Rahimunnessa

Rahimunnessa (18th century) Bengali poet whose writings were discovered by muhammad enamul haq. Her personal background was identified by muhammad shahidullah who found one of her manuscripts, which indicated that she was born in the village of Shulukbahar in chittagong in the late 18th century. Her father was Abdul Qadir and grandfather was a Sufi sage, Jangli Saha.

Rahimunnessa';s forefathers came from Makkah and settled in Chittagong. She lost her father in childhood and was deprived of a proper religious education-at the time, the only education given to women. Rahimunnessa was one four siblings. Her youngest brother, Abdul Gaffar, who was well-versed in Islamic knowledge, taught her Islamic theology. Her mother supported her literary interests. She had a significant contribution to Bangla Language of medieval period. She portrayed contemporary characteristic of Bangla Language in L'a'ily Majnu. Rhythm of payar (payar chhanda) of her poetry is very decent hearing. [Ali Nawaz] [Nawaz, Ali former Director, Bangla Cell, Bangladesh Agricultural University]