| Ubayda عبيدة | |
| Occupation: | Arabic singer and musician |
| Language: | Arabic |
| Nationality: | Caliphate |
| Period: | Islamic Golden Age (Abbasid era) |
ˈUbayda al-Ṭunbūriya (also Obeidet or Ubaida; 830) was an Arabian tunbūr or pandore player and singer.
Ubayda's father was the mawlā of one of Abdallah ibn Tahir al-Khurasani's companions.[1] She was taught the tunbūr by Al-Zabaidi al-Tunburi, a guest in her family's home.
Following the death of her parents, she became a public singer. She was purchased by Ali ibn al-Faraj al-Jahhi. They had a son. She took several lovers who spent large amounts of money on her, making her wealthy.[2]
She was considered the best instrumentalist of her era[2] [3] and was surnamed tunbūrīyya.[4] Her contemporary, tunbūr player Masdud, would not enter a contest with her as he feared she would win. Musician Ishaq al-Mawsili said of her: "In the art of tunbūr playing, anyone who seeks to go beyond Ubayda makes mere noise."[4] He once had himself invited to one of her performances. He arrived incognito at the house where the performance was held; she performed excellently until she learned that he was there.[5] Her tunbūr was inlaid with ebony with the inscription "Everything may be suffered in love, except treason."[6]
An article for Ubayda containing a detailed description of her career was included in Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani's 10th-century encyclopedia Kitāb al-aghāni.[7] Ubayda's life history was conveyed to Abu-l-Faraj by Jahza al-Barmakī and Ja'far ibn Qudāma. Both had learned of Ubayda from Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsī. Historian Hilary Kilpatrick, in her book Making the Great Book of Songs, writes that Abu-l-Faraj may have created a composite account of the two stories, one of which was a fuller account.[8]