![]() ![]() Children were also born and grew up inside the harem. The harem was not a place only for women. How the Sultan Moulay Ismail of Morocco Sired 1,000 Children.The Strength of Kosem Sultan - The Last Influential Female Ruler of the Ottoman Empire.Turhan Hatice, a Ukrainian girl captured during one of the raids of the Tatars who was sold into slavery, was one of the few concubines who survived the mad sultan’s reign. He is said to have drowned over 280 of the concubines from his harem in the Bosphorus. For example, Sultan Ibrahim the Mad ruled over the Ottoman Empire from the year 1640 until 1648. There were also examples of Sultans who did not respect the women in the harem. Portrait of Roxelana (Hurrem Sultan) titled ‘Rossa Solymannı Vxor.’ ( Public Domain ) Today, she is regarded as the most powerful woman in Ottoman history. She was the wife of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and the mother of Selim the Second. For this reason, it was said that the Ottoman Empire was ruled from the harem.Ī very good example of this situation in action is the case of Hurrem Sultan. These women included the wives, mothers, and sisters of the sultan who had his ear. There were some women of the Ottoman harem who had very important political roles in the history of the empire as well. ![]() In a way, the Topkapi Harem was the private living chambers of the sultan and his family from within the entire palace complex. Starting from this age, they were only allowed to appear in public and in the administrative areas of the palace. In later periods, the sons of the sultan also lived in the harem until they reached the age of 12. The slave servant girls were meant to see to the needs of the aforementioned women. It housed several dozen women which included wives, the sultan’s mother and daughters, other female relatives, eunuchs, and slaves. The imperial harem of the Ottoman sultan was also called “seraglio” in the West. ‘Harem Woman with Ostrich Fan’ (1892) by Louis-Robert de Cuvillon. These women were specifically educated in order to appear in public as royal wives. Famous and Powerful Eunuchs of the Ancient Worldĭuring the Ottoman Empire, the role of the harem was that of the royal upbringing of the future wives of noble and royal men.Hurrem Sultan, the Cheerful Rose of Suleiman I and a Powerful Woman of the Ottoman Empire.Topkapi – A Palace of Dreams and Tears from the Ottoman Empire.However, the word can also refer to other ancient Oriental communities in which polygamy was allowed. The term “harem” is used, in general, for Muslim households only. The zenana, meaning “pertaining to women”, was the part of the household belonging to women in a Hindu or Muslim family of South Asia. The harem also referred to the women’s quarters as opposed to the men’s selamlik. A Muslim harem did include the women with whom the head of the household had intimate relations, but it also included children and other female relatives. In Islam, female seclusion was emphasized and any unlawful breaking into that privacy was regarded as “haram” meaning “forbidden”. ‘The Reception’ (1873) by John Frederick Lewis. Instead, there are only imaginative representations available about what happened within the harem. The South Asian equivalent of the harem is the zenana.Īs the harem had a secluded nature, there are no exact sources which can present the truth of harem life. The word first appeared in the Middle East, where harems were composed of sultans, mother, sister, wives, children, and concubines. This defines the sphere of women in a polygynous household and makes reference to their enclosed quarters being forbidden to men. The term harem comes from the Arabic haram meaning forbidden place.
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