Concubines and Courtesans

Concubines and Courtesans PDF Author: Matthew Gordon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190622180
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History contains sixteen essays on enslaved and freed women across medieval and pre-modern Islamic social history. The essays consider questions of slavery, gender, social networking, cultural production, sexuality, Islamic family law, and religion in the shaping of Near Eastern and Islamic society over time.

Concubines and Courtesans

Concubines and Courtesans PDF Author: Matthew Gordon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190622180
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History contains sixteen essays on enslaved and freed women across medieval and pre-modern Islamic social history. The essays consider questions of slavery, gender, social networking, cultural production, sexuality, Islamic family law, and religion in the shaping of Near Eastern and Islamic society over time.

Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity

Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity PDF Author: Beverly Jo Bossler
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674066694
Category : Concubinage
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity traces changing gender relations in China from the tenth to fourteenth centuries. By taking women--and men's relationships with women--seriously, this book makes a case for the centrality of gender relations in the social, political, and intellectual life of the Song and Yuan dynasties.

Prostitutes and Matrons in the Roman World

Prostitutes and Matrons in the Roman World PDF Author: Anise K. Strong
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107148758
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
From streetwalkers in the Roman Forum to imperial concubines, Roman prostitutes defined what it meant to be a 'bad girl'.

Concubines and Courtesans

Concubines and Courtesans PDF Author: Ferdinand M. Bertholet
Publisher: Prestel Publishing
ISBN: 9783791346298
Category : Art, Chinese
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This opulently illustrated volume offers a wide-ranging examination of erotic artifacts from the end of the Ming Dynasty, around 1600, to the heyday of Shanghai in the 1920s.

Scarlet Women

Scarlet Women PDF Author: Ian Graham
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250062632
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
In 1965, an impoverished elderly woman was found dead in Nice, France. Her death marked the end of an era; she was the last of the great courtesans. Known as La Belle Otero, she was a volcanic Spanish beauty whose patrons included Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia. She accumulated an enormous fortune, but gambled it all away. Scarlet Women tells her story and many more, including: Marie Duplessis, who inspired characters by both Dumas and Verdi; Clara Ward, a rare American courtesan who hunted for a European aristocrat, but having married a Belgian prince, ran away with a gypsy violinist; Ninon de L'Enclos, who was offered 50,000 crowns by Cardinal Richelieu for one night. Money left in her will paid for Voltaire's education. Courtesans were an elite group of talented, professional mistresses. The most successful became wealthy and famous in their own right. While they led charmed lives, they occupied a curious position: they enjoyed freedom and political power unknown to most women, but they were ostracised by polite society. From the hetaerae of ancient Greece to the cortigiani onesti of 16th century Venice, the oiran of Edo-period Japan to the demimondaines of 19th century France, this captivating book--perfect for readers of A Treasury of Royal Scandals--uncovers the rich, colorful lives of these women who dared to pursue fortunes outside their societies' norms.

Queens, Eunuchs and Concubines in Islamic History, 661-1257

Queens, Eunuchs and Concubines in Islamic History, 661-1257 PDF Author: Taef El-Azhari
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474423191
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
Drawing on specific historical case studies and events, this book looks at the role of women, mothers, wives, eunuchs, concubines, qahramans and atabegs in the dynamics and manipulation of medieval Islamic politics.

Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity

Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity PDF Author: Beverely Bossler
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1684170672
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 483

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Book Description
This book traces changing gender relations in China from the tenth to fourteenth centuries by examining three critical categories of women: courtesans, concubines, and faithful wives. It shows how the intersection and mutual influence of these groups—and of male discourses about them—transformed ideas about family relations and the proper roles of men and women. Courtesan culture had a profound effect on Song social and family life, as entertainment skills became a defining feature of a new model of concubinage, and as entertainer-concubines increasingly became mothers of literati sons. Neo-Confucianism, the new moral learning of the Song, was significantly shaped by this entertainment culture and by the new markets—in women—that it created. Responding to a broad social consensus, Neo-Confucians called for enhanced recognition of concubine mothers in ritual and expressed increasing concern about wifely jealousy. The book also details the surprising origins of the Late Imperial cult of fidelity, showing that from inception, the drive to celebrate female loyalty was rooted in a complex amalgam of political, social, and moral agendas. By taking women—and men’s relationships with women—seriously, this book makes a case for the centrality of gender relations in the social, political, and intellectual life of the Song and Yuan dynasties.

Courtesans and Fishcakes

Courtesans and Fishcakes PDF Author: James N. Davidson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226137430
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
As any reader of the Symposium knows, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates conversed over lavish banquets, kept watch on who was eating too much fish, and imbibed liberally without ever getting drunk. In other words, James Davidson writes, he reflected the culture of ancient Greece in which he lived, a culture of passions and pleasures, of food, drink, and sex before—and in concert with—politics and principles. Athenians, the richest and most powerful of the Greeks, were as skilled at consuming as their playwrights were at devising tragedies. Weaving together Greek texts, critical theory, and witty anecdotes, this compelling and accessible study teaches the reader a great deal, not only about the banquets and temptations of ancient Athens, but also about how to read Greek comedy and history.

My Fair Concubine

My Fair Concubine PDF Author: Jeannie Lin
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 1459230566
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
The USA Today–bestselling author of The Dragon and the Pearl “combines wit, seduction, skill, and intelligence in a tantalizing take on ‘My Fair Lady’” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Yan Ling tries hard to be servile—it’s what’s expected of a girl of her class. Being intelligent and strong-minded, she finds it a constant battle. Proud Fei Long is unimpressed by her spirit—until he realizes she’s the answer to his problems. He has to deliver the emperor a “princess.” In two months can he train a tea girl to pass as a noblewoman? Yet it’s hard to teach good etiquette when all Fei Long wants to do is break it, by taking this tea girl for his own . . . “Lin has a gift for bringing the wondrous and colorful world of ancient China to readers. The history and culture of the era are beautifully bound together with a classic romance theme. Those yearning for new worlds and age-old adventures will savor Lin’s novel.” —Romantic Times

The Last Concubine

The Last Concubine PDF Author: Lesley Downer
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1407033514
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
Japan, 1865, the women's palace in the great city of Edo. Bristling with intrigue and erotic rivalries, the palace is home to three thousand women and only one man - the young shogun. Sachi, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, is chosen to be his concubine. But Japan is changing, and as civil war erupts, Sachi flees for her life. Rescued by a rebel warrior, she finds unknown feelings stirring within her; but this is a world in which private passions have no place and there is not even a word for 'love'. Before she dare dream of a life with him, Sachi must uncover the secret of her own origins - a secret that encompasses a wrong so terrible that it threatens to destroy her ....