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ʿUlayya bint al-Mahdi

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women's Writing in the Global Middle Ages

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Abstract

Princess ʿUlayya bint al-Mahdi (777–825) is one of the most famous female medieval poets in Arabic and one of the few freeborn female poets from the Abbasid Empire whose names are known. Her poetry consists mainly of love poems, several of which were addressed to two palace eunuchs. She was an accomplished singer and musician, and she set many of her poems to music and sang them herself.

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References

  • Al-Heitty, A. 2005. The role of the Poetesses at the ʿAbbāsid court (132–247 A.H./750–861 A.D.). Beirut: Al-Rayan.

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  • Neubauer, E. 2000. Ulayya. In Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. P. Bearman, Th. BIanquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs, 2nd Ed. Published online 2012. Brill Online. Consulted online on 31 March 2023.

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  • Van Gelder, G. 2013. Classical Arabic literature: A library of Arabic literature anthology. New York/London: New York University Press.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Pernilla Myrne

Authors
  1. Pernilla Myrne
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Correspondence to Pernilla Myrne .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA

    Michelle M. Sauer

  2. School of Literature & Languages, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Diane Watt

  3. College of Arts & Humanities, Swansea University, Mumbles Swansea, UK

    Liz Herbert McAvoy

Section Editor information

  1. SOAS University of London, London, UK

    Marlé Hammond

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© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Myrne, P. (2024). ʿUlayya bint al-Mahdi. In: Sauer, M.M., Watt, D., McAvoy, L.H. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women's Writing in the Global Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76219-3_70-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76219-3_70-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-76219-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-76219-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

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