What were the living conditions of concubines in the harem of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire, says Alexandra Shutko, candidate of art history, author of the studies “Roksolana: Myths and Realities”, “Letters of Roksolana: Love and Diplomacy” and the novel “Hatice Turhan”.
MYTH ONE About the immensity of harems and group sex
Upon returning home, European ambassadors spoke about the Sultan's harem, which was filled with beauties from all over the world. According to their information, Suleiman the Magnificent had more than 300 concubines. More more women allegedly had his son Selim II and grandson Murad III - he had 100 children.
However, the granary books of the Topkapi Palace contain accurate information about the costs of maintaining the harem. They testify that Suleiman the Magnificent had 167 women in 1552, Selim II - 73, Murad III - about 150. The sultans did not have intimate relationships with everyone, and the family circle included only 3-4% of the total number of concubines : favorites and mothers of children.
So, Suleiman the Magnificent since the 1530s lived in a monogamous marriage with. This was a precedent, because according to Islamic law, the Ottomans could have four official wives and an unlimited number of concubines (mistresses). After Roksolana, sultans married concubines for almost a century. Selim II was faithful to his Greek wife Nurban for most of his life. The Albanian Safiye was the favorite of Murad III and the mother of his five children.
Until the 15th century, sultans married only women of noble birth: Christian princesses and daughters of Turkic tribal leaders.
“The Court of the Elect” is the Sultan’s harem in Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace. Photo: Brian Jeffery Beggerly / Flickr “The Court of the Chosen” is the Sultan’s harem in Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace. Photo: Brian Jeffery Beggerly / Flickr Imperial Hall in the Harem of Topkapi Palace. Photo: Dan/Flickr
The second myth is about the aimless and depraved life of concubines
The harem was not a house of debauchery, but a complex mechanism for the coexistence of the Sultan's family. The lowest level was occupied by new slaves - adjems. I picked them up valid- the mother of the Sultan, who traditionally headed the harem. Adjem were housed in common rooms under the care of experienced maids.
From captivity Crimean Tatars and Ottoman pirates took girls under 14 years old. Then for a long time they were taught in a harem school: read the Koran in Arabic, write in Ottoman, play musical instruments, dance, sing, sew and embroider. The main conditions for the casting: young age, beauty, health and chastity are mandatory.
The discipline in the harem is evidenced by the Arabic script that decorates the walls of the rooms and corridors of Topkapi. Guides mistakenly claim that these are lines of love poetry. In fact, these are suras of the Koran. So, above the carved marble gates it is written: “O you who believe! Do not enter other people's houses until you have asked permission and greeted their inhabitants with peace. It's better for you". (Surah An-Nur, 27).
No man except the Sultan and eunuch servants had the right to enter these doors into the women's chambers. These were mostly Africans who were castrated by Egyptian Christians during the slave caravans. The law prohibited Muslims from doing this. Prophet Mohammed said: “In Islam, castration is only possible in the form of fasting.”
Arabic calligraphy on a stained glass window in the harem of Topkapi Palace. Photo: Brian Jeffery Beggerly / Flickr Arabic calligraphy on the walls of the Topkapi Palace harem. Photo: Brian Jeffery Beggerly / Flickr Arabic calligraphy on the door in the harem of Topkapi Palace. Photo: Brian Jeffery Beggerly / Flickr
Myth three about unbearable slavery in the Sultan's harem
The life of concubines was radically different from slave labor on the plantation. “All slaves had a surprisingly large amount of free time, which they could dispose of as they wished, freedom of speech and action within the harem.”, notes American researcher of Turkish origin Asli Sancar.
Ottoman nobles dreamed of marrying the Sultan's concubine. Firstly, these were the most beautiful women in the empire, selected for rulers among the many enslaved peoples of Europe and Asia. Secondly, they had an excellent upbringing, were taught etiquette and respectful attitude towards their husband. Thirdly, this would be the highest favor of the Sultan and the beginning of career growth in government positions.
Such a marriage was possible for concubines who did not have intimate relationships with the Sultan. After 9 years, such people were freed from slavery and given a large dowry: a house, gold jewelry and a pension, that is, regular payments from the palace treasury.
List of maids Sultan's harem. Photo courtesy of Alexandra Shutko
Myth four about the death penalty for minor offenses
Loved in the West scary stories about how disobedient concubines were sewn into leather bags and thrown from the windows of the harem into the Bosphorus. It was rumored that the bottom of the strait was strewn with the bones of girls. But anyone who has been to Istanbul knows that Topkapi Palace was built at a sufficient distance from the water. In our time, the hypothesis about the existence of an underground tunnel to the Bosphorus has not been confirmed.
