Like other enslaved women in the Islamicate world, were legally sexually available to their owners. They were often associated in literature with licentiousness, and sexuality was an important part of their appeal, but they do not seem to have been
sex workers. According to Matthew S. Gordon, "it is not yet clear to what extent courtesans graced regional courts and elite households at other points of Islamic history".
Ibrahim al-Mawsili (742–804 CE) is reported to have claimed that his father was the first to train light-skinned, beautiful girls as , raising their price, whereas previously had been drawn from among girls viewed as less beautiful, and with darker skin, although it is not certain that these claims were accurate. One social phenomenon that can be seen as a successor to the is the Egyptian ,
courtesans or female entertainers in
medieval Egypt, educated to sing and recite classical poetry and to discourse wittily. Because of their social prominence, comprise one of the most richly recorded sections of pre-modern Islamicate female society, particularly female slaves, making them important to the
history of slavery in the Muslim world. Moreover, a significant proportion of
medieval Arabic female poets whose work survives today were . For a few , it is possible to give quite a full biography. Important medieval sources of include a treatise by
al-Jahiz (776–868/869 CE),
Abu Tayyib al-Washsha's ( ), and anecdotes included in sources such as the () and () by
Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (897–967 CE), () by
ibn al-Sāʿī, and () by
al-Suyuti (). Many of these sources recount the
repartee of prominent , though there are hints that in less wealthy households were used by their owners to attract gifts. In the Abbasid period, were often educated in the cities of
Basra,
Ta'if, and
Medina. ==Decline==