Ulayya bint al-Mahdi

Ulayya bint al-Mahdi was an Abbasid princess, poet and musician, a daughter of the caliph al-Mahdi and the singer Maknuna, a slave concubine. Apparently brought up by her half-brother Harun al-Rashid after their father's early death, she was, like her half-brother Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, a noted musician, and has been called the most gifted of the princesses who composed poetry and songs. Her poems, mostly short pieces made to be sung, treat love, friendship and longing for home, praise Harun and celebrate wine. As a free Arab woman she performed only at private family gatherings. She died in 824 or 825; the main source for her life is the Kitāb al-Aghānī.