For misdeeds, concubines were given mild punishments - detention in the basement or beating with a stick on their heels. The worst thing is removal from the harem. This was the case with the concubine of Selim I the Terrible, who had an obnoxious character and started fights with other girls. Pregnant from the Sultan (a unique case!), she was married off to the Pasha's close associate.
Kizlyar Agha, senior eunuch of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, 1912. Source: Wikipedia
Myth five: how the Sultan’s children were taken from their slave mothers
The Sultan's children from slaves were full members of the Sultan's dynasty. Sons became successors to the throne. After the death of their father, the eldest or most dexterous of them received power, and his mother received the highest title for women in the Ottoman Empire. Valide Sultan. The new ruler had legal right execute the brothers to prevent a fight for the throne that would be destructive to the state. This rule was unconditionally followed until the 17th century.
The Sultan's daughters from his concubines had the title sultans. Marriage with them could only be monogamous. The emperor's sons-in-law had to abandon other wives and concubines: the Sultana was the only mistress in the house. Intimate life was completely controlled by the high-born wife. The husband could enter the bedroom only with the permission of his wife, and after that he did not lie down, but “crawled” onto the bed.
The Sultan's daughters had the right to divorce and remarry. The record was set by Fatma, daughter of Ahmed I, who changed men 12 times. Some were executed by their father, others died in war or died from disease. Then they said that marrying Fatima Sultan meant throwing yourself into the arms of trouble.
"Odalisque". Artist Mariano Fortuny 1861.
How many romantic and not so romantic rumors, how much gossip and slander, and sometimes even outright condemnation, is caused by the mere mention of the word “harem”. Most often, we imagine a kind of oriental brothel, or, at best, an image from the French film “Angelique and the Sultan” with crowds of disadvantaged girls yearning for the attention of the monarch, but in practice this was not the case at all...
Harem (from Arabic haram - separated, forbidden) is a closed and guarded residential part of a palace or house in which the wives of a high-ranking eastern statesman lived. Women were usually under the care of the first wife or eunuchs. The first wife had the right to share the title of the owner of the harem.
In fact, much more often, the caliph, speaking of his “khuram” - the plural of the same word - meant women at court, and more in a broad sense words - everyone under his protection. Khuram was more of a group of people than a specific structure or physical location. The Venetian Ottaviano Bon, a traveler of the Renaissance, describes the harem this way: “In their home, women live like nuns in a monastery.” And a little lower: “Girls break all previous ties once and for all as soon as they enter the seraglio. They get new names."
In Turkish, a harem was called a “barn” (saray), that is big house or a palace. Hence the French “seraglio,” as they liked to call the Sultan’s chambers in Europe in the 18th–19th centuries, drawing in their imagination a voluptuous image of a huge brothel.
The Venetian ambassador to Turkey, who served there in the 17th century, writes that the complex of buildings known by this name included many buildings and pavilions interconnected by terraces. The main one was the magnificent carved pavilion where the throne room was located.
All the servants of this and other buildings, as well as the harem, consisted of men. The harem itself, in its appearance and internal composition, resembled a huge monastery, where bedrooms, refectory rooms, bathrooms and other rooms of various kinds were located, designed to create convenience for the women who lived there. It was surrounded by huge flower beds and orchards. In hot weather, the inhabitants of the harem walked along the cypress alleys and enjoyed the coolness coming from the fountains that were installed there in considerable numbers.
However, these were just idle speculations, although the number of the Sultan’s slaves really cannot fail to impress. Thus, under Mehmed III (1568–1603) there were about five hundred of them.
Even noble families fought for the “honor” of selling their daughter to the Sultan’s harem. There were very few slaves in the Sultan's harem; they were the exception, not the rule. Captive slaves were used in menial labor and as maids for concubines. Concubines were selected very carefully from girls who were sold by their parents to a harem school and underwent special training there.
The seraglio was also replenished with captives captured in military campaigns, bought at slave markets or presented to the Sultan by his entourage. Usually they took Circassian women, which was then the name for all residents North Caucasus. Slavic women were at a special price. But in principle, anyone could be in the harem. For example, the Frenchwoman Aimée de Riveri, cousin of Josephine Beauharnais, Napoleon's future wife, spent most of her life there. In 1784, on her way from France to Martinique, she was captured by Algerian pirates and sold on the slave market. Fate was favorable to her - she later became the mother of Sultan Mahmud II (1785–1839).
