Muhja bint al-Tayyani

Muhja became a celebrated poet, a profession that had a great recognition in Andalusian society. Wallada was extremely fond of Muhja, writing her passionate (and rather explicit) love poetry, and there are suggestions they may have been lovers.

• Name — Muhja bint al-Tayyani • Born — 11th century • Birthplace — Córdoba, Al-Andalus (now Spain) • Died — 1097 • Place of death — Córdoba, Al-Andalus (now Spain) • Occupation — Poet • Language — Arabic • Notable Works — Satires and love poems • Parents — Al-Tayyani (a fig merchant) • Native Name — مهجة بنت التياني القرطبية

• Illustration — Sixteenth-century CE Turkish picture of Mary shaking the palm tree for dates. Muhja dedicated ferocious satires to her teacher: • Original — Transliteration (ALA-LC) — Literal translation • وَلّادة قَدْ صِرْتِ وَلّادة\\مِن غَيْرِ بَعَلٍ فَضَحَ الكاتِمُ حَكَت لَنا مَرْيَم لَكِنّه\\نَخْلة هَذي ذَكَرٌ قائِمُ — Wallādah qad ṣirti wallādah min ghayri baʿalin faḍaḥa al-kātimu ḥakat lanā Maryam lākinnah nakhlat hādhī dhakaru qāʾimu. — Wallada has become fecund by another man; the secret-keeper revealed it. To us, she resembled Mary, but this palm-tree is an erect penis. This poem puns on Wallada's name, which literally means 'fecund'. It compares Wallada, ostensibly pregnant out of wedlock, to the Virgin Mary. The poem shifts from a literary register in the first half to a colloquial one in the second (characterised by the colloquial form hāḏī in place of classical hāḏihi). The second half alludes specifically to the Islamic account of the virgin birth, in which Mariam received a divine instruction to shake the trunk of a date palm while giving birth to Jesus, so that its fruits fall down to her. In Muhya's account, Wallada has grasped a penis to similar effect. Another example is this verse: Away from the gouache of his lips to those who want it, just as the border defends itself from those who besiege it, one is defended by sabers and spears, and those who are protected by the magic of her eyes.