Umm Musa al-Hashimiyya

Umm Musa al-Hashimiyya (9th-century - fl. 923) was a courtier of the Abbasid harem during the reign of Caliph Al-Muqtadir (r. 908–929).

Umm Musa is known as one of the most powerful of the women in the office of qahramana (stewardess), which was the most powerful office of a women in the Abbasid harem. In 910, she was made the personal agent of the mother of Shaghab, mother of Al-Muqtadir.

She became an influential favorite of the Caliph mother. She replaced her predecessor, one Fatima, who drowned in the Tigris when her boat was caught in a storm. She became the center of a major patronage network. [1] Her plotting for her favourites, the corruption of her family, and her hostility towards the "good vizier" Ali ibn Isa al-Jarrah, who was dismissed due to her machinations in 917, are underlined in the chronicles of the period.

When she married her niece to Abu'l-Abbas, a grandson of al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861), her rivals were quick to accuse her of aspiring to overthrow the Caliph and place her nephew on the throne. In 922/3, she was arrested and replaced by Thumal, who tortured Umm Musa, her brother, and her sister, until they had revealed where her treasure—reportedly valued at one million gold dinars—was hidden.[2][3]

References
  1. Marilyn Booth:Harem Histories: Envisioning Places and Living Spaces
  2. Kennedy 2006, pp. 192–193.
  3. El Cheikh 2013, pp. 174–178.
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