Harem - what is it? History and culture of the East. Eastern harem. The harem and its internal hierarchy

"Harem" translated from Arabic means "forbidden, sacred place." This word denoted the female half of the house in Muslim families, where men were prohibited from entering - an exception was made only for the owner of the house and eunuchs. The harem as a phenomenon originated with the Abassids, a dynasty of Arab caliphs who ruled the Middle East from 750 to 1258. Later, other eastern rulers and simply rich people created their own women’s hostels using the same model. One of the most famous and numerous harems existed in the Ottoman Empire for five centuries. Each of the sultans kept up to 1000 women at the palace in Istanbul in the so-called House of Bliss, constantly updating and expanding the collection of foreign odalisque concubines. Details about the lives of these women reached Europeans in the form of rumors and testimonies from missionaries and their wives, travelers and eunuchs, and became fully known after the overthrow of the last ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II in 1909.

There were harems in Rus' too. Strangely enough, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, revered as the baptist of Rus', had the largest staff of wives and concubines. His intense personal life is described in The Tale of Bygone Years: “Vladimir was overcome by lust, and he had wives... and he had 300 concubines in Vyshgorod, 300 in Belgorod and 200 in Berestovo... And he was insatiable in fornication, bringing married women to him and corrupting girls.” There is a lot of evidence that other Russian rulers kept harems - in closed chambers, and they secretly existed almost until the 18th century, until Peter I put an end to this custom.

One of the members of the Baghdad embassy, ​​Ahmed ibn Fadlan, after his trip to the Volga in 921-922, wrote about a certain dissolute king of the Rus: “And his bed is huge and inlaid with precious gems. And with him sit on this bed forty girls for his bed. Sometimes he uses one of them as a concubine in the presence of his companions... And he has no other business than to marry (with girls), drink and indulge in entertainment. He has a deputy who commands the troops, attacks enemies and replaces him with his subjects.” However, this was recorded by an Arab traveler from the words of a certain Rus husband - probably a merchant, and it is quite possible that it was just a story for a foreigner. The writer did not see the Tsar of the Rus, Igor Rurikovich himself.

Currently, harems are common in countries where Muslim religious traditions are strong. Polygamous families, built on the harem principle, also exist in states with a small Islamic population. For example, in Tanzania, where Muslims make up only 30% and Christians 60%, one in four married women is in a polygamous marriage. And in Swaziland, where 82.7% of the population is Christian, the head of state, King Mswati III, maintains a large harem: he has 15 official wives and 25 children. Every year during the Umhlanga festival he chooses a new bride.

Hundreds of half-naked girls compete in a multi-hour reed dance, after which the king decides which concubine will join his collection. beautiful women. 47-year-old Mswati has not yet surpassed the number of wives of his father, King Sobuza II, who successfully got along with 70 spouses.

Recently, the leader of North Korea also has a personal harem. According to the South Korean press, although Kim Jong-un dispersed his father’s harem and declared loyalty to his one and only wife, singer Lee Sol-ju, he changed his mind: after the birth of his daughter and treatment for gout, he held a casting of beauties and acquired a “platoon of pleasure.”

By the way, as British scientists recently found out, a polygamous marriage benefits everyone: in a harem, women are less likely to go hungry, children get sick less often, such families usually have more livestock and income is higher than that of monogamous families.

The position of women in traditional harem depended on the degree of her closeness to the ruler. If she did not enjoy attention, then, as a rule, she eked out a miserable existence, was subjected to ridicule and humiliation, and did hard work. If the concubine was loved by the owner and bore him a son, then her status rapidly rose to the level of the main wife, which promised all sorts of pleasures and gifts: from jewelry to real estate.

Today, when forming harems, Arab men are guided by the laws of the Koran, which allows them to have no more than four wives at a time, but with an important caveat: the husband is obliged to provide for his women equally and give them equal attention. That is, if he gives an apartment, then another must provide the same housing, not to mention bouquets and boxes of chocolates. Each inhabitant of the harem has her own, clearly defined range of responsibilities: traditionally, the youngest wife raises all her husband’s children, the eldest manages the other wives, and the other two keep order and work in the kitchen.

The inhabitants of eastern harems traditionally lead secluded and closed lives. We can see rare portraits of women from the harem thanks to painting and photography. For example, the Iranian Shah Nasser ad-Din Shah Qajar, who ruled in the second half of the 19th century, was a passionate amateur photographer and personally photographed his wives; his assistant and court photographer was Anton Sevryugin, a native of Russia. From ancient photographs of the Shah, plump Iranian women with fused eyebrows and mustaches look at us. Their short skirts, reminiscent of ballet tutus, were sewn under the impression of the Shah's trip to St. Petersburg, where he visited in 1873 at the invitation of Alexander II and watched Russian ballet.

Researchers compare life in a harem to an English-style school for girls or a nunnery. In addition to the young concubines and wives of the ruler, all his female relatives lived in the female half of the house, as well as numerous mentors, maids, eunuchs assigned for protection and assistance... Naturally, passions boiled there, intrigues were woven, their own groups formed, and each girl dreamed only about how to achieve the position of a beloved wife.

Modern harem holders try to ensure that their women live separately and, if possible, rarely see each other. Ideally, one wife should not see her husband entering the other wife's house. However, a man’s level of income does not always allow for compliance with these rules. In less affluent families, the wives live nearby and run a joint household.

Traditionally, girls and young women entered harems in different ways. Some were bought at slave markets, others were presented to rulers as gifts from viziers and nobles, and others were voluntarily given away by relatives, since staying in the harem of a sultan or shah in the East was considered a prestigious and profitable career for women. Theoretically, even the last maid could become a concubine, and then the wife of the ruler. This happened, for example, with the Slavic girl Anastasia Lisovskaya, who was kidnapped by the Tatars from the city of Rohatyn in the territory of modern Ukraine and forcibly taken to the Ottoman Empire. According to legend, she was presented to the young Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in honor of the beginning of his reign; at that time she was only 15 years old.

The beautiful, intelligent girl quickly pushed aside all her competitors and over time became the most powerful sultana in the history of the Ottoman Empire. She was allowed what others were not allowed: to sleep with the Sultan out of turn, to give birth to not one, but five children from him, to be called the honorary title Haseki, introduced specifically in her honor. For about a quarter of a century, Anastasia, known under the names Hurrem Sultan and Roksolana, ruled the Sultan, the harem and the entire Ottoman Empire. She became the only official wife of the Sultan - neither before nor after her did the rulers of the Ottoman Empire enter into an official marriage. And although her son Selim II was not the first son of Suleiman, she ensured that it was he who came to power, eliminating her husband’s first-born. We know about Roksolana’s appearance thanks to the portrait unknown artist, written in the middle of the 16th century.

Nowadays, many women strive to get into the harems of wealthy men, as this promises material wealth and, by concluding a contract for several years with some sheikh, you can get rich like no other job. This attracts even European and American women to eastern harems. Among polygamous millionaires, it is considered prestigious to have a Western girl among models, celebrities, and beauty queens as a wife. For example, the holder of the title “Miss USA - 1992” Shannon McKetik visited the large harem of the Sultan of Brunei. After three months in the harem, she sued for being used as a prostitute. However, it was established that there was no sexual harassment and Miss McKetik was treated more than well: for her work, which consisted of entertaining the head of Brunei, she received $100,000 and a diamond necklace as a gift. By the way, in the palace of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah there are 1,788 halls and rooms - this is an absolute record in the world, and in his harem, according to media reports, there are about 700 girls.

