Taqiyya Umm Ali bint Ghaith ibn Ali al-Armanazi


Umm ‘Alī Taqiyya bint Abi’l-Faraj Ghayth b. ‘Alī b. ‘Abd al-Salām b. Muḥammad b. Ja‘far al-Sulamī al-Armanāzī al-Ṣūrī, also known as Sitt al-Ni‘m , was a poet and scholar, the most prominent female student of Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī, the leading educator in Egypt in his day. 'Several sources acknowledge her as woman of talent and wit, who composed qaṣīdas and short poems.'
Taqiyya's husband was Fāḍil b. Ḥamdūn al-Ṣūrī, himself a noted scholar; with him she had the son Abu’l-Ḥasan ‘Alī b. Fāḍil b. Ḥamdūn al-Ṣūrī, who also became a noted scholar.
Among the few poems of Taqiyya's that survive is an epigram on wine the she sent to Al-Muzaffar Umar:
There is nothing good in wine, though a paradisial perk
It ferments the sane, bonkers his mind and instils in him a falling fear.

When al-Muzaffar responded that Taqiyya was speaking from experience, she composed a poem on war, to show that experience was not required to compose poetry on a theme.