Fadl Ashsha'ira (died 871) was one of 'three early ‘Abbasid singing girls ... particularly famous for their poetry' and is one of the pre-eminent medieval Arabic female poets whose work survives.
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Life
Born in Yamama, Bahrain, Fadl was brought up in Basra, Iraq. Her brothers sold her to a leading officer of the caliphate, and he gave her to Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-61). Fadl became a prominent figure in the court. According to Ibn Annadim, a bibliographer (died 1047), Fadl's diwan extended to twenty pages.
Poetry
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.References
Fadl Ashsha'ira Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA