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eating the fruit. Genesis describes this as the origin of male supremacy, with Evebeing punished for eating the fruit by being required to obey him ever after, andAdam being punished for listening to his wife by having to toil to survive. 328 Thus,the poet is questioning the Western patriarchy as well, but not with nearly the samevigour or directness which he displays against the Islamic one. The passage in TheCorsair might appear to be a typically misogynistic throwaway comment, but for theirony in which the idea comes back later, reversed. Conrad eventually acknowledgesthat Gulnare “for him had given /Her all on earth, and more than all in heaven!” (C3.17.529-30) to spare him woe. The misogyny is deconstructed in the inversion of thegender roles, which leaves The Corsair innocent of such prejudice, and questions itspresence elsewhere.In contrast, Muslims are accused of sexual discrimination even by the Advertisementfor The Giaour, which describes the poem as referring in part to the story of “a femaleslave, who was thrown, in the Mussulman manner, into the sea for infidelity” (Giaour,Advertisement, 5-7). In the Qu’ran itself, the penalty for adultery is specified aseighty lashes, which, harsh as it is, is not meant to be fatal, and is not differentiated bygender. 329 However, Islamic law is composed of the Qu’ran, the Hadith, andjurisprudence (fiqh), which makes the application somewhat more complex. 330 It isfurther notable that, as Abdur Raheem Kidwai says, stoning of adulterers is practisedin accordance with certain Hadith, but “The Turks had altered the mode ofexecution”. 331 In describing this particular practice as the “Mussulman”, rather thanthe “Ottoman”, way of acting, Byron connects Muslims, from the very beginning ofthe text, with violence towards women in particular.Throughout these Tales, Byron’s representation of Islam in regard to women is quitenegative, and his certainly is not the most positive of contemporary Western views.In this respect, his sympathy for the other faith appears to be limited. Mortal womenare unfairly contrasted with immortal Houris, and even considered soulless. They are328 Genesis 3:16-7.329 Sura 24:3, Sale p.343. Thornton describes the same act of drowning as Byron does, as punishmentfor prostitution, in 2.8.292.330 Q.v. Thornton 1.2.192.331 Kidwai, Orientalism in Lord Byron’s “Turkish Tales”, p.160. The practice is not universal in Islam,and the validity of the relevant haditha is disputed.211