Faḍl al-Shāʻirah

Faḍl al-Shāʻirah (Arabic: فضل الشاعرة‎ "Faḍl the Poet", d. 871) was one of "three early ʻAbbasid singing girls ... particularly famous for their poetry" and is one of the pre-eminent medieval Arabic female poets whose work survives.[1]

Life

Born in al-Yamama (now in Bahrain), Fadl was brought up in ʻAbbasid Basra, (now in Iraq). Her brothers sold her to a leading officer of the Caliphate, and he gave her to Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-61). Fadl became a prominent figure in the court. According to ibn Annadim, a bibliographer (died 1047), Fadl's diwan extended to twenty pages.[2]

Poetry

An example of Fadl's work, in the translation of Abdullah al-Udhari, is:

The following poem was written in response to the poet Abu Dulaf (d. 840) who hinted in a poem that she was not a virgin and he preferred virgins, whom he compared to unpierced pearls.
Riding beasts are no joy to ride until they're bridled and mounted.
So pearls are useless unless they're pierced and threaded..[3]

References
  1. Tahera Qutbuddin, 'Women Poets', in Medieval Islamic Civilisation: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Josef W. Meri, 2 vols (New York: Routledge, 2006), II 866, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-07. Retrieved 2015-03-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  2. Udhari, Abdullah (1999). Classical Poems by Arab Women. Saqi Books. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-86356-047-7.
  3. Udhari, Abdullah (1999). Classical Poems by Arab Women. Saqi Books. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-86356-047-7.


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