Harem
Encyclopedia
Harem refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous
household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men. It originated in the Near East
and is typically associated in the Western world with the Ottoman Empire
. For the South Asian equivalent, see purdah
and zenana
.
The word has been recorded in the English language
since 1634, via Turkish
harem, from Arabic ḥaram 'forbidden because sacred/important', originally implying 'women's quarters', literally 'something forbidden or kept safe', from the root of ḥarama 'to be forbidden; to exclude'. The triliteral
Ḥ-R-M is common to Arabic words denoting forbidden. The word is a cognate of Hebrew ḥerem, rendered in Greek as anathema
when it applies to excommunication pronounced by the Jewish Sanhedrin
court; all these words mean that an object is "sacred" or "accursed".
Female seclusion in Islam
is emphasized to the extent that any unlawful breaking into that privacy is ḥarām "forbidden". A Muslim harem does not necessarily consist solely of women with whom the head of the household has sexual relations (wives and concubines), but also their young offspring, other female relatives, etc. The Arabic word حرمة ḥurmah, plural حريم ḥarīm, was traditionally a term for a woman of the speaker's family, regardless of status; it has since become the standard word for "woman" in Iraqi Arabic
. It may either be a palatial complex, as in Romantic tales, in which case it includes staff (women and eunuchs), or simply their quarters, in the Ottoman tradition separated from the men's selamlık
. The zenana
was a comparable institution.
It is being more commonly acknowledged today that the purpose of harems during the Ottoman Empire was for the royal upbringing of the future wives of noble and royal men. These women would be educated so that they were ready to appear in public as a royal wife.
The word harem is strictly applicable to Muslim households only, but the system was common, more or less, to most ancient Oriental
communities, especially where polygyny was permitted.
The Imperial Harem
of the Ottoman sultan, which was also called seraglio
in the West, typically housed several dozen women, including wives. It also housed the Sultan's mother, daughters and other female relatives, as well as eunuchs and slave
servant girls to serve the aforementioned women. During the later periods, the sons of the Sultan also lived in the Harem until they were 16 years old, when it was considered appropriate for them to appear in the public and administrative areas of the palace. The Topkapı
Harem was, in some senses, merely the private living quarters of the Sultan and his family, within the palace complex. Some women of Ottoman harem, especially wives, mothers and sisters of sultans played very important political roles in Ottoman history, and in times it was said that the empire was ruled from harem. Hürrem Sultan (wife of Süleyman The Magnificent
, mother of Selim II
) and Kösem Sultan (mother of Murad IV
) were the two most powerful women in Ottoman history.
Moulay Ismail
, Alaouite sultan
of Morocco
from 1672 to 1727, is said to have fathered a total of 525 sons and 342 daughters by 1703 and achieved a 700th son in 1721. He had over 500 concubines.
an imagination, especially during the Age of Romanticism
, and was a central trope of Orientalism
in the arts, due in part to the writings of the adventurer Richard Francis Burton
. Many Westerners falsely imagined a harem as a brothel
consisting of many sensual young women lying around pools with oiled bodies, with the sole purpose of pleasing the powerful man to whom they had given themselves. Much of this is recorded in art from that period, usually portraying groups of attractive women lounging nude by spas and pools.
A centuries-old theme in Western culture is the depiction of European women forcibly taken into Oriental harems - evident for example in the Mozart opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail
("The Abduction from the Seraglio") concerning the attempt of the hero Belmonte to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the seraglio/harem of the Pasha
Selim; or in Voltaire
's Candide
, in chapter 12 of which the old woman relates her experiences of being sold into harems across the Ottoman Empire.
"The Lustful Turk
", a well-known British erotic novel was also based on the theme of Westen women forced into sexual slavery in a Harem (that of the Dey
of Algiers
; while in "A Night in a Moorish Harem
", a Western man invades a Harem and enjoys forbiden sex with nine concubines. In both works, the theme of "West vs. Orient" is clearly interweaved with the sexual themes.
Angélique series
by Sergeanne Golon, in which a 17th century French noblewoman is captured by pirates, and sold into the harem of the King of Morocco.
