Slade lecture insight

"Toward the middle of the 9^th century a provincial governor of al-Ma’mūn sent to a caliph a hundred loads of saffron on a hundred asses. The gift arrived while al-Ma’mūn was with his haram, the female members of his household, and was much disturbed by the thought that the asses, as the text puts it, would present “something inappropriate for the women to look at.” So the caliph asked whether the beasts of burden were she-asses or males. Being told that they were all female, and thus without conspicuous genitalia, he relaxed, remarking that the governor was too clever to send the gift with anything but she-asses [Qāddūmi p. 78 § 32]."

Anthony Cutler, Slade lecture series, Oxford University, Spring 2012