Editing Abbasid Caliphate (section)

===Status of women===
{{See also|Abbasid harem}}
In contrast to the earlier era, women in Abbasid society were absent from all arenas of the community's central affairs.{{sfn|Ahmed|1992|pp=112–115}} While their Muslim forebears led men into battle, started rebellions, and played an active role in community life, as demonstrated in the [[Hadith]] literature, Abbasid women were ideally kept in seclusion.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} Conquests had brought enormous wealth and large numbers of slaves to the Muslim elite. The majority of the slaves were women and children,<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite book |last=Morony |first=Michael |title=Iraq after the Muslim conquest |date=2005 |publisher=Gorgias Press |edition=1st Gorgias Press [2nd ed.] |location=Piscataway, NJ |orig-date=1984}}</ref> many of whom had been dependents or harem-members of the defeated Sassanian upper classes.<ref name="Abbott, Nabia 1946">{{Cite book |last=Abbott |first=Nabia |title=Two Queens of Baghdad: Mother and Wife of Hārūn al Rashīd |date=1946 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago}}</ref> In the wake of the conquests an elite man could potentially own a thousand slaves, and ordinary soldiers could have ten people serving them.{{refn|group =nb|Concubines were expected to be treated well, treating them poorly would have been deviation from Islamic ethics however some from the ruling class engaged in acts of disbelief and deviancy behind closed doors with and without their harem's}}

It was narrated from Ibn Abbas that Muhammad said:

{{blockquote|
There is no man whose two daughters reach the age of puberty and he treats them kindly for the time they are together, but they will gain him admittance to Paradise.

Whoever has three daughters and is patient towards them, and feeds them, gives them to drink, and clothes them from his wealth; they will be a shield for him from the Fire on the Day of Resurrection.}}

Even so, slave courtesans ([[qiyan]]s and [[jawaris]]) and princesses produced prestigious and important poetry. Enough survives to give us access to women's historical experiences, and reveals some vivacious and powerful figures, such as the Sufi mystic [[Rabia of Basra|Raabi'a al-Adwiyya]] (714–801 CE), the princess and poet [['Ulayya bint al-Mahdi]] (777–825 CE), and the [[qiyan|singing-girls]] [[Shāriyah]] ({{circa|815}}–870 CE), [[Fadl Ashsha'ira]] (d. 871 CE) and [[Arib al-Ma'muniyya]] (797–890 CE).<ref>{{cite book|last=Qutbuddin |first=Tahera |editor=Josef W. Meri |editor-link= Josef W. Meri |title=Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia|date = 31 October 2005 |archive-date=7 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140207005116/http://nelc.uchicago.edu/sites/nelc.uchicago.edu/files/2006%20Women%20Poets%20%28Med.%20Islamic.%20Civ.%20Enc.%29.pdf|chapter-url=http://nelc.uchicago.edu/sites/nelc.uchicago.edu/files/2006%20Women%20Poets%20(Med.%20Islamic.%20Civ.%20Enc.).pdf |volume=II |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-96690-0 |chapter=Women Poets |pages=865–867 |access-date=29 March 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Samer M. Ali|title=Medieval Court Poetry|encyclopedia= The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women|edition= by Natana J. Delong-Bas, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I 651–54 (at p. 652)|url= https://www.academia.edu/5023780}}</ref>

Each wife in the [[Abbasid harem]] had an additional home or flat, with her own enslaved staff of eunuchs and maidservants. When a [[concubinage in Islam|concubine]] gave birth to a son, she was elevated in rank to [[umm walad]] and also received apartments and (slave) servants as a gift.{{sfn|Bobrick|2012|p=22}}