Rabi‘a bint Ka‘b (Rabi‘a Qazdari)

Rabi’a Qazdari (fl. 10th century), daughter of Ka’b, a ruler of Balkh. A poetess well-known as Zayn al-‘Arab, hailing from Qazdar, an ancient city between Sistan and Makran, and a contemporary of Rudaki and the Samanid Amir Nasr. The earliest of poetesses versifying in Persian, she is regarded as one of the founders of Dari poetry and early composers of the forms of ghazal, qit’a, and qasida who proceeded towards their perfection as well. The bilingual form of poetry (mulamma’) is reportedly her innovation. She was very beautiful and proverbial for beauty, hence the compound adjective ‘Rabi’a-faced’ (Rabi’a-surat) in the Sandbadnama. Her father, Ka’b, was of Arab descent and ruled in the regions of Balkh (Bactria), Qasddar, Khazdar, and Bust, the vicinity of Sistan. She hailed from the Arab Bedouin settled in Khurasan. It is reported that she fell in love with a certain man by the name of Baktash, a slave of her brother, and composed poetry for him. She originally hailed from Arabia, but her hometown was in the region of Qazdar or Khazdar, in Balushistan (in modern day Pakistan), located 80 parsangs (~560 km) from Bust. Scant material is reported in sources concerning her and her tribe. Her father, Ka’b, accorded particular significance to his daughter’s education and on her deathbed requested his son, Harith, to take good care of her. Harith succeeded his father and it was at his accession feast that Rabi’a saw his brother’s slave, Baktash and fell in love with him. She notified her maid of her love after of while and communicated a message to him through her. Upon receiving the letter, he also fell in love with her. From that time, she composed a ghazal every day and sent it to him. Once she met Rudaki and they held a poetic contest. Later, Rudaki recited a poetical composition by Rabi’a at a meeting attended by the ruler of Bukhara and Harith, and unknowingly divulged that it was by Rabi’a, Ka’b’s daughter, who has fallen in love with her brother’s slave. So, Harith lay in ambush to chastise his sister. Baktash kept Rabi’a’s letters in a small box, until one of his friends, aspiring to find some gems, found the letters, learned about their love, and showed them to Harith who got into a rage and ordered that Baktash be sent to a dungeon in shackles. On his orders, Rabi’a was taken to a bath where her wrists were slit. In her last moments she wrote her ghazals on the bath walls. Informed of the this, Baktash fled from the dungeon and beheaded Harith. Then, he rushed towards Rabi’a’s grave and ended his life with her bare bodkin. Poetic hyperboles are reflected in the tale. In his Nafahat al-Uns, Jami, in recounting the accounts of female mystics, cites a quotation from Abu Sa’id Abu al-Khayr about Rabi’a, indicating that her untrue love turned into true love. Nonetheless, Rabi’a’s mysticism and her encounter with Rudaki are not mentioned in any of her contemporary biographical sources devoted to mystics. Biographers report that she was well-versed in sciences, though her teachers are not named in the sources. In his Lubab al-Albab, Muhammad Awfi states, ‘The daughter of Ka’b al-Qazdari, despite being a woman, was far superior to [lit. derided] men in the world She was a jockey of both arenas, ruler of both domains of poetry, composing poetry in Arabic and had utmost mastery of Persian poetry.’ In this vein, Riza Qulikhan Hidayat states, ‘She was unparalleled in the world and times by her beauty, erudition, perfection, intuitive knowledge, and divinely inspired ecstasy. She experienced both untrue and true loves. She was a jockey in the arenas of Persian and Arabic belles-lettres.’ As mentioned by Riza Qulikhan Hidayat, Rabi’a’s beauty was unrivalled, hence her title Zayn al-‘Arab (‘Adornment of the Arabs’). In this respect, ‘Attar remarks, ‘The name of that beauty was ‘the Adornment of the Arabs’ and she was perplexingly beautiful.’ Her untrue and true love is most probably justified by confusing her with Rabi’a ‘Adawiya Basri, the distinguished mystic flourishing in the 8th century, since mystical themes and meanings are not reflected in Rabi’a Qazdari’s extant poetry; though Shibli Nu’mani, in his Shu’ara’ al-‘Ajam, states, ‘Her untrue love turned into true love and she entered the Sufi circle.’ Similar to her contemporary poets, few poems by her are extant, but they indicate that she composed masterfully exquisite ghazals, qit’as, and qasidas. Her fluent poetry brims over with delicate sentiments and elegant similes and metaphors. She made fluent poetry devoid of florid adornment more than ten centuries ago, antedating the golden era of Persian poetry and emergence of distinguished poets, e.g. Firdawsi, Farrukhi, and Manuchihri. She has mastery of Persian and Arabic, composed in both languages, and was exquisitely talented and had a sharp eye for details. Her poetry is mainly passionately lyrical. She masterfully presents depictions of nature. Her extent poetry as recorded in biographical sources, running to 55 couplets, includes seven ghazals, four twin couplets, and two single couplets.

 

Asar-afarinan (3/ 69); Tarikh-i Adabiyyat dar Iran (1/ 449-451); Danishnama-yi Adab-i Farsi dar Afghanistan (3/ 421-422); Sabkshinasi (1/ 257).