Free Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire by Mehrdad Kia Page A

were European in style and contained the
sultan’s residence, a theater and opera house, an imperial carpentry workshop,
an imperial porcelain factory to meet the demands of upper-class Ottomans for
European-style ceramics, and numerous governmental offices for state officials
who served their royal master. The only section of the Yildiz Palace accessible
to foreign visitors was the selamlik, or the large square reception
hall, where the sultan received foreign ambassadors. In the royal harem, which
was hidden within a lush and richly wooded park and was known for its rare
marbles and superb Italian furniture, Abdülhamid II received his wives and
children. At times he spent the evening there with a favorite wife and children
and played piano for them. Within the park, there also lay an artificial lake,
on which the sultan and his intimates cruised in a small but elegant boat.
     

    Reception at the court of Sultan
Selim III at the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul. Anonymous, 18th century.
     
     
    HAREM
     
    In Europe, the “oriental harem” conjured up images of
exotic orgies and violent assassinations, in which a turban-clad monarch acted
as a bloodthirsty tyrant, forced by his “oriental” instincts to murder his real
and imagined enemies while sleeping with as many concubines as he fancied every
night. According to this wild and romantic image, the sultan’s power over all
his subjects was unfettered and his control over the women of the harem
unlimited. Thus, in the European imagination, the harem not only symbolized
free sex but also a masculine despotism that allowed men, especially the
sultan, to imprison and use women as sexual slaves. The meaning of women’s
lives was defined by their relationship to the male master they served. They
dedicated their entire lives to fulfilling the fancies of a tyrant who viewed
them as his chattel.
    In this imaginary world, constructed by numerous European
stories, travelogues, poems, and paintings, Muslim men appeared as tyrannical
despots in public and sexual despots in private. In sharp contrast, Muslim
women appeared as helpless slaves without any power or rights, who were
subjected to the whimsical tyranny of men. Not surprisingly, therefore, the
Europeans who travelled to the Ottoman domain were shocked when they realized
how different the reality was. First, they quickly recognized that the notion
of each Muslim man being married to four wives and enjoying a private harem of
his own was absurd and laughable. If Islam allowed Muslim men to marry four
wives, it did not follow that the majority of the male population in the
Ottoman Empire practiced polygamy. As late as 1830s, the number of men in Cairo
who had more than one wife did not exceed five percent of the male population
in the city. By 1926, when the newly established Turkish Republic abolished
polygamy, the practice had already ceased to exist.
    Far from being devoted to wild sexual orgies, the Ottoman
palace was the center of power and served as the residence of the sultan. As
already mentioned, the palace comprised two principal sections, the enderun, or the inner section, and the birun, or the outer section. The two
sections were built around several large courtyards, which were joined by the
Gate of Felicity, where the sultan sat on his throne, received his guests, and
attended ceremonies. The harem was the residence of the sultan, his women, and
family. A palace in its own right, the harem consisted of several hundred
apartments and included baths, kitchens, and even a hospital.
    Three separate but interconnected sections formed the
harem. The first section housed the eunuchs, while the second section belonged
exclusively to the women of the palace. The third and final section was the
personal residence of the sultan. The apartments of the imperial harem were
reserved for the female members of the royal family, such as the sultan’s
mother ( valide sultan) , his wives, and his concubines. Many concubines
in the