ḲASMUNAH (sometimes called Xemone):
Jewish poetess, Andalusian by birth; lived in the twelfth or thirteenth century and wrote in Arabic. Al-Maḳḳari included her in his list of Arabian poets in Spain. According to him Ḳasmunah's father, Ishmael, also was a poet and took great pains with the education of his daughter. He was in the habit of beginning a strophe and calling on her to finish it. Al-Maḳḳari has preserved only two of her verses.
Bibliography:
- Al-Maḳḳari, Analectes sur l'Histoire et la Littérature des Arabes d'Espagne, ii. 356;
- J. Q. R. xi. 128;
- Kayserling, Die Jüdischen Frauen, p. 142, Leipsic, 1879;
- Bacher, in Monatsschrift, xx. 186;
- Steinschneider, Arabische Literatur, § 228.
