I I CHILDREN IN SLAVERY THROUGH THE AGES Edited by Gwyn Campbell Suzanne Miers + Joseph C. Miller OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS AT HENS 6 SINGING SLAVE GIRLS (QIYAN) OF THE 'ABBASID COURT IN THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES KRTSTTNA RICHARDSON The category of slave irt'the Middle East encompassed a number of differ' ent duties and positions: eunuch, chattel, domestic servant, sexual subject, infantryman, concubine, entertainer, laborer, and sometimes a trusted and valued member of the household. As Shaun Marmon has noted, "there can be no single model for the study of slavery in Islamic societies,"1 and to parse the statement further, especially not for intersections of slavery, gen- der, and childhood. Even so, there is some use in reading aspects of female slavery against Hegel's model of the master-slave dialectic and Orlando Patterson's elaboration of that theory. 1 have selected them because Pat- terson's model does try to accommodate Islamicate slave systems, though it does not take gender and childhood into account as an important aspect of it.2 Patterson argues in Slavery and Sutial Death that all slave systems—from dynastic Mesopotamia to early medieval Iceland to modern Sudan—domi- nate the subject's body and mind. A slave's physical movement is controlled, her labor forced, and in many instances she is made to submit sexually to the master. The psychological domination starts in the first days of owner- ship with the alienation of a slave from her native surroundings, Or if she remains with her family, she recognizes that her master has authoritative power over her. In Hegel's formulation of master-slave relationships, the slave validates the master's existence because she exists only to fulfill the master's will. As a result, the slave's identity is wholly tied to that of her master. The slave dies unto herself and is reborn, so to speak, as an extension KRISTIN A UU.'HAftDSON of the muster's ego and will and a physical confirmation of his personal esteem. This alienation of the slave from a community (other than that of her master) negates her social existence, engendering "social death."3 ELITE FEMALE SLAVERY IN ISLAMIC ATE LANDS This theoretical model certainly has wide application hut does not account for the many nuanced master-slave relationships in the medieval Islamicate world, where domination of master ewer slave was not fixed and absolute. Understanding this, Patterson devotes a later chapter of his hook to slave systems that are not wholly explained by the "Hegelian-Pattersonian" model of degradation, slave dependency, and social death. He examines elite male slavery in the late-medieval Mamluk Empire (1250-1517 CE), where male slave soldiers (mamluks) were sultans, and he also analyzes the early-modern Ottoman Empire (1299-1922) where harem eunuchs, military officers, and guardians of the treasury formed part of the elite slave corps. He terms these men "ultimate slaves" because the definition of a slave as a powerless servant does not apply to them. There is even debate as to the appropriate- ness of calling these individuals slaves, seeing as "irony .. . the conception of slavery in Islamic contexts, for in practice the least respected individuals came to be entrusted with the most strategic posts of the empire."4 These slaves' servitude was not entirely self-denying, as they gained prestige, po- litical prominence, and important allies, Patterson does not account for women in this scheme of elite slavery, though female slaves also had some opportunities to command comparable political power in Islamicate soci- ety. In the Ottoman royal harem, for example, Koscm Sultan, a concubine who bore two future sultans, collaborated with Suleyman Agha, the chief black eunuch, to insulate herself and her sons from palace intrigues and tensions. These two slaves—a concubine and a eunuch—worked together to protect themselves and promote their agendas. Ultimately, however, Kosem Sultan was double-crossed and murdered by Suleyman Agha himself.5 In this chapter I argue that, like the Ottoman concubines of the sultan's royal harem, the female slave entertainers of caliphs and other wealthy patrons of the 'Abbasid period (7.50-1258) exploited their sexuality and their proxim- ity to the politically powerful for personal gain. The 'Abbasid slave singers were well known for their beauty and sex appeal, and, as will be shown, their reputation as entrancingly beautiful women was widely acknowledged in Arabic literature of the period. By cur- rying favor with the master, one could reap distinct social benefits. For example, a slave could enter into his inner circle of companions, even be- coming one of his favored sexual partners and bearing him children. The SINC1NO SLAVIi GIRLS {QIYAn) Oh THli *ADliASID COUK'1 nature of a slave's service allowed for informal relationships to develop between the slave and master, as shown in a story recorded by the 'Abbasid literary historian Abu al-Faraj aUsbahani (d. 967): "An old woman who had been one of (the