Turkish Women, Harems, & Polygamy
'Slave of Love and Light of my Eyes' by Etienne Dinet, French. Oil, 1904.
Page contents:
Common views of women from 18th-century writers
Common views of the harem from 18th-century writers
Common views of polygamy from 18th-century writers
Common views of women
Kahf asserts that the image of Muslim women changed over the late 17th and into the 18th centuries. From an active, even querulous earlier image, she changes into one whose experience is marked by her passivity, her oppression, and her availability as an object of voyeurism (Kahf 112-13). Throughout her history, the Muslim woman, especially her of the Ottoman empire, was seen, like her European sister, as a being defined by sexuality, even though women in these cultures had great power: for example, during the 17th-century Kadinlar Saltanati, or Women's Sultanate, and the possibilities of sexual intrigue were exploited by women who wanted their husband or other male family members to advance politically (Davis 171-72).
No educational opportunities for women existed outside the home, but inside, especially in the households of the upper classes, girls were educated in reading and speaking Turkish, Muslim law, reading the Koran, and feminine arts of needlepoint and music (Davis 47). However, there were the persistent fears—and in this, the East was no different than the West—that teaching a woman to write would invite her to misbehave, perhaps in writing love letters (Davis 49). They were considered available for marriage at about age 13, and, in marriage, childbearing is of great importance. The following excerpts present some common statements about Turkish women, taken from 17th and 18th-century sources.
Paul Rycaut:
Turkish women "are accounted the most lascivious and immodest of all Women, and excel in the most refined and ingenious subtilties to steal their pleasures." (271)Aaron Hill:
"So lascivious are their inclinations, that if by some ingenuity of their Contrivances they can procure the Company of some Stranger in their Chamber, they claim unanimously an equal share of his Caresses, and proceed by Lots to the Enjoyment of his Person; nor can he be permitted to leave them, till having exerted his utmost Vigor in the Embraces of the whole Company, he becomes incapable of further Service, and is dispatch'd with the thanks and Presents of the oblig'd Family." (67)Sieur du Mont:
"There is no Slavery equal to that of the Turkish Women; for a Servant may live Twenty Years in a Family without seeing the Face of his Mistress. The Door of the Womens Apartment is a Ne plus ultra for every thing that looks like a Man, and the utmost Limit of the Womens Liberty" (268)
"The Turkish women are the most charming Creatures in the World; They seem to be made for Love; their Actions, gestures, Discourse, and Looks are all Amorous, and admirably well suited to kindle a soft and lasting Passion" (273) "The extreme Neatness of the Turkish Women is none of their least considerable Charms; and this extraordinary Cleanness is an effect of their Bathing at least once a Week; for the nicer sort bathe twice (274)
Elizabeth Lady Craven:
As to women, as many, if not more than men, are to be seen in the streets—but they look like walking mummies. A large loose robe of dark green cloth covers them from the next to the ground, over that a large piece of muslin, which wraps the shoulders and the arms, another which goes over the head and eyes; judge, Sir, if all these coverings do not confound the shape or air so much, that men or women, princesses and slaves, may be concealed under them. (270)I am femmelette enough to have taken particular notice of the dress, which, if female envy did not spoil every things in the world of women, would be graceful, It consists of a petticoat and vest, over which is worn a robe with short sleeves; the one belonging to the lady of the house was of satin, embroidered richly with the finest colours, gold and diamonds—a girdle under that, with two circles of jewels in front, and from this girdle hangs an embroidered handkerchief—A Turban with a profusion of diamonds and pearls, seemed to weigh this lady’s head down; but what spoiled the whole was a piece of ermine, that probably was originally only a cape, but each woman’s increasing the size of it, in order to be more magnificent than her neighbor, they now have it like a great square plaister that comes down to the hips; and these simple ignorant beings do not see that it disfigures the tout ensemble of a beautiful dress. The hair is separated in many small braids hanging d own the back, or tied up to the point of the turban on the outside. I have no doubt that nature intended some of these women to be very handsome, but white and red ill applied, their eyebrows hid under one or tow black lines---teeth black by smoaking, and an universal stoop in the shoulders, made them appear rather disgusting than handsome. … The black powder with which they line their eyelids gives their eyes likewise a harsh expression. (294-95)
A modern writer explains some precepts about women in Muslim societies.
Common views of the harem
The Turkish women inhabited a domestic space all their own: the harem. Melman defines this space as "the combination of seclusion of females with polygamy and concubinage" (Melman 60). These spaces were well-structured. An upper-class Ottoman woman would have her own household domain, and each wife would need to be maintained in her own household; however, the first wife was dominant. Davis tells us that the royal harem was
a tightly organized hierarchy ... At the apex of the harem stood the valide sultan, or mother of the sultan, whose authority extended officially over the entire harem and unofficially sometimes far beyond. Next in rank cam the sultan's daughters, who were also called sultans. After them came the kadins, those women whom the sultan chose as official concubines, with the social but not he legal status of wife ... [For the Sultan,] the contraction of legal marriage had stopped with Suleyman the Magnificent. (Davis 1)
But for Western observers, this was far from simply a household arrangement, and way of systematizing what could be a very complex place and web of social relations. Besides being a canvas for imagining luxury and languidness, the harem took on mythological and symbolic resonances: "From the earliest encounters between Christians and Muslims till the present, the harem as the locus of an exotic and abnormal sexuality fascinated Westerners" (Melman 60). It became a place where fantasies of forbidden eroticisms could be projected, especially lesbianism: "Female homosexual practices were regarded as especially common to Turkey and appear in diverse texts, though such practices were branded as abominably sinful" (Nussbaum 141-42). The following excerpts indicate some of the breadth of this fascination.
