Dananir al-Barmakiyya (; late 8th-century â early 9th-century) was an Arabian qiyan musician, singer and poet. She is also known as the author of the famous Book of Songs.
She was from Medina. A slave, she was sold to Yahya ibn Khalid al-Barmaki.
As a slave, she was trained to become a qiyan. She was a student of the qiyan-musician Badhl, who was known for the number of songs she retained in her memory. Among her instructors were Ibrahim and Ishaf al-Mausuli, Ibn Jami, Fulaih, and Badhl.
Dananir is noted as one of the most famous quian-musicians. She is described as an accomplished poet, musician and singer. As a singer, she was popular with the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786âÂÂ809), who visited his minister's house in Baghdad to hear her perform, and gave her extravagant gifts, including a necklace worth 30,000 gold coins.
She is most well known as the author of the Kitab mujarrad al-aghani (Book of Choice Songs).