Fadl al-Shaʻirah فضل الشاعرة | |
Pseudonym: | Fadl |
Birth Place: | Al-Yamama, Abbasid Caliphate |
Death Date: | c. 870/871 |
Death Place: | Samarra, Abbasid Caliphate |
Resting Place: | Samarra |
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. She was a concubine of caliph Al-Mutawakkil.
Born in al-Yamama (now in Saudi Arabia), Fadl was brought up in Abbasid Basra, (now in Iraq). She was from the Abd al-Qays tribe. Her brothers sold her to Muhammad ibn al-Faraj al-Rukhkhaji, 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. Her pupils included the singer Faridah.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:Abu al-Ayna said that the Caliph liked the poem and gave her fifty thousand dirhams.
She died in 870/71.
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.