Rayhana 'The Mad': Her Persona and Poetry

Main author: Hammond, Marle
Other authors: van Gelder, Geert Jan
Format: Journal Article           
Online access: Click here to view record


id eprints-41951
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
topic PJ Semitic
P Language and Literature
description : 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.
format Journal Article
author Hammond, Marle
author_facet Hammond, Marle
van Gelder, Geert Jan
authorStr Hammond, Marle
author_letter Hammond, Marle
author2 van Gelder, Geert Jan
author2Str van Gelder, Geert Jan
title Rayhana 'The Mad': Her Persona and Poetry
publisher De Gruyter
publishDate 2024
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/41951/