Joan Fallon
Welcome to my web page
  • JOAN FALLON - WELCOME
  • JOAN FALLON'S BLOG
  • AUDIO BOOKS
  • Joan Fallon - ABOUT
  • CITY OF DREAMS- Historical Fiction series
  • Al-Andalus- Historical Fiction Series
  • TRANSLATED BOOKS
  • JOAN FALLON NEWS
  • MAKE CONTACT WITH JOAN FALLON
  • PRIVACY

What was like to be a concubine of the Royal harem in Moorish Spain?

27/4/2018

13 Comments

 
PictureIn the Harem by Fillippo Barratti
My name is Najm. I belong to the most powerful man in the world. His name is Abd al-Rahman III, caliph of al-Andalus. It is the year 950 AD and I have been one of his concubines for the last fifteen years. How did I end up here? The truth is that I do not really know. One day I was living with my family in a village in Saxony when we were attacked by Viking raiders. They killed many of the villagers but most they captured. I was very frightened because I had no idea what they would do with me. I was only ten years old and I’d never even been out of the village before.
After a long, frightening journey we reached a big city. I had never seen anything like it before. The houses were enormous and built of stone, not wood and mud like in my village. And the streets were paved with stone blocks and at night you could see where you were going because there were oil lamps burning at every corner. The slavers told us we were in Cordoba. I had never heard of this city before.
I was sold the next day in the slave market. I was terrified. I had no idea where my parents were or what had happened to my brothers and sisters. What was my life going to be like as a slave? I was sure it would not be good. I expected to be working in the kitchens or looking after the animals on a farm, but the man who bought me was a servant of the Caliph. He said I was a pretty little girl and that the Caliph would like my golden hair. So that was how I came to live in the Royal harem.

PictureAfter the Bath by Rudolf Ernst
I couldn’t believe it. So much luxury. The first thing they did when I arrived was give me a name. I was to be called Najm. They explained that the Caliph didn’t like the harsh sounds of the northern names so I could no longer be called Gerda. They stripped off my old clothes and two of the maids bathed me and washed my hair and rubbed my skin with sweet smelling ointments. I was given such beautiful clothes. At first the other concubines were curious to know about me and where I had come from. Some were nice to me but the others soon left me alone. They weren’t really interested in the newcomers. At first I was very lonely and cried myself to sleep every night, but then one of the nicer concubines said that if I continued like that I would be punished. I must keep my sorrow inside me, like everyone else. The Caliph didn’t want a harem full of weeping women. So I did as she said and gradually I began to forget about my old life.
For the first few years I lived in the constant hope that the Caliph would send for me—it was considered a blessing if that happened—but he never did. If he sends for you—they call it being noticed—then you’re rewarded with their own rooms and servants. If you have a female child you are given larger quarters and can remarry on the death of the caliph. If the child is male then you move up through the ranks to become one of his wives. But none of this will happen to me now; I'm too old. I'll be twenty this year.

PictureThe Guard of the Harem by Rudolf Ernst
You might think that life in the harem was idle, that all we do is lie about all day looking beautiful, but you’d be wrong. It is very strict and we have to work hard. The Chief Eunuch is in charge of all the concubines and nobody dare disobey him.
Of course all the women in the caliph’s harem are also slaves, many brought from the north of Spain, from Africa, and some from northern Europe, like me. But there are distinct divisions within the harem. First of all there are two categories of female slave:
  1. the domestic servants who are not allowed to marry while they are in the harem but have the option to leave and marry if they wish.
  2. the concubines
Then there are the black eunuchs who are the guards of the harem and the white eunuchs who are administrators and teachers. The eunuchs are castrated male slaves but some of them have enormous power.
Within the harem there is a very strict hierarchy.
First there is the Queen Mother. She is the mother of the reigning caliph and the head of the harem. She runs the harem and exercises power over the caliph and his wives. No concubine can leave or enter the harem without her permission and she literally holds the power of life and death over them.
Next in line is the Royal Wife. She is the wife who gave the caliph his first son, the heir to the throne. Then come the other official wives, who have given him children—princes and princesses. All the wives live in the greatest luxury.
After them come the favourites; these are the concubines who are particularly beautiful and whom the caliph sees regularly.
Then it’s the concubines “who’d been noticed”—that is sent for by the caliph on at least one occasion.
After that we have the graduates from the harem school. That’s me, I’m a graduate and it looks as though I’m going to spend my whole life here without once being sent for by the caliph.
At the very bottom of the pile are the pupils at the harem school. They’re the newcomers, bought for their youth, beauty and intelligence and once in the harem they’re schooled by white eunuchs to become concubines.

PictureThe Harem by Frederick Arthur Bridgman
I remember the harem school well; we worked very hard. We had to learn everything necessary to please the caliph: singing, poetry recitation, dancing, the art of seduction and the erotic arts, how to play a musical instrument—I learnt to play the lute— and not only how to speak Arabic, but also how to read and write it. Those that have been lucky enough to see the Caliph and share his bed say that he particularly likes his concubines to tell him stories.
I sometimes get lonely, which you might think is strange because there are hundreds of women here, and I do have some special friends. There is a lot of envy and jealousy when someone gets promoted to  a ‘favourite’ or becomes pregnant, but generally everyone gets along reasonably well. Any ill-feeling has to be well concealed because no-one wants the Queen Mother to find out. She can be quite ruthless. Sometimes women fall in love with each other and then they have to be very careful because it is forbidden to have a sexual relationship with any of the other concubines.
If I’m honest I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn’t been sold to the Caliph. Maybe I would have married and had lots of lovely children. Who knows? Instead I spend my days reading poetry, playing chess or chatting to my friends. I have no freedom but then I have no worries either.

13 Comments

More than one way to be a pilgrim

11/4/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Now is the time of year when people start thinking about walking the Camino de Santiago. In summer it's very hot and in the winter it rains; the higher roads can even be blocked by snow. So Spring and Autumn are the ideal times to walk across northern Spain.
In the recent TV travelogue, The Pilgrimage, the seven pilgrims taking part
—an actor, an ex-soldier, a priest, a singer, a TV presenter, an investigative journalist, and a comedian--started at the French border at St Jean Pied de Port, but didn't walk the entire 800 km to Santiago de Compostella - they walked part of the way.
26 km to be exact and then they took a bus. Finally they resumed their walk to complete the last 100 km. Cheating? Not really. After all they only had two weeks in which to complete the journey and make the programme. They did carry their own luggage all the way however and they stayed in the local hostels, sharing dormitories and showers, and eating with the rest of the pilgrims. Having watched the programme, I'd say that only two of them would have liked to walk the entire distance; the others were more than thankful when it was over.

A woman I know walked the whole 800 km and it took her five weeks. An incredible feat for someone who was in her seventies at the time. Like the pilgrims mentioned above, she stayed in the local hostels, only twice treating herself to a room in a small hotel so that she could recharge her batteries and soak in a hot bath. She told me of the bed bugs and the blisters, of sleep broken by the snores of other pilgrims and of the camaraderie between the pilgrims, and said she would do it all again in a heartbeat.



Picture
A good friend of mine walked the Camino a few years ago in the company of some friends and work colleagues. They decided to do the de-luxe version starting at Sarria which was 115 km from Santiago de Compostela. They only had a limited time as work, family and other demands on their busy lives meant it was impossible to do the entire 800 km. The majority of pilgrims like to be awarded the certificate which states that they have completed at least the last 100 km of the Camino and they must produce their pilgrim passports which have been stamped at all the hostels where they have stayed the night. Except when you do the de-luxe version as my friend did, you don't stay in hostels sharing dormitories and bathrooms with strangers, you stay in modest but comfortable hotels with your own bedroom and en-suite bathroom. And you don't have to lug all your belongings on your back, you can have your rucksack sent on each day to the next hotel. A much more carefree and relaxed way to walk the Camino. But you still get the blisters and the aching legs. 

Picture
Most people consider their pilgrimage over when they reach the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela but some, like a few of the pilgrims in the TV travelogue decided to continue walking until they reached Finisterre - the ends of the earth. A fitting end to a walk that takes you through some spectacular countryside, over mountain ranges, through woodlands, across an arid heartland and then through the lush and often wet but always beautiful Galicia.

Picture
My novel SANTIAGO TALES was written in 2011 after I had spent some time talking to those who'd experienced the pilgrimage for themselves.

It is available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com in paperback and as an ebook.

