Ubayda

Ubayda عبيدة
Occupation	Arabic singer and musician
Language	Arabic
Nationality	Caliphate
Period	Islamic Golden Age (Abbasid era)

ˈUbayda al-Ṭunbūriya (Arabic: عبيدة الطنبورية) (also Obeidet or Ubaida; fl. c. 830) was an Arabian tunbūr or pandore player and singer.

Ubayda's father was the mawlā of one of Abdallah ibn Tahir al-Khurasani's companions.[1] She was taught the tunbūr by Al-Zabaidi al-Tunburi, a guest in her family's home.[2]

Following the death of her parents, she became a public singer.[2] She was purchased by Ali ibn al-Faraj al-Jahhi.[2] They had a son. She took several lovers who spent large amounts of money on her, making her wealthy.[2]

She was considered the best instrumentalist of her era[2][3] and was surnamed tunbūrīyya.[4] Her contemporary, tunbūr player Masdud, would not enter a contest with her as he feared she would win. Musician Ishaq al-Mawsili said of her: "In the art of tunbūr playing, anyone who seeks to go beyond Ubayda makes mere noise."[4] He once had himself invited to one of her performances. He arrived incognito at the house where the performance was held; she performed excellently until she learned that he was there.[5] Her tunbūr was inlaid with ebony with the inscription "Everything may be suffered in love, except treason."[6]

An article for Ubayda containing a detailed description of her career was included in Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani's 10th-century encyclopedia Kitāb al-aghāni.[7] Ubayda's life history was conveyed to Abu-l-Faraj by Jahza al-Barmakī and Ja'far ibn Qudāma. Both had learned of Ubayda from Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsī. Historian Hilary Kilpatrick, in her book Making the Great Book of Songs, writes that Abu-l-Faraj may have created a composite account of the two stories, one of which was a fuller account.[8]

References

1. Kilpatrick, Hilary (2005). "Mawāli and Music". Patronate And Patronage in Early And Classical Islam. BRILL. p. 342. ISBN 978-90-04-14480-4.
2. Haag, John (2002). "Ubaida (fl. c. 830)". In Commire, Anne (ed.). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Waterford, Connecticut: Yorkin Publications. ISBN 0-7876-4074-3. Archived from the original on 2016-04-10.
3. Young, Serinity, ed. (1999). Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion. New York: Macmillan Reference. p. 691. ISBN 978-0-02-864608-4.
4. Shiloah, Amnon (August 2001). Music in the World of Islam: A Socio-Cultural Study. Wayne State University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-8143-2970-2.
5. Kilpatrick, Hilary (2003). Making the Great Book of Songs: Compilation and the Author's Craft in Abū L-Faraj Al-Iṣbahānī's Kitāb Al-aghānī. Psychology Press. p. 405. ISBN 978-0-7007-1701-9.
6. Ribera, Julian (1929). Music in Ancient Arabia and Spain. Stanford University Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-8047-0788-6.
7. Kilpatrick, Hilary (1997). "Cosmic Correspondences: Songs as a Starting Point for an Encyclopaedic Portrayal of Culture". Pre-modern Encyclopaedic Texts: Proceedings of the Second Comers Congress, Groningen, 1 - 4 July 1996. Leiden: Brill. p. 140. ISBN 978-90-04-10830-1.
8. Kilpatrick, Hilary (2003). Making the Great Book of Songs: Compilation and the Author's Craft in Abū L-Faraj Al-Iṣbahānī's Kitāb Al-aghānī. Psychology Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-7007-1701-9.