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The ghulamiyyat fashion

الغلاميات

The boy-lookalike maids — cropped, turbaned and belted like lads — whom Zubayda dressed for al-Amin, a court fashion that spread to high and low and took the name ghulamiyyat 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Early Abbasid Caliphate
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Dress

Overview

The ghulamiyyat were close-cropped slave girls whom Umm Ja'far Zubayda kept, and people named them thus, according to al-Masudi. 2

The report

Zubayda saw her son al-Amin's passion for servants, so she had the girls' heads shaved and gave them forelocks, sideburns, and napes. She dressed them in tunics, shirts, and belts until they were mistaken for young men. 2

Then people imitated her, and called them the ghulamiyyat. 2

People and things also explored

Albisa (clothing: rulings, colours and manners)· The turban (amama): its forms, wiping over it, and its rules in prayer and ihram· Awra (intimate parts)· The burqa· Hair, wool and fur (their purity, the rules for the dead, washing, adornment and sale)· The hijab· The bandage or turban and wiping over it (isaba)· Naqsh (engraving and decoration)

Sources

  1. Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p. 671-672
  2. Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p.671-672
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The ghulamiyyat fashion”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/ghulamiyyat/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Albisa (clothing: rulings, colours and manners)

Clothing is that which covers the body and protects from heat and cold. Five rulings apply: covering the nakedness is obligatory; showing blessing and dressing well for Friday and festivals is recommended; garb that suggests pride is disliked; silk and gold are forbidden to men. The default is that clothing is lawful unless a text forbids it; the rulings on colours, images and transparency differ, and clothing that makes its wearer conspicuous is disliked.