Women occupied the foreground and background of poems. Poets wrote poems about her, describing her in detail. The technique used to depict these features that gave the poem its form is one that had been brought to existence by that era. This techniq
ue imposed on the poem the outlines so that it came out typically representative of the prevailing social status quo. The woman, in Jahili poetry, is a beautiful image by which poets decorate the beginnings of their poems. Their relationship with the woman is on one occasion defined by exalting and respect, and on the other defined by deprecation and lust. The woman in Jahili poetry is different from the woman in Umayyad or Abbasid poetry, in terms of both status and social predisposition. Although the figure of the woman dominates poetry, it dominates it in the way the era and the poet choose. As to the status and the degeneration of the woman in the Abbasid Era, the poets' points of view vary. She is no more the appraised beauty that looks like the moon's light and the sunrise. It would be of no surprise to see poems neglecting the woman, or others referring to her along with entertainment, wine and moral degeneration. The woman becomes a symbol of seduction and corruption, represented by a cunning courtesan, or a nun.
