Harem

White eunuchs were first provided from the conquered Christian areas of Caucasia, Georgia, and Armenia. They were also culled from Hungarian, Slovenian, and German prisoners of war. These white eunuchs were captured during the conflicts that arouse between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan countries.

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Black eunuchs were captured from Egypt, Abyssinia and the Sudan. All eunuchs were castrated en route to the markets by Egyptian Christians or Jews , as Islam prohibited the practice of castration but not the usage of castrated slaves. There were several different varieties of eunuchs:. The parts are swept off by a single cut of a razor, a tube tin or wooden is set in the urethra, the wound is cauterized with boiling oil, and the patient is planted in a fresh dung-hill. His diet is milk, and if under puberty he often survives.

The eunuch whose penis is removed: He retains all the power of copulation and procreation without the wherewithal; and this, since the discovery of caoutchouc, has often been supplied. The eunuch, or classical thlibias and semivir, who has been rendered sexless by the removing of the testicles Black eunuchs tended to be of the first category: Sandali , while white eunuchs were of the second or third categories, thus have part or their entire penis intact.

Because of their lack of parts, black eunuchs served in the harem, while white eunuchs served in the government and away from the women. At the height of the Ottoman Empire , as many as six to eight hundred eunuchs served within the Seraglio palace. Most eunuchs arrived as gifts from governors of different provinces.

At the end of their training as young eunuch pages, eunuchs were assigned to service. White eunuchs were placed under the patronage of various government officials or even into the service of the Sultan himself like in Topkapi Palace. If they were black eunuchs, they were placed into the service of a harem personage, such as a Kadin , or a daughter or sister of the Sultan.

He was the commander of the baltaci corps or halberdiers - part of the imperial army. His position was a pasha general of three tails tails referring to peacock tails, and the most number of tails permitted being four and worn by the Sultan. He could approach the Sultan at any time, and functioned as the private messenger between the Sultan and the Grand Vizier. He was the most important link between the Sultan and the Valide Sultan mother of the Sultan. The Kizlar Agha led the new odalisque to the Sultan 's bedchamber, and was the only "man" who could enter the harem should there have been any nocturnal emergencies.

His duties were to protect the women , to provide and purchase the necessary odalisques for the harem, to oversee the promotion of the women usually after the death of a higher-ranking kadin and eunuchs.

He also delivered sentence to harem women accused of crimes, taking the guilty women to the executioner to be placed into sacks and drowned in the Bosphorus which lay outside the Topkapi Palace. He was also Gatekeeper-in-Chief, head of the infirmary, and master of ceremonies of the Seraglio.

The Kapi Agha controlled all messages, petitions, and State documents addressed to the Sultan , and was allowed to speak to the Sultan in person.

Harem (genre)

In , Murad III transferred the powers from the white to the black eunuchs as there were too many embezzlements and various other nefarious crimes being attributed to the white eunuchs, among them being purported intimacy with the harem women. The Kapi Agha 's loss of powers was seen through the decreasing of his ceremonial duties which had various stipends entailed and the decrease in his overall income. Originally, the Kapi Agha was the only eunuch allowed to speak to the Sultan alone, but as his importance decreased, the Valide Sultan and the Kizlar Agha were able to request private audience with the Sultan also.

Because of their possible disloyalty, white eunuchs were assigned positions that did not bring them into contact with the harem women as many of them had incomplete castrations still possessing of their penis. The total number of white eunuchs in the Seraglio at any given time was between and In the late sixteen hundreds, the power of the black eunuchs grew. During the Kadinlar Sultanati , the eunuchs increased their political leverage by taking advantage of child Sultan s or mentally incompetent ones.

It was during this period of enthronement of child Sultan s that caused political instability. The young teenage Sultan s were "guided" by regencies formed by the Valide Sultan , the Grand Vizier and the Valides other supporters. She also had her dressmaker and purveyor, the latter being "very richly dressed, coming and going out of the palace whenever he liked, and being always accompanied by thirty slaves". This move put the harem women closer to the Second Court or Divan the Chancery of State , where the governing of the Ottoman Empire took place. Sultan s Selim II and Murad III spent more time in the harem than ever, the former drinking to his hearts content, and the latter, bedding concubines to his content.

The Sultan 's seclusion away from their governments greatly diminished their influence in the government. In varying degrees, the Valide Sultan and the Kadins began to influence the governing of the Ottoman State by having bribery and political patronage supplant promotion on the basis of merit. Beginning with Murad III , the Valide Sultan Nurbanu introduced a string of virgins to him in hopes of begetting more than one male heir. Murad ended up fathering some twenty sons and twenty-seven daughters during his reign.

