١،١١
11.1
قال أبو بكر محمّد بن يحيى١ الصوليّ هي فريدة بالياء وهما جاريتان مغنّيتان كبرى وصغرى فأمّا الكبرى فهذه وكانت جارية مولّدة نشأت بالحجاز ثمّ وقعت إلى الربيع بن يونس حاجب الرشيد فتعلّمت الغناء في داره ثمّ صارت إلى البرامكة فلمّا قُتل جعفر بن يحيى البرمكيّ ونُكب البرامكة هربت فريدة المذكورة فلم يُعلم خبرها وطلبها الرشيد فلم يجدها ثمّ صارت إلى الأمين بعد موت الرشيد فكانت عنده إلى أن قتل في المحرّم سنة ثمان وتسعين ومائة ثمّ خرجت فتزوّجها الهيثم بن بسّام فولدت له ابنه عبد الله ثمّ مات عنها فتزوّجها السنديّ٢ بن الحَرَشيّ فماتت عنده.
١ م: أبو بكر بن يحيى. ٢ م: السنبي.
According to Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī, her name is correctly spelled “Farīdah” with a long “i.”56 Two slave singers went by that name, one older, one younger. This Farīdah was the older one.
She was a slave of mixed parentage who grew up in the Hijaz. She came into the possession of Harūn al-Rashīd’s chamberlain, al-Rabīʿ ibn Yūnus,57 and learned to sing in his household.
She then became the property of the Barmakid family. When Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā was killed and the Barmakids were disgraced, Farīdah went into hiding. The caliph al-Rashīd searched for her without success. After al-Rashīd died, she became al-Amīn’s. She remained with him until he was killed in the month of Muharram, 198 [September, 813], when she fled.
She later married al-Haytham ibn Bassām and bore him a son, ʿAbd Allāh. When al-Haytham died, she married al-Sindī ibn al-Ḥarashī, in whose household she died.