In the surviving historical record, medieval Arabic female poets are few compared with the number of known male Arabic-language poets, and many compared with the number of the very few women who wrote in any European language traditions of the same time periods. Within Arabic literature, there has been "an almost total eclipse of women's poetic expression in the literary record as maintained in Arabic culture from the pre-Islamic era through the nineteenth century".Clarissa Burt, 'Arts: Poets and Poetry: Arab States', in Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, ed. by Suad Joseph (Leiden: Brill, 2003-2007), V: 77-80 (p. 77). However, there is evidence that, compared with the medieval poetry of Europe, women's poetry in the medieval Islamic world was "unparalleled" in "visibility and impact".Samer M. Ali, 'Medieval Court Poetry', in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, ed. by Natana J. Delong-Bas, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I 651-54 (at p. 653). Accordingly, since the beginning of the twenty-first century, scholars have emphasised that women's contribution to Arabic literature requires greater scholarly attention.Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology, ed. and trans. by Abdullah al-Udhari (London: Saqi Books, 1999), p. 13.Tahera Qutbuddin, 'Women Poets', in Medieval Islamic Civilisation: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Josef W. Meri, 2 vols (New York: Routledge, 2006), II 867, .Samer M. Ali, 'Medieval Court Poetry', in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, ed. by Natana J. Delong-Bas, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I 651-54 (at p. 652). https://www.academia.edu/5023780.
Attestation A substantial corpus of the work of medieval Arabic language women poets survives; the earliest extensive anthology is the late ninth-century CE Balāghāt al-nisāʾ by Ibn Abī Ṭāhir Ṭayfūr (d. 280/893).Rkia Elaroui Cornell, 'Rabiʾa from Narrative to Myth: The Tropics of Identity of a Muslim Woman Saint' (Ph.D. thesis, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 2013), pp. 7, 32. Abd al-Amīr Muhannā named over four hundred female poets in his anthology.Samer M. Ali, 'Medieval Court Poetry', in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, ed. by Natana J. Delong-Bas, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I 651-54 (at p. 653). https://www.academia.edu/5023780., making the quantity of poetry by pre-modern women in the Arabic language remarkable by any standard, and making it odd that it is continually referred to in terms of scarcity. That much literature by women was once collected in writing but has since been lost is suggested particularly by the fact that al-Suyuti's 15th-century Nuzhat al-julasāʼ fī ashʻār al-nisāʼ mentions a large (six-volume or longer) anthology called Akhbar al-Nisa' al-Shau‘a'ir containing "ancient" women’s poetry, assembled by one Ibn al-Tarrah (d. 720/1320). However, a range of medieval anthologies do contain women's poetry, including collections by Al-Jahiz, Abu Tammam, Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, and Ibn Bassam, alongside historians quoting women's poetry such as Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Yaqut al-Hamawi, and Ibn 'Asakir.Tahera Qutbuddin, 'Women Poets', in Medieval Islamic Civilisation: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Josef W. Meri, 2 vols (New York: Routledge, 2006), II 867, http://nelc.uchicago.edu/sites/nelc.uchicago.edu/files/2006%20Women%20Poets%20(Med.%20Islamic.%20Civ.%20Enc.).pdf .
Medieval women's poetry in Arabic tends to be stereotyped as belonging mostly to two genres: the rithā’ (elegy) and ghazal (love-song), alongside a smaller body of Sufi poems and short pieces in the low-status rajaz metre.Tahera Qutbuddin, 'Women Poets', in Medieval Islamic Civilisation: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Josef W. Meri, 2 vols (New York: Routledge, 2006), II 865, http://nelc.uchicago.edu/sites/nelc.uchicago.edu/files/2006%20Women%20Poets%20(Med.%20Islamic.%20Civ.%20Enc.).pdf . Less noticed is the fact that it also ranges over nature poetry, poetry of sexuality, hija, and other topics. One significant corpus comprises poems by qiyan, women who were slaves highly trained in the arts of entertainment,Kristina Richardson, 'Singing Slave Girls (qiyan) of the ‘Abbasid Court in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries', in Children in Slavery Through the Ages, ed. by Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009), 105-18. often educated in the cities of Basra, Ta’if, and Medina.Gordon, Matthew S., 'Introduction: Producing Songs and Sons', in Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History, ed. by Matthew S. Gordon and Kathryn A. Hain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 1-8 (pp. 5-6); . Women's poetry is particularly well attested from Al-Andalus.O. Ishaq Tijani and Imed Nsiri, 'Gender and Poetry in Muslim Spain: Mapping the Sexual-Textual Politics of Al-Andalus', Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies, 1.4 (October 2017), 52-67 (p. 55). .