Although she may have begun with good intentions, that of having more than one surviving heir. However, Murad would become less attentive to political matters and increasingly dependent on his mother Nurbanu for political advice. Murad's Bas Kadin Safiye maintained her dignity and status by not displaying any bitterness or jealousy over her replacements in Murad's bed. Later on, Safiye would even present beautiful virgins to Murad, a gesture that would earn her his gratitude, and allow her to manipulate him according to her desires.

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When Murad no longer occupied himself with his other concubines, he again turned to Safiye for companionship. Among these were the lapse of the Princely Governate, the seclusion of male heirs into the Kafes , and the marked increase in harem women populations. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the population of the Seraglio harem ranged from a hundred to over a thousand women. The size fluctuated frequently since when the Sultan 's sons left the harem at the ages of fourteen to sixteen, they were given their servants from the harem to accompany them to the provinces in which they were given governship.

The princes received their harem of virgins who were either selected from the Sultan 's harem or purchased at the slave markets. These downward fluctuations were present until Selim allowed the imperial princes to survive but they were to be secluded in the Kafes. It consisted of a two-storied building without windows and intended to isolate the Princes and their harems of some two dozen sterile women. In the instances where the princes lived to become Sultan , they were often unprepared to rule the Empire.

After the ascension of Mehmed III, the princes were no longer given provincial governships and were instead secluded into the Kafes to prevent insurrection against the Sultan and hence, sparing their lives. The seclusion of princes in the Kafes also meant that the harems that formerly accompanied the princes to their provincial capitals remained inside the Topkapi Palace harem and caused the overall harem population to continually increase. Rebellion was always possible once a prince was formally recognized as an adult, this being due to the fact that he was to assume governance over a province.

Harem (genre) - Wikipedia

Young princes in previous times had assumed popular roles with the Janissaries and the idea of a warrior prince or Sultan appealed to the Janissaries , so much insofar as Murad III seldom left the Palace for fear of being replaced by his more popular son Mehmed III. The Valide Sultan Nurbanu and her daughter-in-law Safiye took active part in the governance of the empire. Safiye knew that "with the authority she enjoys as mother of the prince, she intervenes on occasion in affairs of state, although she is much respected in this, and is listened to by His Majesty, who considers her sensible and wise".

Safiye also attempted to influence important matters directly. On one noted occasion, Safiye was seated behind a curtain. During a discussion between the Sultan and the mufti Sunullah Efendi in , Safiye hastened to defend her son Mehmed. It became apparent that the Valide Sultan was listening. She hastened to support [the Sultan 's words] and said, "affairs of state have become excessively disordered, taxes imposed through harmful invention on the peasants of the empire have multiplied beyond bounds, and the whole world is becoming increasingly obsessed with pennies and pounds and taking bribes.

All is being corrupted because ignorant and base persons have taken control. A remedy must be applied to these ills". Safiye was able to influence her son to release much needed monies for the outfitting of the soldiers. Safiye's sway on Mehmed also placed her in competition with other influential counselors of the Sultan , the Viziers , the mufti , the chief black eunuch, and the Sultan 's male and female favorites.

Safiye's interference in state politics and her attempts to promote her interests were not always received favorably with the Sultan Mehmed. Mehmed often had to restrain his mother because of her unpopularity with the soldiers and many statesmen. According to Ambassador Agnostino Nani, who lived in Istanbul from , Safiye's position was tenuous:. At one time she was taken away from the palace and sent to the Old Palace by her son, the present king, but a few days later she was brought back and restored.

She will succeed with difficulty in escaping being removed [again] at the petition of the soldiers, who want her sent to some faraway place, although they do not want to shed her blood.

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This might be accomplished by having her driven away to Edirne. They attribute many disorders to her, in particular the consumption of money for a most superb mosque she is having built; but she has halted its construction. Safiye's perceived excessive interference was a main cause of her unpopularity. Learn More about harem. Resources for harem Time Traveler! Explore the year a word first appeared. Dictionary Entries near harem Hare Krishna harelip harelipped bat harem haremlik harem pants harem slipper.

Time Traveler for harem The first known use of harem was in See more words from the same year. More Definitions for harem. English Language Learners Definition of harem. More from Merriam-Webster on harem Rhyming Dictionary: Words that rhyme with harem Spanish Central: Translation of harem Nglish: Translation of harem for Spanish Speakers Britannica English: Translation of harem for Arabic Speakers Britannica. Comments on harem What made you want to look up harem?

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A peculiar characteristic of the Sasanian royalty and aristocracy, which was attested in later times under the Safavid and Qajar empires, was that the highest female rank was not necessarily given to the chief wife, but could be held by a daughter or a sister. Of all the Persian kings, Khosrow II was the most extravagant in his hedonism. He searched his realm to find the most beautiful girls, and it was rumored that about 3, of them were kept in his harem.