Usually the age of young slaves was 12–14 years. They were selected not only for their beauty and health, but also for their intelligence: “fools” were not taken, because the Sultan needed not just a woman, but also an interlocutor. Those who entered the harem underwent two-year training under the guidance of kalfa (from the Turkish kalfa - “chief”) - old, experienced slaves who remembered the grandfathers of the reigning sultans. The girls were taught the Koran (all those in the harem accepted Islam), dancing, playing musical instruments, fine literature (many odalisques wrote good poetry), calligraphy, the art of conversation and handicrafts. It is especially worth mentioning about court etiquette: every slave had to know how to pour rose water for her master, how to bring him shoes, serve coffee or sweets, fill a pipe or put on a robe.
The harems of Constantinople, Arabia and some other countries associated with various Indian and Eastern religious concepts were always guarded by eunuchs. And only they were allowed to go inside. Eunuchs were used out of a simple precaution - so that the concubines lived in safety and pleased only their master.
There were three types of eunuchs: full, who was deprived of reproductive organs as a child; an incomplete one, who lost only his testicles in his youth, and, finally, a eunuch, whose testicles atrophied due to the fact that they were subjected to special friction in childhood.
The first type was considered the most reliable, the other two were not, since their sexual desire still awakened at the beginning of adolescence. The first, thanks to castration, changed physically and mentally, they did not grow a beard, their larynx was small and therefore their voice sounded childish; in character they were close to women. The Arabs claimed that they did not live long and died before reaching 35 years of age.
Main idea was that the eunuch was in sexually neutral, he had neither female nor male characteristics of gender and, thus, his presence in the harem did not in any way disturb the atmosphere of this special place, moreover, he remained in any case faithful to the owner of the seraglio.
Once in the harem, the girls learned etiquette, rules of conduct, ceremonies and waited for that one moment when they would see the Sultan. By the way, such a moment might not have happened. Never.
One of the most common rumors is that the Sultan entered into intimate relationships with all women. In fact, this was not the case at all. The sultans behaved proudly, with dignity, and very rarely did anyone humiliate themselves to the point of outright debauchery. For example, a unique case in the history of the harem is the loyalty of Sultan Suleiman to his wife Roksolana (Anastasia Lisovskaya, Khurrem). For many years he slept with only one woman - his beloved wife. And this was the rule rather than the exception.
The Sultan did not even know most of his concubines (odalisques) by sight. There is another opinion that the concubine was doomed to eternal life in a harem. After 9 years, the concubine, who had never been elected by the Sultan, had the right to leave the harem. The Sultan found her a husband and gave her a dowry. The slave received a document stating that she was now a free person. Unfortunately, family life rarely went well. Accustomed to living in idleness and contentment, women left their husbands. The harem was heaven for them, and the husband's house was hell.
Odalisques were usually forced to protect themselves from pregnancy using homeopathic ointments and decoctions. But, of course, such protection was not effective enough. Therefore, in the back half of the Topkapi Palace, the chirping of children's voices was always heard. With my daughters everything was simple. They received good education and were married to senior officials. But the boys - shah-zade - were not only a source of maternal joy. The fact is that every shah-zade, no matter whether he was born from a wife or a concubine, had the right to claim the throne. Formally, the reigning sultan was succeeded by the eldest man in the family. But in reality it was possible different options. Therefore, in the harem there was always a hidden but merciless struggle between the mothers (and their allies), who dreamed that they would someday be able to receive the title of Valide Sultan.
In general, the fate of the Shah-Zade was unenviable. From the age of eight, each of them was placed in a separate room called a cafes - “cage”. From that moment on, they could only communicate with servants and teachers. They saw their parents only in the most exceptional cases - at large celebrations. They received a good education at the so-called “School of Princes,” where they were taught writing, reading and interpretation of the Koran, mathematics, history, geography, and in the 19th century, French, dance and music.
After completing the course of science and coming of age, the shah-zade changed their servants: now the slaves serving and protecting them were replaced by deaf-mutes. So were the odalisques who brightened up their nights. But not only could they not hear or speak, their ovaries and uterus were removed in order to prevent the appearance of illegitimate children in the harem.
Thus, the shah-zade were the link that connected harem life with the sphere of big politics, turning the Sultan’s mother, wives and concubines into an independent force that had a direct influence on state affairs. The struggle of the parties at times acquired an exceptionally desperate character. The fact is that, by order of Mehmed II (İkinci Mehmet, 1432–1481), the new sultan had to kill all his brothers. This was how it was supposed to avoid behind-the-scenes political struggle. But in fact, this measure led to the opposite: the doom of the shah-zade forced them to fight for power even more actively - after all, they had nothing to lose except their heads. The cage and the deaf-mute guards did not help here; the harem was filled with secret messengers and informants. The decree of Mehmed II was canceled only in 1666. However, by this time the harem had already become an integral part of the internal political life of the Ottoman Empire.
