Veil and Voice: Female Listening in Arabic Muʿallaqāt and Tang Silk Road Poetry

This study examines the gendered poetics of listening in two major Eurasian literary traditions: pre-Islamic Arabic Muʿallaqāt and Tang Dynasty Silk Road poetry. It argues that while the Muʿallaqāt frames women as veiled, silent presences whose voices are hidden or mediated, Tang poetry portrays foreign and domestic women as active singers, musicians, and narrators of longing. Through close comparative reading, this study reveals how both traditions construct gendered soundscapes along the Silk Road, offering a new cross-cultural framework for understanding poetry as a practice of listening. By centering female listening as a critical lens, the research bridges comparative poetics, gender studies, and Silk Road cultural history, demonstrating how sound and silence shape cross-cultural imagination and identity.