Ghilman

Ghilman (singular ghulam) describes young eunuch servants in two contexts.

In Islamic paradise

In the Ottoman Empire, the ghilman (singular, ghulam) were slave-soldiers. According to the Qur'an, the ghilman are also mythical creatures who work in heaven, alongside their female counterparts called the houris, in the service of the righteous Muslims. The promise of this reward is repeated four different times in the Qur'an.

ecular

In Sassanian Persia, ghilman worked as slaves employed by Kings and generals.

Since the break-up of the Abbasid Caliphate, the ghilman were grouped into whole armies. They were usually Turkic in origin and fought as cavalrymen.

The ghilman seem to have lived celibate lives. The absence of family life and offspring was one of the reasons why ghilman, even when attaining power, generally failed to start dynasties or proclaim their independence. The only exception to this was the Ghaznavid dynasty of Afghanistan, which originated amongst the ghilman of the Samanid dynasty.

The ghilman are also credited with producing a strongly homosexual subculture which left literary traces in Persian poetry.

Chroniclers also give accounts of the political connotations of their relationships; the ghulam Fatik, for example, briefly governed Aleppo for the Fātimids before being murdered in his sleep by his ghulam lover. Also, the Buwayhid prince Bakhtiyar's infatuation with a ghulam is given as one of the reasons as why he lost his throne and his life.

ee also

*Ghulam (disambiguation)

References

External links

* [http://www.voi.org/books/mssmi/ch9.htm Muslim Slave System in Medieval India: Ghilmans and Eunuchs]