caliph) Wathiq's slavegirls said: I was one of the girls that (the caliph) al-Muqtadir liked and took pleasure in. He was one of God's most accomplished creatures when it came to playing the lute and he had a most moving voice, though did his best to keep it secret. He would only play and sing when he was alone with his slavegirls (jawarihi), his intimate companions, and with rne,"6 This anecdote attests to the familiarity and informality that could flourish between a patron and his slave girl(s). The power that a slave girl could acquire was subtle, and her scope of influence was not wide, quite unlike the power of the elite male slaves. The unique position of the female slave entertainers allowed them to use their sexuality and proximity to the master to secure personal benefits. In this way, the slave girls could assume greater control of their private lives and escape the traditional domination of a master over every aspect of a slave's life. On the whole, gendered examinations of slavery are essential components of general slave studies, but are particularly needed in the field of Near Eastern history. Islamicate1 society is very gender conscious and maintains precise laws governing the conduct of men and women, and the intersection of two complex systems like gender and slavery provides a dynamic new framework within which to conceptualize one or both systems.7 In the Islamicate world the relationship between a slave girl and her master could take many forms. She could be his abject servant, his concubine, or the mother of his child (or all three). According to Islamic law, concubinage is licit and a slave owner can have sexual relations with his slave girl. While sexual relations commonly oc- curred between male masters and their male or female slaves, the possibility of pregnancy with slave women added a new dimension to the traditionally imagined male-male, master-slave power dynamic, A slave girl who bore the child of her Muslim master acquired the new legal status of umm waktd (lit,, mother of a child; pi,, ummokat awlad)t This new standing conferred three guaranteed legal benefits on the mother and opened the possibility of still more. It was certain that the woman could never be sold, that she would be freed upon the death of her master, and that her child would be born free. Other possible benefits stemmed from the personal intimacy that often developed between parents of a child. In many instances, bearing a master's child strengthened the emotional bonds between slave and master to such a degree that the master emancipated his child's mother. The legal consequences of a slave bearing her master's child favored the mother and child over the master. In theory a concubine or other female KRISTIN A RTCI-MRDtfOr-J slave could use a sexual relationship with her master to secure her and her child's future. Male slave owners, of course, were well aware of the possible economic, legal, and emotional consequences of impregnating slave girls. Not being able to sell a slave required the owner to care for her throughout her lifetime, even if she became incapacitated by illness or old age. Of course, if an umm walad became too great a financial burden, the master could always manumit her, but he would have lost the oppor- tunity to sell her at a profit. Another adverse economic consequence of a pregnant slave girl was the added financial responsibility of a new child in the household. For these reasons men were cautious about impregnat- ing their slaves. Hadith collections {collections of sayings of the Prophet) record several instances of Muslim men asking the Prophet Muhammad about avoiding the insemination of slave girls. One such hadith reads: "A man came to the Prophet and said, 'I have a slave-girl, and we need her as a servant and around the palm groves, I have sex with her, but I am afraid of her becoming pregnant,1"8 The man is reluctant to sacrifice his slave's labor for the time that she would carry, deliver, nurse, and raise the child, His objection to her pregnancy stems purely from economic concerns. In another hadith, a man asks about the permissibility of coitus interruptus. "There is another person who has a slave-girl and he has a sexual intercourse with her, but he does not like her to have conception so that she may not become Umm Walad."y The speaker does not explicitly state why a slave owner would not want his slave to become umm walad, but one can assume that because the arrangement had little benefit for the master and gave the slave mother more power over her and her child's lives, this status was undesirahle to him. MANIPULATING THE BOUNDARIES OF SLAVERY The possible strategic uses of motherhood to better a slave woman's posi- tion, as well as the intersection of female slavery and sexual power, warrant further study. Here 1 examine the interplay of sexuality, child bearing, and power among a particular class ot elite female singing slaves known as the qiyan (sing., qayna).10 In the 'Abbasid period (750—1258 CE) these women performed in wealthy households and at the caliphal courts in