Wednesday, October 20, 2021

A00182 - 'Abbasa bint al-Mahdi, The Sister of Caliph Harun al-Rashid and the Lover of Jafar

‘Abbasa
‘Abbasa ('Abbasa bint al-Mahdi) (b. c. 765 CC, Abbasid Empire - d. after 803 CC, Abbasid Empire) was the daughter of the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi and the sister of the caliphs Harun al-Rashid and al-Hadi.  Her name is connected with the fall of the Barmakids in 803 C.C., because of her alleged love affair.

The Barmakids were a Persian family that had become very powerful during the caliphate of al-Mahdi.  Yahya, the vizier of Harun al-Rashid, had aided Harun al-Rashid in obtaining the caliphate.  Yahya and his sons were in high favor until 803 when the caliph threw them in prison and confiscated their land.  Many reasons are given for this punitive action. Yahya's entering Harun's presence without Harun's permission; Yahya's opposition to Muhammad ibn al-Layth who later gained Harun's favor; and the Barmakid's ostentatious display of their wealth are said to be the cause of Harun's action.  However, the reason which has intrigued writers and storytellers for ages is the alleged romantic relationship between Jafar, the son of Yahya, and Harun's sister, 'Abbasa.

As the story goes, Jafar, was the constant companion of Harun.  Harun was also very fond of his sister, 'Abbasa, and loved to have both her and Jafar around at times of recreation.  However, Muslim etiquette forbade their common presence.  To circumvent the rules of etiquette, Harun had a marriage ceremony performed between 'Abbasa and Jafar, but only with the understanding that the ceremony was purely nominal and that 'Abbasa and Jafar were not to become intimately involved.  Unfortunately, the heart of 'Abbasa ignored the ban.  She fell in love with Jafar and became infatuated with him.  One night she entered Jafar's bedroom in the darkness, masquerading as one of his slave girls.  She seduced Jafar and had sex with him.

From this union, a child was conceived.  'Abbasa secretly gave birth to the child and the child was sent by 'Abbasa to Mecca.  However, a maid, after quarreling with her mistress, disclosed the scandal.  Harun, while on a pilgrimage in Mecca, heard the story and became enraged.  Upon his return to Baghdad, Harun had Jafar executed, his body cut in two, and impaled on either side of the bridge.  Harun also had Jafar's father (Yahya) and brother (al-Fadl) cast into prison.  Jafar's body stayed impaled for three years until when Harun happened to pass through Baghdad from the East, saw the body, and gave the command for the remains to be taken down and burned.

This story is discounted by modern scholars, but it has become part of the legend of the court of Harun al-Rashid.

Another version of the story notes that 'Abbasa bint al-Mahdi was the daughter of the third Abbasid caliph, al-Mahdi, and a concubine by the name of Rahim. 'Abbasa was also the half -sister of al-Hadi, Harun al-Rashid, Ulayya, and Ibrahim ibn al- Mahdi.

Harun al-Rashid became caliph after al-Mahdi. He was known for being unhappy iwth the fact that he was a relative of 'Abbasa's as he was attracted to her. To keep 'Abbasa in his life, Harun al-Rashid had 'Abbasa marry Ja'far ibn Yahya. The marriage was supposed to be one of convenience, but 'Abbasa fell in love with her arranged husband, Ja'far. At night, a slave woman would be sent to Ja'far's bedroom. One night 'Abbasa took the slave woman's place. Her husband was surprised but welcoming. They consummated their marriage,

'Abbasa became pregnant and gave birth to twin boys in secret. The twins would be raised in Mecca. However, eventually, Harun found out about the relationship. Angered by the betrayal, he had Ja'far killed. 'Abbasa was either killed or sent into exile.

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A00181 - Amina Cachalia, Longtime Friend and Ally of Nelson Mandela

Cachalia, Amina

Amina Cachalia (b. Amina Asvat; June 28, 1930 Vereeniging, South Africa – d. January 31, 2013, Johannesburg, South Africa) was a longtime friend and ally of Nelson Mandela. Her late husband was political activist Yusuf Cachalia.

