Jarya, also called jariyah and jawaris, was a term for a certain type of slave girl in the medieval Islamic world. They were "slaves for pleasure" (muṭʿa, ladhdha) or “slave-girls for sexual intercourse” (jawārī al-waṭ), who had received special training in artistic skills. In contrast to the Qiyan, however, they normally did not perform for other men than the man in whose harem they were placed.

History

The slave category and of the Jarya - similar to the qiyan - rose to fame during the Abbasid Caliphate era, possibly because free Arab women became more and more secluded from society during this time period. They were acquired from the slave market or captured as war booty. The term were applied to such slave girls who, by instruction or self education, acquired a great knowledge of artistic skills and intellectual knowledge by which they could entertain a man, rather than by sexuality and physical beauty. They could study issues from music and poetry to religion, history and literature, and many were known to be able to entertain their owner by both intellectual as well as musical abilities. There were many examples of jaryas with good education who managed to gain influence over male rulers. The jawaris differed from qiyan in that they appear not to perform in public, only in the harem to which they belonged. Royal harems could employ a very large number of jawaris, who acted as the entertainers of the royal harem and who were not necessarily synonymous with the concubines of the ruler. The Abbasid harem had thousands of jawaris as well as concubines who were not always the same, and this was adopted by the harems of many other Islamic rulers, such as the rulers of the

Caliphate of Cordoba A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

and the

Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...

. The jaraya category of sexual harem slaves were described by the 9th-century writer Al-Jahiz, who accused them of exerting a destructive influence over their owners created by their artistic skills, which created a web of dependent feelings such as love (hub), passion (hawa) affinity (mushakala) and a wish for continued companionship (ilf).

Examples

There were many famous jaryas noted in Islamic literature and history, such as

Al-Khayzuran Al-Khayzuran bint Atta ( ar, الخيزران بنت عطاء, al-ḵayzurān bint ʿaṭāʾ) (died 789) was the wife of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mahdi and mother of both Caliphs Al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid. She ruled de facto from 775 to 789 during ...

Alam al-Malika Alam al-Malika () (died 1130), was the chief adviser and ''de facto'' prime minister of the Najahid dynasty of Zubayd in Yemen in 1111–1123, and its ruler in 1123–1130. She was the slave singer, or ''jarya'', to King Mansur ibn Najah of Zubayd ...

and Hababah.

References

{{Reflist Islam and slavery * Arabic-language women poets Arabic-language poets History of slavery Arabian slaves and freedmen Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate Slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate Sexual slavery

History

Examples

See also

References