Are Houris Heavenly Concubines? Concubines, qiyan (singing slave girls), and houris (pure female companions promised to Muslim male believers in Paradise) all operate within the realm of pleasure by serving males, providing entertainment, and offering visual spectacles of feminine beauty. Yet, while some theological texts cast concubines and qiyan as morally dubious, other theological texts celebrate the houri as the embodiment of female beauty who was designed to provide the ultimate pleasure for male believers in Paradise. This paper reflects on how 'Abbasid era texts reconciled the concern with pleasure in earthly life (through the qiyan) with the celebration of pleasure in the promised heavenly life (through the houris) and asks specifically if houris can be understood as heavenly concubines. It argues that within texts of al-Muhasibi (d. 857 C.E.) and al-Qadi (ca. 12th century C.E.), the houris do operate as heavenly qiyan; yet, unlike the earthly concubine and singing girl, the houris' function as female companions is imbued with spiritual purity and denuded of earthly appetitive taint. While the houris' beauty is alluded to in the Qur'an, they are described by metaphors linked with spiritual purity that set the framework for the heavenly realm of pleasure. In hadith collections, descriptions of the houri become more detailed and more sensual. Eschatological manuals build on the foundational texts of Qur'an and hadith and make the houri the most developed and vocal character of Paradise. This paper will demonstrate how these narrative strands of spiritual purity and earthly pleasure became fused in the houri by the emergence of the eschatological narratives of al-Muhasibi’s Kitab al-Tawahhum, Ibn Habib’s (d. 852 C.E.) Wasf al-Firdaws, and al-Qadi’s Daqa’iq al-akhbar fi dhikr al-janna wa-l-nar. In particular, it focuses on one attribute - the houris' capacity to speak with a "melodic voice," which provides the sole musical expression found within Paradise. As a result, the attribute of melodic voices aligns the houri in heaven with the qiyan on earth. The paper will conclude by considering the implications of this vocal convergence and suggests that there is nonetheless a divergence between earthly and heavenly realms of pleasure.