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Dananir al Barmakiyya

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Dananir al Barmakiyya
دنانير البرمكية
Diedc. 810s
Baghdad
Resting placeBaghdad
OccupationArabic poet and singer
LanguageArabic
NationalityCaliphate
PeriodIslamic Golden Age
(Abbasid era)

Dananir al Barmakiyya (Arabic: دنانير البرمكية; late 8th-century – early 9th-century) was an Arabian qiyan musician, singer and poet. She is also known as the author of the famous Book of Songs.[1]

She was from Medina. A slave, she was sold to Yahya ibn Khalid al-Barmaki.[2]

As a slave, she was trained to become a qiyan. She was a student of the qiyan-musician Badhl, who was known for the number of songs she retained in her memory.[3] Among her instructors were Ibrahim and Ishaf al-Mausuli, Ibn Jami, Fulaih, and Badhl.[4]

Dananir is noted as one of the most famous quian-musicians. She is described as an accomplished poet, musician and singer. As a singer, she was popular with the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), who visited his minister's house in Baghdad to hear her perform, and gave her extravagant gifts, including a necklace worth 30,000 gold coins.[4]

She is most well known as the author of the Kitab mujarrad al-aghani (Book of Choice Songs).[4]

References

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  1. ^ Music in the World of Islam: A Socio-cultural Study
  2. ^ Hilary Kilpatrick:Making the Great Book of Songs: Compilation and the Author's Craft in Abū L
  3. ^ Music in the World of Islam: A Socio-cultural Study
  4. ^ a b c Haag, John (1999). "Dananir al Barmakiyya". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. Waterford, CT: Yorkin Publications. pp. 294–295. ISBN 0787640611.