In Leonid Solovyov
's well-known Russian novel Tale of Hodja Nasreddin (translated to
English as The Beggar in the Harem: Impudent Adventures in Old Bukhara), a central plot element is the protagonist's efforts to rescue his beloved from the Harem of the Emir of Bukhara - an element not present in the original tales of the Middle Eastern folk hero Nasreddin
, on which the novel was loosely based.
H. Beam Piper
used the theme in a science fiction
context, portraying a gang which kidnaps girls from a Western-dominated, technologically advanced timeline
and sells them to a Sultan
's harem in an Asia
n-dominated timeline (see http://hbpiper.wikispaces.com/Indo-Turanian+Sector).
In the Soviet movie White Sun of the Desert
the main character is a Red Army
soldier protecting woman from an abandoned Harem, while also inciting them to live a Soviet lifestyle.
Much of the plot of The Janissary Tree
– a 2006 historical crime novel
by Jason Goodwin
, set in Istanbul
in 1836 – takes place in the Sultan's harem, with the main protagonist being the eunuch detective Yashim. The book in many ways seeks to overturn the above stereotypes and rooted conventions. For example, in one scene the Sultan groans inwardly when a new concubine is brought to his bed, since he does not feel sexual at all and would much rather send her away and curl up with a book. He does not, however, have that option; were he to reject the concubine, "she would spend the whole night crying bitterly, by the morning the whole palace will hear that the Sultan has become impotent, by noon all Istanbul will know it, and within a week the rumour will reach the entire empire."
Polygyny
Polygyny is a form of marriage in which a man has two or more wives at the same time. In countries where the practice is illegal, the man is referred to as a bigamist or a polygamist...
household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men. It originated in the Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
and is typically associated in the Western world with the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. For the South Asian equivalent, see purdah
Purdah
Purdah or pardeh is the practice of concealing women from men. According to one definition:This takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes, and the requirement for women to cover their bodies and conceal their form....
and zenana
Zenana
Zenana , refers to the part of a house belonging to a Muslim family in the Middle East and South Asia reserved for the women of the household. The Zenana are the inner apartments of a house in which the women of the family live...
.
Etymology
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
since 1634, via Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
harem, from Arabic ḥaram 'forbidden because sacred/important', originally implying 'women's quarters', literally 'something forbidden or kept safe', from the root of ḥarama 'to be forbidden; to exclude'. The triliteral
Triliteral
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals"...
Ḥ-R-M is common to Arabic words denoting forbidden. The word is a cognate of Hebrew ḥerem, rendered in Greek as anathema
Anathema
Anathema originally meant something lifted up as an offering to the gods; it later evolved to mean:...
when it applies to excommunication pronounced by the Jewish Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Biblical Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel made of 71 members...
court; all these words mean that an object is "sacred" or "accursed".
Female seclusion in Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
is emphasized to the extent that any unlawful breaking into that privacy is ḥarām "forbidden". A Muslim harem does not necessarily consist solely of women with whom the head of the household has sexual relations (wives and concubines), but also their young offspring, other female relatives, etc. The Arabic word حرمة ḥurmah, plural حريم ḥarīm, was traditionally a term for a woman of the speaker's family, regardless of status; it has since become the standard word for "woman" in Iraqi Arabic
Iraqi Arabic
Iraqi Arabic is a continuum of mutually intelligible Arabic varieties native to the Mesopotamian basin of Iraq as well as spanning into eastern and northern Syria, western Iran, southeastern Turkey, and spoken in respective Iraqi diaspora communities.-Varieties:Iraqi Arabic has two major varieties...
. It may either be a palatial complex, as in Romantic tales, in which case it includes staff (women and eunuchs), or simply their quarters, in the Ottoman tradition separated from the men's selamlık
Selamlik
The selamlik is the portion of a Turkish palace or house reserved for men; as contrasted with the seraglio, which is reserved for women and forbidden to men.-See also:*Oda *Odalisque...