The attitude towards daughters was somewhat different. The daughters of the Sultan (princess), who completed their studies, had to wear long clothes and cover their heads with a turban. Upon reaching marriageable age, they were married to princes from neighboring principalities, and when there were none, to viziers, pashas and other officials of the empire. IN the latter case the Sultan ordered the Grand Vizier to find a suitable candidate. If the candidate chosen by the Grand Vizier was married, he was forced to get a divorce. They did not have the right to divorce the Sultan's daughter, while the latter, on the contrary, could do this with the permission of her father. In addition, the husbands of the princesses, who bore the title of damad (son-in-law of the Sultan), had to forget about the concubines forever.
The Sultan's daughters were having a magnificent wedding. The city was decorated with arches and flags, fireworks flashed in the sky at night, and a celebration for the bride took place in the harem. The dowry was exhibited in the palace so that the people could see it. Perhaps the most colorful part of the wedding was the henna evening, considered a symbol of prosperity and abundance, when the bride's nails and fingers were painted with henna. This tradition is still preserved in Anatolia.
There were several categories of women in the harem: slaves, guzide and iqbal, and the wives of the sultan.
For a long time, Ottoman padishahs married only titled persons, most often European and Byzantine princesses, but after the tradition of marrying harem slaves arose, the greatest preference was given to Circassian, Georgian and Russian women.
The Sultan could have four favorites - guzide. When choosing a concubine for the night, the Sultan sent her a gift (often a shawl or a ring). After that, she was sent to the bathhouse, dressed in beautiful clothes and sent to the door of the Sultan's bedroom. She waited outside the doors until the Sultan went to bed. Entering the bedroom, she crawled on her knees to the bed, kissed the carpet, and only then had the right to share the bed. In the morning, the Sultan sent the concubine rich gifts if he liked the night spent with her.
If a concubine became pregnant, she was transferred to the category of happy ones - iqbal. And after the birth of a child (regardless of gender), she forever received a separate room and a daily menu of 15 dishes. The Sultan personally chose four wives. The wife received a new name, a written certificate of her status, separate chambers, clothes, jewelry, and many slave maids. And only one of the wives could be given the title of Sultana by the Sultan. The Sultana (the highest title) again received a new name, and only her son could inherit the throne.
The first wife was called the main wife, the rest, respectively, the second, etc. The new Kadyn Efendi received a written certificate, new clothes were ordered for her, and then a separate room was allocated. The main keeper of the harem and her assistants introduced her to imperial traditions. The sultans spent the night with whomever they wanted, but they were obliged to spend the night from Friday to Saturday with only one of their wives. This was the order sanctified by the tradition of Islam. If a wife was not with her husband for three consecutive Fridays, she had the right to appeal to the qadi (judge). The keeper of the harem monitored the order of meetings between the wives and the Sultan.
But in reality, the harem was a real nest of snakes, where intrigues were woven, and people, without sparing, were used up.
“Smart Magazine” invites you to look into the palace of the Ottoman Sultan and find out how concubines were threatened by lesbian relationships and what sexual positions even the Sultan was forbidden to use.
Why are there eunuchs in harems?
The harem was usually located on the top floor of the front of the house and had a separate entrance.
In the minds of Europeans, life in the Sultan's harem (seraglio) consists of luxurious rooms, baths, fountains, incense and, of course, erotic pleasures.
In fact, only the rooms of the Sultan's family members and the most beautiful concubines - favorites - shone with luxury. Most of the inhabitants of the harem - rejected or not yet presented to the Sultan - huddled in modest rooms. African maids also lived there, there were kitchens, pantries and laundries. For example, the harem of Sultan Selim III, who lived in the 18th century, consisted of about 300 rooms.
The official wives of the ruler lived in separate houses, among servants and wealth.
The sultanas, by the way, did not rest on their laurels, but loved to lead an active life: they built schools, mosques, helped the poor, and purchased water for pilgrims to Mecca.
Where did eunuchs come from?
Supervision of the harem and the connection of concubines with outside world supported by eunuch slaves - representatives of a special court caste. Literally, “eunuch” is translated as “guarding the bed,” although the range of their responsibilities was much wider.
Eunuchs supervised the maids, managed the household, kept records and books, maintained order, and punished concubines, for example, for lesbian relationships or for relationships with other eunuchs.
