caption death_place death_date birth_place birth_date image article_title name occupation
al-khansa 2 , no. 10 -lrb- march 1917 -rrb- ' , drawing by kahlil gibran , al-funun najd , arabia 645 575 najd , arabia 575 al-khansa . jpg al-khansa
 al-khansa الخنساء poet
al-khansa

tumāḍir bint ʿamr ibn al-Ḥarth ibn al-sharīd al-sulamīyah -lrb- -rrb- , usually simply referred to as al-khansā ' -lrb- -rrb- -lrb- translated from arabic as either `` gazelle '' or `` short-nosed '' -rrb- was a 7th-century arabic poet -lrb- said to have died in 646 ce -rrb- .
she was born and raised in najd , arabia .
she was a contemporary of muhammad , and eventually converted to islam .
in her time , the role of a female poet was to write elegies for the dead and perform them for the tribe in public oral competitions .
al-khansa ' won respect and fame in these competitions with her elegies for her brothers , Ṣakhr and muʿāwiyah , who had died in battle .
she is the best known female poet in arabic literature .
