HAREM

Contents

Etymology

Word history

History

See also

Sources and references

Non-Fiction

Fiction

External links

Etymology

Coming from the Arab tradition, the '''harîm''' حريم (compare ''haram'') is a word old Caliphs used to call their maids (Another common word is Gairya جارية).
The world knows the harem by way of the Ottoman Empire.
In Western languages such as English, this term refers collectively to the women in any polygynous household as well as to the "no men allowed" area, or in more modern usage to a number of women followers, friends, or admirers of a man.
In other Western languages, the term serraglio - from an Italian variant of Persian ''saraay'', meaning 'palace, enclosed courts' - has much the same connotations.

Word history

The word has been recorded in the English language since 1634, via the Turkish ''harem'', from the Arabic ''haram'' (forbidden), originally entailing "women's quarters," literally: "something forbidden or kept safe," from the root ''harama'': "he guarded, forbade." The triconsonantal ''H-R-M'' is common to Arabic words entailing ''forbidden''.
The word is cognate to the Hebrew ''herem'', rendered in Greek as ''’anáthema'' when it applies to excommunication pronounced by the Jewish Sanhedrin court - all these words mean that an object is "sacred" or "accursed".
Female privacy in Islam is very respected and honored, to the extent that any unlawful breaking into that privacy is harām (forbidden).
Contrary to the common belief, 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.; and 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 selamlik.

History

The harem of the Turkish Great Sultan, which was in the Topkapı Palace serraglio, typically housed several hundred - at times over a thousand - women including wives. It also housed the Sultan's mother, daughters and other female relatives, as well as eunuchs and slave girls to serve the aforementioned women. During the later periods, the sons of the Sultan also lived in the Harem until they were sixteen, when it might be 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.
It is claimed that harems existed in Persia under the Ancient Achaemenids and later Iranian dynasties (The Sassanid Chosroes II reportedly had a harem of 3,000 wives, as well as 12,000 female slaves) and lasted well into the Qajar dynasty. The women of the royal harem played important though underreported roles in Iranian history, especially during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. However, this claim is disputed by some Persian historians.^[1]
''Harem'' is also the usual English translation of the Chinese language term ''hougong'', 後宮—literally meaning "the palaces behind." ''Hougong'' are large palaces for the Chinese emperor's consorts, concubines, female attendants and eunuchs. The women who lived in an emperor's ''hougong'' sometimes numbered in the thousands.
The institution of the harem exerted a certain fascination on the European imagination, especially during the Age of Romanticism (see also Orientalism), due in part to the writings of the adventurer Richard Francis Burton. Many Westerners imagined a harem as a brothel consisting of many sensual 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 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 Serraglio") concerning the attempt of the hero Belmonte to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the serraglio/harem of the Pasha Selim.
The same theme was and still is repeated in numerous historical novels and thrillers. For example "Angélique and the Sultan", part of the bestselling French series by Sergeanne Golon, in which a 17th Century French noblewoman is captured by pirates, sold to the King of Morroco and installed in his harem, stabs the king with his own dagger when he tries to have sex with her and stages a dramatic and successful escape.

See also

★ Harem, for other uses of the word

★ Seraglio

★ Eunuch

★ Devşirme system

★ Hammam

★ Köçek

★ Odalisque

★ Islam and Slavery

★ Culture of the Ottoman Empire

★ Zenana

★ Pilegesh

★ Orientalism

Sources and references

★ Mohammed Webb: ''The Influence of Islam on Social Conditions'' Paper, World Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893

★ TheOttomans.org Historical Web-site.

★ Leslie P. Peirce: ''The Imperial Harem : Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire'' Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition (September 2, 1993 ISBN 0-19-508677-5

★ Suraiya Faroqhi: ''Subjects of the Sultan : Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire'' I. B. Tauris (November 10, 2005) ISBN 1-85043-760-2

★ Billie Melman: ''Women's Orients : English Women and the Middle East, 1718-1918'' University of Michigan Press (July 15, 1992) ISBN 0-472-10332-6

★ Alan Duben, Cem Behar, Richard Smith (Series Editor), Jan De Vries (Series Editor), Paul Johnson (Series Editor), Keith Wrightson (Series Editor): ''Istanbul Households : Marriage, Family and Fertility, 1880-1940 '' Cambridge University Press; New Ed edition (August 8, 2002) ISBN 0-521-52303-6

★ Emmanuel Todd: ''The explanation of ideology: Family structures and social systems'' B. Blackwell (1985) ISBN 0-631-13724-6

★ Oleg Grabar: ''The Formation of Islamic Art'' Yale University Press; Rev&Enlarg edition (September 10, 1987) ISBN 0-300-04046-6
1. http://www.livius.org/a/iran/persepolis/harem/harem.html ''Livius.org'' Retrieved on 04-13-07

Non-Fiction

★ Etymology OnLine

★ Catholic Encyclopaedia (passim)

★ Alev Lytle Croutier: ''Harem: The World Behind the Veil'' Abbeville Press; Reprint edition (July 1998) ISBN 1-55859-159-1

★ Alev Lytle Croutier: ''The Palace of Tears'' Delta; Reprint edition (January 2, 2002) ISBN 0-385-33491-5

★ Anastasia M. Ashman and Jennifer Eaton Gokmen, editors: ''Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey'' Seal Press; Reprint edition (March 12, 2006) ISBN 1-58005-155-3

★ The Mughal Harem, , Kishori Saran, Lal, Aditya Prakashan, 1988, ISBN 81-85179-03-4

★ Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul: ''The Sultan's Harem'' Penguin (Non-Classics); New Ed edition (July 3, 2001) ISBN 0-14-027056-6

★ M. Saalih : ''Harem Girl : A Harem Girl’s Journal'' Delta; Reprint edition (January 2, 2002) ISBN 0-595-31300-0

★ Fatima Mernissi: ''Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society'' Delta; Reprint edition (January 2, 2002) ISBN 0-253-20423-2

★ N. M. Penzer, M.A., F.R.G.S.: ''THE HARĒM an account of the instiitution as it existed in the Palace of the Turkish Sultans with a history of the Grand Seraglio from its foundation to modern times'' Dorset Press (1993) ISBN 1-56619-255-2

★ Andrew Rippin: ''Muslims (Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices)'' Routledge; 2 edition (November 30, 2000) ISBN 0-415-21782-2

★ Malise Ruthven: ''Islam: A Very Short Introduction'' Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition (June 15, 2000) ISBN 0-19-285389-9

Fiction

★ Dora Levy Mossanen: ''Harem: A Novel'' Touchstone (July 30, 2002), ISBN 0-7432-3021-3

★ Colin Falconer: ''The Sultan's Harem'' Crown (July 13, 2004) ISBN 0-609-61030-9

★ N. M. Penzer: ''The Harēm : Inside the Grand Seraglio of the Turkish Sultans'' Dover Publications (May 13, 2005) ISBN 0-486-44004-4

External links

★ Some paintings of harems