Cachalia was born Amina Asvat, the ninth of eleven children in Vereeniging, South Africa, on June 28, 1930. Her parents were political activists Ebrahim and Fatima Asvat. She began campaigning against Apartheid and racial discrimination as a teenager. She became a women's rights activist, often focusing on economic issues, such as financial independence for women.

Amina and Yusuf Cachalia were friends of Nelson Mandela before his imprisonment at Robben Island in 1962. She became a staunch anti-apartheid activist. She spent fifteen years under house arrest throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She was the treasurer of the Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw), a leading supporter of the Federation of Transvaal Women, and a member of both the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress and Transvaal Indian Congress during the Apartheid era.

In 1995, Mandela asked Cachalia to marry him. At the time, he had been separated from his wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Cachalia turned down Mandela's proposal because she said that "I'm my own person and that I had just recently lost my husband whom I had enormous regard for". Mandela divorced Madikizela-Mandela a year later and married Graca Machel in 1998.

Cachalia was elected to the National Assembly of South Africa in the 1994 South African general election, the country's first with universal adult suffrage. In 2004, she was awarded the Order of Luthuli in Bronze for her contributions to gender and racial equality and democracy.

Cachalia died at Milpark Hospital in Parktown West, Johannesburg, January 31, 2013, aged 82. The cause of death was complications following an emergency operation due to a perforated ulcer.

Her funeral was held in her home in Parkview, Johannesburg, according to traditional Muslim customs. It was attended by South African President Jacob Zuma, former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, ANC Deputy Cyril Ramaphosa, former First Lady Graca Machel, former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and fellow activisti Ahmed Kathrada, among others.

After her death, in March 2013, her autobiography When Hope and History Rhyme was published.

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A00180 - Simin Behbahani, Iranian Poet, Activist and Translator

Behbahani, Simin

Simin Behbahāni (b. June 20, 1927, Tehran, Iran – d. August 19, 2014, Tehran, Iran) was a prominent Iranian poet, activist and translator. She was Iran's national poet and an icon of modern Persian poetry. Iranian intelligentsia and literati affectionately refer to her as the lioness of Iran. She was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in literature, and received many literary accolades from around the world.

Simin Behbahani, whose birth name was Simin Khalili, was the daughter of Abbās Khalili, poet, writer and editor of the Eghdām (Action) newspaper, and Fakhr-e Ozmā Arghun, poet and teacher of the French language. Abbās Khalili (1893–1971) wrote poetry in both Persian and Arabic and translated some 1100 verses of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh into Arabic. Fakhr-e Ozmā Arghun (1898–1966) was one of the progressive women of her time and a member of Kānun-e Nesvān-e Vatan'khāh (Association of Patriotic Women) between 1925 and 1929. In addition to her membership in Hezb-e Democrāt (Democratic Party) and Kānun-e Zanān (Women's Association), she was, for a time (1932), editor of the Āyandeh-ye Iran (Future of Iran) newspaper. She taught French at the secondary schools Nāmus, Dār ol-Mo'allemāt and No'bāvegān in Tehran.

Simin Behbahani started writing poetry at twelve years of age and published her first poem at the age of fourteen. She used the "Char Pareh" style of Nima Yooshij and subsequently turned to ghazal. Behbahani contributed to a historic development by adding theatrical subjects and daily events and conversations to poetry using the ghazal style of poetry. She expanded the range of the traditional Persian verse forms and produced some of the most significant works of Persian literature in the 20th century.

Behbahani was President of The Iranian Writers' Association and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999 and 2002. In 2013, she was awarded the Janus Pannonius Grand Prize for Poetry.

In early March 2010, Behbahani was prohibited from leaving the country due to official prohibitions. As she was about to board a plane to Paris, police detained her and interrogated her "all night long". She was released but without her passport.

Behbahani had two marriages. The first was to Hassan Behbahani and it ended in divorce. She had three children from her first marriage, one daughter and two sons. Her second marriage was to Manuchehr Koushyar and it ended when he died in 1984.

Behbahani was hospitalized in Tehran on August 6, 2014. She remained in a coma from August 6 until her death on August 19, 2014. She died in Tehran's Pars Hospital. Her funeral was held on August 22 in Vahdat Hall and her body was buried at Behesht-e Zahra.