Usually they were bought from slave traders at the age of eight to twelve years and the procedure of castration was performed on them - complete or partial removal of the genitals in order to eliminate possible sexual relations with the concubines. After castration, the boy’s bleeding was stopped, the wound was sterilized, and a goose feather so that the hole does not become overgrown.
Eunuch of the Ottoman Sultan, 1870s
Not everyone could endure such a barbaric procedure, but the survivors cost a fortune, and only very wealthy families could afford a castrato servant. They were purchased in the hundreds for the palaces and taught the Turkish language and military affairs.
Eunuchs were either “black” or “white”. “Black” eunuchs were brought from Sudan and Ethiopia, and “white” ones from Balkan Peninsula. It was believed that black boys were more resilient and better able to withstand painful emasculation.
How concubines were selected
Future concubines for the Sultan's harem were acquired at the age of six to thirteen years. Since Islam does not allow Muslims to be enslaved, most slaves came from the Christian provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
By the way, girls were not always forced into the harem. Often their parents sent them there, signing an agreement to completely abandon the child. For poor families, this was the only chance to survive and give their daughter a chance.
The girls were “molded” into ideal interlocutors and lovers: they taught the Turkish language, music, dancing, and writing exquisite love messages - depending on their abilities.
But each of them was necessarily taught the main thing - the art of giving a man pleasure.
When a girl reached puberty, she was shown to the grand vizier (a title conventionally corresponding to a minister), and if he did not notice any obvious shortcomings in her, she became a potential concubine, but only the most beautiful and smart could get into the main harem.
Of course, most never managed to end up in the Sultan’s chambers, but if they wanted, girls could make a court career, become matrons, or look after the treasury. Some concubines could live in a harem without ever meeting the owner.
If a girl still managed to become a favorite, this did not mean that a fabulous life awaited her in luxurious chambers, because in fact she remained a powerless slave. One of the concubines of Suleiman the Magnificent was executed because she dared not to appear to the Sultan when he was waiting for her, someone was caught stealing, someone was killed for shameless behavior (which, however, could consist of the fact that the woman spoke louder laid down).
If after nine years the concubine did not become one of the Sultan's wives, she was released, married to one of the officials and provided with a large dowry.
Of course, everyone dreamed of becoming the ruler’s favorite or even the mother of the new heir. Yes, yes, in the Ottoman Empire a child conceived from free man and concubines, was equated to a legitimate son.
Sisters and wives of the last ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II
It turned out that with such a wide choice, the Sultan was never left without an heir.
However, this principle made the transition of power very bloody. When one of the sons inherited the throne, the first thing he did was order the death of his brothers. There are known cases when even pregnant women were killed so that their unborn children would not become rivals in the struggle for power. Afterwards, a law was passed prohibiting the shedding of the sacred blood of royal persons within the walls of the palace, so the victims of palace intrigues began to be strangled with a bowstring or a silk scarf.
To guarantee the life of herself and her son, the favorite must certainly place him on the throne. Otherwise, her son will be killed, and she will be sent to the “Palace of Tears.”
How were the nights of love
Sexual relations between the concubine and the Sultan took place in accordance with strict regulations. If the Sultan wanted to listen to a musical instrument play or watch a dance, then eldest wife or the chief eunuch collected all the concubines who were skilled in this matter and carried out a kind of “casting”. Each in turn showed the Sultan her skills, and the owner chose the one with whom he would share the bed.
The chosen one was taken away and her preparations began for the night of love with the Sultan.
They washed her, dressed her, did makeup, hair removal, massage and, of course, tested her knowledge of the material - where and how to please the Sultan.
The nights of love took place in the presence of Ethiopian maids, who made sure that the torches illuminating the bed did not go out.
Typically, lovers used the position in which the man was on top. It was forbidden to use positions that resembled animal mating or any kind of perversion. However, the amount of lovemaking performed by the concubines more than compensated for the monotony of the poses.
Despite the colossal number of wives and mistresses, the Sultan never spent the night with more than one of them at a time.
The schedule according to which the favorites ascended to the Sultan's bed was drawn up by the chief eunuch. If the beauty was skillful and passionate, then the next morning she would find next to her the clothes in which the owner spent the night with her. Usually an expensive gift or large amount money.
The end of the Sultan's harem
In 1908-1909, Turkish revolutionaries put an end to the monarchy, forcing the last autocratic ruler, Abdul Hamid II, to abdicate, and the crowd hanged the chief eunuch of his harem from a lamppost.
