Rereading Queen Sheba/Balqis: A Study in Ostriker and Kahf's Selected Poems
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31185/eduj.Vol58.Iss2.4199Keywords:
Alicia Ostriker, Mohja Kahf, Islamic feminism, Jewish feminism, intertextuality.Abstract
The article sheds light on the figure of queen Sheba/Balqis and asserts her being a model for intellect and intuitive knowledge; she is one of the most notable females for leadership and wisdom in Jewish and Islamic cultures. The American poets, Alicia Ostriker (1938) and Mohja Kahf (1967) endeavor a feminist rereading of queen Sheba/Balqis' narrative. The parable appeared in the exegeses of the Hebrew Bible then in the Qur’an as well as the stories of prophets. As indubitable religious scriptures, Ostriker the Jewish feminist draws on the Hebrew Bible and Kahf the Islamic feminist adopt the Qur'an to reconstruct their traditional Jewish and Muslim story of queen Sheba/Balqis. The selected poems demonstrate a diversity of themes established on the adaptation and appropriation of the narrative source; yet, the rereading of queen Sheba/Balqis's figure and story in both poems has different aims, manifestations and connotations which appeared to enhance and empower the female's figure and personality. The tale of queen Sheba/Balqis is created on the most prominent occasion of her visit and encounter with Prophet/king Solomon. Queen Sheba/Balqis who had wisdom, led with strength a great kingdom, awarded all the sources of power and greatness: armies, civilization and majestic throne. Through queen Sheba/Balqis, the paper aims to confirm the feminist independence against patriarchy and defend women's rights via acumen. The notion of intertextuality is applied in order to frame the analysis of Ostriker's poem "Sheba's Proverbs" "Sheba's Proverbs" from The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions (1994) and Kahf's "Balqis Makes Solomon Sign a Pre-Nup" from Hager Poems (2016).
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