Love between women in medieval Arabic literature
According to the ninth century Arab historian Ibn al-Kalbi, Hind bint al-Nuʿman, a pre-Islamic princess, was the first Arab woman who fell in love with another woman. Her beloved was the legendary Zarqa al-Yamama, a woman with miraculous sight. Her name, zarqa means ‘blue-eyed’, but her eyes were more than that: she could see from a very far distance.