Arib al-Ma'muniyya

Arib al-Ma'muniyya, in the entry of Kahhala in A'lam al-Nisa', was a fine singer of eloquence, beauty and grace, born in 181 AH. ¹ Kahhala assembles her story from al-Aghani, Ibn Asakir's and Ibn al-Athir's histories and other works. ²

She belonged to Abd Allah ibn Isma'il, master of al-Rashid's riding animals, who raised her, educated her and taught her singing. Kahhala reports from Ibn al-Mu'tazz that she was the daughter of Ja'far ibn Yahya the Barmakid by a woman named Fatima, and that she was carried off as a child when the Barmakids fell and was sold on until she reached her master — a report he gives in its teller's name. ^{1 3} Her master took her to Basra and taught her calligraphy, grammar, poetry and singing, and she excelled in all, so that after the old singing women of the Hijaz — Jamila, Azza al-Mayla', Salama al-Zarqa' — no woman equal to her was seen. ³

He cites Waki' from his father that he never saw a woman who played better, was fairer of face, quicker in reply or better at chess and backgammon; Ishaq al-Mawsili said much the same; and Alluya said she was a finer singer than he or his colleague Mukhariq. When Ibn Khurradadhbih asked about her compositions, she said they had reached a thousand songs. ^{3 4}

She passed to al-Amin, and when he was killed fled to her old master, until al-Ma'mun bought her for fifty thousand dirhams and became deeply attached to her. Once he shunned her for some days and then visited her when she was ill, asking how she had found the taste of separation; she said, "Were it not for the bitterness of separation, the sweetness of union would not be known," and he admired the saying. ⁴ When al-Ma'mun died she was sold with his estate — the only slave of his to be sold — and al-Mu'tasim bought her for a hundred thousand dirhams and freed her. ⁵

A well-known affection bound her to the secretary and poet Ibrahim ibn al-Mudabbir, and Kahhala gives samples of her notes to him on illness, fasting and reproach — among them one reading only "I wanted… were it not… perhaps…", under which he wrote "if only", "what?" and "I hope". ^{5 6 7}

He relates from Ibn Hamdun a gathering at Abu Isa ibn al-Mutawakkil's with Arib, Shariya and their singing girls, when the connoisseurs were divided into Aribis and Sharawis; when Shariya claimed a melody as her own, Arib sent for an old singer who sang it as a song of Zubayr ibn Dahman, and Shariya was put to shame. ^{8 2}

She died in 277 AH according to Ibn al-Athir and Ibn Asakir; Kahhala notes that Uyun al-Tawarikh gives another date. ²