According to the Koran, Muslims should not keep Muslims as slaves. Therefore, harems, as a rule, consist of foreigners. Traditionally, Slavic and Caucasian girls were in demand, and Circassian slaves were highly valued. Newcomers who arrived in the harem were first given new names, converted to Muslims and taught the language. The most beautiful and gifted girls were taught literacy, singing, dancing, etiquette, because over time they could become the mothers of the heirs to the throne. But the main science was the science of seduction and love: professional seductresses were raised from shy and quiet women.

At the same time, the girl had to remain modest and dutiful: after the owner cast a favorable glance at her, the concubine had to put herself in complete order with the help of her retinue (bath, hair removal, rubbing with oils, etc.) and crawl on all fours to the bed, proving his submission, and also kiss the edge of the sofa on which the master lies. After an act of love, she was destined for a reward and promotion up the hierarchical ladder of the harem.

In the 21st century there is no training for wives, but there is selection and testing. A girl must be virgin, have clean tests for AIDS, undergo a medical examination and interview.

Examines the recruits of the matchmaker's harem - mashate. These people observe the behavior of the concubines and deliberately provoke quarrels in order to study the characters of the girls. A woman in a harem must be flexible and be able to resolve domestic conflicts. To avoid quarrels, a man must be fair: sleep with his wives on a first-come, first-served basis, without depriving anyone of attention or gifts.

Europeans have always sympathized with the inhabitants of the harem, comparing their existence to a prison or life in a golden cage. Eastern women have a different attitude towards this lifestyle: they are glad to be in the care of a wealthy man and know that they and their children will not need anything.

In former times, there was a constant turnover of personnel in the harem. Concubines could leave the palace after nine years of service if they were not in demand, after which they were given a diamond set, gold watches, fabrics, and everything that was required to furnish the house. They were also paid a regular allowance. These women were called palace women and were highly respected in society. At a personal request, it was possible to leave the harem ahead of schedule.

Today, divorce in Islam is a simple matter. A man or woman only has to say “Talaq, talaq, talaq” three times, which means “Divorce, divorce, divorce,” and get freedom. If there is one wife, you will have to give her half of the property, if there are two of them, each receives one third. The children remain in the care of their father. But girls, as a rule, stay with their mother.

However, there is a way to remain without a penny after living in a harem - to commit adultery. If four witnesses testify to the wife’s infidelity, then the husband may not pay anything, but it is usually impossible to find so many eyewitnesses.

After the death of the owner of the house, his women usually receive freedom. During the Ottoman Empire, the former ruler's harem was moved to an old, shabby palace, where the first ladies lived out their lives. It's different these days. Thus, Kim Jong-un, having come to power in 2011, immediately dissolved his father’s harem and was demonstratively monogamous for some time.

A year earlier, 70-year-old Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad died. The country's new leader, his son Bashar al-Assad, ordered 40 of his father's concubines to leave Syria within 24 hours, without taking any of their personal belongings or jewelry with them. The German newspaper Bild noted that among the women there were Germans, Swedes and French - and not a single Arab girl. Officially in Syria it is allowed to have one wife, but no one prohibits having common-law wives.

The inhabitants of the rulers' harems could not be called unhappy recluses. They had a prosperous and entertainment-filled life: the palaces had their own theaters, ballet troupes, and orchestras. The retinue that surrounded each bride or wife provided the pampered young lady with comprehensive care for her appearance, like modern beauty salons: manicure, pedicure, hairstyle, makeup, new outfits, etc. Eunuchs, although they could not replace male society, still diluted the female team; artists, musicians, and teachers came to visit the ladies, and life was not monotonous: games in the garden, walks and other girlish fun were allowed. In modern times, the inhabitants of a harem do not have an army of maidservants and eunuchs at their disposal; they have to do housework themselves, but the richer the husband, the more better level the life of his harem. In many countries, as a result of emancipation, women no longer want to share a man with others; monogamy is becoming fashionable.

Often the concubines of the beys turned out to be European, including Russian girls, who were especially valued by the nobles of the East. But a harem is not just a fenced place where Muslim women live in “prison” with their husband-owner. This is an initiation institute, similar to a Christian monastery, where girls receive a new name, are taught religious veneration and absolute submission. The esoteric symbolism of the Sufis, combined with the obvious erotic orientation of the rituals, hides, surprisingly, religious service.
What secrets did harems keep, where women had to realize themselves at the cost of abandoning themselves?

In the strict sense of the word, a harem is a room specifically designed for women to live in and located inside a palace or any other large building. The Muslim home is traditionally divided into two completely different parts: "selamik", the male half, and "garenlik", the area where women are doomed to spend their entire lives. Here ladies drink, smoke, sleep, meet friends, sing, dance, do small manual jobs and, above all, scrupulously follow the rules of the Muslim religion.

During the golden age of the Turkish Empire, about 4 thousand people lived on the territory of the Topkani Palace. The complex included four large palaces and a harem. “Harem” sometimes means “sacred” or “one whose borders are inviolable.” Persons of the opposite sex are prohibited from entering this place, except eunuchs and the ruler himself, the owner of the house. Crossing the threshold of the harem inevitably entailed the loss of the head of the violator of this law.

The life of Muslim women took place only here, while men calmly walked the streets, sometimes worked, paid each other visits, or simply chatted in the main square. The woman remained unknown to almost anyone, with the possible exception of her husband’s closest friends.

Yes, and in the Islamic East she is the manager and mistress of the house. But inside the harem, she shares life with other women of the same status or with maids and even slaves. And there a pyramidal hierarchical structure is inevitably created, at the top of which stands the first wife, who gave birth to her husband’s son-heir.

The curtain of secrecy is opening

The first European to see the inside of the harem was Thomas Dallan, sent to Constantinople in 1599 to tune the organ that the Spanish Queen Isabella had given to the Sultan. The Turkish ruler was so angry at the ignorance of his subjects, none of whom knew how to play this instrument, that he showed great affection for Dallan and even offered him two of his concubines. To do this, he brought the guest into the palace, while he himself remained outside. The Briton describes his experience quite vividly: “As I came closer, I noticed that the outer wall was very wide, but through the bars you could see about thirty concubines of the Great Lord who were playing ball. At first glance I took them for boys, but then I saw that their hair falls to their shoulders in braids, in which bunches of pearls are woven, and some other signs by which I realized that the women in front of me wore nothing on their heads except a golden cap, some wore leggings, others walked with bare legs. , with gold earrings on bracelets at their ankles; others wore velvet shoes about eight centimeters high.” This observation ended with Dallan deciding to flee the city before the Sultan came to his senses - he was afraid that visiting the harem would cost him his life.

The bazaars of Moorish Spain are comparable only to African slave markets. Concubines entered the harem from the slave market in Constantinople. Most of them, captured in other countries as girls, were taught “good behavior”, playing the musical instruments and dancing, and then presented to the Sultan as a gift. Once in his harem, they were accepted into Islam after uttering a simple traditional phrase: “La illahe illa alla, mohamet rasul alla” (another transcription is possible, but the meaning is the same: “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet”).

Another Renaissance traveler, the Venetian Ottaviano Bon, describes the harem this way: “In their home, women live like nuns in a monastery.” And a little later he adds: “The girls break all previous ties once and for all as soon as they enter the seraglio. They receive new names.”

These two pieces of evidence seem quite significant: the girl's appearance in the harem and her residence there were associated with religious rituals. As you know, Islam does not know monasticism - neither for men nor for women; however, the harem is almost equal in importance to a Catholic nunnery.

Women are initiated with a new name, they must also leave their entire previous lives in order to be accepted into the harem, and they must also preserve their virginity.

