Career
References to her can be found in the poetry of Rūdakī and "Attār. Her biography has been primarily recorded by Zāhir ud-Dīn "Awfī and renarrated by Nūr ad-Dīn Djāmī. The exact dates of her birth and death are unknown, but it is reported that she was a native of Balkh in Khorāsān (Afghanistan).
Some evidences indicate that she lived during the same period as Rūdakī, the court poet to the Samanid Emir Naṣr II (914-943).
Her name and biography appear in "Awfī"s lubābu "l-albāb, "Attār"s maṭnawīyat, and Djāmī"s nafahātu "l-uns. She was one of the first poets who wrote in modern Persian, and she is, along with Mahsatī Dabīra Ganja"ī, among a very few female writers of medieval Persia to be recorded in history by name.
At a court party, Hāres heard Rābi"a"s secret. He imprisoned Baktāsh in a well, cut the jugular vein of Rābi"a and imprisoned her in a bathroom.
She wrote her final poems with her blood on the wall of the bathroom until she died.
Baktāsh escaped the well, and as soon as got the news about Rābi"a, he went to the governor’s office and assassinated Hāresearch He then committed suicide. Her love affair with the slave Baktāsh inspired Qājār poet Rezā Qulī-Khān Ḥedāyat to compose his Baktāshnāma.