Baghdad and Samarra. They formed part of Arab court retinues and worked as popu- lar entertainers from pre-lslamic times until the abolition of slavery, in the twentieth century," The qiyan were viewed as elite because they were not strictly consigned to labor or concubinage. Evidence of their elite status and desirability is found in the high prices of a qayna relative to that of an untrained slave girl. This price differential was due to the qayna's revered SlNOINO Sl.AVh tilHUS (qIVAN) OF THE 'ALiDASID COURT musical and literary girts, which were greatly appreciated in weaLthy circles. Typically purchased as children, qiyan received rigorous, expensive training in poetry, music, and the Arabic language in preparation for careers in performance and lyrical composition. In Baghdad and its environs slave girls were educated at establishments set up to train them in the art of be- coming qiyan.12 Singing girls owned by nobles, as opposed to those owned by caliphs, were hired out as performers and sometimes as prostitutes. But a fine line was drawn between performers and prostitutes, and one group was often associated with the other. For example, the ninth-century litterateur Ahmad ibn alTayyib al-Sarahsi (d. 899) wrote of a bandore playeT named al-Zubaydi, who heard a woman named Sabah singing. "Az-Zubaydi heard her voice and recognized her talent. He taught her and put much effort into training her. . .. She made her debut as a songstress [andl began to as- sociate freely with men. She was kind and the young men were crazy about her." The story continues with Sabah taking a lover, marrying him, and bearing his child. Her husband soon divorces her. She moves into a friend's home and takes one of their black servants for a lover. Here, Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib notes that "she did not disdain or refrain from anyone, from the oldest to the youngest."11 Many stories such as this that position female performers as profligate and indiscriminately sexual abound in medieval Arabic literature. In Baghdad, the seat of the 'Abbasid caliphate and its hub of literary and musical activity, the qiyan were on the one hand praised for their contributions to Arabic literature and music and on the other vilified as unprincipled women. Viewed with admiration and suspicion, the qiyan oc- cupied an intermediate position in Islamicate society between the secluded sphere of women and the visible sphere of male bclletrists. The qiyan were not fully accepted as members of either group. They held U mi rial positions as "privileged" slave women who did not command the same respect as free entertainers and men of letters. INVESTIGATING THE LIVES OF THE SINGING SLAVE GIRLS The evidence in local literary and historical sources of the period is par- ticularly useful for properly situating the qiyan within their social milieus and performance environments and for better understanding the details of their training and professional lives. Unfortunately many sources about the qiyan are not available to the modern reader, but thanks to the Fihrist aVNadim, a tenth-century catalog of all ArabiC'language writings known to the compiler Ibn al-Nadim, modern scholars can at least know the titles of works produced in that time. Al-Nadim notes that the author Ishaq ibn 1 IO KRISTINA RICHARDSON Ibrahim ibn Mahan ibn Bahman ibn Nusk wrote books entitled Qiyan alYiijaz, and AlQiyan. Yunus al-Katib, a Persian slave, also wrote a book aillod AlQiyttn. Lastly, Abu Ayyub al-Madini wrote Qiyan alHijaz and Qiyan MaJtfcafu1'* Singing slave girls were evidently popular literary subjects. Even without the benefit of reading these works, one can see that the frequent occurrence of the qiyan theme attests to their prominence in the conscious" ness of the learned classes,15 Indeed, the intricacy of their training and the otherness of their origins likely enhanced their mystique, encouraging public curiosity about them. Various means of acquiring slaves existed in the Islamicate world. Young girls could be captured in slave raids against nonbelievers or taken as prisoners of wan According to Islamic law, only non-Muslims can be enslaved, and this caveat brought girls from many ethnic groups into the central Is- lamicate lands, Hijazi, Ethiopian, Indian, Persian, and Roman girls served, as qiyan at court and in wealthy households.16 Precise biographical informa- tion is not available for these girls, so there is no way to know at what stage of childhood they were purchased and trained. Offspring of slave parents could also be trained as performers, and of course girls could be purchased outright from slave dealers. Once a slave girl had been acquired, her owner commenced with lessons in song, lute playing, and Arabic. In the 'Abbasid period two prominent figures dominated the musical scene; Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi (d. 838) and Ishaq al-Mawsili (d. 839). Al-Mahdi was a singer-musician for the caliphs al-Rashid and al-Amin and was himself the son of a caliph, and al-Mawsili was likewise an accomplished musician, Both