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seeing Leila, in declaring that women had no souls.” 315 That Muhammad could besaid to “persevere” in this indicates that he is already understood to be doing it. MaryWollstonecraft demonstrates the same conception when she describes Milton’sdescription of Eve as possibly showing that “in the true Mahometan strain, he meantto deprive us of souls” because women existed only “to gratify the senses of man.” 316Despite Sale’s protestation for the doctrine of the Qu’ran, Byron, Wollstonecraft, andThe Satirist demonstrate a Western belief in Muslim unbelief in women’s souls. It isalso noteworthy that Byron (McGann 3.442:618), Thornton (2.7.224), and WortleyMontagu (1.362, to the Abbé Conti, 29/5/17) all independently comment upon the factthat only Muslim men’s gravestones feature turbans: the discrimination wassignificant to the Westerners.Byron is directly criticizing Islam as it is practised, critiquing what is understood to bethe commonly-held belief that women are soulless, not challenging the commonWestern view. At the same time, he is also criticizing the pure theory, the hadith, bypointing out that, although it does allow women into Paradise, the proportion soallowed is less than the proportion within the general population. All of this isconsistent with the treatment of Muslim women by Muslim men in the Tales.The “black-eyed maids of Heaven” (CHP 1.59.609.11) are also a significant factor inByron’s representation of Islam, as they implicitly compete with mortal women forthe attentions of the male Muslim characters. This is most evident in the case ofHassan, who dies fighting a Giaour and so is to be welcomed into Paradise by theseimmortal virgins. It is apparently an immortal who will eventually fulfil the role ofbeing for Hassan “a bride /More true than her who left his side” (G 533-4). The ideathat the Houris might be purely metaphorical is discussed by Sale, 317 but not byByron, in whose work they appear most often merely as inducements to fearlessnessin battle. That they can function as inducements, and particularly as ones so valuablethat their promise can outweigh the fear of the pain of mortal injury, is testament totheir great desirability. In contrast, for mortal women to be mistreated is testament to315 Satirist, XIII (July 1813), 70-88, RR, V, 2124-2134: p.76 (2128).316 Wollstonecraft, pp.100-1.317 Sale, pp.109-10.204