纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 052后宫壁画残片（1）（在线收听）

052：EPISODE 52 - Harem Wall Painting Fragments 后宫壁画残片

Harem wall painting fragments (made ninth century AD), from Samarra, Iraq

This week we are entering the hidden places of powerful men and women around the world, in the years about 800 AD. For the last programme we were in Mexico, with a Mayan queen in a private ritual of self-inflicted pain; today we're in the Middle East, and we catch a glimpse of the lives of the harem - the fantasy, and the reality of pleasure. We're in the world of the Arabian Nights - the 1001 tales supposedly told by the beautiful Scheherazade to stop the king from killing her:

"The girls sat around me, and when night came, five of them rose and set up a banquet with plenty of nuts and fragrant herbs. Then they brought the wine vessels and we sat to drink."

"With the girls sitting all around me, some singing, some playing the flute, the psalter, the lute, and all other musical instruments, while the bowls and cups went round. I was so happy that I forgot every sorrow in the world, saying to myself, 'This is the life; alas, that it is fleeting'. Then they said to me, 'O our lord, choose from among us whomever you wish to spend this night with you'."

So Scheherazade entertains the king, with tantalising tales which are always to be continued. The girls of this tale have their real counterparts in some fragmentary portraits held here at the British Museum, and these pieces of painted plaster take us back into the heart of the Islamic Empire, 1,200 years ago.