This practice was widely condemned and it was counted as one of the crimes for which he was later tried and executed. Khosrow himself claimed that he sent his favorite wife Shirin every year to offer them a possibility of leaving his harem with a dowry for marriage, but that their luxurious lifestyle always prompted them to refuse his offer. Eunuchs were probably introduced into Islam through the influence of Persian and Byzantine imperial courts. According to Encyclopedia of Islam , castration was prohibited in Islamic law "by a sort of tacit consensus" and eunuchs were acquired from Christian and Jewish traders.

European artists and writers envisioned and presented the Oriental harem in a romanticized, albeit historically inaccurate manner. The dark eunuch was held as the embodiment of the sensual tyranny that held sway in the fantasized Ottoman palace, for he had been "clipped" or "completely sheared" to make of him the "ultimate slave" for the supreme ruler.

The chief black eunuch, or the Kizlar Agha, came to acquire a great deal of power within the Ottoman Empire. He not only managed every aspect of the Harem women's lives but was also responsible for the education and social etiquette of the princes and young women in the Harem. He arranged for all ceremonial events within the Harem including weddings and circumcision parties, and even notified women of death sentences when "accused of crimes or implicated in intrigues of jealousy and corruption.

Nineteenth-century travelers accounts tell of being served by black eunuch slaves. Both Arabs and Jews owned slaves. It also housed the Valide Sultan , as well as the sultan's daughters and other female relatives. Eunuchs and servant girls were also part of the harem. During the later periods, the sons of the sultan lived in the Harem until they were 12 years old. Some women of Ottoman harem, especially wives, mothers and sisters of sultans, played very important political roles in Ottoman history, and in times it was said that the empire was ruled from harem.

It is being more commonly acknowledged today that the purpose of harems during the Ottoman Empire was for the royal upbringing of the future wives of noble and royal men. These women would be educated so that they were able to appear in public as a royal wife. Sultan Ibrahim the Mad , Ottoman ruler from to , is said to have drowned concubines of his harem in the Bosphorus.

The Ottoman harem

In Istanbul, the separation of men's and women's quarters was never practiced among the poor, and by s and s it had become a thing of the past in middle and upper-class homes. The king's wives, concubines, dancing girls and slaves were not the only women of the Mughal harem. Many others, including the king's mother lived in the harem.

Aunts, grandmothers, sisters, daughters and other female relatives of the king all lived in the harem. Male children also lived in the harem until they grew up. The harem had a hierarchy, its chief authorities being the wives and female relatives of the emperor and below them were the concubines. The royal harem played an important role in the history of Safavid Persia. In the early Safavid period, young princes were placed in the care of a lala high-ranking Qizilbash chief who acted as a guardian and eventually given charge of important governorates.

The administration of the royal harem constituted an independent branch of the court, staffed mainly by eunuchs. Ashoka , the great emperor of the Mauryan Dynasty in India , kept a harem of around women. Once when a few of the women insulted him, he had all of them burnt to death.

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In Mexico , Aztec ruler Montezuma II , who met Cortes , kept 4, concubines; every member of the Aztec nobility was supposed to have had as many consorts as he could afford. Harem is also the usual English translation of the Chinese language term hougong hou-kung ; Chinese: Hougong refers to the large palaces for the Chinese emperor's consorts, concubines, female attendants and eunuchs. The women who lived in an emperor's hougong sometimes numbered in the thousands.

In , Yongle Emperor ordered 2, concubines, servant girls and eunuchs who guarded them to a slow slicing death as the Emperor tried to suppress a sex scandal which threatened to humiliate him. The institution of the harem exerted a certain fascination on the European imagination, especially during the Age of Romanticism , and was a central trope of Orientalism in the arts, due in part to the writings of the adventurer Richard Francis Burton.

Images through paintings and later films were particularly powerful ways of expressing these tropes. Much of Verdi 's opera Il corsaro takes place in the harem of the Pasha Seid—where Gulnara, the Pasha's favorite, chafes at life in the harem, and longs for freedom and true love. Eventually she falls in love with the dashing invading corsair Corrado, kills the Pasha and escapes with the corsair—only to discover that he loves another woman. The Lustful Turk , a well-known British erotic novel, was also based on the theme of Western women forced into sexual slavery in the harem of the Dey of Algiers , while in A Night in a Moorish Harem , a Western man is invited into a harem and engages in forbidden sex with nine concubines.

In both works, the theme of "West vs. Orient" is clearly interwoven with the sexual themes. The Sheik novel and the Sheik film, a Hollywood production from , are both controversial and probably the best known works created by exploiting the motif.