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his. 6 In this anecdote, the most important point is, again, the fact that the girl had illicit sexual
to his palace but never met her during her period of istibrā’. Later, after that period of purification
was over (ba‘d an ustubri’at), he asked to see her. He spent a whole day with her, and it was just at
the end of a long morning when he asked her to sing for him. 2
As is evident in this anecdote (khabar), the information about the slave‐girls’ sexual lives is not
always verbally explicit. Nevertheless, the whole context is usually clear enough to allow us to deduce
the missing details. In this anecdote, for instance, we have no information about the exact activities
that the caliph shared with the jāriya until that moment in which he asked her to sing for him.
However, it is evident that, during that long morning, apart from a pleasant talk, they may have had
some kind of sexual intercourse. If the caliph did not have that intention, he would not need to wait
for the completion of the istibrā’ in order to have a private meeting with the girl.
Along with these formal matters, the topic of virginity is also present in several akhbār.
Sometimes the information is quite brief, as it occurs in the following khabar about the eminent
singing‐girl of the Abbasid era, Shāriya: “[Her colleague] Rayyiq related that it was [the caliph] al‐
Mu‘taṣim that deflowered her (iftaḍḍahā) and that that very night she was with her.” 3
Other times, the context tends to be more complete, as in the two following akhbār. The first
one concerns the legendary singing‐slave‐girl of the Abbasid era ‘Arīb. It is said that, one day, she sang
before the caliph Muḥammad al‐Amīn, and he was so enthusiastic with her performance that he
asked his vizier al‐Faḍl b. al‐Rabī’ to go and see the girl’s master and buy her for him. Her master
agreed to sell her. However, he turned out to be very demanding with the price. Al‐Faḍl had a dispute
with him, but eventually they somehow managed to arrange the price, so al‐Faḍl could finally buy the
girl for the caliph. After that episode, the only information that completes the khabar is that the
caliph spent some time with her and, by the time of his assassination, had already taken away her
virginity (qutila ba‘d an iftaḍḍahā) without ever having paid to her master the whole price. 4
The second khabar is related to the blind poet of the Abbasid era ‘Alī b. Jabala, who fell in love
with a slave‐girl that happened to be a cultured and elegant poetess (jāriya adība ẓarīfa shā‘ira). The
girl loved him as well, in spite of his significant physical impairment, and one day visited him, and her
self‐giving attitude led to a sexual intercourse during which he took away her virginity (iftaḍḍahā). 5
Apart from the topic of virginity, what is interesting in this last story is that the slave‐girl belonged to
a man with whom she had no sexual relations, although it was he that had the legal right to share
that level of intimacy with her. Instead, she took the liberty herself to exercise her sexuality outside
the oppressive legal framework.
In the Kitāb al‐Aghānī this kind of information is not exceptional. Throughout the whole work we
meet with a great number of akhbār that shed light on the fact that the jawārī did not always comply
fully with the strict impositions of law. Another interesting example comes from the Abbasid era: the
renowned singer and musician Ibrāhīm al‐Mawṣilī fell in love with a qayna called Khunth “Dhāt al‐
Khāl” (a nickname that means “the one that has the mole”). The girl belonged to a slave trader of the
epoch called Abū l‐Khaṭṭāb, but the whole anecdote reveals that Ibrāhīm al‐Mawṣilī had intimate
moments with her. His feelings made him compose a great quantity of poems and songs about her,
and that was the reason for which she became famous. Her fame reached the caliph’s palace, and the
caliph himself, Hārūn al‐Rashīd, asked to buy her. When he finally met her, after the purchase, he
asked her the following question: “Has there ever been “something” between you and Ibrāhīm al‐
Mawṣilī?” The girl was sincere with him and answered: “Yes. One time.” The caliph’s reaction was
immediate. He felt so angry that he decided to get rid of her by giving her as a present to a slave of