Faḍl al-Shāʻirah
Faḍl al-Shāʻirah 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.Life
Born in al-Yamama, Fadl was brought up in ʻAbbasid Basra,. Her brothers sold her to a leading officer of the Caliphate, and he gave her to Caliph Al-Mutawakkil. Fadl became a prominent figure in the court. According to ibn Annadim, a bibliographer, Fadl's diwan extended to twenty pages.Poetry
An example of Fadl's work, in the translation of Abdullah al-Udhari, is:
