RABIA BALKHI..A Woman Writer/Scholar of Khurasan (Afghanistan).

By Shah Jehan Khan

876 AD: In brief, Rabia Balkhi (856-926AD) was born in Afghanistan. She proved herself as an authentic writer, scholar, poet, literary critic, businesswoman and artist (Thanks to her father name ‘Kaab’ who gave her the courage to go ahead). She became the first-rate academic celebrity, not only in Afghanistan but in other countries as well. By the time she was in her 20s she had command over classic Farsi (Persian), Bactrian (Dari) and classic Arabic. She had also learned the sign language and was familiar with the Sogdian language as well.

Securing such a fame that she almost dominated her contemporary men poets/scholars.. in particular ‘Rudaki’. Later her life story and legacy was distorted, may be because she was.. a woman, leading to many speculations and rumors of her ‘love affairs’ with a Turk, which passed down for many centuries..which is wrong. The famous story she wrote was a hit in Arab and Persian world which was about her female friend name ‘Roya’ who was in love with a handsome Turkish slave ‘Baktash’. After the daily hard work Roya would come to meet Rabia. Roya would never tell Rabia about how hard she worked the whole day but.. about Baktash. Rabia would write it in poetry form, about the infinite human feelings of Roya and Baktash. Later, other men writers like Rudaki who were connected with the rulers of Khurasan (Afghanistan) of that time distorted the original, also destroyed most of her work.

Her left-over books are:

-‘Roya and Baktash’ (Publication date: 883 A.D.) Story of ill-fated lovers Roya and her Turkic slave Baktash.

-‘This and That’.

-‘Flora’ (Publication date: 879 A.D.) An encyclopedic reference about flowers.

-‘Fauna’ (publication date: 886 A.D.) An encyclopedic reference about animals.

- ‘Child Rearing Practices’ ( 889 A.D.) A guide to better parenting skills.

-‘Humanity and Charity’ (Publication date: 894 A.D.) An appeal for being charitable and its associated physical and spiritual benefits.

- ‘The Pursuit of Justice’ (Publication date: 896 A.D.) A description of the revenge phenomenon in Greater Iran of her time.

- ‘Successful Business Strategies’ (Publication date: 896 A.D.)

(An investigative project conducted from 2016 to 2019 that was led by researcher Ozair Siddiqui finally uncovered details of her life.)