Surur (qiyan)
Surur (''fl.'' 1193), was a qiyan poet and musician, active in Ayyubid Egypt. She was the royal slave concubine of Sultan Al-Aziz Uthman (r. 1193–1198). Surur was described as a beautiful and accomplished singer. She was raised in slavery in Cairo, where she was instructed to read and write, study the Quran, literature and poetry, in order to become a qiyan-entertainer. During the reign of Sultan Saladin (r.1171–1193), she came to know the heir to the throne, Prince al-Aziz 'Uthman, who was attracted to Surur but did not purchase her during his fathers lifetime, since he feared his father would disapprove. During that time period, Surur and the Prince corresponded with each other. When Al-Aziz Uthman became Sultan in 1193, he purchased Surur for the Ayyubid harem, and made her his concubine. She was described as the favorite slave concubine of the Sultan. Her position was temporarily undermined when the sultan took a liking to another slave concubine, Uluf, but he returned t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Qiyan
(, ; singular , , ) were a social class of women, trained as entertainers, which existed in the pre-modern Islamic world. The term has been used for women who were both free, including some of whom came from nobility, and non-free women. It has been suggested that "the geisha of Japan are perhaps the most comparable form of socially institutionalized female companionship and entertainment for male patrons, although, of course, the differences are also myriad". Historically, the flourished under the Umayyad Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate, and in Al-Andalus. Terminology is often rendered in English as or , but these translations do not reflect the fact that might be of any age, and were skilled entertainers whose training extended well beyond singing, including for example, dancing, composing music and verse, reciting historical or literary anecdotes (), calligraphy, or shadow play. Other translations include ,Matthew S. Gordon, 'Introduction: Producing Songs and Sons', ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ayyubid Dynasty
The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurds, Kurdish origin, Saladin had originally served the Zengid dynasty, Zengid ruler Nur al-Din Zengi, Nur al-Din, leading the latter's army against the Crusader invasions of Egypt, Crusaders in Fatimid Egypt, where he was made vizier (Fatimid Caliphate), vizier. Following Nur al-Din's death, Saladin was proclaimed as the first Sultan of Egypt by the Abbasid Caliphate, and rapidly expanded the new sultanate beyond Lower Egypt, Egypt to encompass most of Syria (region), Syria, in addition to Hijaz, Southern Arabia, Yemen, northern Nubia, Tripolitania and Upper Mesopotamia. Saladin's military campaigns set the general borders and sphere of influence of the sultanate of Egypt for the almost 350 years of its existence. Mos ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Islamic Views On Concubinage
In classical Islamic law, a concubine was an unmarried slave-woman with whom her master engaged in sexual relations. Concubinage was widely accepted by Muslim scholars until the abolition of slavery in the 20th-century. Most modern Muslims, both scholars and laypersons, believe that Islam no longer permits concubinage and that sexual relations are religiously permissible only within marriage. Concubinage was a custom practiced in both pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia is the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension in the Syrian Desert before the rise of Islam. This is consistent with how contemporaries used the term ''Arabia'' or where they said Arabs lived, which was not limited to the ... and the wider Near East and Mediterranean. The Quran allowed this custom by requiring a man not to have sexual relations with anyone except for his wife or concubine . Muhammad had a concubine Maria al-Qibtiyya, Maria the Copt who had been given to him as a gift by al-Muqawqis with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Al-Aziz Uthman
Al-Malik Al-Aziz Uthman ibn Salah Ad-Din Yusuf (1171 – 29 November 1198) was the second Ayyubid dynasty, Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt. He was the second son of Saladin. Life Before his death, Saladin had divided his dominions amongst his kin: Al-Afdal ibn Salah al-din, Al-Afdal received Palestine (region), Palestine and Syria, al-Aziz was made ruler of Saladin in Egypt, Egypt, Az-Zahir Ghazi, Al-Zahir received Aleppo, Al-Adil I received Kerak, Karak and Shoubak, Shawbak, and Turan-Shah retained Yemen. Conflict soon broke out between them with Al-Adil becoming the undisputed ruler of Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Yemen. Despite Al-Aziz having specifically inherited suzerainty over the whole Ayyubid empire, soon he had to face revolts by the Zengid emirs of Mosul and by the Artuqids in southern Iraq. When Al-Afdal expelled all the ministers left by his father to support him, they came to Egypt, asking Al-Aziz to reconquer Syria. In 1194, Al-Aziz besieged Damascus. Al-Afdal ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Saladin
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant. At the height of his power, the Ayyubid realm spanned Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen, and Nubia. Alongside his uncle Shirkuh, a Kurdish mercenary commander in service of the Zengid dynasty, Saladin was sent to Fatimid Egypt in 1164, on the orders of the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din. With their original purpose being to help restore Shawar as the vizier to the teenage Fatimid caliph al-Adid, a power struggle ensued between Shirkuh and Shawar after the latter was reinstated. Saladin, meanwhile, climbed the ranks of the Fatimid government by virtue of his military successes against Crusader assaults and his personal closeness to al-Adid. A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ayyubid Harem
