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

{{Authority control Arabic-language women poets Arabic-language poets Medieval Jewish poets 6th-century women writers 6th-century Arabic poets Medieval women poets