Hind bint al-Khuss al-IyÃÂdiyya (, also Hind ibnat al-Khuss al-IyÃÂdiyya) is a legendary pre-Islamic female poet. While older scholarship supposed that Hind was a real person, recent research views her as an entirely legendary figure. Stories surrounding Hind focus on her eloquent responses to questions, sometimes in verse, sometimes in sajÿ (rhyming prose), and sometimes in prose, regarding gender, marriage, plants, animals or weather.
Hind is also known in some sources by the nickname al-ZarqÃÂþ. Tales of another legendary pre-Islamic Arabian woman, ZarqÃÂþ al-YamÃÂma, were conflated with tales of Hind, leading some people to think that the two figures were identical.
The origin of Hind's laqab, al-Khuss, is not clear, but some scholarship suggests that the Arabic word khuss meant 'the son of a man and a female jinn. If so, Hind was imagined to owe her exceptional skills to supernatural ancestry.
Stories about Hind establish verisimilitude through mentioning real places and, in some cases, supposing a family for Hind. Ibn ÿArabi gives her a fulsome patronym: Hind bint al-Khuss ibn ḤÃÂbis ibn Ḳurayá¹ al-IyÃÂdë (al-IyÃÂdiyya). Al-Zamakhsharë's al-Mustaqṣàfë amthÃÂl al-ÿarab imputes to her an unnamed daughter and a sister called Jumÿa. Ibn Abë ṬÃÂhir Ṭayfà «r's BalÃÂghÃÂt al-nisÃÂþ has Hind and Jumÿa visiting the famous fair at ÿUkÃÂáºÂ. Abà « ÿUbayd portrays Hind having an affair with a slave.
Ali ibn Nasr al-Katib's Encyclopedia of Pleasure tells that Hind, known here as al-ZarqÃÂþ, loved the Christian woman Hind bint al-NuÿmÃÂn, who was the daughter of the last Lakhmid king of Hira in the seventh century. When Hind Bint al-Khuss died, her faithful lover "cropped her hair, wore black clothes, rejected worldly pleasures, vowed to God that she would lead an ascetic life until she passed away". Hind bint al-Nu'man even builds a monastery to commemorate her love for al-ZarqÃÂþ. This source figures the two characters as the first lesbians in Arab culture.
Literature attributed to Hind tends to take the form of clever responses to questions and proverbial wisdom, reported in adab literature and philological treatises. In the words of Kathrin Müller, <blockquote>The structure of these anecdotes is characteristic of texts preserving traditional knowledge of Bedouin life and its lexicographical material. Many questions follow the pattern âÂÂwhat is the best thing?âÂÂwhat is the worst?â Sometimes the questioner begins a sentence with âÂÂalmost,â and Bint al-Khuss completes it, as in âÂÂalmost, the ostrich is a bird.âÂÂ</blockquote>
An incantation in the rajaz metre attributed to ZarqÃÂ'/Hind bint al-Khuss, characterised by D. Frolov as 'very archaic because of the abundance and diversity of foot variations', runs
The ninth-century CE scholar Abà « l-ÿAbbÃÂs Thaÿlab had a now lost work called Tafsër kalÃÂm Ibnat al-Khuss ('commentary on the sayings of Ibnat al-Khuss').
Stories about Hind remained in circulation in Algeria into the twentieth century.