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Harem

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For other uses, see Harem (disambiguation).

Coming from the Arab tradition, the harîm حريم (compare haram) is the part of the household forbidden to male strangers. The world knows the harem by way of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself means privacy that is very respected and honored.

In Western languages such as English, this term refers collectively to the women in any polygynous household as well as the "no men allowed" area, or in more modern usage to a number of women followers or admirers of a man.

Scene in a Harem, Guardi

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 Ḥarām (a sin).


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; 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

File:Haremhatemi.jpg
Women of the Harem- Watercolor on Paper by Haydar Hatemi-1997

The harem of the Turkish Great Sultan, which was in the Topkapı Palace seraglio, 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.

While some Muslims assert that Islam never proscribes the use of harems, and that they (re)emerged rather as part of Ottoman culture, the institution pre-dates Islam and even Christianity (obviously under other names).

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 promiscuous women lying around pools with oiled bodies, with the sole purpose of pleasing the powerful man for whom they had given themselves for service. Much of this is recorded in art from that period, usually portraying groups of attractive women lounging by spas and pools.

Harem Art

Harem Art

See also

Sources and references

(incomplete)

  • 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

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
  • Lal, Kishori Saran (1988). The Mughal Harem. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. ISBN 81-85179-03-4. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • 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
  • 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 Harem : Inside the Grand Seraglio of the Turkish Sultans Dover Publications (May 13, 2005) ISBN 0-486-44004-4
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