men trained many qiyan, and studying under them was widely consid- ered a great honor. A qayna's linguistic training was often just as integral to her professional success as was the musical instruction, since many of these girls did not speak Arabic natively. Quite exceptionally, there were cases of qiyan who received extensive educations. One reads in Alfluyla wa layla (A Thousand and One Nights) of Tawaddud, a qayna of the caliph Harun al- Rashid (n 786-809), who had studied grammar, poetry, law, philosophy, the Qur'an, mathematics, Arabic folklore, medicine, music, logic, rhetoric and composition,17 It is no coincidence that a caliph owned Tawaddud, for an education of that caliber would have been too expensive for most muqayyi- nun (owners of qiyan). Although the rearing of a qayna by a muqayyin was an expensive venture, the returns on the investment were generally high. The best possible outcome was the sale of a qayna to an aristocrat or a caliph. The qiyan routinely fetched higher prices than untrained slaves, however some contemporary observers did not believe that their artistic talents determined the price. Al-Jahiz (d. 868 or 869), a respected Baghdadi SINlilNt.i SLAVE tilKLS {qiyan) OF THE 'ABBASID COURT I I [ litterateur, mused that "the degree of estimation whereby singing-girls fetch high prices is due to infatuation. If purchases |of themJ were made on the same basis as the purchase of ordinary slaves, not one of them would run up to more than the price of a commonplace slave. But most of those who hid a high price for a girl do so because of passion."18 The "infatuation" of which al-Jahiz speaks was complex, and if literary sources are to be believed, was also difficult to express. To wit, the 'Abbasid poet Ibn al-Rumi (d. 896) addressed in his poem "Wahid the Singing Slave Girl of Amhamah" the entrancing power of a qayna's seduction: "O my two friends, Wahid has enslaved me, , , , The free-born are enslaved by her."19 Her physical beauty is complex, and when asked to describe it, the speaker responds, "that is easy and difficult, all at once. / It's easy to say she's the most beautiful of creatures, without exception, / But it is difficult to define her beauty." Ibn al-Rumi also links her beauty to the grace of her musical performance, Her attractiveness is easily recognizable, but not readily articulated, and seems to be composed of many elements, Her poetry, skills as a singer, and beauty infatuate her audience. Qiyan were hired out to customers for private performances, typically with the understanding that, the girls would perform sexual favors. Although the Qur'an explicitly forbids this practice (verse 24:33 commands Muslims to "compel not your-slave-girls to prostitution"), the sexual exploitation of qiyan was sufficiently common in the 'Abbasid era for these singers to be readily identified with promiscuity and licentiousness. The poet 'Abbas ibn al-Ahnaf (d. after 808) wrote a forty-weven-line poem describing an orgy with sing- ing slave girls.20 Ibn Qutaybah (d. 889), another 'Abbasid literary notable, included the following verse in his literary compendium 'Ltyun aiakhbar: "Were it not for the uses of rue [an herbal contraceptive!, the children of the singer-prostitutes [mutfumniyat] would have covered the earth."21 The association of qiyan with sexual promiscuity was by no means uni- versally assumed. Singing slave girls who entertained royalty were held in higher esteem than their counterparts who performed for civilian audi- ences. Al-Jahiz strongly disapproved of this double standard of morality. "When they [qiyanJ are in the dwelling of a man of the common folk, one may disapprove of them; but when they move up into kings' palaces, there is no excuse at all. But the cause and reason for the phenomenon is one and the same,"22 As al-Jahiz remarked, a qayna is always a qayna and should be condemned or accepted categorically, not based on her profes- sional associations. However, the reality was not so clear cut. The ambiguity surrounding the morality of a qayna's behavior formed just one part of a general vagueness that characterized their existence. The qiyan associated 112 KRISHNA RICHARDSON freely with men and women, slave and free, commoners and nobles, and the debauched and virtuous alike. And fittingly many qiyan existed simul- taneously in competing social categories or oscillated between them. As shall be seen, slave girls ar the 'Abbasid court were made to cross-dress and entertain as boys, slave women became free women, and slave children of unknown lineage and background gained fame (though perhaps not honor) as palace entertainers. The qiyan seemed to remain on the border of some sort of category, be it social, moral, gendered, or otherwise. The liminal- ity that shaped their lives also manifested itself in the form of ambiguous power vis-a-vis their musters, LIMINAL EXISTENCES In actuality, a qayna's sex appeal was an integral aspect of her enslavement, A qayna's first duty was to serve her master, which typically meant enter- taining him and serving as an object