Editing Eunuch (section)

====Arabian Peninsula====

The custom of using eunuchs as servants for women inside the Islamic [[harem]]s had a preceding example in the life of [[Muhammad]] himself, who used the eunuch Mabur as a servant in the house of his own slave concubine [[Maria al-Qibtiyya]]; both of them slaves from Egypt.<ref name="Taef El-Ahari 2019">Taef El-Azhari, E. (2019). Queens, Eunuchs and Concubines in Islamic History, 661-1257. Storbritannien: Edinburgh University Press.</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2025}}
Eunuchs were for a long time used in relatively small numbers, exclusively inside harems, but the use of eunuchs expanded significantly when eunuchs started being used also for other offices within service and administration outside of the harem, a use which expanded gradually during the [[slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad Caliphate]] and had its breakthrough during the [[slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid Caliphate]].<ref name="Taef El-Ahari 2019" /> During the Abbasid period, eunuchs became a permanent institution inside the Islamic harems after the model of the [[Abbasid harem]], such as in the [[Fatimid harem]], [[Safavid harem]] and the [[Qajar harem]].

For several centuries, Muslim Eunuchs were tasked with honored roles in [[Medina]] and [[Mecca]].<ref name="Marmon 1995">{{Cite book|last=Marmon|first=Shaun Elizabeth|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191935606|title=Eunuchs and sacred boundaries in Islamic society|date=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=1-4294-0638-0|location=New York|oclc=191935606}}</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2025}} They are thought to have been instituted in their role there by [[Saladin]], but perhaps earlier.<ref name="Marmon 1995"/><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Eunuchs |journal=Brill: Encyclopaedia of Islam |date=July 2015|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/*-COM_27821|language=en|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_com_27821}}</ref> Their tasks included caring for the [[Green Dome|Prophet's Tomb]], maintaining borders between males and females where needed, and keeping order in the sacred spaces.<ref name="Marmon 1995"/> They were highly respected in their time and remained there throughout the Ottoman Empire's control of the area and afterward.<ref name="Marmon 1995"/> In the present day, it is reported that only a few remain.<ref>{{Cite web|title='The Guardians' of the Sacred Chamber - BahareMadinah.com|url=https://baharemadinah.com/guardians-sacred-chamber/|access-date=2021-12-11|language=en-US}}</ref>

Eunuchs were an active component in the [[History of slavery in the Muslim world|slave market of the Islamic world]] until the early 20th-century for service in [[harem]] as well as in the corps of mostly African eunuchs, known as the [[Aghawat]], who guarded the Prophet Muhammad's tomb in Medina and the Kaʿba in Mecca.<ref>Hathaway, J.  (2024, June 18). Eunuchs. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. Retrieved 21 Aug. 2024, from https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-856.</ref>
Most slaves trafficked to Hijaz came there via the [[Red Sea slave trade]]. Small African boys were castrated before they were trafficked to the Hijaz, where they were bought at the slave market by the Chief Agha to become eunuch novices.<ref>Marmon, S. (1995). Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic Society. Ukraina: Oxford University Press. 105</ref>
It was noted that boys from Africa were still openly bought to become eunuch novices to serve at Medina in 1895.<ref>Junne, G. H. (2016). The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire: Networks of Power in the Court of the Sultan. Storbritannien: Bloomsbury Publishing. 12</ref>
In Medina there was a part of town named Harat al-Aghawat (Neighborhood of the Aghas).<ref>Hathaway, J. (2018). The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Harem: From African Slave to Power-Broker. Indien: Cambridge University Press. 123</ref>
The [[Red Sea slave trade]] became gradually more suppressed during the 20th-century, and [[Slavery in Saudi Arabia]] was abolished in 1962. In 1979, the last Agha was appointed. In 1990 seventeen eunuchs remained.<ref>Marmon, S. (1995). Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic Society. Ukraina: Oxford University Press. IX</ref>