All the concubines and junior eunuchs ended up on the street, and the Sultan's palace was turned into a museum and opened to the public.
What associations do we have when we mention the harem? Beautiful girls, sitting on sofas and drinking sherbet, saunas where concubines rub themselves with aromatic mixtures, expensive jewelry, a battle in which hundreds of beauties fight for the attention of the ruler. This is a place saturated with bliss, charm, temptation, feminine fluids and the aroma of musk.
While we compete with all our might with men for equal rights, sometimes forgetting about our essence, women of the East treat a man as a ruler. They use ancient techniques that delight men and turn them into slaves of love for a long time.
I propose to travel back several centuries, to the times of prosperity of the Great Ottoman Empire and look at the life of the harem from the inside. Let's lift the veil of secrecy and take a few lessons in preparing for intimacy and developing attractiveness among the Sultan's concubines.
Protected paradise
The word "harem" means secret, inaccessible and closed. Indeed, the place where the Sultan's concubines and wives lived was closed to everyone except selected members of the Sultan's family.
The Turkish chronicler Dursun Bey once wrote: “If the sun were a man, even he would be forbidden to look into the harem.”
The most famous harem was the Seraglio Palace, located in Istanbul. It consisted of 400 spacious rooms, where more than two thousand concubines lived. The palace was the size of a small city surrounded by high walls. An inhabitant of this paradise could only become a real beauty, which has passed a strict selection process.
Casting
Random girls never ended up in the Sultan's harem. There was a special plan according to which a certain number of blondes and brunettes were selected. Most of all, the eastern padishahs valued the hips and waist. The ideal ratio was considered to be 2/3 (waist/hips).
The difference between the waist and hips should have been about thirty centimeters. But the girls’ breasts and height were secondary indicators. Slavic beauty was held in special esteem.
The girls were selected not only according to external criteria. The future concubine had to be smart. Candidates who were lucky enough to get into the harem underwent a thorough medical examination.
Seduction courses
Girls selected to serve the Sultan underwent a special two-year training. They were taught by calfas - old, experienced slaves. Future concubines learned the language, the basics of the Koran, literature, poetry, and calligraphy.
We studied poetry and playing musical instruments. The girls were constantly supportive physical fitness, spending a lot of time dancing. Odalisques thoroughly studied court etiquette, learned to serve coffee and sweets, fill a pipe and conduct conversations with the Sultan.
In the second year of study, the harem residents studied the art of self-care. They prepared masks and special aromatic compositions and applied makeup. We learned to dress properly and choose jewelry.
All the girls studied the dance “Raks Sharkhi”. This is a cross between belly dancing and striptease. This dance aroused the love mood and desire of the Sultan.
Then they mastered the subtleties of intimate gymnastics, which we call wumbling. At the end of training, each girl took an exam. In addition to dancing, poetry and etiquette, the exam included several very piquant exercises.
Exercise one: jade egg. The girl was seated on a bench with a hole. The legs were spread wide apart, and a small jade egg, to which several threads were attached, was placed in the subject’s vagina. The girl had to squeeze her muscles so that the threads would break when they were pulled.
Exercise two: dance “Raks Sharkhi”. 100 ml of colored liquid was poured into the bowl. The girl injected liquid into her womb and danced. The dance lasted for half an hour. During this time, the future odalisque should not have lost a drop of liquid.
If all tests were passed successfully, she became a legal resident of the harem.
Along the Golden Path
It was not enough just to get into the harem. You can stay there for several years and never get around to being invited to the Sultan’s bedroom. Hundreds of the most beautiful, seductive girls showed off before the Sultan every day. But luck smiled on only a few. To attract the attention of the padishah, the concubines carefully looked after themselves. Dressed the most beautiful dresses, spent several hours a day on makeup. They trained their gait and posture, learned to seduce with just one glance.
If the padishah liked one of the slaves, she received an invitation to the Sultan’s chambers. The girls prepared very diligently for intimacy with the Sultan, because it depended on their skills whether they would be lucky again. Path from shared bedroom before the ruler's rest it was called Golden. To walk along it, the girl walked a whole series beauty rituals.
Hammam
One of the most important rituals of self-care for concubines was going to the hammam (bathhouse). The girls bathed in water infused with hibiscus and violet petals. This product not only softened the skin, but also plumped it up. subtle aroma. Then a clay mask was applied to the hair and skin.
Before going to the sauna, the girls removed hair from all parts of the body using a special cream. It consisted of eggs, honey and lemon juice.
In those days, peeling for oriental women was replaced by kese. The steamed skin of the concubine was massaged with a hard silk mitten. This procedure removed dead skin cells and made it soft, like a child’s.