Anon:
Now it is not lawfull for any one to bring ought in unto them, with which they may commit the deeds of beastly, and unnaturall uncleannesse; so that if they have a will to eat, radishes, cucumbers, gourds, or such like meats; they are sent in unto them sliced, to deprive them of the means of playing the wantons: for they being all young, lusty, and lascivious wenches, and wanting the society of men (which would much better instruct them, and questionlesse far better employ them) are doubtless of themselves inclined to that which is naught, and will often be possest with unchast thoughts. (59)Lady Mary Wortley Montagu:
I have been in a Haram where the winter Apartment was wainscoted with inlaid work of Mother of Pearl, Ivory of different Colours and olive wood, exactly like the little Boxes brought out of this Country; and those rooms design'd for Summer, the walls all crusted with Japan china, the roofs gilt, and the floors spread with the finest Persian carpets. (385)Elizabeth Lady Craven:
You can conceive nothing so neat and clean to all appearance as the interior of this Harem; the floors and passages are covered with matting of a close and strong kind; the color of the straw or reeds with which they are made is a pale straw. The rooms had no other furniture than the cushions, which lined the whole room, and those, as with the curtains, were f white linen. As the Turks never come into the room, either men or women, with the slippers they walk abroad with there is not a speck of sand or dirt within doors. (294)I think I never saw a country where women enjoy so much liberty, and free from all reproach, as in Turkey. A Turkish husband that sees a pair of slippers at the door of his harem must not enter; his respect for the sex prevents him from intruding when a stranger is there upon a visit; how easy then it is for men to visit and pass as women! If I was to walk about the streets here I would certainly wear the same dress, for the Turkish women call others names, when they meet them with their faces uncovered.” (270)
Common views of polygamy
The complexity of Ottoman men's sexual and marital relations almost required a domestic arrangement as traditionally and highly organized as the harem. Daniel provides the main characteristics of these relations:
there might be four wives, who might be divorced and replaced as long as the number four was not exceeded at any one time; with a divorced wife remarriage was allowed up to the third time, and relations were permitted with any number of slaves, both such as were bought, and such as were taken in war, with freedom to buy and sell again, so long as there was no pregnancy. (Daniel 135)
Europeans perceived this usually as evidence of barbarous lust and sexual greed and created stories of jealous intrigues in the harems to gain the attentions of the husband (though the Koran also requires all wives to be treated equally [Daniel 136]). Their views were also created by the availability of divorce to upper-class Ottoman society, especially the tradition of tahlil, which allowed a man to remarry a divorced wife only after she had had sex with another man (Daniel 137). This, of course, Westerners viewed as legalized adultery. The following excerpts indicate some of the range of response to marital arrangements in Turkey.
Rycaut:
"Polygamy is freely indulged to them by their Religion as far as the number of four Wives, contrary to the common report, that a Turk may have as many wives as he can maintain . ...This restraint of the number of their Wives is certainly no Precept of their Religion, but a rule superinduced upon some politick considerations, as too great a charge and weakning to mens Estates" (270)."every one may freely serve himself of his Women Slaves, with as much variety as he is able to buy or maintain; and this kind of Concubinage is no ways envied or condemned by the Wives, so long as they enjoy their due maintenance, and have some reasonable share in their Husbands bed, which once a week is their due by the Law" (270)
"in this case the Husband repenting of his divorce, and desirous to re-take his Wife, cannot by the law be admitted to her without first contenting himself to see another man enjoy her before his face, which condition the Law requires of the Husbands lightness and inconstancy, and as evidence to show that though the Turkish Law is very indulgent and open in the free choice and enjoyment of Women, yet it punishes such as unadvisedly frustrate the solemn points thereof" (277)
du Mont:
"they are permitted to marry four lawful Wives, and those who desire a greater Variety may marry twenty Concubines if they please, for this is also a Sort of Marriage; not to mention the pretty Slaves, whom they buy and sell. Those who are weary of their Wives, may turn 'em away when they please, paying their Dowry. What d'ye think, Sir, of this Custom? Is it not very pleasant and commodious? 'Tis pity that we have not such as Fashion in Christendom; for if we had, I believe we shou'd see many a fatal Knot unty'd." (167)"none but Persons of high Quality are able to keep four Wives" (274)
Source of image of lovers: http://www.orientalistart.net/Page1.html
Source of image of woman/mirror: http://www.dia.org/collections/ancient/islamicart/islamicart.html
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