0 Comments

FOUR HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

6/4/2018

2 Comments

 
Writing is a solitary business. It is rarely a group effort. The writer needs to immerse him or herself in the story, live with the characters, breathe the air that they breathe. There is no room for team talks. Yes, the writer can bounce ideas off other people and ask for opinions, but basically it is down to one person—the author.
So I was rather surprised, but pleased, when I received an email from two novelists who also write historical fiction, suggesting we get together to do some cross-promotion. Wonderful idea. Especially so because they also write about Moorish Spain, an area of fiction that is largely neglected in the English speaking world of the historical novel.
Then a fourth writer joined us and now we are a band of four. They say two heads are better than one, well four heads are definitely much better. And I love working in a team. So the next few months should be fun. Maybe it will boost all our sales, maybe not. But it should be an enjoyable and creative experience.
Picture
So who are these lovely people? The idea originally came from Lisa Yarde, author of a six-part series on the Nasrid dynasty of Granada, a family that has been an obsession of hers for the last twenty-three years. Now that she has completed THE SULTANA SERIES she is turning her attention to a different part of Moorish Spain.

Picture
The idea of cross-promotion was quickly taken up by John D Cressler. He is Schlumberger Chair Professor in Electronics at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and also a writer of historical fiction. His series of books is called ANTHEMS OF AL-ANDALUS and his third book in the series, entitled FORTUNE’S LAMENT, is due to be launched in a couple of weeks, on the 18th April.

Picture
The next person to join us was David Penny, an established writer who in recent years has taken to writing historical fiction set in Granada at the end of the Moorish occupation. He has just released the fifth book in his series THE THOMAS BERRINGTON HISTORICAL MYSTERIES. ​

Picture
So that just leaves me, Joan Fallon. My own AL-ANDALUS SERIES covers a narrow window in time, from 940AD to 1013AD and the action for all three books is set in either Córdoba or the ruined city of Madinat al-Zahra, which is only five miles outside it.
Between us, we cover a great deal of the 700 years when Spain was under the rule of the Moors and explore all aspects of that rich and exotic life, from the political to the domestic, from the gradual reconquest by Christian forces to the internal power struggles between the Moors, from the early convivencia between Jews, Moors and Christians to the final expulsions. Our novels are written to inform but also to delight the reader, through love stories, intrigue and mysteries, with characters that will stay with you long after the book is closed.

So you can expect to hear more from the al-Andalus team over the next few months. Watch this space.
Picture
2 Comments

    Author

    Joan Fallon is a writer and novelist living in Spain.

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012

    Categories

    All
    Abd Al Rahman III
    Albarino
    Al-Hakam II
    Amy Fitzpatrick
    And Al-Rahman III
    Andalusia
    Ann Victoria Roberts
    Australia
    Autobiography
    Bell Book & Candle
    Biblioteca Nordica
    Biography
    Blitz
    Blog Tour
    Book Clubs
    Books
    Cambados
    Camino De Santiago
    Canterbury Tales
    Cape Torment
    Captain Smith
    Cathedral Of Santiago De Compostela
    Celebrity Books
    Child Migrants
    Christmas
    Compostela
    Cooking
    Cornish Pasties
    Costa Del Sol
    Costa Women
    Crime Thrillers
    Daughters Of Spain
    David Lean's Dedicated Maniac
    DI Paolo Storey
    Editing
    Ernest Hemingway
    FINCA DEL NIÑO
    Frances Di Plino
    Free Kindle Books
    Galicia
    Historical Fiction
    Historical Novel Society
    Holiday Reads
    Http://larosilla.info/
    International Women's Day
    J G Harlond
    Jg Harlond
    Karen Mcmahon
    Literature
    Local Television On Costa Del Sol
    Lorraine Mace
    Madinat Al Zahra
    Madinat Al-Zahra
    Malaga
    Margaret Humphreys
    Memory Keepers Workshop49d8720cd8
    Mijas 340 Television
    Mijas International
    Moors In Spain
    Novels
    Paul Anthony
    Pilgrimage
    Police Anthology
    Publishers
    Publishing Deals
    Punctuation
    Raija Oranen
    Santiago Tales
    Sea Evacuees
    Self Publishing
    Self-publishing
    Spain
    Spanish Civil War
    Spanish Lavender
    St James
    The Chosen Man
    The Empress Emerald
    The Hemingway Project
    The Master's Tale
    The Shining City
    The Way Of St James
    Titanic
    True Story
    Umayyads
    Uncuffed
    Vlad The Inhaler
    World War Ii
    Writing
    Writing Courses
    Writing Holiday
    Writing Workshops

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly