Jarya

Jarya is the name for a certain type of enslaved women and slave girls in the Islamic world of the Middle Ages. Other names include  jariyah and jawaris. They were "Slaves for pleasure" (muṭʿa, ladhdha) or slave girls for sexual intercourse (jawārī al-waṭ). They had received an artistic education. Unlike the Qiyan, they usually did not perform outside the harem of their master. 

Usually, Jarya were bought on the slave market, or they were captured in a war as a form of booty. They are mainly known because they were able to entertain a man with their artistic skills or their knowledge, rather than  sexuality and physical beauty.

Royal harems often employed  many jawaris, who acted as the entertainers of the royal harem and who were not necessarily the concubines of the ruler. The Abbasid harem had thousands of jawaris as well as concubines. The harems of many other Islamic rulers, did the same,  such as the harems of the Caliphate of Cordoba and the Fatimid Caliphate.

In the  9th-century, writer Al-Jahiz described the sexual harem slaves. He also said that with their artistic skills they had a destructive influence over their owners. According to him, these skills created a web of dependent feelings such as love (hub), passion (hawa) affinity (mushakala) and a wish for continued companionship (ilf).

 References 

Category:Slavery in the Ottoman Empire