Consorts of the Caliphs: Women and the Court of Baghdad (Library of Arabic Literature #13)
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- Synopsis
- Accounts of remarkable women at the world's most powerful courtConsorts of the Caliphs is a seventh/thirteenth-century compilation of anecdotes about thirty-eight women who were consorts to those in power, most of them concubines of the early Abbasid caliphs and wives of latter-day caliphs and sultans. This slim but illuminating volume is one of the few surviving texts by the prolific Baghdadi scholar Ibn al-Sa'i, who chronicled the academic and political elites of his city in the final years of the Abbasid dynasty and the period following the cataclysmic Mongol invasion of 656/1258.In this work, Ibn al-Sa'i is keen to forge 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, and the 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, we meet women such as Banafsha, who endowed law colleges, had bridges built, and provisioned pilgrims bound for Mecca; slave women whose funeral services were led by caliphs; and noble Saljuq princesses from Afghanistan.Informed by the author’s own sources, his insider 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 heroines otherwise lost to history. An English-only edition.
- Copyright:
- 2017
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Book Size:
- 272 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9781479804771
- Related ISBNs:
- 9781479866793
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- Date of Addition:
- 02/06/25
- Copyrighted By:
- NYU Press
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- History, Nonfiction, Literature and Fiction
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.
- Foreword by:
- Marina Warner
- Introduction by:
- Julia Bray
- Translator:
- Shawkat M. Toorawa
- Translator:
- The Editors Literature