Layla bint Abullah ibn Shaddad ibn Ka’b al-Akhyaliyyah () (d. c. AH 75/694×90/709 CE), or simply Layla al-Akhyaliyyah () was a famous

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

who was renowned for her poetry, eloquence, strong personality, and beauty. Nearly fifty of her short poems survive. They include elegies for her lover Tawba ibn Humayyir and ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan; 'lewd satires' exchanged with the poet al-Nabigha al-Ja‘di; and panegyrics for leading Umayyad officials and caliphs: Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf, Caliph

Marwan I Marwan ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As ibn Umayya ( ar, links=no, مروان بن الحكم بن أبي العاص بن أمية, Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayya), commonly known as MarwanI (623 or 626April/May 685), was the fo ...

, and Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.

Life

She was born to the Banu 'Uqayl section of the

Banu 'Amir The Banū ʿĀmir ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa ( ar, بنو عامر بن صعصعة) was a large and ancient Arab tribe originating from central Arabia, that dominated Najd for centuries after the rise of Islam. The tribe is an Arab Adnanite tribe and its ...

tribe, coincidentally the same tribe as

Qays ibn al-Mullawah ''Layla & Majnun'' ( ar, مجنون ليلى ; Layla's Mad Lover) is an old story of Arab origin, about the 7th-century Bedouin poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah and his ladylove Layla bint Mahdi (later known as Layla al-Aamiriya). "The Layla ...

and Layla Al-Aamiriya. However, unlike them, she was a city-dweller and not a bedouin. In her early years, she was known for her love of Tawba ibn Humayyir, but her father refused the marriage, and she married a man called Abi Al-Athla instead. Tawba continued to visit her despite her marriage until her husband complained to the

Caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

, who made Tawba leave. Her husband could not bear the

jealousy Jealousy generally refers to the thoughts or feelings of insecurity, fear, and concern over a relative lack of possessions or safety. Jealousy can consist of one or more emotions such as anger, resentment, inadequacy, helplessness or disgus ...

, so he divorced her. She then married an unknown poet and had many children, little is known about them.

Poetry and influence

Her strong personality and fame gave her access to the

courts A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accorda ...

of the

Umayyads Umayyads may refer to: *Umayyad dynasty, a Muslim ruling family of the Caliphate (661–750) and in Spain (756–1031) *Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) :*Emirate of Córdoba (756–929) :*Caliphate of Córdoba The Caliphate of Córdoba ( ar, خ ...

and others. She was one of the few early female Arab poets who dared to speak of her

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

in public; this poetry is particularly associated with Tawba b. al-Ḥumayyir: 'Laylā and Tawba had fallen in love with each other. But when Tawba asked for Laylā's hand in marriage, her father refused, and married Laylā to another man. Later, Tawba was killed, and this inspired the laments of Laylā'. What made this even more daring was that she was married to another ( Sawwār b. Awfā al-Qushayrī). Nevertheless love poetry was not her only

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

, as her poems were diverse in subjects, although she avoided

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

. This helped her to continue her relations with politically influential people, despite changing times and powers. Her work includes exchanges of satires with Nābigha al-Ja‘dī (apparently between 40/660 and 63/683) and Ḥumayda bint Nu‘mān ibn Bashīr.A. Schippers, 'The Role of Woman in Medieval Andalusian Arabic Story-Telling', in ''Verse and the Fair Sex: Studies in Arabic Poetry and in the Representation of Woman in Arabic Literature'', ed. by F. de Jong (Utrecht: M. Th. Houtsma Stichting, 1993), pp. 139-52 (p. 140), http://hdl.handle.net/11245/2.80595. Her poetry was often compared to that of

Al-Khansa Tumāḍir bint ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn al-Sharīd al-Sulamīyah ( ar, تماضر بنت عمرو بن الحارث بن الشريد السُلمية), usually simply referred to as al-Khansāʾ ( ar, الخنساء, links=no, meaning "snub-n ...

.Tahera Qutbuddin
'Women Poets'
, in ''Medieval Islamic Civilisation: An Encyclopedia'', ed. by Josef W. Meri, 2 vols (New York: Routledge, 2006), II 867. However, Layla had more diverse imagery, not confined to the desert, and used more than one genre, not confining herself to one subject. Her poetry also contained some philosophical aspects and

wisdom Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowle ...

, usually attributed to her extensive travel. On the other hand, Layla depended highly on her poetry for income where she was awarded with money for some poems, and her poetry provided her with connections to rich and powerful people while Al-Khansa depended on her family’s traditional

pastoralism Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as " livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The a ...

. She died in 704 near the city of

Samawa , nickname = Samawa , settlement_type = City , motto = , image_skyline = مدينة السماوة.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Samawah , image_flag = , fl ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

while traveling. Example of her poetry: ::::::::أحــجاج لا يفـلل سلاحك إنما المنـايا بكـف الله حيث تراها ::::::::إذا هبـط الحجاج أرضاً مريضة تتبـع أقصـى دائـها فشفـاها ::::::::شفاها من الداء العضال الذي بها غـلام إذا هـز القنـا سقـاها ::::::::سقاها دمــاء المارقين وعلـها إذا جمحت يوماً وخفيـف أذاها ::::::::إذا سمـع الحجـاج صوت كتيبة أعـد لها قبـل النـزول قراها

Life

Poetry and influence

References

Further reading