Samaga Performances in Third/Ninth-Century Abbasid Courts

Samaga Performances in Third/Ninth-Century Abbasid Courts

Author: 
Borroni, Massimiliano
Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press
Date published: 
2019
Record type: 
Journal Title: 
Bulletin of the school of Oriental and African studies
Source: 
Bulletin of the school of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 82, N0. 2, February 2019 pp. 289-302
Abstract: 

Literary sources from the Abbasid period record few descriptions of courtly masquerades and plays called samaga, which closely resemble sumozhe plays from eighth-century China. On the basis of these samaga descriptions, the present paper argues that it is possible to understand how samaga plays were carried out. Moreover, I argue that samaga performances were a Central Asian custom imported to the Abbasid court with the establishment of the Turkish corps, and that its disappearance after the caliphate of al-Mu ta id signals a substantial shift in the nature of the Turkish presence in the Abbasid heartland, marked by the establishment of the mamluk system.

Language: 

CITATION: Borroni, Massimiliano. Samaga Performances in Third/Ninth-Century Abbasid Courts . : Cambridge University Press , 2019. Bulletin of the school of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 82, N0. 2, February 2019 pp. 289-302 - Available at: https://library.au.int/samaga-performances-thirdninth-century-abbasid-courts