A body worthy of a Sultan
After washing with soap, my hair became stiff. To soften them, Ottoman beauties used mallow flower hair cream. Hundreds of kilograms of these flowers were delivered to the palace every year.
Eastern beauties carefully looked after their hair. Masks were prepared from henna and ground walnut shells. After such a mask, my hair grew very quickly.
To keep the bodies of the concubines elastic and young, clay masks with infusions of flowers and herbs were applied to their skin.
After a thorough bath, the girl’s steamed body is ready for a massage. Specially trained maids relaxed the muscles and bodies of the concubines in anticipation of the night of love.
Steamed skin quickly hardens and wrinkles. Therefore, the girls’ skin was smeared with oils after the hammam. In olive or sesame oil added a few drops of aromatic oil. In summer they usually added oil of violet or rose, and in winter - cloves.
Before going to bed, beauties washed their faces with rose water. It softens the skin and smoothes out wrinkles. Turkish rose oil is still used in the manufacture of luxury cosmetics.
Makeup
Before going to the Sultan's bedchamber, the concubines applied makeup. Special attention was given to the eyes. So that the eyes would strike the heart of the padishah at first sight, the girls drew arrows with antimony mixed with ash. To give their lips a scarlet tint, Eastern women chewed betel - a paste with pepper, lime and flax seeds. Cinnamon sticks helped freshen my breath the night before.
Inflame the desire of the spoiled female attention it was not so easy for the Sultan. Each girl tried to highlight her best features. Henna drawings helped complete the look. Slave artists painted patterns on the bodies of odalisques. They covered the hands, ankles, back of the neck or collarbone. Sometimes they were applied to the lower back or under the navel, drawing a path to pleasure.
Unlike Christianity, in the Islamic religion pleasure from intimacy was not considered a sin. But the Koran prohibited anal, group and same-sex relationships. Therefore, the orgies and lesbian joys between bored concubines imagined by many Europeans were most likely a fairy tale.
August 16, 2017How Roksolana-Hurrem and other inhabitants of the palace of Sultan Suleiman lived and what in the series does not correspond to historical reality
“The Magnificent Century” is one of the most popular Turkish TV series. Exciting love story, luxurious scenery and costumes, the fate of an entire dynasty. The series is called historical, although many critics noted the distortion of facts. And yet the creators tried to recreate the oriental flavor. Especially the life and everyday life of a harem.
The plot centers on the fate of a Ukrainian concubine Alexandra/Roksolana(or Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska). This is the story of the most influential and powerful woman of the Ottoman Empire. Being a simple concubine, she managed to achieve the love of the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the tenth sultan to rule the Ottoman Empire from the 1520s, becoming the chief wife and mother of the heir to the throne.
Intrigue, slander, lies, cunning, bribery, murder - Hurrem used everything in order to achieve her goal. Actually, the creators of “The Magnificent Century” did not exaggerate here. In those centuries, treachery reigned in harems.
Fact: According to historians, the ancestors of harems are the dynasty of Arab caliphs of the Abassids, who ruled in the Middle East from the mid-700s to the middleXIIIcentury. The harem of the Ottoman Empire enjoyed the reputation of being the largest for five centuries.
Kingdom of Women
A harem or haram is a women’s monastery where outside men are not allowed to enter; it’s not for nothing that the word “haram” in Arabic means “forbidden.” During the Ottoman Empire, wives, young children, concubines, slaves, numerous Sultan relatives lived there, as well as eunuchs who served them and acted as guards. Harems lived own life, there was its own special etiquette and rules. Each of them had a strict hierarchy. The most influential and intelligent inhabitants of harems could also influence state policy.
Large harems numbered more than a thousand concubines and were symbols of the power of the ruler; the degree of respect accorded him depended largely on the “quality” and quantity of the harem. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the largest in area in the world was the Winter Harem of the Grand Seral of Topkapi in Istanbul, which consisted of 400 rooms. It was built back in 1589. At the beginning of the twentieth century, at the time of the overthrow of the Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1909, the number of its inhabitants decreased significantly - from 1200 to 370 concubines.
Court agents paid huge sums for beauties at slave auctions. A non-beauty had no chance to get there. Huge sums were spent on their maintenance - sometimes harems ruined the owners and emptied the treasury.
During the Ottoman Empire, after the death of the owner, the harem, which had become unnecessary, was moved to an old and far from luxurious palace, as the new sultan recruited new odalisques. Over time, the inhabitants of the harem began to often be disbanded altogether. This, for example, usually happens today.