The literary works of Simin Behbahani include the following:

The Broken Lute [Seh-tar-e Shekasteh, 1951]
Footprint [Ja-ye Pa, 1954]
Chandelier [Chelcheragh, 1955]
Marble [Marmar 1961]
Resurrection [Rastakhiz, 1971]
A Line of Speed and Fire [Khatti ze Sor'at va Atash, 1980]
Arzhan Plain [Dasht-e Arzhan, 1983]
Paper Dress [Kaghazin Jameh, 1992]
A Window of Freedom [Yek Daricheh Azadi, 1995]
Collected Poems [Tehran 2003]
Maybe It's the Messiah [Shayad ke Masihast, Tehran 2003] Selected Poems, translated by Ismail Salami
A Cup of Sin, Selected poems, translated by Farzaneh Milani and Kaveh Safa

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A00179 - Ady Fidelin, Believed to Be the First Black Model to Appear in a Major American Fashion Magazine

Overlooked No More: Ady Fidelin, Black Model ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’

She appeared in hundreds of Man Ray’s photos, was friends with Picasso and is believed to be the first Black model to appear in a major American fashion magazine.

Credit...Man Ray 2015 Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris

Ady Fidelin in 1937. In the 1930s she was part of a circle of friends in the south of France that included Man Ray (who took this photograph), Picasso and Dora Maar.

By Rachel Felder

April 29, 2022

This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.

In a series of photographs from the summer of 1937, a group of close friends are captured enjoying a laid-back vacation in the south of France, swimming, relaxing and having fun. Most of the holidaymakers were artists, among them Man Ray, Picasso and Dora Maar (who was also Picasso’s lover at the time).

Part of that circle was a vivacious woman whose name isn’t well known but who was a vital participant nonetheless: Ady Fidelin, who also went by Adrienne. In the photos, she stands out for her beauty and also because, unlike her fellow holidaymakers, she was Black.

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Fidelin, a dancer, model and occasional actress, was Man Ray’s girlfriend and frequently posed for him as well. In hundreds of his photographs she is dancing or seated, occasionally holding props, like hula hoops and hats. Often she is nude or topless. In every image her exuberance shines through.

Fidelin posed for Man Ray’s own circle of artists, too, including the photographer Lee Miller, a former girlfriend of Man Ray’s; Roland Penrose, who would later marry Miller; the British Surrealist artist Eileen Agar; and the artist Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, who went by Wols.

“She was a muse not only to Man Ray,” Andrew Strauss, a consultant at Sotheby’s and chairman of the Man Ray Expertise Committee, said by phone, “but a muse to artists in general.”

In one striking image from that 1937 trip, Man Ray photographed Fidelin standing outdoors against a wall, naked except for flat shoes, bold earrings and a chunky link necklace, with a long washboard extended over her legs like a metal maxiskirt. Her image in the photo bore a striking resemblance to a Picasso painting made soon after, “Femme Assise sur Fond Jaune et Rose, II.”

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“Ady is so present in the hundreds of photographs from that summer — photographs by Man Ray and by Roland Penrose and Lee Miller and Eileen Agar,” said Wendy A. Grossman, a senior fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who has lectured and written about Fidelin and who uncovered the connection between the painting and the photo. “It was inevitable that she would also be portrayed by Picasso.”

Fidelin, second from left, with, from left, Roland Penrose, Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar in 1937. They were vacationing in the south of France. — Credit...Lee Miller Archives

And yet “notably manifest in both the photograph and the painting,” Grossman wrote in 2020 in the journal Modernism/modernity, “is the contradictory manner in which the Black female body was folded into the modernist project as paradoxically ultramodern and ultra- ‘primitive’ and objectified through a male gaze.”

Moreover, Grossman pointed out, Fidelin was “hidden in plain sight,” having never been identified as the subject of Picasso’s painting. But thanks in part to Grossman’s efforts, Fidelin is beginning to be recognized, including in a 2019 exhibit about Black models at the Musée D’Orsay in Paris.

For Fidelin, nothing was as groundbreaking as a photograph of her that appeared in Harper’s Bazaar on Sept. 15, 1937. It is believed to be the first time a Black model appeared in a major American fashion magazine. Today, however, the article would no doubt raise eyebrows. Under the headline “The Bushongo of Africa Sends His Hats to Paris” sits three photographs of white women wearing African hats. Fidelin, who was also wearing an African hat, appears on the opposite page, segregated from the others, it appears, though in a much larger image.