According to Samer M. Ali, In retrospect we can discern four overlapping persona types for poetesses in the Middle Ages: the grieving mother/sister/daughter (al-Khansāʾ, al-Khirniq bint Badr, and al-Fāriʿah bint Shaddād), the warrior-diplomat (al-Hujayjah), the princess (al-Ḥurqah, ʿUlayyah bint al-Mahdī, and Walladah bint al-Mustakfī), and the courtesan-ascetic (ʿArīb, Shāriyah, and Rābiʿah al-ʿAdawīyah). Rābiʿah’s biography in particular projects a paradoxical persona that embodies the complementary opposites of sexuality and saintliness.Samer M. Ali, 'Medieval Court Poetry', in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, ed. by Natana J. Delong-Bas, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I 651-54 (at p. 653). https://www.academia.edu/5023780.
While most Arabic-speaking medieval woman poets were Muslim, of the three probable medieval female Jewish poets whose work has survived, two composed in Arabic: Qasmūna bint Ismāʿil and the sixth-century Sarah of Yemen (the remaining, Hebrew language poet being the anonymous wife of Dunash ben Labrat).Peter Cole (ed. and trans.), The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), p. 364.Emily Taitz, Sondra Henry, and Cheryl Tallan, 'Sarah of Yemen', in The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E. to 1900 C.E. (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2003), pp. 57-59.
Known female poets The following list of known women poets is based on (but not limited to) Abdullah al-Udhari's Classical Poems by Arab Women.Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology, ed. and trans. by Abdullah al-Udhari (London: Saqi Books, 1999) . It is not complete.
Jahilayya (4000 BCE–622 CE) Mahd al-Aadiyya (, c. 4000 BCE)Mahd is included in Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology, ed. and trans. by Abdullah al-Udhari (London: Saqi Books, 1999), pp. 26-27. She is unlikely to have existed: Roger Allen, review of: Approaches to Classical Arabic Poetry - Identification and Identity in Classical Arabic Poetry, M. C. Lyons, Gibb Literary Studies, 2 (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1999) and Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology, Abdullah Al-Udhar (London: Saqi Books, 1999), Review of Middle East Studies, 35 (2001), 201-3 (at p. 202). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026318400043352. Rather she is a chronicle character who is portrayed uttering a muzdawaj warning the people of ʿĀd of their impending destruction by Allah, in accordance with the prophecies of the prophet Hud. Afira bint 'Abbad (, C3 CE) Laila bint Lukaiz (, d. 483 CE) Jalila bint Murra (, d. 540 CE) Umama bint Kulaib (, C5–6 CE) al-Ḥujayjah, Safīyah bint Thaʻlabah al-Shaybānīyah (, C5–6 CE) al-Ḥurqah (, C5–6 CE) Safiyya bint Khalid al-Bahiliyya () Juhaifa Addibabiyya () Umm Khalid Annumairiyya () Ishraqa al-Muharibiyya () Umm Jamil bint Harb (, C6–7 CE) Hind bint al-Khuss al-Iyādiyya (, legendary, supposedly C6-7 CE) Hind bint ‘Utbah (, C6-7 CE) Qutayla ukht al-Nadr (, C7 CE) Umm Addahak al-Muheribiyya () Janūb Ukht ‘Amr dhī-l-Kalb () al-Fāriʿah bint Shaddād () al-Khansa (, d. 646 CE) Sarah of Yemen (, C6 CE)
Period of Early Islam (622–661 CE)
Al-Khansa, was one of the most influential poets of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods. Fatima bint Muhammad (, 605–632 CE) 'Amra bint Mardas (). Daughter of al-Khansa.Hayyali, Layla Muhammad Nizam, al-. Mu’jam diwan ash’ar al-nisa fi sadr al-islam. Beirut: Maktabat Lubnan Nashirun, 1999, p 41. Atiqa bint Zayd was the companion of Muhammad and an Arab poet.
