Interpreting Two Stories in the Kitab al-aghani: A Gender-based approach

This paper looks at the representation of some female figures in the Kitāb al- Aġānī by Abū al-Faraǧ al-Iṣfahānī. It examines the strategies through which medieval Arabic literary imagination constructs female characters between myth and historical reality. The stories of Hind, Zarqā’ and Zabbā’ are short but rich fragments arising from a process of mythical fabulation which has been unfolding over the course of centuries. Basing itself on gender studies also in a literary perspective, the paper looks at processes through which a literary language is constructed and at Cultural paradigms justifying such representations of women in pre-Islamic and Islamic times. These aspects will be looked at in connection with themes such as relation between power and the supernatural, the feminine and the divine, and norms concerning sexuality and gender.