Taqarrub (died 1024) was an Egyptian court slave. She was the personal slave of princess regent

Sitt al-Mulk Sitt al-Mulk (; 970–1023) was a Fatimid princess. After the disappearance of her half-brother, the caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, in 1021, she was instrumental in securing the succession of her nephew Ali az-Zahir, and acted as the ''de fa ...

. The personal confidant of the princess regent, she was active as her spy. A victim of the slave trade, she was sold to the

Fatimid harem The Fatimid harem refers to the harem belonging to the rulers of the Fatimid dynasty during the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt (909–1171). The harem was the quarters of the royal court in which the female members of the court, including the female r ...

, where she was selected to become the personal servant of al-Sayyida al-Aziziyya, the Christian Byzantine-Sicilian favorite slave concubine of Caliph

Al-Aziz Billah Abu Mansur Nizar (; 10 May 955 – 14 October 996), known by his regnal name as al-Aziz Billah (), was the fifth caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, from 975 to his death in 996. His reign saw the capture of Damascus and the Fatimid expansion into ...

. When her enslaver died, she became the property and personal attendant of her former enslavers daughter, princess

. Taqarrub eventually became the personal favorite and confidant of Sitt al-Mulk, who became the de facto regent in 1021. As a non-Muslim slave, she was not subjected to the sex segregated seclusion of the Fatimid harem but had greater amount of free mobility, being able to move about outside of the harem, in the city and between the different royal palaces. Sitt al-Mulk used Taqarrub as her personal information agent, and she is described as the chief spy of Sitt al-Mulk and the de facto chief of her information agency. When Sitt al-Mulk became regent and became more careful of who she trusted, Taqarrub is described as one of her few confidants. As a person, Taqarrub are described as thorough, good humoured and well mannered. Taqarrub was well awarded for her position as favorite and left a fortune on her death in 1024. She willed her fortune to the slave girl al-Maliha, but it was confiscated by the crown.Vermeulen, U. (2001). Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras III: Proceedings of the 6th, 7th and 8th International Colloquium Organized at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in May 1997, 1998 and 1999. Belgien: Peeters. 21-22

References

{{reflist 1024 deaths 11th-century slaves 10th-century slaves Royal favourites Medieval spies 11th-century Egyptian people 10th-century Egyptian people Slaves from the Fatimid Caliphate