jarya
{{short description|Term for a female slave in the medieval Islamic world}}
File:Arabe 3929, 151, Jariya.jpg, 1200–1210.{{cite journal |last1=Balafrej |first1=Lamia |title=Automated Slaves, Ambivalent Images, and Noneffective Machines in al-Jazari's Compendium of the Mechanical Arts, 1206. |journal=Inquiries into Art |date=19 December 2022 |volume=History |pages=767–768 |doi=10.11588/xxi.2022.4.91685 |url=https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/xxi/article/download/91685/87635 |quote=While at a wedding in Sinjar (Iraq), Abu Zayd tells the story of how he lost his enslaved concubine (jāriya). The plan had been to keep her in strict seclusion, but one day, under the influence of alcohol, he made the mistake of revealing her existence to a neighbor. Word got around; eventually, Abu Zayd was forced to sell the concubine to the governor.}}]]
{{Slavery}}
Jarya or jariya ({{abbr|{{sc|sing}}|singular form}}; {{Langx|ar|جارية}}), also jawari ({{abbr|{{sc|plur}}|plural form}}), was a term often used for female slaves in the medieval Islamic world.{{cite book |last1=Gordon |first1=Matthew |last2=Hain |first2=Kathryn A. |title=Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-062218-3 }}{{page needed|date=May 2022}} In a courtly context, they could be "slaves for pleasure" (muṭʿa, ladhdha) or “slaves for sexual intercourse” (jawārī al-waṭ),{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} who had received special training in artistic skills.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} In contrast to the Qiyan, however, they normally did not perform for men other than the man in whose harem they were placed.
History
The slave category 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 by purchase or captured as war booty. The term were applied to such enslaved women 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 jawaris 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.{{cite book |last1=El-Azhari |first1=Taef |title=Queens, Eunuchs and Concubines in Islamic History, 661–1257 |date=2019 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-1-4744-2318-2 |jstor=10.3366/j.ctvnjbg3q }}{{page needed|date=May 2022}} The Abbasid harem had thousands of jawari 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 and the Fatimid Caliphate.
The jariya 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).{{cite book |last1=Classen |first1=Albrecht |title=Pleasure and Leisure in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: Cultural-Historical Perspectives on Toys, Games, and Entertainment |date=2019 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-062307-9 |page=214 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bz7EDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA214 }}
Though most scholarly attention has gone to courtly contexts, jawari were also present in non-courtly urban settings, including the homes of merchants and artisans, notably as domestic workers. A wide range of representations features jawari, including technical treatises and spiritual literature.{{cite journal | first=Lamia | last=Balafrej | title=Instrumental Jawārī: On Gender, Slavery, and Technology in Medieval Arabic Sources |journal=Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā | volume=31 | date=2023 |doi=10.52214/uw.v31i.10486 | pages=96–126| issn=1068-1051 | doi-access=free }}
Examples
There were many famous jaryas noted in Islamic literature and history, such as Al-Khayzuran, Alam al-Malika, and Hababah.{{cite book |last1=Mernissi |first1=Fatima |title=The Forgotten Queens of Islam |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-579868-5 }}{{page needed|date=May 2022}}