Harem wall painting fragments

A History of the World in 100 Objects

BBC

History

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2010

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Neil MacGregor's world history as told through objects at the British Museum. This week, he is exploring life and intrigue in the great courts of the world at the same time as the European medieval period. Today he is with the women of Samarra in Iraq. This ancient city, north of Baghdad, was once home to the Abbasid court and was one of the great Muslim capitals of the world. Portraits from a mural in the palace harem offer a vivid insight into the lives of the rulers and the slave women whose job was to entertain them. What was life really like in this great court? The historian Robert Irwin, an expert on the tales of the Arabian Nights, looks at how the reality of life in the harem matches the sensual fantasy that has become associated with the period. And Amira Bennison, of Cambridge University, explains what conditions were like for the women of the harem and the qualifications they needed just to get there. Producer: Anthony Denselow

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred objects
0:07.8	from BBC Radio 4.
0:12.0	This This week we're entering the hidden places of powerful men and women around the world
0:19.4	in the years about 800 a.D. For the last programme we were in Mexico with a Mayon Queen and a private ritual of self-inflicted pain.
0:28.0	Today we're in the Middle East and we catch a glimpse of the lies of the harem, the fantasy and the reality of pleasure.
0:37.0	We're in the world of the Arabian Nights, the 2001 tales supposedly told by the beautiful Sheherizard to stop the
0:46.8	king from killing her.
0:50.2	The girls sat around me and when night came five of them rose and set up a banquet
0:57.6	with plenty of nuts and fragrant herbs.
1:00.8	Then they brought the wine vessels and we sat to drink.
1:04.0	A history of the world in a hundred objects. Harim wall painting fragments from Samara Iraq
1:27.0	ninth century with the girl sitting all around me, some singing, some playing the flute, the
1:41.1	Salter, the lute, and all other musical instruments, while the bowls
1:45.7	and cups went round.
1:48.2	I was so happy that I forgot every sorrow in the world, saying to myself,
1:53.4	this is the life, alas that it is fleeting.
1:57.6	Then they said to me,
1:59.6	Oh, our Lord, choose from among us whomever you wish to spend this night with you.
2:07.0	So, Sheherizard entertains the King, with tantalising tales which are always to be continued.
2:16.5	The girls of this tale have their real counterparts in some fragmentary portraits
2:21.1	held here at the British Museum, and these pieces of painted plaster take
2:25.8	us back into the heart of the Islamic Empire 1,200 years ago.
	...

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