Al-Khayzuran

Al-Khayzuran bint Atta (Arabic: الخيزران بنت عطاء‎‎) (died 789) was the wife of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mahdi and mother of both Caliphs Al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid. She is known for the great influence in state affairs she wielded during the reign of both her spouse and that of her sons, from 775 until 789.

Al-Khayzuran was from Jorash, near modern Bisha, Saudi Arabia. She was kidnapped from her home by a Bedouin who then sold her in a slave market near Mecca to Al-Mahdi during his pilgrimage. This happened despite the fact that Islamic law only allowed for non Muslims to be made slaves, but all sources are nevertheless adamant that she was a slave, and this does seem not to have been unusual in practice.

Al-Khayzuran was described as beautiful, intelligent and gifted: at that time, the woman slaves or Jarawis of the harem were famed for educating themselves in music, singing, astrology, mathematics and theology in order to keep their master's interest, and Al-Khayzuran took regular lessons in infiqh by the most learned qadis. She eventually became the favorite concubine of Al-Mahdi, called jarya or jawari. Upon his succession as Caliph in 775, she managed to convince him to free her and marry her, depriving his first spouse, princess Rayta, daughter of Caliph Al-Saffah, of her privileges: she also convinced him to deprive his son in his first marriage from the position of heir to the throne, and instead name her sons as heirs, despite the fact that the custom at that time did not allow for the sons of a slave to be named heirs.

At the court, she was an ally of the Barmakids. During the reign of her spouse, Al-Khayzuran raised to an unusual position for a woman; she was not secluded in the harem, but held audiences with generals, politicians and officials in her chambers, mixing with men and discussing state affairs. She recalled her mother, two sisters and two brothers to court, married her sister Salsal to prince Ja'far and named her brother Ghatrif governor of Yemen.

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