Laila bint Lukaiz or Layla bint Lukayz ( ar, لَيْلَى بنت لُكَيْز died 483), otherwise known as "Layla the Chaste" (Arabic: ليلى العفيفة), was a legendary Arab poet and one of the leading poets of the fifth century.''Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology'', ed. and trans. by Abdullah al-Udhari (London: Saqi Books, 1999), pp. 26–27.

Life

Laila bint Lukaiz b. Murra b. Asad was one of the women poets who lived before Islam. Leyla, who belonged to the tribe of Rabi'a ibn Nizar, was of Arab origin. It is recorded that Leyla was one of the Arab Christians that existed before Islam. She was the youngest child of her father, Lukeyz, and stood out among her peers for her virtue, beauty, intelligence and decency. It is reported that she had many aristocrat suitors, due to the fact that she gathered many positive traits in her person. She was promised in marriage to a Yemeni prince despite being in love with her cousin Barraq ibn Rawhan. While on her way to Yemen to marry this Yemeni prince, she was kidnapped by a Persian prince who locked her up in his castle for rejecting his advances. In response, Laila wrote her most famous poem, ''If Only al-Barraq Could See'' (Arabic: ليت للبراق عيناً), in which she appealed to Barraq and her brothers to rescue her. The poem whipped up the courage of her people, leading to her successful rescue. In the 20th century, the poem was set to music by

Mohamed El Qasabgi Mohamed el-Qasabgi ( ar, محمد القصبجي; pronounced in local Egyptian dialect as Mohamed el-Asabgi; 1892 – 25 March 1966) was an Egyptian musician and composer, and is regarded as one of the five leading composers of Egypt in the 20 ...

and popularized by the singer

Asmahan Amal al-Atrash ( ar, آمال الأطرش ', North Levantine ; November 25, 1918 – July 14, 1944),

Anthologies

* Moris Farhi (ed) ''Classical Poems by Arab Women'' translated Abdullah al-Udhari, Saqi Books, 1999. * * * Esat Ayyıldız
“Leyla Bint Lukeyz (el-‘Afîfe): Beşinci Yüzyılda Kadın Bir Şair ve Epik Anlatısı”
''Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimlerde Kadın Çalışmaları Sempozyumu Bildiri Kitabı'', ed. Ömer Subaşı vd. (Erzurum: Atatürk Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2022), 477–485.

References

External links

* https://martha-hammond-msds.squarespace.com/ 5th-century Arabs Arabic-language women poets Arabic-language poets Pre-Islamic Arabian poets {{MEast-poet-stub