Muslim women of the past

[HOPE]

Salutes and peace,


Lubna Of Cordoba

Lubna was raised in the palace of the Sultan Abd al -Rahman III and despite humble beginnings she quickly became one of the most important figures in the Andalusian palace at the time, she became the Khalifa secretary and scribe as well as a secretary to his son Hakam II Ibn Abd al- Rahman.

Lubna was quite the extraordinary figure; one of her roles was presiding over the royal library. The library, which at the time included 500 thousand books, was one of the most important libraries in the world.

As for being a scribe, she was not merely a writer and a translator, the level she reached had to “be most intimately aware of the books they transcribed and many of them were annotators of and commentators of those texts."

Her love and knowledge of math was great and it is told that while walking in the roads of Andalusia she would teach children the principles of math and the multiplication tables.

As if that was not enough she was also a philosopher a poet, and a calligrapher who left behind “beautiful works of calligraphy”
The historian Ibn Bashkvl said " she (Lubna) mastered the writing and science of poetry, and her knowledge of mathematics was broad and great, and she has mastered many other sciences and there was no one nobler then her in the ummayad palace” She died in the year 984 ad
Sources: Muslim women a biographical dictionary Aisha Bewley – an article in the BBC by Kamila Shamsie- Ibn Bashkaval Al Silah p 323