Qiyan

In classical Arabic terminology, the term 'qiyan' referred to slave women who were obliged to entertain their captors with their singing, instrumental music and charms. These slaves, mostly Jewish, living in the Caliphate of Cordoba, were, like the geishas, highly skilled in music, poetry and the arts in general, and thus constituted the highest order of slaves in pre-modern Islamic female society.

Many of the Arab women poets of the Middle Ages were also qiyans. The melodic culture of the qiyans trained in Medina, Baghdad or Córdoba gave rise to a distinct musical tradition in Al-Andalusia, which survived after the abolition of slavery. The region enjoyed a golden age during the Caliphate of Córdoba (929-1031), a period of universal economic and cultural prosperity. The Caliphate of Córdoba was generally characterised by religious tolerance; this was also true of the Jewish religion, and many Christians converted to Islam. The Qiyan orchestra of global music and ethno jazz draws on the incredibly rich Judeo-Arabic musical output of this period.