Sultana (title) Sultana (title) Sultana or sultanah (; ") is a female royal title, and a feminine form of the word sultan. This term has been officially used for female monarchs in some Islamic states, and historically it was also used for sultan's consorts. Nevertheless, westerners have also used the title to refer to Muslim women monarchs and sultan's women relatives who do not hold this title officially. The term sultana is a feminine form of the word sultan (), an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ", meaning "authority" or "power". Later, sultan came to
Medieval Arabic female poets al-Fāriʿah bint Shaddād), the warrior-diplomat (al-Hujayjah), the princess (al-Ḥurqah, ʿUlayyah bint al-Mahdī, and Walladah bint al-Mustakfī), and the courtesan-ascetic (ʿArīb, Shāriyah, and Rābiʿah al-ʿAdawīyah). Rābiʿah’s biography in particular projects a paradoxical persona that embodies the complimentary opposites of sexuality and saintliness. While most Arabic-speaking medieval woman poets were Muslim, of the three probable medieval female Jewish poets whose work has survived, two composed in Arabic: Qasmūna bint Ismāʿil and the sixth-century Sarah of Yemen (the remaining, Hebrew-language poet, being the anonymous wife of Dunash ben Labrat). The following list of known women poets is based on (but not limited to)