That editorial placement and “the assimilation of Fidelin’s identity into a homogenizing notion of Blackness literally and figuratively sets her apart from the white European models similarly crowned,” Grossman wrote.

Casimir Joseph Adrienne Fidelin was born on March 4, 1915, in Pointe-à-Pitre, on the island of Grande-Terre in Guadeloupe, the French-governed archipelago in the Caribbean. She was one of six children of Maxime Louis Fidelin, who worked in a bank, and Mathilde Fidelin, a homemaker. Ady’s mother died in 1928 in a hurricane; her father died a couple of years later. Fidelin then emigrated to France, where a sibling was already living.

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Paris in the 1930s was, for that time, racially inclusive, particularly in Man Ray’s bohemian scene. Black performers like Aïcha Goblet and Ruby Richards were popular, and Man Ray photographed them, too. It’s unclear exactly how he met Fidelin, who was 25 years his junior, but for him their relationship was stabilizing and upbeat, especially as World War II ensued.

Fidelin, Man Ray wrote in a letter to Penrose, “keeps me from being pessimistic.”

“She does everything,” he said, “from shining my shoes and bringing my breakfast to painting in backgrounds in my large canvasses! All to the tune of a beguine or a rhumba.”

As the story goes, when Fidelin first met Picasso, who was a friend of Man Ray’s, she “went up to him, flung her arms around his neck and said, ‘I hear you are quite a good painter,’” Eileen Agar wrote in her autobiography.

Man Ray, in foreground at left, took this photo in 1937 as well. The others, from left, were Fidelin; Marie Cuttoli, a noted art entrepreneur and patron; her husband, Paul Cuttoli, an Algerian-born socialist politician; Picasso; and Maar. — Credit...Man Ray 2015 Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris

She was, Grossman said, “not intimidated by anybody.”

She was also confident and resilient, even while France was under German occupation during the war. When Man Ray, who was Jewish and American (born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia), left for the United States in 1940, Fidelin stayed behind, helping to protect many of his belongings, including negatives and prints.

“She preserved everything, the whole studio,” Francis M. Naumann, an art historian and author of several books on Man Ray and his close friend Marcel Duchamp, said in an interview.

She wasn’t responsible for every piece of artwork — some were taken out of France, others were entrusted to another friend — but, without her preservation, Strauss said, “we’d be missing a whole chunk of Dada and Surrealist paintings, drawings and objects.”

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And she was “quite intelligent,” said Ami Bouhassane, a director of Farleys House & Gallery, which oversees the Lee Miller Archives, particularly in the way she “navigated the strangeness of the Surrealist group and their politics.”

Fidelin had a more pensive side too — she had a habit of occasionally stopping by cemeteries. “It was not that she was particularly pessimistic,” Agar wrote, “but rather that graveyards gave her a great feeling of peace and calm.”

Fidelin in costume. She was rarely identified in photographs, which only contributed to her relative obscurity when compared with her more celebrated artist friends. — Credit...Man Ray 2015 Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris

After Man Ray left, the couple wrote letters to each other — he called her “my adored love,” and she told him, “You are always missed a lot by a certain little Black girl” — but most of the notes went unreceived, in part because of the chaos of the war. By the time Man Ray returned to Paris for a visit in 1947, both had other partners. Fidelin was dating André Art, a businessman, and had begun to gravitate away from her circle of artistic friends, many of whom had dispersed during the war.

She married Art in 1958, and they moved to Albi, about 450 miles south of Paris, where they lived in public housing. At one point she had health problems that required extensive surgery. Throughout her later years she kept a low profile. In 1998, when a former assistant of Man Ray’s was asked about her, the assistant thought she had died.

Fidelin died on Feb. 5, 2004, in an assisted care facility not far from her home. She was 88. No major newspaper reported her death.

“She was basically set adrift from the community of creatives that she had been such an integral part of,” Grossman said. “The end of her life was very much separate from, and far from, the spotlight that she had been involved with.”

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