THE HAREM

At the dawn of the second millennium, The Turks, a nomadic race from the steppes of Siberia, swept through Mesopotamia all the way into Saudi Arabia. Along this journey, the nature-worshipping, horseback riding, nomadic warriors, took the religion of the lands they conquered. By the 13th century most of the Turks had converted to Islam. As Europe was mired in the bleakness and the ignorance of the Middle Ages, the Turkic tribes founded the highly civilized Ottoman Empire, which would extend from Africa to Asia to Europe and span six hundred years. With the capture of the holy cities Mecca and Medina in the early 15th century, the Ottoman Sultan took the title of the Caliph, the supreme leader of all the Muslims in the world. When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople from the Byzantines in 1453, the city flourished as the center of Islamic, art, architecture and literature.

Much has been documented about the Ottomans except for their women. At the end of the first millennium, the Turkic women would ride alongside their men and exert incredible degrees of authority. Free huntresses and warriors, these women had precise duties, carried responsibility within their tribe, and their role was important in the sparse nomadic habitat. However, with the adoption of Islam and its strict moral code, Turkish society and the place of women within it changed. The Ottomans separated and silenced their women by putting them behind the closed doors of the harems.

The word "harem" comes from the Arabic word "haram" and means "unlawful," "protected," or "forbidden." According to Islam several things are "haram" including eating pork and viewing another man's wives. Harem, a world of isolated women, is the combined result of several traditions. It suggests a clear idea of the separation between the sacred and the profane. Under such a system, men and women are among the first to be divided. Women symbolize passion; men, reason. Islam imposed segregation and the veil upon women, claiming that they had to be kept away from men who were not close relatives for their own protection. Thus the need for secluded dwelling places for women became imperative. The women had to protect their bodies and honor by living apart from men. Therefore, the harem became the separate part of a household where women, children, and servants live in maximum privacy.

The most opulent and intriguing Harem in the Islamic world was the Harem of the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul. Young girls of extraordinary beauty, plucked from the slave market, were sent to the sultan's court, often as gifts from his governors. The girls were all non-Muslims and came from around the world, but mostly from the Caucasus region, Asia and Africa. Once the slave girl was confined in the harem, her given name would be changed to a Persian one that suited her particular qualities. She was forced to convert to Islam and hence began an arduous training in palace etiquette and Islamic culture. They were taught to dance, recite poetry, play musical instruments, and master the erotic arts.

To be a slave to the sultan was a privilege and an opportunity. Many free-born Muslims bribed or cajoled their way into the sultan's household or voluntarily gave their girls to the harem. The slavery system in the Ottoman court was different than the "Western" idea of slavery. With talent, smarts and manipulation, any slave could rise to become a powerful person in the Empire. Accepting the status of slave to the Sultan was to become an Ottoman. To be an Ottoman was to accept the duties of a caste: absolute loyalty and obedience. In return the sultan provided a career, a status and a salary for life.

The oppressive system and the elusive promise of absolute power motivated the harem women to act in fierce competition for the coveted title of the "Sultan's Mother". Violent murders, betrayals, poisonings became the norm in the Royal Harem. Over time the dominance of the harem system became a cancer within the Empire. The excessive interference of the harem women in state politics was instrumental in the ultimate decline and fall of the Ottomans.

Harem women formed only half of the harem hierarchy. Eunuchs were the integral other half of the harem. Eunuchs were considered to be less than men and thus unable to be "tempted" by the harem women and would remain solely loyal to the Sultan. Eunuchs were castrated men and hence possessed no threat to the sanctity of the harem.

According to Muslim tradition, no man could lay his eyes on another man's harem, thus someone less than a man was required for the role of watchful guardianship over the harem women. Eunuchs tended to be male prisoners of war or slaves, castrated before puberty and condemned to a life of servitude.