Just as a Muslim man realized himself in pious reflections and meditations, in holy war or consecrated work, women realized themselves by denying themselves and fulfilling their maternal and marital duties. And here we mean not only, and not so much a harem, but the most ordinary Muslim home, the family of a true believer.

As for the harem, here the concubines had to honor their master as a superhuman being and obey him absolutely. Custom, for example, forced a concubine who was chosen to spend the night with her master to enter his private chambers dressed in festive clothes and with great submission. A symbol of her humility was that she herself had to take off her shirt, climb onto the bed from the side of her legs and wait there for her lover.

The number of captured slaves in the harem was very high, and along with the isolation of their lives and strict adherence to the regime, as well as religious reverence for their master, this gave some percentage of the women hope for liberation. Therefore, each of the concubines tried as best she could to please the master. Dance of the belly and the seven covers

Jallaladin Rumi, the great Muslim poet, wrote that he who “knows the grace of dance lives in God...”

The dance had special meaning for the Islamic world. Often he became the most common entertainment in the harem.

But it happened that in Turkey, dervish brotherhoods practiced ritual syncope dances in order to achieve ecstasy. The circular rotation forced blood to move to areas of the brain where it would not normally reach as much; the very effort, fatigue and trembling rhythm of the dance led to an ecstatic opening, the removal of blocks from consciousness, allowing one to penetrate into the deepest regions human personality. In this way the dancer could achieve the mystical experience of merging with the Absolute.

As for the Muslim woman, she practiced two initiation dances, especially popular in the East: the belly dance and the dance of the seven veils.

In 1923, an Italian explorer who went deep into the regions of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, then in the possession of Italy, witnessed secret ceremonies erotic in nature, which were carried out by Muslim brotherhoods. Gallus, under such a pseudonym, this researcher traveled - was accepted into the esoteric circle formed around Julius Evola, the "Ur Group", and described his experiences in a monograph entitled "Life among the Arabs".

Gallus took part in a real belly dance ritual. It was performed by one woman - a member of the Sufi brotherhood. The dance consisted of three parts of different rhythms and was accompanied by special hand movements and facial expressions and represented three periods of a woman’s life. The last part depicted the erotic awakening of a person's basic power during sexual intercourse and was represented by movements of the abdomen and pubic region. Gallus pointed out that “the woman who performed the dance suffered as if in childbirth and behaved like a woman in labor.”
An experienced dancer, familiar with Sufi practices, achieves ecstasy during the dance and, more importantly, instills an erotic fascination on the audience in a unique way, which leads them to the same opening of consciousness.

As for the dance of the seven veils, their esoteric symbolism and erotic orientation are very noticeable. Tradition traces this dance back to the time of Akhum, the king of the Akhumites, who in 532 captured the country of the Queen of Sheba. His favorite was the beautiful Ayla Sah, whom the harem eunuch once caught trying to escape with one of the guests in the palace. Ayla, in order to save her head, promised the Sultan to perform the dance of the seven veils. Veil, veil, veil - it was a symbol of purity and innocence in Egyptian and Indian societies. Shedding each of the covers meant achieving the purity of the original Edenic consciousness. The covers symbolized the four elements (fire, earth, water and air) and the three foundations of the Being (body, soul and spirit). Shedding them meant achieving “quintessence” (the fifth essence, transcendence of the four elements) and “unity” (transcendence of the three foundations).

Sufi eroticism

The harem, dance and the series of short stories "A Thousand and One Nights" serve as components of Arab eroticism. It is difficult to imagine that a people so inclined to sensuality as the Arabs would not delve into the field of sexual magic. Even today, these practices continue to be performed in the Maghreb and the Middle East. The writer Paul Bowles says that his wife had a lesbian relationship with a Moroccan witch who controlled her through a plant whose roots she wrapped in a silk cloth along with the woman's menstrual blood and antimony. Here it is enough to remember that antimony is the main material used by Arab alchemists in their search for the philosopher's stone.

At the core of Arabic sex magic is the concept of sexual intercourse as a means of harnessing baraka or spiritual power. Those who wish to engage in this type of practice must pass a series of tests. For example, they will be required to resist hypnosis, no doubt to prevent passivity and immobilizing fascination the moment they come into contact with a woman. And besides, these brotherhoods had at their disposal specially trained women to perform sexual rituals.

Polygamy

The Prophet, despite introducing a strictly male religious tradition, allowed women's access to initiation. Islam affirms the fundamental inequality between man and woman, or more precisely, their complementarity. Mohammed wrote: “Three male vices turn into a woman’s virtues: greed, pride and timidity.” She should be greedy for her husband, proud, shying away from talking to anyone else, and timid so that no suspicion of her virtue arises.

The key problem of polygamy is explained in the Koran (IV, 3). A Muslim can have up to four wives if he is fair to them and able to support them. The line of the Koran on this subject is full of menace: “Whoever has two wives and treats them unjustly, on the Day of Judgment will be cut in two, so that one half will never be able to communicate with the other.”

The middle position of Arab society between the Byzantine world, the Persians and the Hindus led to its saturation with all neighboring traditions, and Islamic esotericism was superimposed on the Arab ethnic and cultural layer. In the harem, for example, Byzantine influence is noticeable. On the other hand, Islamic jihad - holy war - was the driving mechanism that facilitated the expansion of Islam and the creation of a special flow between the civilizations of the East and West. And this led to a certain renewal: having arrived from distant Arabia, Mohammed’s warriors absorbed Greek culture Byzantine periphery and entered the cultural elite of Asia Minor and Egypt. Through Spain, this influence spread throughout the West.

Well, the reverse flow caused by the Crusades and the arrival of mendicant and military orders in the East led to a kind of cultural “osmosis” and interpenetration. Thus, in some stories from the cycle about the Holy Grail, palaces with mysterious ladies appeared, where knights found themselves from time to time...
These were the harems.

Women on the blacklist

Eunuchs were the safest inhabitants of the harem. All this cannot force us to ignore the modern social reality of Arab countries, in which the instructions of the Koran are not always followed. Moreover, the Arab world has not remained impervious to Western secular influence.

Such is the case of the Moroccan female sociologist Fatima Mernissi, whose grandmother, Lalla Yasmina, was captured and sold in 1903 at Dar Benkirane, one of the most important slave markets. She spent 15 years in the Fez harem. Her granddaughter Fatima wrote the book “Morocco through the eyes of women” in 1984, and three years later - “Political Harem”. Both books were banned under pressure from spiritual authorities - the ulema. Of course: after all, "Political Harem" analyzed the entire tradition coming from Mohammed in relation to women and, with all due respect to the prophet, put forward the thesis that his message was distorted over the centuries to justify the enslavement of women in Muslim society.
In 1989, Fatima was included in a blacklist of 80 intellectuals unwanted by Khomeini.

Eunuch - guardian of the seraglio

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, their beard did not grow, 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.

The main idea was that the eunuch was sexually neutral, he had neither feminine nor masculine characteristics of sex and, thus, his presence in the harem did not in any way disturb the atmosphere of this special place, and besides, he remained in any case loyal to the owner of the seraglio.
So what is a harem? Most likely, a non-Muslim will never fully understand this. But nevertheless, we can say with confidence - this is an institute state power(a harem is a harem, and influential wives who kept pashas and sultans under the thumb were here too), this is a certain Muslim nunnery, this is a school of female eroticism, this is...
...And the sweet dream of the East...

Eastern Harem

Their paintings are full of bright light, dark men in exotic outfits and luxurious women without exotic outfits. But was it really so, or did we have to make a fair amount of speculation under the impression of the exotic? Real photo attached.