of sexual desire. Her identity was not wholly tied to her master's, which in Patterson's model of slavery was the primary factor that engendered social death. The qayna effectively es- caped this social alienation. The world she inhabited was not as insular and closed as those of certain other slaves because she received an education and was exposed to various cultural and literary elements of society. The nature of a qayna's service gave her opportunities for artistic creation and a public forum of expression. Although this fact provided a certain degree of psychological separation between master and slave, it was still true that her master derived sexual and nonsexual pleasure from a qayna's body and art. Unlike the free women in the palace, the caliph's qiyan were unveiled, even when performing before male audiences. Their unveiling spoke both to the social distinctions between free noblewomen and slave women and to the expectation of sex appeal in their performances. The significance of their unveiling is belter understood in light of the centrality of the veil to Muslim social and moral attitudes about women. The Qur'anic verses com- manding the Prophet's wives to veil were interpreted as a command for all Muslim women. Qur'anic verse 33:33 commands the Prophet's wives to "stay in your houses and display not your beauty like the displaying of the ignorance of yore." Verse 33:53 tells Muslim men that when speaking to the Prophet's wives, "ask of them from behind a curtain IhijabJ." The verse was later interpreted to apply to all women, and so the hijab developed into a symbol of women's piety and a social marker distinguishing rich women from poor women, who often went unveiled for reasons of practicality. A veil could be cumbersome for a woman who labored inside or outside the home. The hijab was also thought to prevent film, or the undisciplined re- SINOING SI.AVF GIULS {qiyan) ov THE 'AblJASIP COURT lease of sexual energy in public spaces. In the Quran the term/itna is used to mean trial, but in ninth-century hadir.h collections it also takes on this meaning of dangerous female sexuality,23 Whether or not fitna was more imaginary than real, it was believed that fitna originated with women who projected Sexual energy onto men. From this perspective, the hijab was mandated not only to encourage female modesty, but also to protect men from the sources of fitna. Medieval Muslim jurists argued that slave girls were not required "to cover their hair, face or arms because they live an ac- tive economic life that requires mobility, and because by nature and custom slave-girls do not ordinarily cover these parts of their bodies."24 So a qayna was seen as socially and morally distinct from other women in the household by the prominence of her unveiling, which represented slave status, impiety, and the propagation of fitna. The association of the qiyan with seduction is certainly borne out in al-jahiz's remark that "asso- ciation between men and singing-girls is liable to lead to misbehavior, in view of" the way in which he who indulges in such association is exposed to a sexual urge which compulsively drives one on to the commission of sexual indecency, and most of those who resort to singing-girls' houses do so for that purpose and not for mere listening to music or with the intention of purchasing them,"2'' Most patrons of qiyan's performances attended for sexual arousal, not from a sense of musical appreciation. The slave girl was at once bound up with her audience's and master's desires but able to maintain a psychological separation from their expectations as patrons and owners. By manipulating their emotions, a qayna was well positioned to bring about any desired outcomes. The only power she had over a man, and consequently over her own life, grew out of her only con- nection to him—musical performance and sex—so, she had to overcome him with her artistic prowess, her body, or both. If the seduction was successful, the rewards could be great. Of course, not all singing slave girls were able to maintain an independent sense of self. The following anecdote illustrates one qayna's strong sense of obligation to her master, "Ar-Rashid, after he had killed the Barmecides, called for DananTr, their slave girl. He ordered her to sing, but she said: O Prince of Believers, 1 have taken an oath not to sing any more, since my master is dead, Ar- Rashid became angry and ordered her face slapped."ztl Such accounts of a qayna's devotion to her master are not rare, but one reads more often of reversed roles, where masters are slaves to the beauty of their qiyan, as in the Ibn al-Rumi poem. The qiyan were not the only musicians who performed at Court. Free male and female musicians, along with male slave singers, performed for I 14 KfUSTINA RICHARDSON al-Rashid."7 The actual structure of performances varied. The qiyan could sing and play an instrument as a solo act, perform in ensemble recitals that combined instrumentalism, song, and dance, or even participate in compe- titions between highly rated singers.28 The most famovis slave singer to have ever resided at the Baghdad court was 'Arib (d. 890), a woman renowned for her beauty, self-possession, and skill as a lutenist, poet, and singer,29 'Arib lived to the age of ninety-six, after having served at the covins of five caliphs. She began her career under Caliph al'Amin (r. 809-13), and if the lone mention in al-Shabushti's (d. 998) Kitab alDiyarat is to be believed, she initially performed as a ghulamiya (plt, ghulamiyat), or female transvestite performer. 