Last updated: April 30th, 2025 at 12:18 pm · Est. Reading Time: 2 minutes
Pre-Islamic Arabs had a taste for wine drinking. Here is a passionate description of wine by a pre-Islamic poet:
Not wine of the white grape, fragrant as musk [when the jar is broached]
And set on the strainer to clear, and ladled from cup to cup
a captive, it dwelt in the jar for twenty revolving years;
above it a seal of clay, exposed the wind and sun;
imprisoned by Jews who brought it from Golan in land afar and offered;
for sale by a vintner who knew well to follow gain.1
Pattern of Wine Drinking
Our knowledge about wine drinking in pre-Islamic Arabia comes from pre-Islamic Arabic poetry.
Wine was not a part of daily Arab food. Wine drinking was a social event. Probably, it was a symbol of high social status
Two patterns of wine drinking can be recognized from pre-Islamic Arab poetry. One was a house party, where friends were invited. The piece of poetry mentioned above is a depiction of one such party. The other was drinking in taverns, which were present in all Arab settlements.
Here is evidence from a historical source:
Many a time I hastened early to the tavern, while there ran at my heels a ready cook, a nimble active serving-man;
Midst a gallant troop, like Indian scimitars, of mettle high;
Well they know that every mortal, shod and bare alike, must die;
Propped at ease I greet them gaily, them with myrtle boughs I greet;
Pass among them wine that gushes from the jar’s mouth bitter-sweat;
Emptying goblet after goblet, but the source may no man drain;
Never cease they from carousing save to cry, ‘fill up again!’;
Briskly runs the page to serve them: on his ears hang pearls, below;
Tight the girdle draws his doublet as he bustles to and fro;
‘Twas as though the harp waked the lute’s responsive note;
When the loose-robed chantress touched it, singing shrill with quavering throat;
Here and there, among the party, damsels fair superbly glide; each her long white skirt lets trail and swings a wineskin at the side.2
Some Arab men may have initially consumed wine in social settings, but over time, developed such a strong dependence that they began drinking alone on a daily basis.
Male-Exclusive Practice
Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and early Islamic sources don’t mention a single event in which a woman was drunk. Even they do not demonstrate the female staffers of a tavern to be drunk. Wine drinking was exclusively a male privilege during the late pre-Islamic period in Arabia.
Opposition to Wine Drinking
Despite a wider social acceptance of wine drinking in pre-Islamic Arabia, there were certain people from civil society who opposed the practice.
Further Reading
History of Islam, Social Structure of Pre-Islamic Arabs, https://historyofislam.org/social-structure-of-pre-islamic-arabs/
Footnotes
- Al- Mufaḍḍal son of Muhammad. The Mufaddaliiyat: An Anthology of Ancient Arabian Odes. Vol. II, ed. and trans. Charles J. Lyall (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918), 187, Ode no. 55, poet: Rabi’ah ibn Sufyān, Muraqqish al Asghar.
- Maymun bin Qays al-A’sha. Diwan al-A’sha al-Kabir, ed. M. M. Husayn. (Beirut: Dar al-Nahdha al-Arabiya, 1972).