Ubayda

{{Short description|Arabic female musician and singer of Abbasid period}}

{{Infobox writer

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Ubayda
عبيدة

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| occupation = Arabic singer and musician

| language = Arabic

| nationality = Caliphate

| period = Islamic Golden Age
(Abbasid era)

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ˈUbayda al-Ṭunbūriya ({{Langx|ar|عبيدة الطنبورية}}) (also Obeidet or Ubaida; {{fl.}} {{circa}} 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.{{cite book|last1=Kilpatrick|first1=Hilary|title=Patronate And Patronage in Early And Classical Islam|date=2005|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-14480-4|page=342|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqdcXWARYCQC&q=ubayda%20pandore&pg=PA342|language=en|chapter=Mawāli and Music}} She was taught the tunbūr by Al-Zabaidi al-Tunburi, a guest in her family's home.

Following the death of her parents, she became a public singer. She was purchased by Ali ibn al-Faraj al-Jahhi. They had a son. She took several lovers who spent large amounts of money on her, making her wealthy.{{cite book|last=Haag|first=John|editor1-last=Commire|editor1-first=Anne|title=Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia|date=2002|publisher=Yorkin Publications|location=Waterford, Connecticut|isbn=0-7876-4074-3|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2591309413.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410063837/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2591309413.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2016-04-10|chapter=Ubaida (fl. c. 830)|url-access=subscription }}

She was considered the best instrumentalist of her era{{cite book|editor1-last=Young|editor1-first=Serinity|title=Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion|date=1999|publisher=Macmillan Reference|location=New York|isbn=978-0-02-864608-4|page=691}} and was surnamed tunbūrīyya.{{cite book|last1=Shiloah|first1=Amnon|title=Music in the World of Islam: A Socio-Cultural Study|date=August 2001|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-2970-2|page=30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S6gwlvp61s4C&q=ubayda%20musician&pg=PA30|language=en}} 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." 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.{{cite book|last1=Kilpatrick|first1=Hilary|title=Making the Great Book of Songs: Compilation and the Author's Craft in Abū L-Faraj Al-Iṣbahānī's Kitāb Al-aghānī|date=2003|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-7007-1701-9|page=405|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j-0o7UXhwY8C&q=ubayda%20pandore&pg=PA405|language=en}} Her tunbūr was inlaid with ebony with the inscription "Everything may be suffered in love, except treason."{{cite book|last1=Ribera|first1=Julian|title=Music in Ancient Arabia and Spain|date=1929|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-0788-6|page=71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cz6sAAAAIAAJ&q=ubayda%20musician&pg=PA71|language=en}}

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.{{cite book|last1=Kilpatrick|first1=Hilary|title=Pre-modern Encyclopaedic Texts: Proceedings of the Second Comers Congress, Groningen, 1 - 4 July 1996|date=1997|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden|isbn=978-90-04-10830-1|page=140|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frsePRaTgyUC&q=ubayda%20pandore&pg=PA140|chapter=Cosmic Correspondences: Songs as a Starting Point for an Encyclopaedic Portrayal of Culture}} 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.{{cite book|last1=Kilpatrick|first1=Hilary|title=Making the Great Book of Songs: Compilation and the Author's Craft in Abū L-Faraj Al-Iṣbahānī's Kitāb Al-aghānī|date=2003|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-7007-1701-9|page=98|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j-0o7UXhwY8C&q=ubayda%20pandore&pg=PA98}}