The word harem stems from the Arabic haram or harim, meaning sacred and forbidden.
Principally aimed at holding the royal womenfolk
away from prying eyes, the Imperial Harem of the
Ottoman Empire grew into a gilded cage where women
were trained and raised to serve the royal purpose.
The harem was populated with the Sultan’s mother,
wives, other female relatives, concubines and slaves.
They were zealously guarded by eunuchs.
In the course of time, as we shall see later, the residents of the harem started moving
beyond their homely duties of producing heirs and moved closer to the seat of power.
Exquisitely beautiful, harems were physically
spots of idyll in the palace, set apart from the
rest of the palace by complex designs which
made contact with the world outside difficult.
There was nothing wanting in the way of worldly pleasures –
the architecture and gardens were unparalleled in beauty.
From a modern perspective though, this was nothing short
of a golden cage housing birds with clipped wings.
The women residing within had only one
purpose – to serve the Sultan on the throne.
The life in the harem was thus designed to this end.
They offered the requisite female influence in the lives of the Sultan, in terms of
emotional attachments, social standing and the securing of the future of the throne.
Hierarchy within a harem
The women occupying the harem followed a distinct hierarchy.
The establishment was rallied around the Valide Sultan
– in other words, the mother of the reigning Sultan.
This matriarchal setup was tied to the longevity of the Sultan himself; his death would
spell the end of the dominion of the Valide
Sultan in the harem, and she would be secluded.
The other women in the harem served the Valide Sultan
and her observations about them decided their fate.
She selected the appropriate concubines for the Sultan, her son.
The second best were married off to the court nobilities.
The lacking and belligerent were punished, either by being left penniless
and without a visible prospect, or by summary execution in some cases.
This centralisation of power meant that the women
usually tried to cosy up to the Valide Sultan, so
as to survive comfortably and further their personal
– and in some cases, political – ambitions.
The next in line was the first wife of the Sultan
–Hasseki Sultan, the one who born him maximum sons.
This was followed by Hasseki Kadin – the wife who born
daughters; the Sultan was allowed to have only four of these.
While the Valide Sultan and Hasseki Sultan lost much of their powers upon the death
of the ruler, the Hasseki Kadin could remarry, upon the demise of the Sultan.
The next in line was the hassodalik or the ikbal, meaning the fortunate girl.
These were basically the Sultan’s mistresses.
They were known to be beautiful and talented.
Their prominence and position were validated
by the Valide Sultan and the Hasseki Sultan.
Often these women were given away as gifts to visiting men worthy of being honoured.
This stratum was followed by the gozde or gedik.
These were young female graduates of the harem school, who had
caught the eye of the Sultan for their beauty and intelligence.
If they pleased the Sultan enough and bore him daughters or
sons, they could be promoted up the pyramid and paid more.
There was no hard-and-fast rule regarding the accession of these
women; the only requisite was to be able to be spotted by the Sultan.
The students of the harem school constituted the next layer of residents.
Known as the sahgird, they were educated in music, dancing, poetry, love and religion.
If they graduated, they learned to read, write and narrate
stories (a very important aspect of this civilisation).
If they failed to fare well, they could be married
off to less eligible men – relatively less
brilliant students of the Palace school, rather
than being promoted to the level of a gedik.
The last stratum was comprised of servants and guards of the harem.
The harem was guarded – night and day – by eunuchs who had been
purchased from Ethiopia or Sudan or claimes as spoils of war.
Originally, the harem and the Palace school – where the elite young boys
received their training – were guarded by the same community of white eunuchs.
However, the black eunuchs were solely tasked with stringently defending
the harem; many of them often rose up the ranks in the Sultan’s army.
The zealous guarding of the harem was evidence of the extreme
privacy that this establishment demanded in the Ottoman Empire.
How were the women treated within the harem?
Contrary to the popular belief regarding the use
of harem women as slaves for sexual contentment
alone, education – in various forms – was an
inherent part of the life of women in a harem.
Looks were hardly ever deemed enough.
Women and girls – who had been captured from lands as far as Russian, Iran and Greece –
were required to undergo training in basic
literacy, including mathematics and religion.
Besides, they were taught the more qualitative
aspects of sophistication and presentation.
They learned to embroider, sing and dance.
In that sense, the harem functioned as a starting
and finishing school for young girls so that they
could grow up in a way that made it easier for
them to find their position in the royal society.
Freedom was, however, all a matter of perspective.
These women were effectively imprisoned within the golden cage
of the palace, disallowed from stepping out in the city below.
But there was hardly anything lacking within the premises.
Equipped with the highest standards of luxury and aesthetic decorations,
the harems were incredibly soothing and offered a reflective mood.
It was an ideal place for the Sultan to retire in and relax in the
company of charming, intelligent women and exquisite surroundings.
In some sense of the word, only the Sultan’s wives were free, while all others
were bound in some or the other form, somehow linked to the ruler’s proclivities.
In the obvious absence of free will, the prospects of these women were usually measured
in terms of marriage and hinged almost completely
on their ability to appease the Sultan.
Those who succeeded were rewarded copiously.
Besides monetary benefits, they were given living quarters, slaves,
eunuchs, in addition to the unlimited affections of the Sultan.
This usually meant that clothing and jewellery flowed for the fortunate few.
The ruling Sultanate of women
The women of the harem were far from dull.
With time, they started influencing the political fabric of the Ottoman empire.
This began with the time of Roxalena – otherwise
known as Hurrem Sultan – Hurrem meaning
cheerful in Persian – when she and her entourage
moved to the Seraglio from the Old Palace.
As the utter favourite of the Sultan Suleiman The Magnificent, she was a close
confidante to the Sultan in matters of both household and state affairs.
Though never proved concretely, Hurrem Sultan is
credited with several political manoeuvres, which, as
argued by some historians – may have played some
role in the eventual decline of the Ottoman Empire.
Kosem Sultan – the Hasseki Sultan of Sultan Ahmed I –
was another influential figure in the Ottoman empire.
Of Greek origin, Kosem Sultana first came to power when her husband ruled.
But after his untimely death, she had to retreat
to the Old Palace, as mandated by the code.
Subsequently, however, she returned as a Valide
Sultan as the mother of her minor son Murad IV.
Given that he was still not of age, Kosem stayed on as an official regent.
It is said that she effectively ruled the kingdom
through her son, during the latter’s reign.
The last in a line of this rule of women was Naksidil
Sultan, who was the Valide Sultan to Mahmud II.
The Imperial Ottoman Harem was not what the West easily assumes:
a mass of women that the Sultan imprisoned for his pleasure.
Quite opposite to that, only a few women were in
fact deemed fit for association with the ruler.
This decision was primarily left to the Valide
Sultan, and to a less extent, to the Hasseki Sultan.
The ultimate aim was to secure the future of the Sultanate.
The code of the harem was almost strict, but more often than
not, the affections of the ruling Sultan overruled these norms.
The harem functioned more a centre of learning for the womenfolk, many of whom
had been captured as slaves during conquests, or may simply have been bought.
With the right kind of education and grace, some of them proceeded to positions of
considerable influence; Hurrem Sultan herself being a sterling example of this.
Their eventual proximity to the decision-making centre of the Ottoman Empire was
coincidental and led to their increased
participation in the state affairs of the Empire.
While it can be argued that their meddling may have brought about the ultimate
demise of the Ottoman Empire, their rise and influence are noteworthy.