From the 8th to the 13th centuries, female slaves trained in musical composition and performance, the recitation and composition of poetry, the art of embellishing their conversation with entertaining literary and historical anecdotes, the crafts of calligraphy and shadow-puppetry, as well as other art forms, were one of the most elegant and refined expressions of Islamic culture in Spain. 

These women (Ar. qiyān) were major contributors to, and conduits for, the transmission of the arts during the golden age of Islamic Spain (Ar. al-Andalus). In this presentation, Professor Dwight Reynolds explores the conditions in which these fabulously expensive slaves lived their lives, were trained and marketed, practiced and performed their crafts, and at times managed to exert a certain amount of control over their own fates.

The Qiyan (Singing Slave Girls) of Medieval Muslim Spain

Speaker: Dwight F. Reynolds, Professor of Arabic Language & Literature,  Department of Religious Studies, University of California Santa Barbara

To watch a webcast of Professor Reynolds talk, click here.