Qiyan

{{transliteration|ar|Qiyān}} is often rendered in English as {{gloss|singing girls}} or {{gloss|singing slave girls}}, but these translations do not reflect the fact that {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} might be of any age, and were skilled entertainers whose training extended well beyond singing, including for example, dancing,{{cite journal | last=Prince-Eichner | first=Simone | title=Embodying the Empire: Singing Slave Girls in Medieval Islamicate Historiography | journal=2016 Claremont Colleges Library Undergraduate Research Award | date=27 April 2016 | url=https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cclura_2016/2 | access-date=24 August 2023}} composing music and verse, reciting historical or literary anecdotes ({{transliteration|ar|akhbar}}), calligraphy, or shadow play. Other translations include {{gloss|courtesan}},Matthew S. Gordon, 'Introduction: Producing Songs and Sons', in Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History, ed. by Matthew S. Gordon and Kathryn A. Hain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 1-8 (pp. 5-6); {{doi|10.1093/oso/9780190622183.003.0001}}. {{gloss|musical concubines}},{{sfn|Reynolds|2017|p=79-80}} or simply {{gloss|women musicians}}.{{sfn|Reynolds|2017|p=79-80}}

In some sources, {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} were a subset of {{transliteration|ar|jawāri}} ({{gloss|female slaves}}, {{lang|ar|جَوار}}; singular {{transliteration|ar|jāriya}}, {{lang|ar|جارِية}}), and often more specifically a subset of {{transliteration|ar|ʾimāʾ}} ({{gloss|slave girls}}, {{lang|ar|إِمَاء}}; singular {{transliteration|ar|ʾama}}, {{lang|ar|أمة}}). {{transliteration|ar|Qiyān}} are thus at times referred to as {{transliteration|ar|ʾimāʾ shawā'ir}} ({{gloss|slave-girl poets}}, {{lang|ar|اِماء شَوَاعِر}}) or as {{transliteration|ar|mughanniyāt}} ({{gloss|songstresses}}, {{lang|ar|مُغَنِّيات}}; singular {{transliteration|ar|mughanniyyah}}, {{lang|ar|مغنية}}).{{sfn|Caswell|2011|p=ix–x, 1–2}} Many {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} were free women.{{sfn|Caswell|2011|p=191}} One of them was even an Abbasid princess, Ulayya bint al-Mahdi.

The term originates as a feminine form of the pre-Islamic term {{transliteration|ar|qayn}} ({{lang|ar|قين}}), whose meaning was {{gloss|blacksmith, craftsman}}. The meaning of {{transliteration|ar|qayn}} extended to include manual labourers generally, and then focused more specifically on people paid for their work, and then more specifically again {{gloss|to anyone engaged in an artistic performance for reward}}. From here, its feminine form came to have the meaning of a female performer of various arts, in a specific role.{{sfn|Caswell|2011|p=2}}

Like other enslaved women in the Islamicate world, {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} were legally sexually available to their owners. They were often associated in literature with licentiousness, and sexuality was an important part of their appeal, but they do not seem to have been sex workers.

However, there were also common {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} who performed for the public in common {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} houses; these were brothels in some cases.{{sfn|Caswell|2011}}

It is not clear how early the institution of the {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} emerged, but {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} certainly flourished during the Abbasid period.{{Cite journal |last=Richardson |first=Kristina |title="Singing Slave Girls (qiyan) of the Abbasid Court" |url=https://www.academia.edu/661365 |journal=_Children in Slavery Through the Ages_ (2009)}}{{sfn|Caswell|2011}} According to Matthew S. Gordon, "it is not yet clear to what extent courtesans graced regional courts and elite households at other points of Islamic history".Matthew S. Gordon, 'Introduction: Producing Songs and Sons', in Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History, ed. by Matthew S. Gordon and Kathryn A. Hain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 1-8 (p. 5); {{doi|10.1093/oso/9780190622183.003.0001}}.

Ibrahim al-Mawsili (742–804 CE) is reported to have claimed that his father was the first to train light-skinned, beautiful girls as {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}}, raising their price, whereas previously {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} had been drawn from among girls viewed as less beautiful, and with darker skin, although it is not certain that these claims were accurate.{{sfn|Reynolds|2017|p=102-3}} One social phenomenon that can be seen as a successor to the {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} is the Egyptian {{transliteration|arz|almah}}, courtesans or female entertainers in medieval Egypt, educated to sing and recite classical poetry and to discourse wittily.{{cite book| author = Stavros Stavrou Karayanni| title = Dancing Fear and Desire: Race, Sexuality, and Imperial Politics in Middle Eastern Dance| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=InjIw3lWQTUC&pg=PA29| year = 2004| publisher = Wilfrid Laurier University Press| isbn = 978-0-88920-926-8| pages = 28–29 }}

