Fatima.Mernessi_The-Forgotten-Queens-of-Islam-EN

The jawari or Revolution in the Harem 39
discussion of the year 255 and the revolt of the zanj, Ibn al-Athir
repeated Tabari's account, including his insults. 7 Compared to the
limited impact of the revolt of the zanj, because it was only of a
military nature, the revolt of the jawari was deep and enduring,
because it operated on the level of emotions and sex, of eroticism
and sensuality. The women slaves never made war on their master.
They made love! And we know how defenceless we are in that
state. When we love, we let defences fall, blur boundaries, and
eliminate barriers, and are no longer concerned about limits.
The historians have been very impressed by the image of Yazid
II, a caliph so infatuated with his slave singer/poetess that he went
into a trance and uttered meaningless phrases. Even Mas'udi, who
usually liked anecdotes, lost his sense of humour when it came to
the caliphate of Yazid II: 'One day while Hababa was singing, Yazid
experienced such great pleasure that he burst out: "I want to fly
away!" Hababa told him: "Commander of the Faithful, if you leave
the umma and also us, who will take care of us?'" 8 When Hababa
died accidentally during a picnic, after choking on a pomegranate
seed between two songs, Yazid's grief was so great that he forgot
the world and his duty, the faithful and the infidels. The Muslim
capital was obliged to say prayers without the caliph. He refused to
bury Hababa and wept over her body, from which he refused to be
separated, forgetting prayer, the state, the mosques, and the Friday
ritual. A few weeks later the believers followed his coffin to the
grave; Yazid was the first and perhaps last caliph to die of an
ailment until then considered to be minor: love of a jarya, a slave.
Yazid II was stigmatized by all the historians and only recovered
prestige and respect as a caliph through the pen of Abu al-Faraj al-
Isbahani, the author of Kitab al-aghani (Book of songs), in which
Hababa figures as one of the artists who contributed to the development
of poetry and song. Contrary to the interpretation of Mas'udi
and Tabari, who both adopted the establishment point of view,
which describes Hababa as evil and the enemy of God and his
religion, the author of Kitab al-aghani regards her as a poet and
musician of talent and sees Yazid as a man whose aesthetic taste
was developed enough to appreciate her. 9 It is true that Kitab alaghani
is not a classic work of history; its author devoted its 24
volumes to describing the caliphs and viziers in situations of relaxation
and not on the battlefield. It is an attempt to analyse the
development of music and song in Arab civilization, and as the best
singers and poets gravitated to the palaces, the jawari occupied a
central place among them because of their contribution to the