. The zenana
Zenana
Zenana , refers to the part of a house belonging to a Muslim family in the Middle East and South Asia reserved for the women of the household. The Zenana are the inner apartments of a house in which the women of the family live...
was a comparable institution.
It is being more commonly acknowledged today that the purpose of harems during the Ottoman Empire was for the royal upbringing of the future wives of noble and royal men. These women would be educated so that they were ready to appear in public as a royal wife.
History
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...
communities, especially where polygyny was permitted.
The Imperial Harem
Imperial Harem
The Imperial Harem of the Ottoman Empire was one of the most important elements of the Ottoman court. It was known in the West as "the Seraglio", an Italian term.- Harem quarters:...
of the Ottoman sultan, which was also called seraglio
Seraglio
A seraglio or serail is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish household. The word comes from an Italian variant of Turkish saray, from Persian sarai , meaning palace, or the enclosed courts for the wives and concubines of the harem of a house or palace...
in the West, typically housed several dozen women, including wives. It also housed the Sultan's mother, daughters and other female relatives, as well as eunuchs and slave
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
servant girls to serve the aforementioned women. During the later periods, the sons of the Sultan also lived in the Harem until they were 16 years old, when it was considered appropriate for them to appear in the public and administrative areas of the palace. The Topkapı
Topkapi
Topkapi or Topkapı can mean:* The Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Turkey* Topkapı, a neighbourhood of Istanbul near the Roman city walls * Topkapi , a 1964 caper movie...
Harem was, in some senses, merely the private living quarters of the Sultan and his family, within the palace complex. Some women of Ottoman harem, especially wives, mothers and sisters of sultans played very important political roles in Ottoman history, and in times it was said that the empire was ruled from harem. Hürrem Sultan (wife of Süleyman The Magnificent
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...
, mother of Selim II
Selim II
Selim II Sarkhosh Hashoink , also known as "Selim the Sot " or "Selim the Drunkard"; and as "Sarı Selim" or "Selim the Blond", was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death in 1574.-Early years:He was born in Constantinople a son of Suleiman the...
) and Kösem Sultan (mother of Murad IV
Murad IV
Murad IV Ghazi was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods...
) were the two most powerful women in Ottoman history.
Moulay Ismail
Ismail Ibn Sharif
Moulay Ismaïl Ibn Sharif was the second ruler of the Moroccan Alaouite dynasty. Like others of the dynasty, Ismaïl claimed to be a descendant of Muhammad through his roots to Hassan ibn Ali...
, Alaouite sultan
Alaouite Dynasty
The Alaouite Dynasty is the name of the current Moroccan royal family. The name Alaouite comes from the ‘Alī of its founder Moulay Ali Cherif who became Prince of Tafilalt in 1631. His son Mulay r-Rshid was able to unite and pacify the country...
of Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
from 1672 to 1727, is said to have fathered a total of 525 sons and 342 daughters by 1703 and achieved a 700th son in 1721. He had over 500 concubines.
Depictions in contemporaneous Western culture
The institution of the harem exerted a certain fascination on the EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an imagination, especially during the Age of Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, and was a central trope of Orientalism
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
in the arts, due in part to the writings of the adventurer Richard Francis Burton
Richard Francis Burton
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS was a British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas as well as his...
. Many Westerners falsely imagined a harem as a brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
consisting of many sensual young women lying around pools with oiled bodies, with the sole purpose of pleasing the powerful man to whom they had given themselves. Much of this is recorded in art from that period, usually portraying groups of attractive women lounging nude by spas and pools.
A centuries-old theme in Western culture is the depiction of European women forcibly taken into Oriental harems - evident for example in the Mozart opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
("The Abduction from the Seraglio") concerning the attempt of the hero Belmonte to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the seraglio/harem of the Pasha
Pasha
Pasha or pascha, formerly bashaw, was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries. As an honorary title, Pasha, in one of its various ranks, is equivalent to the British title of Lord, and was also one of the highest titles in...
Selim; or in Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
's Candide
Candide
Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best ; Candide: or, The Optimist ; and Candide: or, Optimism...
, in chapter 12 of which the old woman relates her experiences of being sold into harems across the Ottoman Empire.
