The earliest name mentioned among the women poets of Amasya belongs to a well-known figure of history: Hayzurân, wife of the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdî and mother of the caliphs Mûsâ al-Hâdî and Hârûn al-Rashîd. In the ninth volume of his Amasya Tarihi, Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar gives her a separate entry titled "Hayzürânü'l-Harşeniyye-Ümmü'l-Hulefâ" and, through Harşene, the old name of Amasya, counts her as a daughter of the city. Other sources do not carry this claim. Here we set out the account, the sources that stand against it and the Arabic quatrain attributed to her. For the wider context of women's poetry, see The Women Poets of Amasya.

Hayzurân as Hüsameddin Tells It

Hüsameddin writes that, as stated in works such as Zehru'l-âdâb, Târih-i Baybars and Ikdü'l-cümân, Harşene is another name of Amasya, and that this is why Hayzurân was called "Hayzürânü'l-Harşeniyye". His account runs as follows: in 144 (761-62) the Abbasid commander Mâlik bin Abdullah entered Amasya and, while plundering the city, took captive a beautiful girl serving in one of the churches. Mâlik presented her to the caliph al-Mansûr, who gave her to his son Muhammad al-Mahdî, governor of Rayy. Al-Mahdî freed her and married her; when he became caliph on his father's death (158), Hayzurân gained great influence. Hüsameddin adds that she had the guesthouse known as "Dâru'l-Hayzürân" built in Mecca.

The historian also quotes a passage from Mustafa bin Hasan el-Antâkî's Nukûdü'l-lisân ve ukûdü'l-hisân. According to it, Harşene is the city of Amasya in Anatolia, and Hârûn al-Rashîd's mother Hayzurân came from there. Al-Mahdî bought her, freed her and took her as his wife. Antâkî describes her as intelligent, prudent, devout, a poet and generous. Hüsameddin's description of her as "şâire" (poet) rests on this line and on the quatrain below.

The Other Account: The Yemeni Slave Girl

The entry written by Kasım Kırbıyık in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi gives a different origin. According to it, Hayzurân, whose full name is Ümmü Mûsâ al-Khayzurân bint Atâ al-Jurashiyya, was al-Mahdî's slave girl of Yemeni origin. Her father Atâ is described either as a freedman of al-Mansûr or, according to Narshakhî's Târîḫu Buḫârâ, as a Yemeni king captured in Tabaristan and brought to al-Mahdî. Her brother Ghitrîf was a servant with a man of the Jurash tribe in Yemen; Hayzurân had him brought to her and made governor of Yemen. The entry records that she was freed and married in 159 (775-76), died in Baghdad on 26 Jumâdâ II 173 (20 November 789), and that Hârûn al-Rashîd led her funeral prayer. It never mentions Amasya or Harşene.

The Conflict Between the Sources

The two accounts part ways at several points. Her origin is Amasya in Hüsameddin, Yemen and the Jurash tribe in TDV. Her capture comes, in Hüsameddin, during the taking of Amasya in 144; TDV has no such event, and only her father's capture in Tabaristan appears, as a report. On her marriage to al-Mahdî the two accounts agree: in both she is first the caliph's slave girl, then his freed wife. TDV is itself cautious on one point, noting that the Persian text of Narshakhî's work does not contain the information about her father.

We have no source that reconciles the two. We have not seen the relevant pages of the works Hüsameddin cites; we know them only through his account. The TDV entry draws on the main sources of Abbasid history and does not touch the Amasya claim. For this reason we present Hayzurân's Amasya origin not as documented fact but as a report passed on by the local historian and unsupported by the other sources. It belongs among the literature pages because Amasya's own memory keeps her as the earliest of its women poets.

The Quatrain Attributed to Hayzurân

As an example of Hayzurân's poetry, Hüsameddin gives a verse exchange between her and al-Mahdî. According to the account, Hayzurân went on pilgrimage and stayed some time in Mecca, and al-Mahdî, unable to bear the separation, sent her verses expressing his longing. Hayzurân wrote an answer at once and returned to Baghdad. Al-Mahdî's verses begin "We are exceedingly happy, but our joy is complete only with you" and in the last line say: if you have the strength, fly to us on the wind. Hayzurân's answer is this:

قد أتانا الذى وصفت من شوق
فكدنا وما قدرنا نطير
ليت أن الرياح يودين
إليكم ما قد يجن الضمير
لم أزل صبة إن كنت بعدى
فى سرور فدام ذاك السرور

Ḳad atânâ ellezî vaṣafte min şevḳ / fe-kidnâ ve mâ ḳadernâ neṭîr / leyte enne'r-riyâḥa yu'eddîne / ileyküm mâ ḳad yecunnü'ḍ-ḍamîr / lem ezel ṣabbeten in künte ba'dî / fî surûrin fe-dâme zâke's-surûr

The Latin transliteration is ours; Hüsameddin gives the text only in Arabic script. For the meaning we rely on the translation the editors give in a footnote of the new edition: What you described in your longing has reached us; we nearly flew, but we had not the strength. If only the winds could carry to you what the heart conceals. If you are happy while apart from me, I still burn with longing; may that joy of yours last.

The short commentary is ours. The quatrain takes al-Mahdî's image of flying on the wind and answers with it: the heart wishes to fly, the body cannot follow. In the last verse the longing takes the form of a prayer for the beloved's happiness; even in separation we hear a gentle, measured voice that does not begrudge the other's joy. This tone matters more when read with the following note: in the same anecdote Hüsameddin rejects another line attributed to Hayzurân, and an indecent reply laid at Hârûn al-Rashîd's door, on the grounds that the metre is broken and the line is not eloquent. He says he saw the line in Âsım Efendi's Kâmûs Tercümesi. So the quatrain we have, even if it passed through the historian's filter, rests only on his account; we could not compare it with another source and cannot present its attribution to Hayzurân as certain.

Chronology

144 (761-62): According to Hüsameddin, Mâlik bin Abdullah takes Amasya and captures Hayzurân.

159 (775-76): According to TDV, al-Mahdî frees Hayzurân and marries her.

173 (789): Hayzurân dies in Baghdad (TDV: 26 Jumâdâ II 173, 20 November 789).

Bibliography

Online sources