Consorts of the Caliphs - Women and the Court of Baghdad (Hardcover)

Accounts of remarkable women at the world's most powerful court Consorts 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 storied lovers 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, who bested 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 singular biographical 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.

General

Imprint:	New York University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Library of Arabic Literature
Release date:	May 2015
Authors:	Ibn Al-Sai
Translators:	Shawkat M Toorawa • The Editors of the Library of Arabic Literature
Introduction by:	Julia Bray
Foreword by:	Marina Warner
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Trade binding / With dust jacket
Pages:	272
ISBN-13:	978-1-4798-5098-3
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Collections & anthologies of various literary forms Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General Promotions
LSN:	1-4798-5098-5
Barcode:	9781479850983

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