Concubines and Courtesans contains sixteen essays that consider, from a variety of viewpoints, enslaved and freed women across medieval and pre-modern Islamic social history. The essays bring together arguments regarding slavery, gender, social networking, cultural production (songs, poetry and instrumental music), sexuality, Islamic family law, and religion in the shaping of Near Eastern and Islamic society over time. They range over nearly 1000 years of Islamic history - from the early, formative period (seventh to tenth century C.E.) to the late Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal eras (sixteenth to eighteenth century C.E.) - and regions from al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) to Central Asia (Timurid Iran).The close, common thread joining the essays is an effort to account for the lives, careers and representations of female slaves and freed women participating in, and contributing to, elite urban society of the Islamic realm. Interest in a gendered approach to Islamic history, society and religion has by now deep roots in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. The shared aim of the essays collected here is to get at the wealth of these topics, and to underscore their centrality to a firm grasp on Islamic and Middle Eastern history.

Introduction: Producing Songs and SonsMatthew S. GordonChapter 1: Statistical Approaches to the Rise of Concubinage in IslamMajied RobinsonChapter 2: Abbasid Courtesans and the Question of Social MobilityMatthew S. GordonChapter 3: A jariya's prospects in Abbasid BaghdadPernilla MyrneChapter 4: Visibility and Performance: Courtesans in the Early IslamicateCourts (661-950 CE)Lisa NielsonChapter 5: The Qiyan of al-AndalusDwight F. ReynoldsChapter 6: The Ethnic Origins of Female Slaves in al-AndalusCristina de la PuenteChapter 7: The Mothers of the Caliph's Sons: Women as Spoils of War in theEarly Almohad PeriodHeather J. EmpeyChapter 8: Concubines on the Road - Ibn Battuta's Slave WomenMarina A. TolmachevaChapter 9: Slaves Only in Name: Free Women as Royal Concubinesin LateTimurid Iran and Central AsiaUsman HamidChapter 10: A Queen Mother and the Ottoman Imperial Harem: Rabia Gülnu?Emetullah Valide Sultan (1640-1715)Betul Ipsirli ArgitChapter 11: Hagar and Mariya: Early Islamic Models of Slave MotherhoodElizabeth UrbanChapter 12: Between History and Hagiography: The Mothers of the Imams inImami Historical MemoryMichael DannChapter 13: Are Houris Heavenly Concubines?Nerina RustomjiChapter 14: Educated Slave Women and Gift Exchange in Abbasid CultureJocelyn SharletChapter 15: Remembering the Umm al-Walad: Ibn Kathir's Treatise on the Saleof the ConcubineYounus Y. MirzaEpilogue: Avenues to Social Mobility for Courtesans and ConcubinesKathryn HainContributorsIndex