Saudi Arabian Eunuchs

[NaturalEunuch]

Following up on the interesting history of eunuchs, I read an article from which I quote:

"The complete institution of eunuchs lingered the longest in Saudi Arabia until slavery was banned in 1962. There, eunuchs guarded the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad. Some of them are still alive to this day."

I read the biography of Sun Yaoting, the last surviving Chinese imperial eunuch who passed in 1996. Crazy to think there are still living eunuchs who once served as slaves in the Middle East.

https://qalam.global/en/articles/turkis ... eunuchs-en

[dandelion]

Sun was a sad story. He lost his genitals for nothing as the empire he meant to serve crumbled very soon after his castration.

[WheelyFixed]

Very nice article, I think it had some interesting details on that part of history.

One question that did come to mind was the mention about the Mecca guards being Eunuchs, and linking that to the end of slavery in Saudi Arabia... It seems a bit odd to me that slaves would be given the task of security guards on Islam's most important holy site... I can believe the guards are eunuchs, but were they slaves, or volunteers? (I.e being willing to get fixed in order to serve that sacred function) If they were volunteers, is there any reason that the current guards aren't still volunteers?

The site overall looks pretty interesting for one looking for a different take on history and culture - their about page essentially says they are trying to do history from a viewpoint other than the standard "Western Colonial Nations" standpoint.

I didn't read much of it, but just skimming the titles in the various sections looked like they had a lot of interesting material.

WheelyFixed

[Lineppe'lik]

I've heard younger eunuchs are still employed in Saudi Arabia for the purpose of guarding women and the like. All done very hush-hush, of course.

[JesusA]

The Tomb of the Prophet in Madinah is still guarded by a small group of elderly eunuchs. A large coffee-table book celebrating them was published in Saudi Arabia in 2020. The book, The Guardians (written and photographed by Adel al-Quraishi) begins and ends with large portraits of the eunuchs. In between are photographs and description of the tomb and of the duties of the eunuchs.

For centuries, both the Kaaba in Mecca (the holiest site in Islam) and the Tomb of the Prophet in Medinah have been guarded by eunuchs. As late as 1990, the Saudi government indicated that there were 14 eunuchs at the Kaaba and 17 at the Tomb of the Prophet. According to an interview with Sālim Farīd, the official in charge of the affairs of the eunuchs in Mecca, the youngest eunuch was “recruited” from Ethiopia in 1984 (twenty-two years after slavery was supposedly abolished in Saudi Arabia).

When that youngest eunuch was interviewed by Slimane Zeghidour, an Algerian author, in 1988, he was asked whether the rich people in the city still possessed eunuchs. He evaded answering, stating only, "peut être oui peut être non".

Wikileaks included a copy of a 2014 cable from Martin Quinn, the U.S. Consul General in Jeddah, to the State Department. He wrote about a specific party in Jeddah that featured drugs, alcohol, and prostitutes. He wrote that it was attended by several of the Saudi royal princes. He noted that each prince was accompanied by his “khawi.” He wrote that it is a common practice for Saudi princes to grow up with “hired bodyguards” from Nigeria or other African countries. The bodyguards, the khawi, are “hired” as small boys of 8 or 9, with lifetime contracts to serve as companions and bodyguards. They accompany the prince everywhere, including into the inner reaches of the household, including the women’s quarters.

I would like to know more about how a boy of 8 or 9 can sign a lifetime contract and how he, as an adult, can accompany the prince into the women’s quarters if he is not a eunuch.

[Found a more recent source on the eunuchs at the Tomb of the Prophet from an author who interviewed them in 2001. He wrote that the youngest one he interviewed had been "recruited" in 1984, not the 1962 that I reported earlier.]

[Nulloguy]

When that youngest eunuch was interviewed by Slimane Zeghidour, an Algerian author, in 1988, he was asked whether the rich people in the city still possessed eunuchs. He evaded answering, stating only, "peut être oui peut être non".

That last bit in French, translated to English is, "Maybe yes, maybe no."

[NaturalEunuch]

I would like to know more about how a boy of 8 or 9 can sign a lifetime contract and how he, as an adult, can accompany the prince into the women’s quarters if he is not a eunuch.

Certainly sounds like a eunuch job description. I've added "The Guardians" to my future reading list.

I saw that the current eunuchs in both Mecca and Madinah all come from Ethiopia. There are three eunuchs remaining at each location. The current generation will be the last as they will eventually be replaced by alternate forms of administration.