"The Lustful Turk
The Lustful Turk
The Lustful Turk, or Lascivious Scenes from a Harem is a pre-Victorian British erotic epistolary novel first published anonymously in 1828 by John Benjamin Brookes and reprinted by William Dugdale. However, it was not widely known or circulated until the 1893 edition.The novel consists largely of a...
", a well-known British erotic novel was also based on the theme of Westen women forced into sexual slavery in a Harem (that of the Dey
Dey
Dey was the title given to the rulers of the Regency of Algiers and Tripoli under the Ottoman Empire from 1671 onwards...
of Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
; while in "A Night in a Moorish Harem
A Night in a Moorish Harem
A Night in a Moorish Harem is an erotic novella written by "Lord George Herbert" at some time around 1900. It recounts a night spent by a shipwrecked British sailor in a Moroccan harem with nine concubines of different nationalities...
", a Western man invades a Harem and enjoys forbiden sex with nine concubines. In both works, the theme of "West vs. Orient" is clearly interweaved with the sexual themes.
In popular culture
The same theme was and still is repeated in numerous historical novels and thrillers. For example, Angélique and the Sultan, part of the bestselling FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Angélique series
Angelique (series)
Angelique is series of 13 French historical adventure books by the novelist duo Anne and Serge Golon. The first 10 books have been adapted into English while numbers 11-13 have not...
by Sergeanne Golon, in which a 17th century French noblewoman is captured by pirates, and sold into the harem of the King of Morocco.
In Leonid Solovyov
Leonid Solovyov
Leonid Vasilyevich Solovyov was a Russian writer and playwright.Born in Tripoli, Syria where his father taught at the Russian consulate, he began writing as a newspaper correspondent for the Pravda Vostoka, published in Tashkent...
's well-known Russian novel Tale of Hodja Nasreddin (translated to
English as The Beggar in the Harem: Impudent Adventures in Old Bukhara), a central plot element is the protagonist's efforts to rescue his beloved from the Harem of the Emir of Bukhara - an element not present in the original tales of the Middle Eastern folk hero Nasreddin
Nasreddin
Nasreddin was a Seljuq satirical Sufi figure, sometimes believed to have lived during the Middle Ages and considered a populist philosopher and wise man, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes. He appears in thousands of stories, sometimes witty, sometimes wise, but often, too, a fool or...
, on which the novel was loosely based.
H. Beam Piper
H. Beam Piper
Henry Beam Piper was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.He wrote under the name H. Beam Piper...
used the theme in a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
context, portraying a gang which kidnaps girls from a Western-dominated, technologically advanced timeline
Timeline
A timeline is a way of displaying a list of events in chronological order, sometimes described as a project artifact . It is typically a graphic design showing a long bar labeled with dates alongside itself and events labeled on points where they would have happened.-Uses of timelines:Timelines...
and sells them to a Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
's harem in an Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n-dominated timeline (see http://hbpiper.wikispaces.com/Indo-Turanian+Sector).
In the Soviet movie White Sun of the Desert
White Sun of the Desert
White Sun of the Desert , a classic 'Eastern' or Ostern film of the Soviet Union.The film is one of the most popular Russian films of all time. Its blend of action, comedy, music and drama has made it wildly successful and it has since achieved the status of a cult film in Soviet and Russian...
the main character is a Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
soldier protecting woman from an abandoned Harem, while also inciting them to live a Soviet lifestyle.
Much of the plot of The Janissary Tree
The Janissary Tree
The Janissary Tree is a crime novel, written by Jason Goodwin. It is set in Istanbul in 1836.The first in a series featuring the eunuch detective Yashim, it deals with the fictional aftermath of a real event in Ottoman history – the so-called Auspicious Event, which took place in June 1826 – the...
– a 2006 historical crime novel
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
by Jason Goodwin
Jason Goodwin
Jason Goodwin is a British writer and historian. He studied Byzantine history at Cambridge University. Following the success of A Time For Tea: Travels in China and India in Search of Tea, he walked from Poland to Istanbul, Turkey...
