı̄ Tārı̄kh Banı̄ Sa‘ı̄dAl-Iḥāṭa fı̄ Akhbār GharnāṭaIbn al-Khaṭı̄b, Al-Iḥāṭa fı̄ Akhbār Gharnāṭa, ed. Muh‘Aammad ‘Abd Allah ‘Inān, 4 vols (Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, 1955), I 425-27, 432, II 504-5, III 344-45biographical dictionary/anthologyIbn al-Abbar (1199–1260)Kitāb Tuḥfat al-Qādimal-Balfı̄qı̄, Al-Muqtaḍab min Kitāb Tuḥfat al-Qādim li Ibn al-Abbār Abı̄ ‘Abdillāh Muḥammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Quḍā‘ı̄ al-Andalusı̄, ed. by I. al-Abyārı̄ (Cairo: al-Maṭba‘a al-Amı̄riyya, 1957), pp. 164-65.