Inan

Inān bint Abdallāh (, died 841) was a prominent poet and qiyan of the Abbasid period, even characterised by the tenth-century historian Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahāni as the slave-woman poet of foremost significance in the Arabic tradition. She was later the concubine of Harun al-Rashid. Biography Inān was born a muwallada (daughter of an Arab father and slave mother) to Abd-Allāh. To her appearance, she was described as a Blonde. She was trained in Yamāma. She was sold to Abū Khālid al-Nāṭifī, who brought her to Baghdad. In the assessment of Fuad Matthew Caswell, Her salon at the house of al-Nāṭifī was frequented by the celebrated poets and men of letters of the time, including Abū Nuwās, Dibil al-Khuzāī, Marwān b. Abī Ḥafṣa, al-ʽAbbās b. al-Aḥnaf and al-Ma’mūn's tutor al-Yazīdī al-Ḥimyarī, among a host of others, one of the attractions being that her master was devoid of jealously and tolerated the ease with which she bestowed her favours. Inān's fame led Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd to seek to buy her, but he refused al-Nāṭifī's asking price of 100,000 dīnārs. However, on al-Nāṭifī's death, al-Rashīd had Inān put up for auction, ostensibly to help clear al-Nāṭifī's debts. Via an agent, al-Rashīd then acquired her for 225,000 dirhams (in that time 1 dinar was equal to 7 dirhams). As al-Rashīd's concubine, Inān bore him two sons, both of whom died young. She accompanied him to Khurāsān where he, and, soon after, she died.