, set in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
in 1836 – takes place in the Sultan's harem, with the main protagonist being the eunuch detective Yashim. The book in many ways seeks to overturn the above stereotypes and rooted conventions. For example, in one scene the Sultan groans inwardly when a new concubine is brought to his bed, since he does not feel sexual at all and would much rather send her away and curl up with a book. He does not, however, have that option; were he to reject the concubine, "she would spend the whole night crying bitterly, by the morning the whole palace will hear that the Sultan has become impotent, by noon all Istanbul will know it, and within a week the rumour will reach the entire empire."
See also
- Aimée du Buc de RivéryAimée du Buc de RivéryAimée du Buc de Rivéry was a French heiress, a cousin of Empress Josephine, who went missing at sea at the age of eleven...
- Concubine
- Culture of the Ottoman EmpireCulture of the Ottoman EmpireThe culture of the Ottoman Empire evolved over several centuries as the ruling administration of the Turks absorbed, adapted and modified the cultures of conquered lands and their peoples...
- Eunuch (court official)
- GynaeceumGynaeceumA Gynaeceum or Gynaeconitis in Ancient Greece was a building or was the portion of a house reserved for women, generally the innermost apartment. In other words, a women's quarters, similar to the Persian zenana...
- HammamHammamA Turkish bath is the Turkish variant of a steam bath, sauna or Russian Bath, distinguished by a focus on water, as distinct from ambient steam....
- Harem (genre)
- Imperial HaremImperial HaremThe Imperial Harem of the Ottoman Empire was one of the most important elements of the Ottoman court. It was known in the West as "the Seraglio", an Italian term.- Harem quarters:...
- Islam and slaveryIslam and SlaveryIslamic views on slavery first developed out of the slavery practices of pre-Islamic Arabia. During the wars between different states/tribes in various parts of the world, prisoners/captives were either killed or enslaved...
- The Mughal HaremThe Mughal HaremThe Mughal Harem is a book by historian K.S. Lal published in 1988. It is an important study on the history and nature of the Mughal Harem. The book is a study on the Mughal Harem of medieval India. K.S...
by K. S. LalK. S. LalKishori Saran Lal was an Indian historian. He wrote many historical books, mainly on medieval India. Many of his books, such as History of the Khaljis and Twilight of the Sultanate, are regarded as standard works....
- Nurbanu Sultan
- Oda (harem)
- OdalisqueOdalisqueAn odalisque was a female slave in an Ottoman seraglio. She was an assistant or apprentice to the concubines and wives, and she might rise in status to become one of them...
- PilegeshPilegeshPilegesh is a Hebrew term for a concubine with similar social and legal standing to a recognized wife, often for the purpose of producing offspring.-Etymology:...
- RoxelanaRoxelanaHaseki Hürrem Sultan was the wife of Süleyman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire.-Names:Sixteenth-century sources are silent as to her maiden name, but much later traditions, for example Ukrainian folk traditions first recorded in the 19th century, give it as "Anastasia" , and Polish...
- SeraglioSeraglioA seraglio or serail is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish household. The word comes from an Italian variant of Turkish saray, from Persian sarai , meaning palace, or the enclosed courts for the wives and concubines of the harem of a house or palace...
(ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
from PersianPersian languagePersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
sarāy "palace, enclosed courts") carries a similar meaning. - Sexual slaverySexual slaverySexual slavery is when unwilling people are coerced into slavery for sexual exploitation. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO, with the cooperation of various international agencies...
- ZenanaZenanaZenana , refers to the part of a house belonging to a Muslim family in the Middle East and South Asia reserved for the women of the household. The Zenana are the inner apartments of a house in which the women of the family live...
- Zenobia (Fiction)Zenobia (Fiction)Zenobia is a seraglio concubine who has a romantic attachment to King Conan in the fictional universe of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian. After freeing Conan from the dungeon of Xaltotun, she is later chosen by him to become the queen-consort of Aquilonia...
Non-fiction
- Hans Wehr. A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic: (Arabic-English), 4th ed. Spoken Language Services, 1994, s.v. حرم.
