Consorts of the Caliphs : : Women and the Court of Baghdad / / Ibn al-Sāʿī.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Complete eBook-Package 2017
• VerfasserIn: al-Sāʿī, Ibn,
• MitwirkendeR: Bray, Julia,; Literature, The Editors of the Library of Arabic,; Toorawa, Shawkat M.,; Warner, Marina,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2017]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Library of Arabic Literature ; 13
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Accounts of remarkable women at the world's most powerful court Consorts of the Caliphs is a seventh/thirteenth-century compilation ofanecdotes about thirty-eight women who were consorts to those in power, most ofthem concubines of the early Abbasid caliphs and wives of latter-day caliphsand sultans. This slim but illuminating volume is one of the few survivingtexts by the prolific Baghdadi scholar Ibn al-Sa'i,who chronicled the academic and political elites of his city in the final yearsof the Abbasid dynasty and the period following the cataclysmic Mongol invasionof 656 H/1258 AD.In this work, Ibn al-Sa'i is keen toforge a connection between the munificent wives of his time and the storiedlovers of the so-called golden age of Baghdad. Thus, from the earlier period,we find Harun al-Rashid pining for his brother’s beautiful slave, Ghadir, andthe artistry of such musical and literary celebrities as Arib and Fadl, whobested the male poets and singers of their day. From times closer to Ibn al-Sa?i’s own, wemeet women such as Banafsha, who endowed law colleges, had bridges built, andprovisioned pilgrims bound for Mecca; slave women whose funeral services wereled by caliphs; and noble Saljuq princesses from Afghanistan.Informed by the author’s own sources, hisinsider knowledge, and well-known literary materials, these singularbiographical sketches bring the belletristic culture of the Baghdad court to life,particularly in the personal narratives and poetry of culture heroinesotherwise lost to history.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Letter from the General Editor -- About this Paperback -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Maps -- Note on the Translation -- Notes to the Front Matter -- Consorts of the Caliphs -- 1. Ḥammādah bint ʿĪsā -- 2. Ghādir -- 3. ʿInān, daughter of ʿAbd Allāh -- 4. Ghaḍīḍ -- 5. Haylānah -- 6. ʿArīb al-Maʾmūniyyah -- 7. Bidʿah al-Kabīrah -- 8. Būrān -- 9. Muʾnisah al-Maʾmūniyyah -- 10. Qurrat al-ʿAyn -- 11. Farīdah -- 12. Isḥāq al-Andalusiyyah -- 13. Faḍl al-Shāʿirah al-Yamāmiyyah -- 14. Bunān -- 15. Maḥbūbah -- 16. Nāshib al-Mutawakkiliyyah -- 17. Fāṭimah -- 18. Farīdah -- 19. Nabt -- 20. Khallāfah -- 21. Ḍirār -- 22. Qaṭr al-Nadā -- 23. Khamrah -- 24. ʿIṣmah Khātūn -- 25. Māh-i Mulk -- 26. Khātūn -- 27. Banafshā al-Rūmiyyah -- 28. Sharaf Khātūn al-Turkiyyah -- 29. Saljūqī Khātūn -- 30. Shāhān -- 31. Dawlah -- 32. Ḥayāt Khātūn -- 33. Bāb Jawhar -- 34. Qabīḥah -- 35. Sitt al-Nisāʾ -- 36. Sarīrah al-Rāʾiqiyyah -- 37. Khātūn al-Safariyyah -- 38. Khātūn -- 39. Zubaydah -- Notes -- The Abbasid Caliphs -- The Early Saljūqs -- Chronology of Women Featured in Consorts of the Caliphs -- Glossary of Names -- Glossary of Places -- Glossary of Realia -- Bibliography -- Further Reading -- Index -- About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute -- About the Translators -- The Library of Arabic Literature