The East permeates our lives, we know almost everything about it, but for a European of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, the Middle East was an almost unknown, but very alluring place. By this time, the once powerful Ottoman Empire had entered a period of decline. Over the next two hundred years, the empire lost almost all previously captured territories, shrinking to modern Turkey. And as you know, the decline of any empire is characterized by an atmosphere of luxury and hedonism.

And rumors about the splendor of the Sultan’s court spread in all directions, reaching Europe, where industrialization, ugly and depersonalizing, was gaining momentum at that time. People of art suffocated in a mechanistic atmosphere and found a way out by traveling towards the unexplored world of the East. European scientists, artists, writers flocked there in search of inspiration, new impressions and simply adventure.

This research and the works of art born in its process were subsequently called “Orientalism.” The period of Orientalism lasted until the beginning of the 20th century, ending with a grandiose surge in fashion for everything oriental.
Everyone who was even slightly interested in the East has seen paintings by Orientalist artists. Jean-Leon Jerome, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and their contemporaries largely determined the global idea of ​​what the East looks like. Their paintings are full of bright light, dark men in exotic outfits and luxurious women without exotic outfits. Writers did not lag behind; the opinion of Europeans about eastern morals and customs is based on the works of Montesquieu, Hauff, Flaubert and Wilde.

Orientalists were generally people raised in strict European Christianity. Faced with new customs, they perceived and presented them in their own way, sometimes even deliberately distorting or speculating. When they returned from their travels, their stories formed myths and attracted new “explorers” to the east. It can be assumed that their stories about life in the Ottoman Empire became the source of the prevailing Western idea of ​​the harem as a place where the Sultan’s countless, certainly beautiful, concubines were kept, and where the main man of the Ottoman Empire indulged in endless amusements.

In reality, of course, none of the Western travelers had the chance to observe those scenes that they later painted so vividly with pen and brush. But they probably found their way to the hot spots of Cairo and Istanbul, communicated with dancers, no less exotic for them, but easily accessible.

They also went to the bathhouse. The Turkish bath - hammam - has survived to this day practically unchanged, with one important exception. During the Orientalist era, clients in Turkish baths were served by cute boys. They not only soaped and massaged visitors, but also openly offered intimate services. The European could not help but be shocked by this custom.

In addition, when visiting the houses of the nobility, or even the Sultan’s palace, European travelers could not help but notice that a significant part of the premises was closed to outsiders, and especially to men. “If such wonderful lewdness is happening in the city and in the bathhouse, how much more debauchery must be hidden in the imperial harem,” they thought. Fantastic stories filled their heads and poured out onto canvases, and the same street dancers acted as models. And the models were not always of indigenous nationality. They could have been Irish, Romanian, and Algerian Jewish women posed for Delacroix, for example.

Only at the end of the 19th century, with the final weakening of the sultanate and the growth of liberal and educational sentiments in Turkey, information about the internal structure of the harem became available to the general public, but wonderful tales Orientalists remain to this day the basis of Western man's idea of ​​the harem.


But what actually happened in the closed chambers of the Sultan’s palaces? The word harem comes from the old Semitic root "h-r-m". In modern Arabic there are three main derivatives from this root: haram - “sacred place or thing” (compare with the Russian word “temple”), kharaam - “something prohibited by religion, unworthy, taboo” and hareem - “inviolability privacy" The familiar word “harem” comes from the Turkish version of the last word.

The Ottomans took the protection of their privacy seriously. For example, the harem of the Topkapi Palace is built in such a way that it is almost impossible to see, neither from the Palace premises, nor even more so from outside the palace. In a similar way, other noble people of the empire sought to protect their harems. As the chronicler Tursun Bey wrote in the 15th century, “If the sun had not had a meaning in the Persian language feminine, even it would not be allowed into the harem.”

But in fact, the harem of the Turkish Sultan was, first of all, just a private residence of the monarch, closed from outsiders. In addition to the wives and concubines of the Sultan, other members of the ruling family also lived in the closed chambers: sisters, sometimes brothers of the Sultan, his daughters, sons until they reached adulthood, as well as their numerous servants. The role of the harem is also important as a school that provided its “listeners” with the best education that a woman could receive in the East.

The harem in the form in which it existed in the Ottoman Empire is not at all prescribed by the Koran, but is a development of ancient Turkish traditions taking into account Islam. The Sultan's harem was replenished by captives captured in the war or slaves bought at the market. The peoples of many peoples subject to the Turks could voluntarily send beauties to the harem as tribute. IN late XIX-XX centuries poetess Leila Saz, who came from a noble Turkish family, said in her memoirs: “Some Circassian women specifically raised their daughters in luxury and wealth in order to prepare them for future life in the harem of the padishah.”

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 years of 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 (everyone who ended up in the harem accepted Islam), dancing, playing musical instruments, belles lettres(many odalisques wrote good poetry), calligraphy, 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.”

So the Western travelers were right about one thing - they really were gathered in the Sultan’s palace best women empires. True, only a few of the inhabitants of the harem at least once saw the Sultan. Most were simply odalisque slaves (from the Turkish “odalik” - “maid”) and were at the very bottom of the harem hierarchy, in the service of other inmates. Only if a girl stood out for her special beauty or other talents did she have a chance to rise higher. Others performed various household roles, and after a few years in the harem, those who did not receive any post were allowed to leave the harem and get married.

The “graduates” of the Sultan’s harem were highly valued in the empire for their education and comprehensive training, and to receive an odalisque with a dowry from the Sultan as a gift, especially one that had not yet been in the royal bed, was an incredibly high honor. Those girls who were not distinguished by either high academic performance or economic talents could be married off before the expiration of the allotted period. A school for boys located in the same palace prepared the sons of noble families for various government positions, and graduates often received such an odalisque dropout as their first wife before leaving for the far corner of the empire.
If a girl was considered worthy of being in the presence of the Sultan, new prospects opened up for her. The next step up was to attract the attention of the Sultan and receive an invitation to share his bed. From that moment on, the Sultan’s concubine was called “ikbal” (“happy”) and immediately received a personal room and servants as a sign of her new status. During the heyday of the Ottoman Empire, the number of potential concubines in the harem numbered in the hundreds, and according to some sources exceeded a thousand, so the Sultan could afford to see most of the concubines only once, and this time was the only chance for further “career growth” - birth child of the royal family.

If a son was born to a concubine, then she joined the ranks of the harem elite and was called “Haseki Kadyn” or even “Haseki Sultan”. In fact, the Haseki Kadyn were the full-fledged wives of the Sultan, although this fact was rarely officially registered. Above them in the female hierarchy of the harem, and the empire as a whole, there was only one person: the mother of the monarch, the Valide Sultan. Valide Sultan was, in fact, the ruler of the harem and was in charge of his entire life, but her power was not limited to this, because her own son ruled the empire. Without formal power, the valide sultan could secretly be aware of the most important affairs in the country and exert significant influence both through direct whispering in the sultan’s ear and bypassing the monarch, bribing, persuading, intimidating or even eliminating statesmen and heads of the church. The figure of Valide Sultan, the Queen Mother, inspired fear and respect far beyond the harem and palace.

But, you must admit, the image of a woman standing at the helm of an empire sharply diverges from the image of a languid, half-naked beauty that was popularized by the Orientalists. The harem, contrary to reputation, was not a house of carnal pleasures at all, but a cadet corps and an important part of government system. The residents of the harems did not spend their days in bliss, but made a tangible career in their field. Even though they never directly measured their strength with men, their power and influence were no less.

