In the past decade or so, scholars of al-Andalus have begun exploring the meaningful ways that class and ethnic differences shaped women’s lives. Drawing upon the rich data on female slave musicians in Ibn Hayyan’s al-Muqtabis, as well as discussion of the norms of women’s behavior in 9th- and 10th-century sources such as Kitab adab al-nisa’ by ‘Abd al-Malik Ibn Habib and al-‘Iqd al-farid by Ibn Abd Rabbih, this paper argues that freewoman- and slave-musicians in 9th- and 10th-century Cordoba experienced different degrees and domains of freedom of action and movement. Free women singers like the daughters of Ziryab, ‘Ulayya and Hamduna, could at times be recognized by name, but discussion of their activities and accomplishments remained circumscribed due to the religiously suspect nature of music in the Maliki school generally and to the demands of propriety. In contrast, female slave musicians could be and were discussed at length, not only for their talents and contributions to the production of elite music, but also for their desirability as servants and sexual partners. Moreover, further practical distinctions can be drawn between the common slave who performed music (the jariya) and the slave specialist in music (the qayna), and between those slaves belonging to elites who concealed them behind curtains, as if they were members of the family, and others whose masters brought them to the majlis to perform in front of other men. Thus, where performing music was concerned, literary discussions of women and feminine ideals suggest a bifurcated gender ideology that certainly subordinated women’s interests to men’s, but also generated different norms and expectations, depending upon a woman’s class and condition of servitude.