'Arib's stint as a ghulamiya is perhaps better understood in light of Caliph al-Amin's sexual interest in male youths. For him a girl dressed as a young boy would likely have had abundant sex appeal. In fact, his mother first came up with the idea of having slave girls entertain as transvestites in order to entice her son to bear an heir. The ghulamiya phenomenon is note- worthy because it serves as another example of slave girls' ambiguous iden- tity since a transvestite inhabits a liminal gender space. As ghulamiyat, girls were viewed and appreciated as boy sex objects while performing but were otherwise identified as biological females. The mughanniyat cut their hair short and donned boy's clothing, but they were not the only cross-dressing performers in 'Abbasid times. Male and female transvestites were common forms of entertainment in the medieval courts of Baghdad, though they also performed in private households.30 Unlike the ghulamiyat, the male transvestites (muklxamialhun; sing., mukhannath) were generally freemen. They willingly performed alongside the ghulamiyat as singers, musicians, dancers, and comedians. The gender transformation of the mukhannathun involved shaving their beards, wearing women's adornments, playing musi- cal instruments traditionally reserved for women, and donning women's clothes. Both the male and female transvestite performers of the 'Abbasid court were associated with dishonor and profligacy, as were all entertainers in the Islamicate world. Those who lacked social status, namely slaves and gender benders, were suited for such undignified and public positions as court entertainers. Both the ghulamiyat and the mukhannathun belonged to the "world of professional pleasure-givers,"11 The only acceptable forum in which a respectable Muslim could enjoy the entertainment of cross- dressers and slaves was one that highlighted their ahjectness, BEARING A CHILD The various social, moral, and gender ambiguities the qiyan submitted to were not entirely insurmountable. One way to transcend these ambiguous SlNtilNt; SLAVli GIRLS {QIYAN) Oh I Hfc ABbASlD COURT I I' realities was through motherhood. The legal benefits conferred on ummahat awlad have already been discussed here, and in the case of the palace qiyan, the benefits could be even greater than the bare facts of acquiring certain legal protections for themselves and their children. A slave girl could have a son who became a caliph. Several 'Abbasid caliphs did indeed have slave mothers. Caliph ahMa'mun's mother was a Persian jariya (female slave; pi., jawari) named Marajil, and al-Mu'tasim's mother was a slave named Marida, Al-Mu'tasim himself went on to marry two jawari, both of whom became mothers of caliphs. Qaratis had a son named al-Wathiq, and Sbaja gave birth to Ja'far al-Mutawakkil, The historian 'Abd al-Karim al-'Allaf has astutely observed that the only 'Abbasid jawari whose names have come down through history are the um- mahat awlad and the most famous singing slaves. The others have mostly languished in obscurity,'12 The tombstone of an umm walad named Umm Muhammad of the 'Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun's household has survived. According to her epitaph, she bad at least twenty children and grandchildren.11 While the epitaph does not reveal much about her relationship with the elite household, the existence of a tombstone bearing a warm epitaph for a slave woman speaks^ro her importance for the family. And certainly, other jawari knew full well the importance of bearing a caliph's child (preferably a son) or otherwise winning his sympathy. Competition among them for the caliph's attention and favor would necessarily have been intense. 'Arib herself was the concubine of eight caliphs and linked to several court no- tables but never bore them any children. She was, however, married briefly to a Khurasani officer named Muhammad ibn Hamid and had a daughter by him. Her fame^and reputation alone may have given her a privileged standing with the caliphs, thereby lessening the need to bear them children as a tool for greater autonomy,34 Al-Jahiz felt that the qiyan "set up snares and traps for the victims [of their seduction]----She corresponds with him, .. . swearing to him .. . that she desires no other than him, prefers nobody else to her infatuation for him, never intends to abandon him, and does not want him for his money but for himself,"15 The qiyan could be ardently competitive about winning an admirer's affection, Leslie Peirce, in referring to a similar phenomenon among women in the seventeentlvcentury Otto- man royal harem, terms this competition to bear a ruler's child the "politics of reproduction."'