Author/Authors :
Yiğit, Fatma Akkuş izmir Kâtip Çelebi Üniversitesi - Sosyal ve Beþeri Bilimler Fakültesi - Tarih Bölümü, Turkey
Abstract :
The Mamluks, at various occasions, organized entertainments, festivals and ceremonies accompanied by the singers and musicians. The female slaves who were bought at early age and skilfully practised with their male or female master musicians named ustat/reis and raise participated into the various entertainments and ceremonies or high officials’ weddings and circumcision feasts or religious and local holidays. In that era, there were salaried court singers and musical groups performing their duties at the palaces together with the public singers as well as musicians. The most famous concubine is Ittifaq who talented in playing common instruments such as the ud, tanbur, çenk, def, mizmar, santur and kanun. This concubine with a dark skin mentioned in the sources played the ud really well and enjoyed a life like fairy tale while marrying three different sultans. Except for anonymous ones, Zuhra and Hubi with their wonderful voices together with their beauties also became the most attractive singers in that era; and these two are also regarded as the well-known singers in the history of Mamluks. In this article, the information about the female singers and musicians in the palace and society of Mamluks will be given and the acquisition as well as training of the above-mentioned concubines will be analyzed.
NaturalLanguageKeyword :
The Mamluk Sultanate , Singer , Musician , Women , Concubine