Because of their social prominence, {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} comprise one of the most richly recorded sections of pre-modern Islamicate female society, particularly female slaves, making them important to the history of slavery in the Muslim world. Moreover, a significant proportion of medieval Arabic female poets whose work survives today were {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}}. For a few {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}}, it is possible to give quite a full biography.{{sfn|Reynolds|2017|p=100-101}} Important medieval sources of {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} include a treatise by al-Jahiz (776–868/869 CE), Abu Tayyib al-Washsha's {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Muwashshà}} ({{lang|ar|كتاب الموشى}} {{gloss|The Brocaded Book}}), and anecdotes included in sources such as the {{transliteration|ar|Kitab al-Aghani}} ({{gloss|Book of Songs}}) and {{transliteration|ar|al-Imāʼ al-Shawāʼir}} ({{gloss|The Slave Poetesses}}) by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (897–967 CE), {{transliteration|ar|Nisāʼ al-Khulafā}} ({{gloss|The Consorts of the Caliphs}}) by ibn al-Sāʿī, and {{transliteration|ar|al-Mustazraf min Akhbar al-Jawari}} ({{gloss|Choice Anecdotes from the Accounts of Concubines}}) by al-Suyuti ({{c.|1445–1505 CE}}).{{sfn|Reynolds|2017|p=101}} Many of these sources recount the repartee of prominent {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}}, though there are hints that {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} in less wealthy households were used by their owners to attract gifts.{{sfn|Reynolds|2017|p=103-4}} In the 'Abbasid period, {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} were often educated in the cities of Basra, Ta'if, and Medina.

{{See|Anarchy at Samarra|Al-Muqtadir|Al-Radi}}

The institution of {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} declined with the waning fortunes of the Abbasid Caliphate.{{sfn|Caswell|2011|p=258–259}} The initial fracture of the Abbasids did not have immediate impact. The {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} did not take sides in political disputes.{{sfn|Caswell|2011|p=261}} However, political instability led to fiscal mismanagement, and during the Abbasids' heyday, the finances were mismanaged.{{sfn|Caswell|2011|p=263–264}} Further, the new class of Turkish soldiers demanded better pay, leading to the emptying of the treasury; the resulting austerity meant artistic activity could not be funded, and thus flourish, as it had previously.{{sfn|Caswell|2011|p=264–265}} In addition, soldiers extorted money from citizens perceived as rich, which made ostentatious behavior risky.{{sfn|Caswell|2011|p=264–265}}

It seems that for the first century or so in al-Andalus, {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} were brought west after being trained in Medina or Baghdad, or were trained by artists from the east. It seems that by the 11th century, with the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba, {{transliteration|ar|qiyān}} tended to be trained in Córdoba rather than imported after training. It seems that while female singers still existed, enslaved ones were no longer found in al-Andalus in the 14th century CE.{{sfn|Reynolds|2017|p=100–121}}

Qiyan-slave-girls were initially imported to al-Andalus from Medina.Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History. (2017). Storbritannien: Oxford University Press. p. 102

Qiyan slave-girls are noted to have been first imported to al-Andalus during the reign of al-Hakam I (r. 796–822).Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History. (2017). Storbritannien: Oxford University Press. p. 104

However, qiyan soon started to be trained in Cordoba and from 1013 in Seville; it is however unknown if the tradition was preserved in the Emirate of Granada.

Qiyan-slaves were selected to be trained for this function as children, and underwent a long training to fit the demands.

The qiyan-slaves were not secluded from men in harem as free women or slave concubines, but in contrast performed for male guests - sometimes from behind a screen and sometimes visible - and are the perhaps most well documented of all female slaves.Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History. (2017). Storbritannien: Oxford University Press. p. 100

While trained qiyan-slaves were sexually available to their enslaver, they were not categorized or sold as concubines and, with their training, were the most expensive female slaves.

• Atika bint Shuhda ({{lang|ar|عاتكة بنت شُهدة}} c. 800)
• Azza al-Mayla (7th-century - d. 705)
• Inan bint Abdallah ({{lang|ar|عِنان}}, {{abbr|d.|died}} 841)
• Djamila ({{lang|ar|جميلة{{lrm}}}}, {{abbr|d.|died}} 720)
• Abu al-Husn and His Slave-Girl Tawaddud, a fictional qayna in a medieval Arabic narrative
• Dananir al Barmakiyya ({{lang|ar|دنانير البرمكية{{lrm}}}}, {{abbr|d.|died}} 810s)
• Ulayya bint al-Mahdi, daughter of the caliph Al-Mahdi ({{abbr|d.|died}} 825)
• Arib al-Ma'muniyya ({{lang|ar|عَرِيب المأمونية}}, CE 797–890)
• Shāriyah ({{lang|ar|شارِية}}, {{c.|815–70 CE}})
• Farida (singer) (born {{c.|830}})
• Fadl al-Sha'irah ({{lang|ar|فضل الشاعرة}}, {{abbr|d.|died}} 871 CE)
• Hababa (حبابة; d. 724)
• Ubayda (fl. c. 830)
• Alam al-Malika (died 1130)
• Nazhun al-Garnatiya bint al-Qulaiʽiya (fl. 12th-century)
• Al-Karakiya (fl. 13th-century)

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Caswell|first=F. Matthew|title=The Slave Girls of Baghdad: The Qiyān in the Early Abbasid Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iv3PGAt-MS4C|year=2011|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-84885-577-9|pages=ix–x, 1–2}}
• {{cite book|first=Dwight F. | last=Reynolds | chapter=The Qiyan of al-Andalus' | title=Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History | editor-first=Matthew S. | editor-last=Gordon | editor2-first=Kathryn A. | editor2-last=Hain | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2017 | pages= | doi=10.1093/oso/9780190622183.003.0006}}

• Hekmat Dirbas, "Naming of Slave-girls in Arabic: A Survey of Medieval and Modern Sources", Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik, 69 (2019), 26–38, {{doi|10.13173/zeitarabling.69.0026}}, {{JSTOR|10.13173}}

{{Medieval Perso-Arab music}}

Category:Sexual slavery

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Category:Arabic-language women poets

Category:Arabic-language poets

Category:Slaves of the medieval Islamic world

Category:Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate