Lubna de Córdoba was an Andalusian slave and intellectual during the Caliphate of Córdoba who became famous for her knowledge of grammar and the quality of her poetry. She served as the private secretary and curator of the Great Library of Córdoba for Caliph Alhakén II, a great supporter of culture. In these roles, Lubna organized the library's collection, traveled to acquire new books, and taught mathematics to poor children. She helped establish the famous library of Medina Azahara and developed a classification system for cataloging books.

1. Lubna de Córdoba

2. Who is it ?
Lubna de Córdoba or Medina Azahara was an
Andalusian slave and intellectua,during the
Caliphate of Córdoba, famous because of her
knowledge in grammar, and for the quality of
her poetry. She was the secretary of the
Caliph of Cordoba, Alhakén II, a great defender
of culture.

3. Biography
We don’t know when she was
born and when she died. We
know where she was from,
she was from Madinat Al-
Zahra (Al-Ándalus). This city is
Córdoba (Spain) now. She was
an intellectual, a scribe, a
librarian and a mathematician.

4. PROFESSION
She wasn’t simply a writer. In Córdoba library, she was writing and
translating many manuscripts.
She was also the promoter of the creation of the famous library
of Medina Azahara.
Lubna was a teacher of poor children teaching mathematics.

5. Why did she become
famous?
She became famous because she had
multiple jobs: scribe, expert in acquisitions
of the royal library, private secretary
and mathematician and for this reason
she was appointed curator of the Great
Library of Córdoba. Lubna traveled
through the Middle East chasing books to
add to her library in Cairo, Damascus,
and Baghdad. In her honor they built a
street in Córdoba called Escriba Lubna

6. What SHE did
An expert in grammar and poetry, she was one of those in
charge of supervising of many libraries that Alhaken II
founded during his reign. In addition, she was a book browser
in the East and created a classification and cataloging system
that took out the titles, the theme and the location of the
books.