Consorts of the Caliphs is a seventh/thirteenth-century compilation of anecdotes about thirty-eight women who were, as the title suggests, consorts to those in power, most of them concubines of the early Abbasid caliphs and wives of latter-day caliphs and sultans. This slim but illuminating volume is one of the few surviving texts by Ibn al-Saʻi (d. 674 H/1276 AD). Ibn al-Saʻi was a prolific Baghdadi scholar who chronicled the academic and political elites of his city, and whose career straddled the final years of the Abbasid dynasty and the period following the cataclysmic Mongol invasion of 656 H/1258 AD.

Letter from the general editor --Abbreviations -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Maps -- Note on the edition -- Note on the translation -- Notes to the front matter -- Ḥammādah bint 'Īsā -- Ghādir -- 'Inān, daughter of 'Abd Allāh -- Ghaḍīḍ -- Haylānah -- 'Arīb al-Ma'mūniyyah -- Bid'ah al-Kabīrah -- Būran -- Mu'nisah al-Ma'mūniyyah -- Qurrat al-'Ayn -- Farīdah -- Isḥāq al-Andalusiyyah -- Faḍl al-Shā'irah al-Yamāmiyyah -- Bunān -- Maḥbūbah -- Nāshib al-Mutawakkiliyyah -- Fāṭimah -- Farīdah -- Nabt -- Khallāfah -- Ḍirār -- Qaṭr al-Nadā -- Khamrah -- 'Iṣmah Khātūn -- Māh-i Mulk -- Khātūn -- Banafshā al-Rūmiyyah -- Sharaf Khātūn al-Turkiyyah -- Saljūqī Khātūn -- Shāhān -- Dawlah -- Ḥayāt Khātūn -- Bāb Jawhar -- Qabīḥah -- Sitt al-Nisā -- Sarīrah al-Rā'iqiyyah -- Khātūn al-Safariyyah -- Khātūn -- Zubaydah -- Notes -- The Abbasid Caliphs -- The Early Saljūqs -- Chronology of women featured in "Consorts of the Caliphs" -- Glossary of names -- Glossary of places -- Glossary of realia -- Bibliography -- Further reading -- Index of Qur'anic verses -- Index of Arabic verses -- Index -- About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute -- About the typefaces -- About the editor and translators.

Aiso Library Women's History month selection