Representations of Women in the Seven Muʿallaqāt: A Cultural Anthropological Ap-proach

This study examines the representations of the female in the Seven Mu‘allaqāt through a cultural anthropological approach, employing the descriptive-analytical method to trace the presence of women in pre-Islamic poetic texts and to identify their linguistic and semantic patterns of representation. It proceeds from the assumption that the female was not merely a transient object of love poetry, but a dynamic symbolic structure reflecting the tribal and social val-ue system, closely linked to notions of honor, lineage, stability, memory, and place. The study seeks to reveal the cultural functions performed by the image of the female in the Mu‘allaqāt by analyzing her presence in contexts such as ruins, dwellings, the body, and tribal relations, and by clarifying her connection to the symbolic economy of pre-Islamic life and the construction of collective identity. It also explores the role of the female as a structural element in shaping the pre-Islamic ode, particularly in its openings, where she functions as an emotional and cultural entry point leading to themes of pride, war, and other poetic purposes. The findings demonstrate that the image of the female transcends its aesthetic dimension to encompass deeper cultur-al meanings, representing the center of stability, a domain of collective memory, and a sign of tribal continuity and survival. The study concludes that female representations contributed significantly to shaping the pre-Islamic poetic vision and revealed the intrinsic relationship between poetic discourse and the social-cultural structure of the com-munity, confirming her foundational role in the construction of poetic meaning.