Table Of ContentConsorts of the Caliphs
Library of Arabic Literature
Editorial Board
General Editor
Philip F. Kennedy, New York University
Executive Editors
James E. Montgomery, University of Cambridge
Shawkat M. Toorawa, Cornell University
Editors
Julia Bray, University of Oxford
Michael Cooperson, University of California, Los Angeles
Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania
Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago
Devin J. Stewart, Emory University
Managing Editor
Chip Rossetti
Digital Production Manager
Stuart Brown
Assistant Editor
Gemma Juan-Simó
Letter from the General Editor
The Library of Arabic Literature series offers Arabic editions and English
translations of key works of classical and pre-modern Arabic literature, as well as
anthologies and thematic readers. Books in the series are edited and translated
by distinguished scholars of Arabic and Islamic studies, and are published
in parallel-text format with Arabic and English on facing pages. The Library
of Arabic Literature includes texts from the pre-Islamic era to the cusp of the
modern period, and encompasses a wide range of genres, including poetry,
poetics, fiction, religion, philosophy, law, science, history, and historiography.
Supported by a grant from the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute,
and established in partnership with NYU Press, the Library of Arabic Literature
produces authoritative Arabic editions and modern, lucid English translations,
with the goal of introducing the Arabic literary heritage to scholars and students,
as well as to a general audience of readers.
Philip F. Kennedy
General Editor, Library of Arabic Literature
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Consorts of the Caliphs
women and the Court of Baghdad
Ibn al-Sāʿī
Edited by Shawkat M. Toorawa
Translated by The Editors of the Library of
Arabic Literature
Introduction by Julia Bray
Foreword by Marina warner
volume editor Julia Bray
NEw YORK UNIvERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEw YORK UNIvERSITY PRESS
New York and London
Copyright © 2015 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ibn al-Sa‘i, ‘Ali ibn Anjab, 1196 or 1197-1275.
Consorts of the caliphs : women and the court of Baghdad / Ibn al-Sa‘i ; edited by Shawkat
M. Toorawa ; translated by the editors of the Library of Arabic Literature ; introduction by
Julia Bray ; foreword by Marina warner ; volume editor Julia Bray.
pages cm. -- (Library of Arabic Literature)
Bilingual English and Arabic texts on facing pages.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-4798-5098-3 (cl : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4798-4236-0 (e-book) -- ISBN 978-1-
4798-7904- 5 (e-book)
1. women--Islamic Empire--Anecdotes--Early works to 1800. 2. Queens--Islamic Empire-
- Anecdotes--Early works to 1800. 3. Islamic Empire--History--750-1258--Early works to
1800. 4. Abbasids--Early works to 1800. I. Toorawa, Shawkat M., editor. II. Bray, Julia,
editor. III. Ibn al- Sa‘i, ‘Ali ibn Anjab, 1196 or 1197-1275. Nisa’ al-khulafa’. Iv. Ibn al-Sa‘i, ‘Ali
ibn Anjab, 1196 or 1197- 1275. Nisa’ al-khulafa’. English. v. Title.
DS38.4.A2I25413 2015
909’.097670109252--dc23
2014044217
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Series design by Titus Nemeth.
Typeset in Tasmeem, using DecoType Naskh and Emiri.
Typesetting and digitization by Stuart Brown.
Manufactured in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Table of Contents
Letter from the General Editor iii
Abbreviations x
Foreword xi
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xvi
Introduction xviii
Maps xxvi
Note on the Edition xxxi
Note on the Translation xxxiv
Notes to the Front Matter xl
Consorts of the Caliphs 1
1. Ḥammādah bint ʿĪsā 4
2. Ghādir 6
3. ʿInān, daughter of ʿAbd Allāh 10
4. Ghaḍīḍ 20
5. Haylānah 22
6. ʿArīb al-Maʾmūniyyah 24
7. Bidʿah al-Kabīrah 32
8. Būrān 38
9. Muʾnisah al-Maʾmūniyyah 54
10. Qurrat al-ʿAyn 56
11. Farīdah 58
12. Isḥāq al-Andalusiyyah 60
13. Faḍl al-Shāʿirah al-Yamāmiyyah 64
14. Bunān 74
15. Maḥbūbah 76
16. Nāshib al-Mutawakkiliyyah 84
17. Fāṭimah 86
18. Farīdah 88
19. Nabt 90
vii
Table of Contents
20. Khallāfah 94
21. Ḍirār 96
22. Qaṭr al-Nadā 98
23. Khamrah 100
24. ʿIṣmah Khātūn 104
25. Māh-i Mulk 106
26. Khātūn 108
27. Banafshā al-Rūmiyyah 110
28. Sharaf Khātūn al-Turkiyyah 114
29. Saljūqī Khātūn 116
30. Shāhān 120
31. Dawlah 124
32. Ḥayāt Khātūn 126
33. Bāb Jawhar 128
34. Qabīḥah 130
35. Sitt al-Nisāʾ 134
36. Sarīrah al-Rāʾiqiyyah 138
37. Khātūn al-Safariyyah 140
38. Khātūn 142
39. Zubaydah 144
Notes 147
The Abbasid Caliphs 154
The Early Saljūqs 156
Chronology of women Featured in Consorts of the Caliphs 157
Glossary of Names 159
Glossary of Places 185
Glossary of Realia 191
Bibliography 196
Further Reading 201
Index of Qurʾanic verses 205
Index of Arabic verses 206
Index 211
About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute 222
About the Typefaces 223
About the Editor and Translators 224
viii
For Marianne
Description:Consorts of the Caliphs is a seventh/thirteenth-century compilation of anecdotes about thirty-eight women who were, as the title suggests, 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
