Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Rabia is widely considered to be the most important of the early Sufi poets. The defining work on her life and writing was written over 50 years ago by Margaret Smith, a small treatise written as a Master's Thesis. Much of the poetry that is attributed to her is of unknown origin. One of the many myths that swirl around her life is that she was freed of slavery because her master saw her praying and surrounded by light, realized she was a saint, and feared for his life if he kept her as a slave. While she apparently received many marriage offers, she remained celibate, and died in old age an ascetic, her only care from the "disciples" who followed her. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.