* In Peirce's estimation each sexual encounter between a harem woman, be she slave or free, and the sultan held the potential for pregnancy, which the wives and concubines intensely desired. In addition to the political and legal advantages of having a caliph's child, there were also important psychological benefits. Having a child would provide a slave KRISTIN A IllCHAHIMON with another consciousness through which to mediate her own and also start a familial community of her own. David Brion Davis has called on historians of American slavery to start "challenging the boundaries of slavery," in his book of the same name. In the Muslim world such a call to reexamine the relationships between the enslavers and the enslaved has die potential to showcase the intimacies that can complicate the power differential hi these associations. Sexuality and motherhood are useful lenses through which to examine the uses of power in slave systems. As shown in this chapter, the politics of mother- hood could prove intricate for medieval slave women in the Muslim world, particularly for women disadvantaged not only by their status as slaves, but also by their reputation for sexual availability. However, in the case of the qiyiin, motherhood offered more life security and social validation than the liminal existence that was the lot of most singing female slaves, NOTES 1. Shaim Marmon, introduction to Slavery in the Islamic Middle East, ed. Marmon (Princeton: Mark us Wiener, 1999), x. 2. For an explanation of the term Islamicate, which was coined by Marshall G. S. Hodgson, see his The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civiliyition, 3 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, T074), 1:58-50, 3. Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study (Cambridge, MA; Harvard University Press, 1982), 97-99. 4. Sussnn Babaie, Rathryn Babayan, Ina Baglidiantz-McCabc, and Massumeh Far- had, Slaves of the Shah: New Elites ofSafavid Iran (London; I. B. Tiuiris, 2004), 21. 5. Leslie Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 252. 6. Abu al'Faraj al-lsli:ih:mi. Book of Strangers; Medieval Arabic Graffiti an the Theme of Nostal- gia, trans. Patricia Crone and Shntuel Moreh (Princeton: Markus Wiener, 2000). 7. Some notable treatments of female slavery in Islam, include Nadia Abbott, Two Queens of Baghdad: Mother and Wife of Harun al-Rashid (Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1946); Peirce, Imperial Harem; Nicola Laure. al-Samarai, Die Macht der Dcmwllimg: Gender, so^ifller Status, ftistorroffraphisehe Re-Presentation: Zwei i-YauenbiOgraphien aim der ftiifaen Abbasidcnzeit (Wiesbaden; Rcichert, 2001). 8. Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj aLQushayri, Sahih Muslim, trans. Abdul Ha mid Siddiqi (La- bore; Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1971), 7.35. 9. Ibid., 734. 10. The Arabic language has various names for the singing slave girls. The term aajna (pi., qiyan) refers specifically to a female slave who has been trained as a singer, poet, or musician (or all three). Qa^na is the feminine form of qayn, skilled worker. Other terms in use do not embody the meaning of female singing slave, fariya (pi., jawari) means simply female slave, and mugharmiya (pi,, mughannryat) designates a female singer. These M.AVh. (J1I11.S {Q1YAN) QV TMIi 'AMJASID COURT I 17 two words are often used independently in medieval Arabic literature to signify singing slave girl. Bur if an author wants to avoid any ambiguity, he couples the terms, and die resulting phrase jariya mughanniya (pi, jawari mugnanni^at) is synonymous with qayna. 11. Charles Pellat, "Kayna," Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed- (Leiden: E. J- Brill, 1954-), 4;82i-22, The qiyan in modern Tunisia are described at length in Hasan Husni 'Abd al-Wahhab, "Taqaddum ahmusiqa fi-sharq wa-l-andalus wa-tunis," Waraqat, 3 vols. (Tunis: Maktabar al-Manar, 1965-72), 2:20s. Tovia Ashkcnazi describes twentieth- century Palestinian male slave poets in Tribus semi-nomades de la Palestine du Nora1 (Paris: Gelithner, 1938), 98-99. 12. Alfred Krcmcr, Kulturgesch.ich.te des Orients unter den Chalifen, 2 vols. (Aalen: Sci- entia, 3966), 2.108-9. T3. Frans Rosenthal, Ahmad b. at-Tavvib as-Sarahsi (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1943). 95~9^- 14, Ibn al-Nadim, The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A TernhvCeniMTy Survey of Muslim Culture, ed, and trans. Bayard Dodge, 2 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), 1:309, 317, 324. 15. Female slave poets (ima' shaiui'iV; sing., ama .sha'ira) also entertained 'Abbasid aris- tocrats and rulers and occupied similar social roles as the qiyan. This category of slave performers will not be examined in this study, although its inclusion could only enrich the discussion. For more information on rhe.se poets, see Abu al-Faraj aUsbahani, AWma' al Shawa'ir (Beirut; Dar al-Nidal, 1084), a biographical dictionary that details the backgrounds and literary accomplishment? of thirty-three 'Abbasid-era female slave poets. t6. Sami A. Hanna, "AUJawari al-Mughanniyat; The Singing Arab Maids." Southern Folklore Quarter^ 34, no, 4 (1970): 327, 17. Richard Burton, ed. and trans., The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Ni^hi: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, iO vols, (s.l.: privately printed by the Burton Club, 1900), 5:193-94. 18. Al-Jahis, The Epistles of Singing-Girls ofhhiz, trans. A. I:, L. Beeston (Warminster, UK: Aris and Phillips, 1980), 27. 19. All translations of this poem come from Alciko Moroyoslii, "Sensihiliry and Synacsthcsia; Ibn al-Rumi's Singing Slave-Girl," Journal of Arabic Literature 32, no. 1 (2001): 5-8. 20. 'Abbas ibn al-Ahnaf, Diwan Abi al-Fadl al-"Abbas ibn al-Ahnaf (Constantinople: Matba'at al-Jawa'ib, 1881), 148^50. 21. Cired in B. F. Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam: Birth Control be/ore the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, T983), 94, from Ibn Quraybah, 'Abd Allah ibn Muslim, 'Uyun al-Akhbar, 4 vols, (Cairo: Al-Mu'assasah al-Misriyahal-'Amman li'l-Ta'lif wa-al-Tarjamah wa^alTaba'ah wa-al-Nashr, 1964), 3:286. 22. Al-Jahis, Epistles, 34. 23. Deiiisc A. Spdlberg, "Political Action and Public Example; 'A'isha and the Battle of the Camel," in Women in Middle Eastern History: Shi/ting Boundaries in Sex and Gender, ed. Nikkie R. Keddie and Beth Baron (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 50-51. 24. Khaled Abou El Fadl, Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women (Oxford: OnoWorld, 200.1), 233-41. KRISHNA RICHARDSON 25. Al'Jahiz, Epistles, 36. 26. Rosenthal, Ahmad b. aPTayyib, 98. The name of 'Ahhasid caliph Hamn aLRashid is here rendered as ar-Rashid, reflecting in print, the convention of dropping the '1' sound before the V in spoken Arabic. 27. Abu aUFaraj al-Isbahani (d. 897), himself a poet and musician, compiled five centuries' worth of anils' biographies and historical anecdotes about music in a ten- thousand-page work known as K.itab akiglwni, or Tfu; Book o/Sonjjs. He devoted consid- erable space to Caliph Hurun al-Rashid, a famed admirer of the qiyan and patron of the arts. 28. For this last activity, see Matthew S. Gordon, "The Flace of Competition: The Careers of 'Arib al-Ma'muniya and 'Ulayya bint al-Mahdi, Sisters in Song," in 'Abbittid Studies: Occasional Papers of tlur School of'Abba&id Studio, Cambridge, 5-10 July 2002, ed, James H- Montgomery (Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2004), 61-82. 29. Abu al-Faraj aMsbahani, Kkab alaghani, 24 vols. (Cairo: Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al'Misriyah, 1927), 21:54, 30. Everett Rowson, "Gender Irregularity as Entertainment: Institutionalized Trans- vestism ac the Caliphal Courts in Medieval Baghdad," in Gender and Difference in ihc Middle Ages, ed. Sharon Farmer and Carol Braim Pastcrnaek (Minneapolis; University of Minnesota Press, 2003), 50. 31. Ibid,, 65. 32. 'Abd al-Karim al-'Allaf, Qiyan Baghdad fi aVasr alAbbasi waal'Uthmani imalakhir (Baghdad; Matba'at Dar al-Tadamun, 1969), 37. 33. A, Elad, "An Epitaph of the Slave Girl of the Grandson of the 'Ahhassid [sk\ Caliph al-Ma'mun," Ln Muwkm 1 i 1, no. 1 (iyy8); 227-44. 34. J. E. Bencheikh, "Les niiisif.iens et la poesie," Arabica 22, no, 2 (1075): 144. 35. Al-Jahiz, Epistles, 32, 36. Feirce, 13. 7 BECOMING A DEV§IRME The Training of Conscripted Children in the Ottoman Empire G V LAY VILMAZ For centuries die military-administrative positions of die Ottoman state were manned by slaves who were carefully recruited and painstakingly educated. Different variations of this institution have existed in Islamic societies since the 'Abbasid caliphate—the traditional source of the enslaved military- administrative stratum had always been war captives. The Ottomans, however, enslaved young Christians within their empire through a method called the det^irmc system,1 According to the prevailing paradigm, the dev$irme were privileged vis- a-vis the masses and completely loyal to authority, enabling the autocratic regime of the sultan to be effective in all spheres of life. The unquestioned loyalty of the slave-based military-administrative strata, which contrasted starkly with the position of the freeman in the West, was the most cru- cial strand of the orientalist argument, which asserts that Eastern societies lacked autonomous institutions. This argument is the basis of the Oriental despot model in the literature, The orientalist paradigm depicted Otto- man society as having a sharp dichotomy—the ruling elite bolstered by the devsirme system versus the ruled, that is, the tax-paying rtt'aya. It was the unquestioned loyalty of the devsirme that underlay the despotic powers of the sultan Over Ottoman society, in which the re'aya were tranquil and obedient. This essentially obedient and loyal nature of both groups is given as the core reason why Ottoman society was unable to create the freedom that was considered the most significant feature of the urban culture of the West.