Fadl al-Shaʻirah فضل الشاعرة | |
---|---|
Born | Al-Yamama, Abbasid Caliphate |
Died | c. 870/871 Samarra, Abbasid Caliphate |
Resting place | Samarra |
Pen name | Fadl |
Occupation | Poet |
Language | Arabic |
Nationality | Caliphate |
Period |
Islamic Golden Age ( Early Abbasid era) |
Spouse | al-Mutawakkil |
Fadl al-Qaysi or 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]
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. 847–861). Fadl became a prominent figure in the court. According to ibn Annadim, a bibliographer (died 1047), Fadl's diwan extended to twenty pages. [2] Her pupils included the singer Faridah. [3] When Fadl was brought to before al-Mutawakkil the very day she had been given to him, Al-Mutawakkil asked her, "Are you really a poet"? She replied: Those who buy and sell me all say so. He laughed and said "Recite some of your poetry to us" and she recited following verses:
The rightly guided Ruler acceded in the year three and thirty.
A Caliphate entrusted to al-Mutawakkil, when he was seven and twenty Let's us hope, Rightly guided Ruler that your rule goes on for eighty.
God bless you! On all who do not say Amen" — The curse of Almighty
Abu al-Ayna said that the Caliph liked the poem and gave her fifty thousand dirhams.
Fadl was the concubine of Al-Mutawakkil. She was a poet, born in Al-Yamamah. She was from the Abd al-Qays tribe. She was purchased by Muhammad ibn al-Faraj al-Rukhkhaji, who gave her to Al-Mutawakkil. [4]
She died in 870/71. [5]
An example of Fadl's work, in the translation of Abdullah al-Udhari, is: