Harem
I think everyone associates harem with something oriental, exotic, with love and debauchery, which is not so far from the truth. The first Ottoman sultans lived in strict simplicity, in accordance with the dictates of the Koran. After the capital was moved to Adrianople, Byzantine culture began to permeate here, which, in combination with oriental culture, resulted in the creation of a special institution – the harem. The sultans began to protect their wives and concubines in well-tried ways, that is, keeping them under guard. Originally, the harem was associated with the intimate sphere of the ruler's love and procreation, and over time it turned into an institution, which sometimes decisively influenced the fate of the state, customs, culture and art.
The women in the harem were watched over by eunuchs, initially only whites, a od XVI w. also black. The word "eunuch” comes from Greek, but the custom of keeping castrates at court arose in Assyria. For centuries, this tradition traveled through the East, until it reached the Greeks, then the Byzantines and finally the Turks. It was commonly judged, that eunuch, a man unable to start his own family, he becomes bound to his master without limit, becoming his most faithful servant; besides, such a man could keep an eye on the ruler's women, without committing treason. Castration was carried out in various ways, and only one in ten boys survived the procedure. The testicles were removed along with the member (such slaughterers were the highest paid), the member itself was truncated (which did not deprive the eunuch of his sex drive) or only the kernels were removed (by scalding with boiling water and crushing, cutting or tearing out). Because Negroes tolerated castration better and enjoyed better health than whites, black slaughterers were preferred. Only slaves were eunuchs – Turks were not castrated. Most of the whites came from Georgia, and the blacks of Abyssinia and central Africa. Losing manhood caused degeneration; the eunuchs were capricious, touchy, spiteful, take a nap, vindictive and arrogant, and at the same time childish, gullible, vendors, greedy, loving children and animals. There were very rarely balanced eunuchs, gifted and predisposed to exercise power.
Slowly, as the Sultan's treasury fills up, it was also filling its harem – during the time of Murad III, it had already counted over 1200 women, and at the same time the power of slaves high in the court hierarchy was strengthening. The sultans, however, did not care about the growing power of the harem guards, corruption among them, because it brought a lot of income to the ruler's treasury and attached the slaves to it even more. The harem hierarchy was strictly established. The sultan's mother was the supreme authority – sultana, whose influence stretched far beyond the palace. Kizlar agasi served her directly, that is, the head of the black eunuchs, who is also directly responsible for all the harem girls, he had access to the Sultan and the outside world. Other eunuchs served beneath him, but the internal administration of the harem lay within the remit of the welfare women's cabinet.
The girls were given the grace of joining the Sultan's bed, when he threw an embroidered handkerchief, which meant, that he liked her (the opportunity to throw a handkerchief were, among others. dance shows). Not all girls who have the opportunity to go to the harem, be it as a result of kidnapping, or at the will of the parents, thus they ended up in the ruler's bedroom. At that time, they were engaged in farm work. However, they were all equally educated, for the sultan could change his mind at any moment. Many women were turned over to high officials, which the latter considered a real honor. Cuddles, which the Sultan chose and liked, were referred to as ikbal, and after the birth of his child raised to the rank of approved concubines, that is, sultanas (woman). There could only be four sultanas, also in hierarchical order, subordinate of course to the valide sultan.
The harem was dissolved with the declaration of the republic, especially since it was seen as the causes of the collapse of the state. For debauchery was rampant there, corruption and intrigue reaching the highest echelons of power, which made more than one sultan struggling to stay in power, and even life.