Umayyad Period (661–750 CE)
Laila bint Sa'd al-Aamiriyya (, d. 668 CE) Maisūn bint Jandal (, c. C7 CE) Ḥumayda bint Nu‘mān ibn Bashīr (C7 CE) Laila al-Akhyaliyya (, d. 75×90 AH/694×709 CE) Dahna bint Mas-hal (, c. C7–8 CE) Bint al-Hubab () Umm al-Ward al-Ajlaniyya () Umaima Addumainiyya (, C8 CE)
Abbasid Period (750–1258 CE)
Hajna bint Nusaib (, c. C8–9 CE) Raabi'a al-Adwiyya (, 714–801 CE) Laila bint Tarif (, d. 815 CE) 'Ulayya bint al-Mahdi (, 777–825 CE) Lubāna bīnt ‘Alī ibn al-Mahdī (, c. C8–9 CE) Inan (, d. 841 CE) 'Asiya al-Baghdadiyya (, c. C9 CE) Zahra al-Kilabiyya (, c. C8–9 CE) Aa'isha bint al-Mu'tasim (, c. C8–9 CE) Shāriyah (, c. 815-70 CE) Fadl Ashsha'ira (, d. 871 CE) Zabba bint Umair ibn al-Muwarriq (, c. C9 CE) Juml (, C9 CE) Fatima al-Suqutriyya (, C9 CE) Umm Ja'far bint 'Ali () Arib al-Ma'muniyya (, 797–890 CE) Thawab bint Abdullah al-Hanzaliyya () Salma bint al-Qaratisi (, c. C12 CE) Safiyya al-Baghdadiyya (, C12 CE) Taqiyya Umm Ali bint Ghaith ibn Ali al-Armanazi (a.k.a. Sitt al-Ni‘m, , 1111-1183/4) Shamsa al-Mawsiliyya (, C13 CE)
Andalus Period (711–1492 CE)
Aziz (court of Al-Hakam I, early C9 CE)Dwight F. Reynolds, 'The Qiyan of al-Andalus', in Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History, ed. by Matthew S. Gordon and Kathryn A. Hain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 100-21 (pp. 105-7); . Hafsa bint Hamdun (, C10 CE) Aa'isha bint Ahmad al-Qurtubiyya (, d. 1010 CE) Mariam bint Abu Ya'qub Ashshilbi (, d. 1020 CE) Umm al-Kiram bin al-Mu'tasim ibn Sumadih (, d. 1050 CE) Umm al-Ala bint Yusuf (, d. 1050 CE) Khadija bint Ahmad ibn Kulthum al-Mu'afiri (, C10–11 CE) Al-Ghassaniyya al-Bajjaniyya (, C10–11 CE) Qasmuna bint Isma'il (, C11 CE) Wallada bint al-Mustakfi (, d. 1091 CE) Umm al-Fath bint Jafar (fl. C11), author of the lost Kitab fi qiyan al-Andalus (The Book of the Qiyan of al-Andalus)Dwight F. Reynolds, 'The Qiyan of al-Andalus', in Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History, ed. by Matthew S. Gordon and Kathryn A. Hain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 100-21 (p. 101); . Suada (fl. C11)Dwight F. Reynolds, 'The Qiyan of al-Andalus', in Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History, ed. by Matthew S. Gordon and Kathryn A. Hain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 100-21 (pp. 116-17); . I'timad Arrumaimikiyya (, b. 1045×47 CE) Muhja bint Attayyani al-Qurtubiyya (, d. 1097 CE) Nazhun al-Gharnatiyya (, d. 1100 CE) Zaynab al-Mariyya (C11–13 CE) Amat al-Aziz (, C12 CE) Buthaina bint al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad (, 1070–? CE) Hind (, C12 CE) Umm al-Hana bint Abdulhaqq ibn Atiyya (, C12 CE) Hafsa bint al-Hajj Arrakuniyya (, d. 1190 CE) Ashshilbiyya (, C12 CE) Aa'isha al-Iskandraniyya () Hamda bint Ziyad (, c. 1204 CE) Umm Assa'd bint Isam al-Himyari (, d. 1243 CE)
Anthologies and studies Anthologies Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology, ed. and trans. by Abdullah al-Udhari (London: Saqi Books, 1999), [includes facing Arabic texts and English translations] Dīwān de las poetisas de al-Andalus, ed. by Teresa Garulo (Madrid 1986) Poesía femenina hispanoárabe, ed. and trans. by María Jesús Rubiera Mata (Madrid 1990) Nisāʾ min al-Andalus, ed. by Aḥmad Khalīl Jumʻah (Damascus: al-Yamāmah lil-Ṭibāʻah wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʻ, 2001) [نسـاء من الأندلس, أحمد خليل جمعة].