- Etymology OnLine
- N. M. Penzer. The Harēm : Inside the Grand Seraglio of the Turkish Sultans. Dover PublicationsDover PublicationsDover Publications is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward Cirker and his wife, Blanche. It publishes primarily reissues, books no longer published by their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books in the public domain. The original published editions may be...
, 2005. ISBN 0-486-44004-4 - Alev Lytle Croutier. Harem: The World Behind the Veil, reprint ed. Abbeville Publishing Group (Abbeville Press, Inc.)Abbeville Publishing Group (Abbeville Press, Inc.)Abbeville Publishing Group is an independent book publishing company specializing in fine art and illustrated books. Based in New York City, Abbeville publishes approximately 40 titles each year and has an active backlist of over 700 titles on a wide range of subjects, including art, architecture,...
, 1998. ISBN 1-55859-159-1 - Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul: The Sultan's Harem, new ed. Penguin (Non-Classics), 2001. ISBN 0-14-027056-6
- M. Saalih. Harem Girl : A Harem Girl’s Journal reprint ed. Delta, 2002. ISBN 0-595-31300-0
- Fatima Mernissi. Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society, reprint ed. Delta, 2002. ISBN 0-253-20423-2
- N. M. Penzer. The Harēm: An Account of the Institution as it Existed in the Palace of the Turkish Sultans with a History of the Grand Seraglio from its Foundation to Modern Yimes. Dorset Press, 1993. ISBN 1-56619-255-2
- Andrew Rippin. Muslims (Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices), 2nd ed. Routledge, 2000. ISBN 0-415-21782-2
- Malise Ruthven. Islam: A Very Short Introduction, new ed. Oxford University Press USA, 2000. ISBN 0-19-285389-9
- "Royal French Women in the Ottoman Sultans' Harem: The Political Uses of Fabricated Accounts from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-first Century"
- Kaziev, ShapiKaziev ShapiShapi Magomedovitch Kaziev, is a Russian writer, playwright and script writer. He is the author of historical novels and other books.-Life and career:...
East harem Everyday life of East harem. "Molodaya Gvardiy" publishers. Moscow, 2006. ISBN 5-235-02853-8
Fiction
- Dora Levy MossanenDora Levy MossanenDora Levy Mossanen is the author of Harem and LA Times best-seller Courtesan, published by Simon & Schuster, and writes in the genre of historical fiction....
. Harem: A Novel. Touchstone, 2002. ISBN 0-7432-3021-3 - Alum Bati. "Harem Secrets". Trafford, 2008. ISBN 978-1-4251-5750-0
- Colin Falconer. The Sultan's Harem. Crown, 2004). ISBN 0-609-61030-9
- Alev Lytle Croutier. The Palace of Tears, reprint ed. Delta, 2002. ISBN 0-385-33491-5
- Anastasia M. AshmanAnastasia M. AshmanAnastasia M. Ashman is an American author and cultural producer.-Background:Ashman was born in Berkeley, California, graduated from Berkeley High School in 1982, and received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College in Classical Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern Archaeology in 1986...
and Jennifer Eaton GokmenJennifer Eaton GokmenJennifer Eaton Gökmen is an American writer and editor.-Background:Gökmen was born in Wayne, Michigan, graduated from Brentwood High School in 1989, and received her B.A...
, eds. Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern TurkeyTales from the Expat HaremTales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey is a nonfiction anthology by 32 expatriate women from seven nations and five continents about their lives in modern Turkey, published by Seal Press in North America and Doğan Kitap in Turkey .Edited by Anastasia M...
, reprint ed. Seal Press, 2006. ISBN 1-58005-155-3 - Harem novel from Aslı Sancar. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/38962 ISBN:6051142623
External links
- Article on a female slave in harem by Giles MiltonGiles MiltonGiles Milton is a writer who specialises in the history of exploration. His books have been published in seventeen languages worldwide and are international best-sellers...
Slave Girl in the Harem: The Story of Maria ter Meetelen - Ottoman Harem
- Some paintings of harems
- Harem Novel From Aslı Sancar