This paper will present a selective survey of evidence for the role of women musicians as agents of cultural exchange in the Ancient Near East, especially in the second millennium BCE. I will focus on two bodies of evidence: the administrative records of Mari, which include detailed information on the training and management of musiciennes in the ‘harem’ of Zimri-Lim (ruled c.1775–61); and relief-art of the Amarna period which illustrates royal and cultic events in the palace of Akhenaten (c.1353–36). These kings sought to maximize the cultural diversity of their courts especially through the acquisition and display of female musicians from all parts of their imperial holdings and political peripheries. Because these women were sometimes cultic agents in their home spheres, they might also promote a kind of ‘theological calculus’ between adjacent cultures.

The divan of Farrukhi Sistani (d. 1037) teems with evocations of a lively Ghaznavid minstrel culture, a culture Farrukhi knew first-hand, as he was not only poet at the courts of both Mahmud (r. 998–1030) and Mas'ud (r. 1030–1041) but was also, according to Nizami's Chahar maqala, a "dexterous performer on the harp." Though numerous studies (by M. Boyce, J.T.P. de Bruijn, and C.E. Bosworth) document and highlight the public, courtly persona of the minstrel, the divan-e Farrukhi presents a much less studied aspect of Ghaznavid minstrelsy, namely, the minstrel's private, erotic persona as the "moon-faced," "silken-breasted" beloved; auditory beauty and visual beauty become semantically entwined and at times interchangeable. The fact that this musico-poetic "beloved" was often a Turkish slave (ghulam), however, has broad implications for both Ghaznavid minstrelsy and "stock" Persian poetic imagery. This study takes as its point of departure the "lyric" nasib to several of Farrukhi's qasidas that describe intimate and manifestly erotic encounters between Farrukhi, the poet, and a (always unnamed) Turkish beloved, the minstrel. In recounting such erotic encounters, Farrukhi's poetry affords us a glimpse into the formative stages of a still-living symbol that was to become, in later Persian poetry, entombed in a dead metaphor: the beloved as "Turk". Although the legendary love between Mahmud and Ayaz remained the touchstone for the Turkish beloved, Farrukhi's poetry reminds us that Ayaz was not the only ghulam to wield agency beyond his station, and the extraordinary musico-poetic agency Farrukhi grants his Turkish minstrels far outstrips the more perfunctory and business-like references to Ghaznavid minstrel culture in the Tarikh-e Bayhaqi. A careful reading of Farrukhi's poetry, with occasional glances to Manuchehri and `Unsuri, allows us to chart with more precision the emergence of this symbolic minstrel persona, which was rooted in the historical realities of the Ghaznavid court, but came to resonate more broadly with the imagery of music and musical performance unique to the Persian poetic tradition.

New Information on the Qiy?n of al-Andalus Although a number of articles and at least one book (Casewell, The Slave Girls of Baghdad, 2011) have surveyed the institution of “singing slave girls” in the Eastern Mediterranean, information about the role of the qiy?n in al-Andalus has remained fragmentary and has been drawn from a limited number of well-known sources, primarily al-Maqqar?. This presentation attempts to survey the buying and selling of qiy?n and their role in Andalusian society in three large periods defined by where the ‘center’ for their education and training was located: first, in the East (primarily in Medina and Iraq), then in Cordoba; and, finally, in Seville. This research is based upon materials culled from a much broader array of sources than used by earlier authors, and highlights information about qiy?n who, by various means, managed to play an active role in shaping their own destiny. One such new source is the series of eighteen biographies of Andalusian singers, most of them qiy?n, found in the 14th-century encyclopedic work by Ibn Fa?l All?h al-‘Umar?, Mas?lik al-ab??r. Al-‘Umar? drew the materials for the first seventy-five biographies in his volume on music (Vol. X) from al-I?bah?n?’s Kit?b al-Agh?n? and then quoted the now lost Agh?n? al-mu?dath?n by Ibn N?qiy? for the biographies of singers in the late 10th and 11th centuries. But it has remained virtually unnoticed by scholars that he also included biographies of Andalusian singers from two specific periods: the first decades of the 9th century (the rule of al-?akam I) and the final decades of Umayyad rule in the early 11th century. Using this and other new sources provides a rather different picture than that found in earlier academic writing and allows us to move towards answers to two critical questions: 1) Did the institution of “singing slave girls” develop differently in al-Andalus than it did in the East?; and, 2) Given that historians often portray free women in al-Andalus (such as Wall?da) as enjoying a greater amount of agency and liberty than their counterparts in the East, is this also true for the qiy?n of al-Andalus?

The elite core of musicians in both the Umayyad and Abbasid courts consisted of a constantly changing roster of free, unfree, foreign and client artists. Due to the flexibility of musical and social terminology, it is difficult to specify the degrees of difference, but regardless of origin or legal status, all court musicians had access to social mobility. While having musical talent was fundamental, it was only one of several skills necessary to earn patronage. Sources as varied al-Isbahani’s Kitab al-Aghani, Ibn al-Washsha’s Kitab al-Muwashsha and the anti-sama? treatise Response to a Question Regarding Music by al-Adjurri suggest musicianship incorporated a complex array of technical skill, genre choice, and gender identity, all of which influenced reception of musical performance. Despite the importance of music at court, performing musicians existed on the margins of society. Their liminal status was linked to the perception of performers as mere technicians, as well as shifting perceptions about the moral and social acceptance of music. Yet, their marginality also gave musicians the ability to slip between physical and social borders. Representations of the performance of qiy?n and mukhannath?n best demonstrate this ability, as these roles visibly incorporated gender into their music identity. As members of both the women’s quarters and musician ranks, qiy?n were never fully contained by physical or social boundaries. Qiy?n could dress and wear their hair as boys (as with the fad for ghulamiyyat), or enhance their femininity by writing poetry on their bodies. Likewise, mukhannath?n, who adopted feminine dress and gesture, had access to male and female spaces through their patrons. Though gender play was frequently intertwined with sexuality, some gender performance seems to have been used to satirize or manipulate social convention for individual advancement. Therefore, qiy?n and mukhannath?n, I suggest, used their music and gender performances as a mode of agency. In this paper, I explore the relationship between gender and music performance of qiy?n and mukhannath?n as represented in select 9th and 10th century texts. My primary questions are: How important was gender identity to musical performance practice and reception? Why did some musicians incorporate gender play into their performance and others not? Lastly, how did their performance impact the reception of music overall? To place these intersections of gender and musicianship within a wider context, I conclude with a brief comparison to select medieval cultures with similar musical figures.