White eunuchs were first provided from the conquered Christian areas of Caucasia, Georgia, and Armenia. They were also culled from Hungarian, Slovenian, and German prisoners of war. These white eunuchs were captured during the conflicts that arose between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan countries. Black eunuchs were captured from Egypt, Abyssinia and the Sudan. Black slaves were captured from the upper Nile and transported to markets on the Mediterranean Sea - Mecca, Medina, Beirut, Izmir and Istanbul. All eunuchs were castrated en route to the markets by Egyptian Christians or Jews, as Islam prohibited the practice of castration but not the usage of castrated slaves.

There were several different varieties of eunuchs:

Sandali, or clean-shaven: The parts are swept off by a single cut of a razor, a tube (tin or wooden) is set in the urethra, the wound is cauterized with boiling oil, and the patient is planted in a fresh dung-hill. His diet is milk, and if under puberty he often survives.

The eunuch whose penis is removed: He retains all the power of copulation and procreation without the wherewithal; and this, since the discovery of caoutchouc, has often been supplied.

The eunuch, or classical thlibias and semivir, who has been rendered sexless by the removing of the testicles..., or by their being bruised..., twisted, seared or bandaged.

Black eunuchs tended to be of the first category: Sandali, while white eunuchs were of the second or third categories, thus have part or their entire penis intact. Because of their lack of parts, black eunuchs served in the harem, while white eunuchs served in the government (and away from the women). At the height of the Ottoman Empire, as many as six to eight hundred eunuchs served within the Seraglio (palace). Most eunuchs arrived as gifts from governors of different provinces. At the end of their training as young eunuch pages, eunuchs were assigned to service. White eunuchs were placed under the patronage of various government officials or even into the service of the Sultan himself (like in Topkapi Palace). If they were black eunuchs, they were placed into the service of a harem personage, such as a Kadin, or a daughter or sister of the Sultan. They could also serve under the Kizlar Agha (master of the girls), the Chief Black Eunuch.

The Chief Black Eunuch (Kizlar Agha)

The Kizlar Agha was the third highest-ranking officer of the empire, after the Sultan and the Grand Vizier (Chief Minister). He was the commander of the baltaci corps (or halberdiers - part of the imperial army). His position was a pasha (general) of three tails (tails referring to peacock tails, and the most number of tails permitted being four and worn by the Sultan). He could approach the Sultan at any time, and functioned as the private messenger between the Sultan and the Grand Vizier. He was the most important link between the Sultan and the Valide Sultan (mother of the Sultan).

The Kizlar Agha led the new odalisque (virgin) to the Sultan's bedchamber, and was the only "man" who could enter the harem should there have been any nocturnal emergencies. His duties were to protect the women, to provide and purchase the necessary odalisques (virgins) for the harem, to oversee the promotion of the women (usually after the death of a higher-ranking) and eunuchs. He acted as a witness for the Sultan's marriage, birth ceremonies, and arranged all the royal ceremonial events, such as circumcision parties, weddings, and fêtes. He also delivered sentence to harem women accused of crimes, taking the guilty women to the executioner to be placed into sacks and drowned in the Bosphorus which lay outside the Topkapi Palace.

The Chief White Eunuch (Kapi Agha)

The Chief White Eunuch was the head of the Inner Service (which is the palace bureaucracy) and the head of the Palace School (school for white eunuchs). He was also Gatekeeper-in-Chief, head of the infirmary, and master of ceremonies of the Seraglio. The Kapi Agha controlled all messages, petitions, and State documents addressed to the Sultan, and was allowed to speak to the Sultan in person. In 1591, Murad III transferred the powers from the white to the black eunuchs as there were too many embezzlements and various other nefarious crimes being attributed to the white eunuchs, among them being purported intimacy with the harem women. The Kapi Agha's loss of powers was seen through the decreasing of his ceremonial duties (which had various stipends entailed) and the decrease in his overall income. Originally, the Kapi Agha was the only eunuch allowed to speak to the Sultan alone, but as his importance decreased, the Valide Sultan and the Kizlar Agha were able to request private audience with the Sultan also. Because of their possible disloyalty, white eunuchs were assigned positions that did not bring them into contact with the harem women as many of them had incomplete castrations (still possessing of their penis). The total number of white eunuchs in the Seraglio at any given time was between 300 and 900.