A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic servants, and other unmarried female relatives. In the past, during the era of slavery in the Muslim world, harems also housed enslaved concubines. In former times, some harems were guarded by eunuchs who were allowed inside. The structure of the harem and the extent of monogamy or polygyny have varied depending on the family's personalities, socio-economic status, and local customs. Similar institutions have been common in other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations, especially among royal and upper-class families, and the term is sometimes used in other contexts. In traditional Persian residential architecture, the women's quarters were known as (), and in the Indian subcontinent as (). Although the institution has experienced a sharp decline in the modern era du ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ibn Fadlallah Al-Umari
Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari (), commonly known as Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari or Ibn Faá¸l AllÄh al-‘UmÄrÄ« (1301 – 1349) was an Arab historian born in Damascus. His major works include ''at-TaʾrÄ«f bi-al-muá¹£á¹alaḥ ash-sharÄ«f'', on the subject of the Mamluk administration, and ''MasÄlik al-abá¹£Är fÄ« mamÄlik al-amá¹£Är'', an encyclopedic collection of related information. The latter was translated into French by Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes in 1927. A student of Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Fadlallah visited Cairo shortly after the Malian '' Mansa'' Kankan Musa I's pilgrimage to Mecca, and his writings are one of the primary sources for this legendary ''hajj''. He recorded that the Mansa dispensed so much gold that its value fell in Egypt for a decade afterward, a story that is often repeated in describing the wealth of the Mali Empire. He recorded Kankan Musa's stories of the previous ''mansa''; Kankan Musa claimed that the previous ru ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Qiyan
(, ; singular , , ) were a social class of women, trained as entertainers, which existed in the pre-modern Islamic world. The term has been used for women who were both free, including some of whom came from nobility, and non-free women. It has been suggested that "the geisha of Japan are perhaps the most comparable form of socially institutionalized female companionship and entertainment for male patrons, although, of course, the differences are also myriad". Historically, the flourished under the Umayyad Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate, and in Al-Andalus. Terminology is often rendered in English as or , but these translations do not reflect the fact that might be of any age, and were skilled entertainers whose training extended well beyond singing, including for example, dancing, composing music and verse, reciting historical or literary anecdotes (), calligraphy, or shadow play. Other translations include ,Matthew S. Gordon, 'Introduction: Producing Songs and Sons', ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Slave Concubines
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a slave or an enslaved person (see ). Many historical cases of enslavement occurred as a result of breaking the law, becoming indebted, suffering a military defeat, or exploitation for cheaper labor; other forms of slavery were instituted along demographic lines such as Racism, race or sex. Slaves would be kept in bondage for life, or for a fixed period of time after which they would be Manumission, granted freedom. Although slavery is usually involuntary and involves coercion, there are also cases where people voluntary slavery, voluntarily enter into slavery to pay a debt or earn money due to poverty. In the course of human history, slavery was a typical feature of civ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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12th-century Slaves
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sports, where it commonly denotes the first, leading, or top thing in a group. 1 is the unit of counting or measurement, a determiner for singular nouns, and a gender-neutral pronoun. Historically, the representation of 1 evolved from ancient Sumerian and Babylonian symbols to the modern Arabic numeral. In mathematics, 1 is the multiplicative identity, meaning that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. 1 is by convention not considered a prime number. In digital technology, 1 represents the "on" state in binary code, the foundation of computing. Philosophically, 1 symbolizes the ultimate reality or source of existence in various traditions. In mathematics The number 1 is the first natural number after 0. Each natural number, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Slaves From The Ayyubid Sultanate
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a slave or an enslaved person (see ). Many historical cases of enslavement occurred as a result of breaking the law, becoming indebted, suffering a military defeat, or exploitation for cheaper labor; other forms of slavery were instituted along demographic lines such as Racism, race or sex. Slaves would be kept in bondage for life, or for a fixed period of time after which they would be Manumission, granted freedom. Although slavery is usually involuntary and involves coercion, there are also cases where people voluntary slavery, voluntarily enter into slavery to pay a debt or earn money due to poverty. In the course of human history, slavery was a typical feature of civ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |