Sarah of Yemen ( ar, سارة, fl. 6th century CE) is noted as one of the small number of Arabic-language female poets known for the sixth century CE. It is possible that she was Jewish,
[Emily Taitz, Sondra Henry, and Cheryl Tallan, 'Sarah of Yemen', in ''The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E. to 1900 C.E.'' (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2003), p. 58.] in which case she is one of only three attested female medieval Jewish poets (the others being the anonymous, tenth-century
wife of Dunash ben Labrat and the probably twelfth-century
Qasmuna).
[The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492, ed. and trans. by Peter Cole (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), pp. 27, 364.]
The poem attributed to her survives in the tenth-century anthology named ''
Kitab al-Aghani
''Kitab al-Aghani'' ( ar, كتاب الأغاني, kitāb al-‘aghānī, The Book of Songs), is an encyclopedic collection of poems and songs that runs to over 20 volumes in modern editions, attributed to the 10th-century Arabic writer Abu al- ...
'':
The eulogy implies that Sarah was a member of the
Banu Qurayza
The Banu Qurayza ( ar, بنو قريظة, he, בני קוריט'ה; alternate spellings include Quraiza, Qurayzah, Quraytha, and the archaic Koreiza) were a Jewish tribe which lived in northern Arabia, at the oasis of Yathrib (now known as ...
, commenting on their defeat by Muslims around 627. Little more is known about Sarah, but she 'reputedly participated in a guerrilla action against
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...
before a
Muslim agent killed her.'
References
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Arabic-language women poets
Arabic-language poets
Medieval Jewish poets
6th-century women writers
6th-century Arabic poets
Medieval women poets