The main, and often the only, visitor to the harem was the husband, the owner of the house. The guardian of the Sultan's chambers, the vizier, as well as the eunuchs, were also allowed to enter. Some harems allowed “guests” - for example, storytellers or musicians.
The life of the inhabitants of the “female kingdom” was not limited to the walls of the palace. Many harem beauties could visit relatives and go out into the city (accompanied, of course).
At the dawn of the empire, sultans married the daughters of rulers of other states, but over time, former slaves increasingly became wives. And in the history of the Ottoman Empire, the very first slave whom the Sultan officially took as his wife was Hurrem. The history of the “Magnificent Century” is built on this.
Truth and fiction
The story of Hürrem's appearance in Suleiman's harem is told truthfully. It was actually bought at the market by the Sultan's vizier Ibrahim Pasha(actor played the role in the film Okan Yalabik) as a gift to the Bishop. At that time the girl was 14 years old. All concubines intended for the harem were taught the Turkish language, music, dancing, poetry, and handicrafts. Women of other faiths, as happened with Roksolana, had to accept the Muslim faith. The science of love and sexual wisdom was taught by ladies with extensive experience - specially hired mentors or, for example, relatives of the Sultan.
Each woman in the harem had her own status, rights and responsibilities. Based on her status, the amount of her salary, the number of chambers and servants allocated to her, and the right to occupy a certain position were determined. And this hierarchy is also well reflected in the series.
During leisure hours, the concubines went to the hammam, read, danced, played music, and told fortunes. But it was impossible to cast a spell; they were punished for it. And this is also shown in the series. Many viewers remember the scenes where Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska visits the sorceress and fears that someone will find out about it.
Women who enjoyed special favor received expensive gifts; pampering the harem was one of the main duties of the spouse. Ottoman sultans sometimes they gave entire palaces to their beloved concubines and showered them with jewelry - the latter was actively demonstrated by the women. According to legend, Sultan Suleiman (played by the actor Halit Ergench) even made expensive jewelry with his own hands. After the first night, he gave Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska a ring with a drop-shaped emerald.
Facts that the filmmakers embellished
The image of the historical Hurrem differs from the one embodied by the Turkish actress Miryem Witherly. The memories of the Venetian ambassador of those times have been preserved. He writes that Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was more pretty than beautiful. In “The Magnificent Century” Hurrem is simply a beauty. And it’s hard to call her modest. However, all those tricks and techniques that she used to win Suleiman’s favor and then achieve privileges for her sons are indeed recorded in history. Researchers confirm that after her appearance in the harem, Sultan Suleiman stopped “entering” other women.
Another romantic fiction of the creators of “The Magnificent Century” is connected with the story of Suleiman’s first wife. In reality Mahidevran Sultan(in the series she was played by the actress Nur Aysan) was not the wife of the Sultan. And after, in a fit of jealousy, she tried to poison Hurrem, she was forever expelled from the palace. In the series, the ruler forgave her, allowing her to return to the palace.
The creators of the series also embellished the external image of the heroines. First of all, this concerns clothing, which the costume designers of the “Magnificent Century” noticeably modernized. Such low-cut dresses were definitely not worn during the Ottoman Empire. Outfits in those centuries were much simpler in style; the main richness of the costumes was the decoration, as well as expensive and textured fabrics with sparkles and gold threads. And, of course, decorations.
The creators of “The Magnificent Century” also took liberties with the heroines’ hairstyles. While in the series the beauties sported luxurious curls, the real inhabitants of the harems wore their hair in a neat hairstyle. Eastern beauties of the 16th century did not even dare to think about walking around with their hair down - most often they had to wear braids.
HaremsXXIcentury
The inhabitants of modern harems are most often free to do whatever they want with their hair. But as far as hierarchy and internal rules are concerned, the principles remain the same. And today harems are far from a relic of the past. According to statistics, more than 40% of women in Pakistan, Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Madagascar, Iran, Iraq and some African countries live in polygamous marriages.
The owner of one of the largest harems was the ex-president of Iraq Saddam Hussein- According to some sources, he had about five hundred concubines. And in the harem of one of the richest men of our time - the Sultan of Brunei - there are about seven hundred women. Very often, it is not Eastern women who end up in modern harems, but Europeans and Americans. Thus, at one time, Miss USA 1992 was in the harem of the Sultan of Brunei. Shannon McKetick. And in 2000 after death former president Syria Hafez Al-Assad it turned out that among his 40 concubines there was not a single Arab girl - as the European press wrote, among them were Germans, Swedes, and French.