[1] She was a mawla of Banu Sulaym tribe,[2] which mean she was a freedwoman-client who converted to Islam, which was the usual background for free professional musical artists in the Caliphate.
[3] The majlis played a big role in the lively musical life of Medina, in which the musicians performed and attracted patrons and students.
One of her students was the musician Ma'bad (d. 743), the son of an enslaved African, said of her "in the art of music Djamila is the tree and we are the branches".
[3] Djamila performed a pilgrimage from Medina to Mecca, which was a musical event which attracted great attention and extensively commented on by contemporary accounts.
Her cortege included all the principal musicians of the time, as well as 50 singing girls, was detained because of the attention from the onlookers, and her return was the occasion of three days of musical feasts.