But women did not make up the entire population of the harem. In the Sultan's chambers there were positions for which women were not suitable. For example, no one would expect them to perform guard duties or heavy physical work. At the same time, obviously, the Sultan had to remain the only man entering the harem. To resolve this contradiction, in parallel with the army of concubine slaves, there was an army of eunuch slaves in the palace.

Like slaves for the harem, eunuchs were bought in the markets from merchants, and already in a “ready” form, since Islam forbade castrating slaves. Black eunuchs were valued above all others. They, as a rule, were deprived of any ability to reproduce even in childhood, and therefore were allowed to serve in the inner premises of the harem. The eldest of them was Kizlar Aga (“manager of the maidens”), whose responsibility included guarding the female population of the harem and looking after all the maids and concubines. The white eunuchs who entered the palace were not always completely desexed, and some could even become fathers, so they were entrusted only with the protection of the harem, hence the name of the position of the eldest of them - Kapa Aga (“door manager”).

It was believed that eunuchs, being neither free people nor men, were devoid of worldly attachments and therefore loyal only to their master. However, eunuchs often pursued their own interests and were involved in the dirtiest palace and state intrigues.

But the Orientalists, or rather exoticists, did not know all this and could not know it. In their harem paintings, peace often reigns, not implying any passions. Wives and odalisques (captives or slaves), eunuchs, black servants are completely serene; they usually recline or swim in the pool; this is just the fantasy world of a shallow European male, for whom the harem is a space of absolute sexual freedom, complete power of a man over a woman.

Harem... There are not many words in the world that could compete with this, so attractive and mysterious. Everyone will find in it their secret desires, a fading kinship with primal instincts or nostalgia for those times when beauty had a decent price and refined connoisseurs.
“Harem” (haram) is an Arabic word, it means everything that is forbidden, as well as hidden and protected, secret and inaccessible to outsiders. When we mean the eastern house of past centuries, then haram is that part of it where women lived - mothers, wives, young children, concubines, slaves, and also eunuchs.

The European synonym for harem is the French word “seraglio,” which comes from similar-sounding Persian and Turkish words (serui, saray), meaning a large house or palace. In the minds of Europeans, the seraglio is the inner chambers of eastern rulers and their families. Today, many people believe that a harem is something like an Asian-style brothel, but the difference here is about the same as between a subway for everyone and a luxurious limousine for the elite.

In one form or another, harems existed everywhere, at all times and long before Islam as a phenomenon that did not contradict nature.

HAREM DEVICE

At first, harems existed separately from the palaces of the rulers. After the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II rebuilt it to his own taste. One of the main attractions of modern Istanbul is the giant Topkapi Palace (seraglio). Over time, the Sultan’s harem, which flourished under Suleiman the Magnificent, also migrated here. The best part of the palace was reserved for the harem. In other parts they received guests, organized diplomatic receptions, parades and other ceremonies. A contemporary left us the following explanation:

“Seraglio means palace: this name is given to the residence of the sovereign, as well as to the residences of the governors who govern the provinces on behalf of the Sultan. The word "seraglio" refers to a collection of palace buildings inhabited by both women and men. The most common part of these buildings is provided to women and is called a harem

The Seraglio, in which the Sultan usually lives, is a huge marble building, four times the size of the St. Petersburg Winter Palace. Three quarters of this entire mass of buildings is the harem, while the mobane, relatively speaking, is only an extension to the other building. Between the mobane and the harem there is a huge hall with special staircases, entrances and its own door of honor, designated for official receptions of foreign monarchs, envoys, ministers, etc.

“Independently of this main building, there are many more extensions to the seraglio, extensive buildings that serve as stables, kitchens, warehouses, barracks, etc. All these buildings form a kind of small city, stretching along the Bosphorus for about two kilometers.”

The harem consisted of several thousand rooms for various purposes, of which only about three hundred have survived, which are shown to tourists today. The harem complex was constantly expanded and rebuilt, especially after fires and earthquakes, and also acquired “branches” - villas on the Bosphorus and in other picturesque places. The main task The architects and other organizers of the “House of Happiness” were to create possible, and sometimes impossible according to ordinary concepts, amenities, beauty and a special atmosphere, conducive to the enjoyment of life and stimulating the inhabitants to surrender more fully to the joys of love.

This magnificent world, where the chosen ones entered through the “Entrance Gate of the Harem,” included luxuriously decorated chambers of wives and their children, magnificent apartments of the mother sultana, alcoves of concubines, a school of princes, homes of eunuchs and servants, rooms for recreation and entertainment, baths, gardens, ponds with exotic fish and swimming pools, fountains, menageries, theaters, hospitals and much more. The Sultan's heavily guarded palace also included several mosques.
Théophile Gautier also described the layout of the harem premises:

“The rooms are arranged in an enfilade or open onto a wide corridor... The apartments of each of the wives have a single door that opens into a spacious passage, like the doors of cells - into the gallery of the monastery. At both ends of the corridor eunuchs or bostanji stand guard.”

Harems were supplied with products grown on specially protected lands, in forbidden gardens. The fish were bred in special reservoirs. Entire units of slaves did this. The court's trading agents brought from all over the world the best they could find, including jewelry, fabrics and decorations, exquisite perfumes and the latest European innovations in the field of women's preferences.

Decorations

"The Sultan's love for his wives, and there were very many of them large number, was ruinous for the country, wrote Melek Khanum. - They acted in such a way that all their whims, no matter what kind they were, were satisfied. They assisted each other in extorting the most valuable gifts from him. Covered in diamonds, accompanied by numerous slaves, almost as richly dressed as their mistresses, the Sultan's wives rode out in carriages, each of which, with all its accessories, cost about 900,000 piastres... The decoration of their chambers was constantly renewed with new decorations. Within two years, the seraglio was renewed four times from top to bottom."

Gerard de Nerval described the chambers of the Egyptian princess (sister of the Sultan) somewhat differently: (Sitt al Mulk (the first lady of the state) was reclining on pillows in the alcove of one of the far rooms; the decoration of this room was dazzling with its splendor. The vault, made in the form of small domes, resembled bees honeycombs or a grotto with stalactites due to the elaborately complex ornament, where bright red, green, blue and golden tones alternated. The walls, as high as a man's height, were lined with amazing mosaic tiles of glass; heart-shaped arches gracefully rested on lush capitals in the form of turbans, and they , in turn, rested on marble columns. Along the cornices of the doors and windows there were inscriptions in Carmatian script, the graceful letters of which were interspersed with flowers, leaves and curls of arabesques. In the center of the room there was a fountain, streams of crystal clear water rose to the very vault and fell into a round pool. with a silver ringing, scattering into thousands of splashes.”

Descriptions of the harem chambers were also left by foreign ladies who had the rare opportunity to visit them. One such story is given by George Doris:
"In the princesses' apartments there are various kinds of meeting rooms, and I had the opportunity to examine their furnishings in some detail during my visit. It was in the summer: white linen completely covered the polished oak parquet floor. Here and there there were sofas covered with red and yellow satin trimmed gold fringe; armchairs and sofas surrounded a polished table inlaid with ivory. Oriental furniture was adjacent to a cabinet from the era of Louis XV. The walls were hung with paintings (mostly landscapes), framed with Turkish inscriptions made in gold letters on black velvet. The painted ceiling depicted views of the Bosphorus. The entrance was disguised by a luxurious curtain, against the pink background of which the Sultan's typa (the Sultan's monogram) stood out.

