Zaydan the qahramana ( ar, زيدان القهرمانة 10th-century) was a courtier of the

Abbasid harem The harem of the caliphs of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258) in Baghdad was composed of his mother, wives, slave concubines, female relatives and slave servants (women and eunuchs), occupying a secluded portion of the Abbasid household ...

during the reign of caliph

al-Muqtadir Abu’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Ahmad al-Muʿtaḍid ( ar, أبو الفضل جعفر بن أحمد المعتضد) (895 – 31 October 932 AD), better known by his regnal name Al-Muqtadir bi-llāh ( ar, المقتدر بالله, "Mighty in God"), wa ...

( r. 908–932). She was taken as a slave and placed in the Abbasid harem, were she was given the office of

qahramana The harem of the caliphs of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258) in Baghdad was composed of his mother, wives, slave concubines, female relatives and slave servants (women and eunuchs), occupying a secluded portion of the Abbasid household ...

(stewardess). The qahramana's acted as the intermediaries of the women of the harem and the outside world, was assigned a number of different tasks such as managing economic and judicial affairs of the harem, and was the most influential of the offices a woman could have. Zaydan is known as one of the most powerful of the qahramanas. She was assigned to be the guardian of the state jewels. She acted as the jailkeeper of high status prisoners. High status prisoners were placed in comfortable house arrest in her home. Among the prisoners she guarded was governor Ibn Abi al-Saj in 919,

Hamid ibn al-Abbas Hamid ibn al-Abbas was an Abbasid magnate who served as vizier of Caliph al-Muqtadir in 918–923. For most of that period, real power lay in the hands of his deputy, Ali ibn Isa ibn al-Jarrah, while Hamid tended to his tax farming estates at Wasit ...

in 923 and vizier al-Khasibi in 927. This enabled her to form a net of contacts among influential officials, and act as an intermediary between them and the Caliph.Marilyn Booth:
Harem Histories: Envisioning Places and Living Spaces
' One of the most famous of her prisoners were the vizier

Ibn al-Furat Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. ʿAlī al-Miṣrī al-Ḥanafī () (1334–1405 CE), better known as Ibn al-Furāt, was an Egyptian historian, best known for his universal history, generally known as ''Taʾrīkh al-duwal wa ’ ...

, who was placed in her care after he had fallen out of favor. She managed the have him restored to power through her harem contacts. She was rewarded by him with lands and wealth, and they formed a mutually favorable alliance which continued for the rest of their careers, with him addressing her as "sister".El Cheikh, Nadia Maria. “Revisiting the Abbasid Harems.” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, vol. 1, no. 3, 2005, pp. 1–19. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40326869. Accessed 27 Mar. 2021. Because of this, al-Furat's successor Hamid ibn al-Abbas said about him: "you depended on the qahramana...to plead your case and defend you..."El Cheikh, Nadia Maria. “Revisiting the Abbasid Harems.” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, vol. 1, no. 3, 2005, pp. 1–19. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40326869. Accessed 27 Mar. 2021.

References

{{Reflist, 33em 9th-century births Year of birth unknown 10th-century deaths 10th-century women from the Abbasid Caliphate Medieval slaves Arabian slaves and freedmen Slaves from the Abbasid Caliphate Courtiers of the Abbasid Caliphate Abbasid harem House slaves 10th-century landowners