Circassian beauty
Circassian beauties were allegedly women of the Circassian people of the Caucasus mountain range in Circassia neighbouring Ukraine and Georgia. A fairly extensive literary history suggests that Circassian women were unusually beautiful and spirited and very elegant and as such were desirable as slave concubines.
This reputation dates back to the Ottoman Empire times when Circassian women living in the Sultan's Harem started to build their reputation as extremely beautiful and aristocratic women. As a result of this reputation, American showman P. T. Barnum exhibited women whom he claimed were Circassian beauties.
A reputation for extraordinary beauty
The legend of Circassian women in the western world is at least as old as 1749 and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, in which Fielding remarked, "How contemptible would the brightest Circassian beauty, drest in all the jewels of the Indies, appear to my eyes!"[1]
Similar erotic claims about Circassian women appear in Lord Byron's Don Juan, in which the tale of a slave auction is told:
- For one Circassian, a sweet girl, were given,
Warranted virgin. Beauty’s brightest colours
Had decked her out in all the hues of heaven.
Her sale sent home some disappointed bawlers,
Who bade on till the hundreds reached the eleven,
But when the offer went beyond, they knew
‘Twas for the Sultan and at once withdrew.- - Don Juan, canto IV, verse 114
The legend of Circassian women was also repeated by Karl Marx, who in The Philosophical Manifesto of the Historical School of Law wrote that "Even beauty is more likely to be found in a Circassian slave girl than in a beggar girl."[2] Mark Twain reported in The Innocents Abroad that "Circassian and Georgian girls are still sold in Constantinople by their parents, but not publicly."[3]
Their beauty is still known in many cultures where Circassian people immigrated and live since then. Poems and songs were written about the Beauty of Circassian women in countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Syria and the term "Circassian beauty" is still used in countries where people of Circassian origin still live.
19th century sideshow attraction
In 1856 The New York Daily Times reported that a consequence of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus was an excess of beautiful Circassian women on the Constantinople slave market, and that this was causing prices of slaves in general to plummet.[4] At the time, this region was reputed by less reliable sources to be the source of the purest Caucasian stock, producing the most beautiful white women, prized in Turkish harems.
The combination of the popular issues of slavery, the Orient, and sexual titillation gave this report some notoriety at the time. Circus leader P. T. Barnum capitalized on this interest, displaying a "Circassian Beauty" at his American Museum in 1865. Barnum's Circassian beauties were young women with tall, teased hairstyles, rather like the Afro style of the 1970s. The trend spread, with supposedly Circassian women featured in dime museums and travelling medicine shows, sometimes known as "Moss-haired girls". Many (like Zalumma Agra ) were actually local girls hired by the shows.
References
- ^ Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, book 5, ch. 10
- ^ Karl Marx, "The Philosophical Manifesto of the Historical School of Law", first appearing in Supplement to the Rheiniche Zeitung No. 221, August 9, 1842. (Excerpts online)
- ^ Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, ch. 34.
- ^ Horrible Traffic in Circassian Women—Infanticide in Turkey; New York Daily Times, August 6, 1856