Théophile Gautier was lucky enough to see the apartments of the first lady of the court - the mother of the Sultan:
“The chambers of the Valide Sultana - high rooms overlooking the Bosphorus - are remarkable for their ceilings with fresco paintings of incomparable freshness and grace. , shimmering with all shades of the spectrum, or beautiful flowers entwining a golden lattice. Sometimes the motif is a box of jewels scattered in glittering disorder, sometimes a necklace from which pearls fall like raindrops, sometimes scatterings of diamonds, sapphires and rubies. Here is the ceiling, as if covered with bluish smoke rising from the golden incense burners depicted on the cornices.... Nearby, a gold-woven brocade curtain, assembled with a tie of carbuncles, opens up an expanse of blue, a little further the azure grotto shimmers with sapphire reflections. Endless interweaving of arabesques, carved caissons, golden rosettes, bouquets of flowers, fantastic and natural, blue lilies of Iran and roses of Shiraz diversify the themes, of which I have named only the main ones, without wanting to go into details - they can easily be completed by the reader’s imagination.”

And here is a description of the reception chambers of the wife of an important nobleman:

“Three of the four walls were entirely occupied by windows, generously filling the room with light and air - it is difficult to find a more accurate comparison for it than a greenhouse, for expensive flowers were fragrant everywhere here. The floor was covered with a magnificent soft carpet from Smyrna; the ceiling was decorated with arabesques and wicker patterns, colored and gilded; two long sofas, covered with yellow and blue satin, stretched along the walls; another sofa, small and low, stood in the partition between the windows, from where a magnificent panorama of the Bosphorus opened; blue silk pillows were scattered across the carpet. a large, emerald-colored jug of Bohemian glass with gold streaks, standing on the same tray. The other contained a chest of embossed leather with patterns, notches and gilding, very beautiful and reminiscent of the intricate decoration of Moroccan chests, which Delacroix does not miss the opportunity to depict in his African paintings. Unfortunately, a European mahogany chest of drawers has been wedged into this Asian luxury. On its marble board, between two vases with artificial flowers, stood a clock under a glass cover, exactly like that of some venerable rentier from the Marais. Similar dissonances, so annoying for the artist, are found in all Turkish houses that pretend to good taste. Adjacent to this room was another, more simply decorated: it served as a dining room and had access to the servants’ staircase.”

Gardens of Delights

In the hot climate of the East, there is nothing more pleasant than indulging in bliss in the cool shade of a blooming garden. Melek Khanum described a visit to the garden of a noble Egyptian lady: “It was amazingly beautiful. Date palms, orange trees, flowers and bushes were arranged with extraordinary art. Even the walls seemed to be draped with greenery.”

The best gardens, of course, were in the harems of the overlords. An example of such a garden is presented in the tales of “A Thousand and One Nights”:

“A garden where there was everything that is desirable to the soul and delights the eyes. There were tall columns and buildings going up, and there were arched gates near the garden, like those of a palace, and an azure gate, like the gates of the gardens of Eden, the gatekeeper of which was called Ridwan, and above them there were vines of all kinds of colors: red, like coral, black, like the noses of blacks, and white ones, like pigeon eggs... And in this garden there were various fruits and birds of all kinds and colors: wood pigeons, nightingales, singing partridges, turtle doves and pigeons that cooed on the branches, and in its canals there was flowing water , and these streams shone with delightful flowers and fruits...

And on the trees in this garden there were a pair of each fruit, and there were pomegranates in it, similar to Kayravan balls, as the poet said:

You see: here are pomegranates with thin skin;
It's remarkably similar to a girl's breasts.
Having cleared them, you will go crazy, you will comprehend,
There is nothing more expensive than yachts in the world...

And there were apples in this garden - sugar, musk
And the Damanian ones, stunning to the eye...
And in this garden there were apricots, almond and camphor, from Gilan and Ain-Tab...

And in this garden there were plums, cherries and grapes, which healed the sick from ailments and took away bile and dizziness from the head, and the figs on the branches - red and green - confused the mind and eyes...
And there were pears in this garden - Tyrian, Aleppo and Rumian, of various colors...
And in this garden there were Sultanian peaches of various colors; yellow and red...
And in this garden there was a green almond, very sweet, like the heart of a palm tree, and its seed was under three clothes...
And in this garden there was a hawthorn of various colors...
And in this garden there were oranges similar to galangal...
And in this garden there were lemons, the color of gold, and they came down from the highest place and hung on the branches, like ingots of gold...
And in this garden there were all kinds of fruits, flowers, and greenery, and fragrant plants - jasmine, privet, pepper, lavender and rose, in all their various forms, and lamb's grass, and myrtle, and all the flowers in all sorts. And it was an incomparable garden, and it seemed to the beholder a corner of the Gardens of Eden: when a sick person entered it, he came out of there like a raging lion. And language cannot describe it, such are its wonders and wonders...

Images of the Sultan's wives walking among flowers, capable of decorating the most generous imagination of nature, haunted painters. In the pictures illustrating secret life the seraglio, birds flutter around languid beauties and wonderful butterflies circle, miniature gazelles timidly caress and tame monkeys jump. Slaves offer sweets and drinks to the mistresses, and musicians delight the ears with songs.

HAREM HIERARCHY

A gathering of women of different status and beauty in a confined space, even if it was a luxurious harem, always threatened with stormy and unpredictable events. Peace and tranquility in the seraglio remained for the time being, and even the great ruler himself could not guarantee it. Centuries of experience proved the need for a special hierarchy, which would at least partially maintain discipline in a ladies’ meeting seething with passions. This harem code, reminiscent of a “table of ranks,” strictly regulated the relationships, privileges, rights and responsibilities of the harem personnel, depending on what level of the “service ladder” a particular inhabitant of the seraglio was at.

Osman Bey, one of the Turkish officials, wrote in his sarcasm-filled book “The Turks and Their Women, the Sultan and His Harem”:

“The Eastern sages recognized this truth, which is proven by the fact that, filling their harems with hundreds of women, they found it necessary to lay at the basis of harem life a strict disciplinary system, thanks to which husbands with three or four wives can manage their harem and maintain order in it , obedience. The sultans had to do the same thing that the owners of the bourgeois harems did, only on a much larger scale. In fact, in order to support and keep thousands of women in obedience, they had to create a whole constitution with their own hierarchical degrees, their own laws. and regulations, the establishment of a hierarchy was absolutely necessary, because otherwise it would be impossible to determine the place of each member of the harem, as well as the responsibilities lying on each of them. This harem constitution does not have a founder, an author, whose name would be known to posterity: it is -. a matter of necessity and time.

The hierarchy of the imperial harem represents the same correct plan as any other hierarchy, having its own intermediate levels and its subalterns, whose relations are established on the basis of the rights of seniority, rights to production, to awards, etc. The favor of the Sultan is, of course, great cornerstone the entire hierarchical building. However, it cannot be otherwise.”

Sultan's Harem:

Valide Sultan (mother of the Sultan).

Khaznedar-usta (great treasurer).

Bah-kadina (the first wife of the Sultan), second, third and fourth kadin.

Bakh-irbal (His Majesty’s first favorite), second, third and other irbals.

Gezde (maidens noticed by the Sultan, tea or sighing).

Kadin-effendi (mothers of princes or princesses).

Sultanas (unmarried princesses of the blood).

Each of the named ladies has her own special courtyard (daire) and a retinue of women.
Now let’s imagine the structure of the Valide Sultan’s own court, which served as a model for everyone else.

Valide Sultan

Her treasurer, secretary, keeper of the seal, first keeper of the wardrobe, first pourer of water, first giver of coffee, first preparer of sherbet, etc., in a word, a dozen ladies called kalfa (mistress). Each kalfa has at its disposal a certain number of female students, called alaibr, which means slaves. All alaibras are very young - from fifteen to twenty - and constitute the lowest level of the harem hierarchy.

