Satire against wives is a rather common theme in classical Arabic poetry. In the Ḥamāsa-collections, for example, there are sections called madhammat al-nisā’; the majority of the censured women are supposedly the poets’ wives (van Gelder 1985). There is also satire against wives in the chapters on hijā’. As a matter of fact, however, the early Arabic tradition also embraces numerous invective epigrams in verse or sajʿ by women censuring their husbands (dhamm al-zawj). Many of these epigrams are parts of invective exchanges between spouses. This corpus of matrimonial satire shares a stock of formulas that can be used against wives as well as husbands, although many invective expressions are gender-specific. In this paper, I examine the corpus of early-Islamic and Umayyad satire against husbands and invective exchanges between spouses as to its gender-specific features as well as the correlation between female experiences and poetic expressions, which is sometimes composed of formulas. In addition, my study addresses the transmission of the corpus and its inclusion in Abbasid anthologies. Instances in which women use their poetic skills in order to defend themselves and their interests, more often than not with excellent results, seem to have been favored and perhaps elaborated upon by the transmitters. This tendency is noticeable in Balaghāt al-nisā’ by Ibn Abī Ṭāhir Tayfūr (d. 280/893), the main source for this study. Some of the examples in this book, I suggest, can be read against the background of the competitive milieu of the Abbasid imperial center, opening new possibilities as well as challenges for the ambitious individual, equipped with nothing but intelligence and eloquence. Possibly, for the Abbasid audience, the women in Balaghāt al-nisā’, who often succeed in turning disadvantages to their advantage only by help of their wit and eloquence, demonstrated the capacity of the individual in an uncertain existence.