Let us now move on to a more detailed description of the main stages of the harem “table of ranks”.

Valude Sultan (mother sultana)

The mother of the ruling sultan was the top of the harem hierarchy. Her power was unquestioned and undivided, like that of an empress. The “First Lady,” who managed to make her son, usually one of many, the heir to the throne, unwittingly inspired respect in her circle, and in others - fear and awe. And who knew harem life with all its obvious and secret sides better than she?

It would seem that the ruler of the harem could be one of the legal four wives of the Sultan, but this entailed the most dangerous intrigues, which would inevitably involve the competing clans of each of the wives. It was simpler and safer to keep wives in an equal position, giving power to the venerable matron. And the wives should leave the competition for the attention of the Sultan and the hope of making their son the next Sultan.

Valide Sultan was not only the ruler of the harem, but also a trendsetter. Ladies who dared to dress more luxuriously or wear more expensive jewelry risked serious trouble not only for themselves, but also for their spouse. Valide Sultan was called “Oh, the crown of those covered with burqas!” or "Our Lady". Without her knowledge, not a single significant event took place in the harem, including trips from the seraglio or visits to relatives. Without her approval, no one could be “enlisted” in the harem, be it a black slave cook or a white-skinned odalisque who was given a meticulous examination.

Formally, an important dignitary called Valide Kiyassi, appointed by imperial decree, was assigned to the Valide Sultan. He performed administrative functions. And although he was supposed to be the “eye of the Sultan” in the harem, mostly was busy providing material support for the “House of Happiness”, following the wishes of the Valide Sultan.

Khaznedar-usta

The support of the mother-sultana in the harem itself was the haznedar-usta - the main housekeeper, who also performed the duties of treasurer and intendant. This lady, usually middle-aged and very experienced, had hundreds of personal servants, assistants, slaves and eunuchs. Khaznedar kept house, kept order and submitted regular reports to the lady.

One of her main prerogatives was the elevation of the chosen ones, happy with the attention of the Sultan, to the bed of the sovereign. She presided over this delicate ceremony with deep knowledge of the matter, after which she met and escorted the Sultan himself to the object of passion.

If necessary, she represented the Valide Sultan outside the harem. And she was shown no less respect than the Sultana-mother, on whom the Khaznedar had significant influence.

If it happened that the mother sultana left this world, her duties and powers passed to the khaznedar-usta. However, she did not always fulfill her duties honestly. When the mother of Sultan Abdulmecid died, chaos began in the harem, which the Khaznedar did not fail to take advantage of in her own interests. With her entourage, she stole the property and treasury of the harem, thus taking possession of a multimillion-dollar fortune. But her power was so great that the ministers who were aware of her tricks, including the Minister of Finance, only humbly bowed their heads before her.

Sultan's wives (Kadin-effendi)

As a Muslim, the Sultan had the right to have up to four wives, that is, official wives with whom marriage contracts were concluded and weddings were celebrated with all appropriate ceremonies. However, over time, this rule has undergone many changes. Marriage contracts were no longer concluded with everyone or were not concluded at all. The very institution of concubines was a blasphemous violation of Muslim law, because only women who were captured by Muslims during jihad - a war for faith - could be recognized as concubines. But there were few of them. The overwhelming number of concubines entered harems in completely different ways, which will be discussed later.

Eventually, the sultans began to marry only slaves without unnecessary formalities. Those slave-concubines who bore children to the Sultan, who were considered the legal heirs, were recognized as wives. Nevertheless, only four spouses were still considered the main or beloved (Haseki). The first wife was called bakh-kadina. Each of the main wives had a daire - their own apartments with a corresponding staff of slaves, eunuchs, etc. Usually the Sultan's wives lived on the upper floors, and the servants on the lower floors.

If the place of one of the wives became vacant for any reason, it was filled by a woman who managed to attract the special attention of the Sultan. And it is not difficult to imagine what a fierce, although hidden from prying eyes, struggle was waged for the right to occupy this coveted niche.

Kadins

The main contenders for the title of one of the four legal wives of the ruler were simply Kadins. These ladies were also in a very privileged position, since they were either pregnant or had already given birth to a prince or princess.

Gerard de Nerval, who was given a secret tour of the seraglio when there were no women in it, wrote: “These were the rooms of the Cadines. The absolute similarity of these premises surprised me, but they explained to me that complete equality reigns between the wives of the Sultan...

As an example, the artist told me that when His Highness orders boxes of chocolates for his wives in Pere, usually from a French pastry chef, they must be the same. Extra wrapper special shape sweets, even extra marshmallows or dragees, would cause unwanted disagreements between these lovely creatures; Like all Muslims, they have a very strong sense of equality.”

The Kadins were considered recognized, albeit unofficial, wives of the Sultan. Before their rise, the Kadins were in the rank of iqbal - favorites

Iqbal

A dozen charming odalisques, more successful than others in the harem sciences, constituted a kind of aristocracy of servants and surrounded the Sultan who visited the harem. The main thing was to catch the eye of the Sultan and attract his attention. Some slaves were looking for such an opportunity, while others found the opportunity itself. This could happen in the most ordinary circumstances - when he was sleeping, eating, getting dressed. It happened that the Sultan noticed his concubines at receptions, holidays or trips. Unlike all other men, the Sultan could see the female staff of any harem with their faces open. This privilege of His Majesty was accepted without complaint, although it went beyond the scope of a single
for all Muslims of the law.

The Koran says on this matter: “And tell (women) believers: let them lower their gaze and guard their members, and let them not show their jewelry, except what is visible from them, let them throw their veils over the cuts on their chests, let them not show their ornaments, except to their husbands, or to their husbands, or to their husbands' fathers, or to their sons, or to their husbands' sons, or to their brothers, or to their brothers' sons, or to their women, or to what their right hands have possessed, or male servants who have no desire, or children who have not comprehended the nakedness of women; and let them not kick with their feet, so that they will know what kind of jewelry they are hiding. Turn to Allah, O believers, perhaps you will be happy!" (24:31)

“Suppose the Sultan decided to visit his mother or one of his legal wives,” writes Osman Bey. - In the chambers that the Sultan wanted to visit, a terrible turmoil began. Everyone makes noise, shouts, dresses up and decorates the apartment. When His Majesty sits down on the sofa reserved only for him, he is offered treats with special ceremony. The slaves who served at the reception now had the opportunity to approach the Sultan and present their natural and artificial charms to his gaze. The Sultan himself was not averse to looking at these charming girls who were circling around him, serving coffee, filling his pipe with tobacco and trying in every possible way to please the sovereign. And it is not surprising that one of these beauties will be able to attract the special attention of the sovereign. Captivated by the beautiful slave, the Sultan did not hesitate to demonstrate his flaring passion - with a gesture, an overly intent gaze, a slight smile.

What's her name? - asked the Sultan.

This was enough for the slave to be elevated to the rank of a gezde - one that caught the eye. The Sultan's mother or wife gave a special sign to the slave, who approached and kissed the edge of the sofa on which the master was sitting. After that, a slave was introduced to him, who from that moment became a gezde.

The next day, the gezde left the daire of her former mistress and was placed in other apartments, where she was brought to required type, dressed up and gave the necessary instructions before the Sultan wanted to get to know all her advantages better.”

George Doris described a similar situation:

“It may happen that the choice of the padishah will fall on one of the slaves belonging to his relatives, the sultanas, or his princess daughters, who live outside Yildiz and only occasionally visit him. So, one evening, when His Majesty was giving dances and ballet in his harem, he noticed among the dancers a young slave named Meste-Alem, a servant of his youngest daughter, Princess Zekkie. The next morning, two of the Sultan's eunuchs arrived at the princess's palace and announced to her that they had come for the young Meste-Alem, who had received a special honor - a royal desire.

The excitement of the young Circassian woman, who had never even dreamed of such an elevation, was great! Her mistress hastened to order that she could take a traditional bath and, surrounded by her slaves, was present at her toilet. In the scent of perfume and in a rich outfit, the new chosen one, still thinking that she was dreaming, got into a luxurious carriage and, accompanied by mounted eunuchs, arrived in Yildiz, where the Valide Sultan immediately called her and gave her the usual instructions.

However, despite the haste with which she was taken to the palace, it was only on the fourth day that Meste-Alem was presented to the master. And either his whim passed, or the girl did not seem so beautiful to him, or he did not recognize her in her new outfit, but His Majesty, raising his eyebrow at the sight of her, said sharply: “This is not the one. Send her back.” Trembling, disgraced, deeply wounded in her nascent pride, soaring so high only to fall so low and so suddenly, the poor thing was escorted back to Princess Zekkiye - this time without any signs of honor, accompanied by an ugly and old black eunuch .

However, she, inconsolable in her grief from the ordeal she had endured, did not have to suffer for long: she became sad, languid and pale, began to cough and soon died.”

The transformation of a gezde into a favorite or simply a concubine (mistress) was accomplished in a well-known manner. And if the Sultan was satisfied with his choice, the gezde received the title of iqbal, and with it a monthly allowance, servants and eunuchs. About Sultan Abdul Hamid's relationship with his harem, George Doris wrote:

“Sometimes he deigns to talk with his favorites, in whose eyes it is not difficult for him to look like a person of brilliant mind: they are all absolutely ignorant, and the superficial education they received does not prevent them from remaining childishly naive. He dedicates them - in the most general outline- into the affairs of world politics, tells them various stories, sensational anecdotes from foreign palace life (which he himself is a big fan of) - and these are the only history lessons that are taught to them.
... The harem is their whole world. They were brought here as children; here they are protected like a precious flock; here they live and die, without learning anything about the world around them, without even realizing what life is.” The favorites were also “first”, “second”, and even tenths or hundredths... But, unlike the main wives, the primacy of the favorites was very relative. Nothing prevented the Sultan from “blessing” a new slave with his royal favor and immediately forgetting about her predecessor.

Melek Khanum wrote:

“I was accompanied by odalisques, whose necks were tied with white scarves with poems embroidered on them, and this meant the master’s very favorable attitude towards them.”

This kaleidoscope, sparkling with passions, apparently entertained the all-powerful Sultan, but brought a lot of trouble to the harem managers. Determining who is the real favorite today and who is the beloved wife was not easy, given the unpredictability of the padishah’s love fantasies.

The ambiguity of the situation haunted the favorites themselves. They only dreamed of getting pregnant and giving birth to a prince or princess. In addition to the joy of motherhood itself, this raised the favorites to new level harem hierarchy, turning them into Kadin. But almost insurmountable difficulties awaited them along this path.

Kalfa

These old, experienced slaves, including former concubines, knew a lot and were able to do a lot. Each kalfa was in charge of a separate “department” - servants, cooks, wardrobe, bath attendants, doctors, singers, musicians, etc. There were also kalfas - keepers of seals, ceremonies, heads of protocol, secretaries-scribes, tasters, etc.

The calfs themselves bought young slaves, based on the needs of their “department”, dressed, fed and, most importantly, taught the newly minted maids the intricacies of the craft.

Sympathizing with the fate of the unfortunate slaves, who they themselves once were, the calfs took kind maternal guardianship over them. Anticipating how difficult it would be for them to achieve something in the harem, the kalfa did not miss the opportunity to marry off a slave if a suitable match appeared. And they even gave them a dowry, like their own daughter.

Harem professions required special skills and great responsibility. For example, the kalfa, who served as the first coffee pourer, taught her charges how to brew this coffee, how to serve it, how to recognize good and bad coffee beans, so as not to incur the wrath of their masters. Special attention was given to serving. Luxurious dishes in which coffee was served were usually decorated with enamel and precious stones.

The Kalfs were the guardians of the traditions of the harem, its unique culture and customs. They themselves were already part of the harem and did not think of another fate. If one of the Sultan’s wives died, then her kalfa was considered the heir, who, perhaps, once bought a girl at the market herself, and then helped her ascend to the top of the harem pyramid. When the Kalfa died, all her property and even her accumulated money became the property of the Sultan. Perhaps this is why the sultans were so generous with their wives, that ultimately everything spent came back to them.

Male servants

No matter how strict the harem rules were, no matter how chaste the inhabitants of the seraglio were, no matter how suspicious the eunuchs were, it was impossible to manage without men in such a large household. Someone had to build, repair, decorate, deliver firewood and food, cultivate gardens, care for horses, drive carriages and boats.

All these works were performed by specially selected men who, it was believed, were not capable of arousing even a shadow of reprehensible interest among the female staff. Moreover, measures were taken to ensure that the men themselves, who were allowed outside the walls of the harem if absolutely necessary, would not have the opportunity to see those whom they were supposed to serve. Those, for example, who delivered firewood (battaji), were ordered by a special imperial decree to wear an absurd uniform. Her huge collar and other awkward additions, as Osman Bey wrote, did not allow the servants to see anything around. Thus, they resembled a procession of blind lepers with bundles of firewood on their backs, who followed a sighted eunuch guide. Other eunuchs ordered the women to hide and made sure that the battaji did not violate the legal secrecy. Nevertheless, the efforts of the eunuchs did not always bring the desired result and the battajas managed from time to time to establish amorous connections in the harem. The harem hermits gave such patronage to some of them for the special services rendered to them that the battaji received important official positions.

Battaji who retired had the right to a pension and could occupy profitable positions.

Kaziev Sh. Daily life of an oriental harem(excerpt)
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Surprisingly, the harem was initially filled with the daughters of eastern princes. They themselves sold the girls in the hope that one of them would still be able to become a sultana. Plus, the parents signed papers in which they renounced ownership rights to their daughters. Slaves were taught etiquette, dancing, music, and the ability to give pleasure to a man. As the girls grew older, they were shown to the Grand Vizier. Only the best entered the Sultan's chambers.

While in the harem, everyone received a salary

While in the harem, the girls received salaries and gifts on holidays. According to the rules, if a slave, after being in a harem for 9 years, was not chosen by the Sultan as a wife, then the ruler gave her freedom, having first found a worthy husband.

If the Sultan chose a slave to spend the night with, he would send a gift. This girl was sent to the bathhouse, then dressed in loose clothes and sent to the Sultan’s chambers. After the ruler went to bed, the concubine had to crawl on all fours to his bed and, without raising her eyes, lie down next to him. If the Sultan liked a girl, she became his favorite and moved from the lower chambers to the upper ones.

If the favorite became pregnant, she was already classified as “lucky” (iqbal) by seniority. A separate room in the harem became another privilege for such women. In addition, they were served 15 varieties of dishes.

If the favorite became the wife of the Sultan (Kadyn-effendi), she was sent new fabrics, jewelry and a written marriage certificate. Wives who had several children were called Haseki (in the 16th-18th centuries). For the first time the Haseki named his wife Hurrem (Roksolana) Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.

Entertainment of concubines in a harem

The harem even had a schedule for visiting the Sultan's chambers for his concubines and wives. From Friday to Saturday the ruler was obliged to receive one of his wives. If the wife did not come to the Sultan’s chambers for 3 Fridays in a row, she had the right to complain to the judge.