The Secret Society of The Harem | The Hidden World Of The Harem | Absolute History

[Music] in the 16th century Istanbul was the capital of the greatest Islamic empire the world has ever known [Music] ruled by Suleiman the Magnificent it stretched from Baghdad to Budapest the center of power was topkapi palace and in the heart of topkapi was the harem [Music] into it came hundreds of women from all over the Empire and beyond the personal slaves of the Sultan [Music] but in the Imperial Palace sex could equal power this is the story of those women and of the closed and secret world of the Ottoman harem in 1520 a newcomer entered the Imperial Palace in Istanbul her name was Alexandra Liz Oscar she was the daughter of a priest from the Ukraine captured by slave hunters to join the army of servants and concubines in the service of the Sultan [Music] there were slaves not of Turkish extraction either Slavs captured by the Tatars probably or from the Caucasus who were very prized for their looks white skin dark hair and delicate bone structure [Music] and they were predominantly Christian the enslavement of Freeborn Muslims was forbidden by the Koran in our history writing about the harem and the Sultan's women or talking about them is a sin and is forbidden yes so nobody has written anything and we always have to decorate these stories in our imagination and foreign travelers have also done this people went to the Ottoman Empire in the 16th 17th and 18th centuries and they were very taken with the idea that they were all these women locked up together they soon came up with stories that filled in the gaps if their ignorance about what was going on in the harem most of those involved a lot of sex a lot of rather abusive treatment of young women the first Englishman to catch a glimpse into the Imperial harem was a London mechanic sent by Queen Elizabeth the first to the palace of the great Sultan to install her gift of an organ [Music] through the grate I did see 30 of the grand señores concubines that were playing with a ball the first site I thought they had been young men but when I saw the hair of their heads hanging down on their backs I didn't know them to be women and very pretty ones indeed [Music] they wore breeches so thin I could discern the skin of their thighs through it I stood so long looking upon them that he who had showed me began to be very angry and stamped with his staff to make me give overlooking the inner part of the palace especially the harem was officially called the abode of felicity because the Sultan had a special relationship with God this was the reason why all the means of happiness were actually supplied the best food the best things to drink the best music the best singing the best manuscripts with figures in them which is frowned upon by straight Muslims you have the means to be happy but it's very difficult to tell whether they actually were happy a descendant of Suleiman's one of the last Prince's to have lived in the harem considered that his ancestors would have found it more lonely than lavish the prince lived a luxurious life but a very lonely life in a way because all the ads were under surround it I live it amongst them and I was more or less brought up by them I didn't realize it at the time that it wasn't anything extraordinary because I was used to it you think everybody else lives that way but to the priests daughter soon to be known as Horan it would have been anything but ordinary when the girls first arrived they would be examined to make sure that they didn't have any physical defects how many diseases [Music] could the larger Prakash the women come to the harem at an early age on Yash laronda hari mcgee Lola and as soon as they arrive their clothes are changed and they're taken directly to the hammam the bath house ha mama they are cleaned according to our traditions and taught how to wash before prayers to argue in behind the type that Turkish men like is what we call Valiquette li flesh firm like a fish and another detail they say either go by meaning the belly should be shaped like a quince in our literature too when we describe women we say cheeks like peaches lips like cherries similes like these and that's what men expect the Islamic religious law permits polygamy a man could marry up to four women at any given time and could also have concubines on the side but as the numbers of polygamous marriages were really very few only the ruling class for example like your Sultan's would have a harem when he was a young ruler it was said by foreign diplomats that Suleiman very lustful frequently visited the palace of the women and there in the phrase did justice ie made love and indeed the Sultan was encouraged to behave a bit as a prize stud to cover more and more mass so that the biological future of the dynasty was secured I think the reason that the Ottomans chose to reproduce their concubines is it gave them more reproductive freedom the difference between having a child with a concubine and having a child with say a royal princess is that the princess the married woman has many more rights as a mother concubines because they are slaves have fewer rights over children the Sultan was considered to be above society separate from it that was the very ideology of the state you can imagine that a relationship by marriage to a free Muslim woman the daughter of some important writer in Istanbul or some would immediately make the Sultan related to a segment of society and this may cause divisions with other segments etc these are the personal slaves of the sometimes they don't have any family they don't have any connections we don't know the feelings of the women who entered the harem that must have been fear and terror as well as other emotions but also the delight of material comforts and there was the possibility of becoming the Sultan's consort the Imperial harem in 16th century Istanbul was one of the most secret societies in the world even in the early 20th century shortly before it was abolished it was difficult to discover precisely what went on here grandmother's life in the harem and they said that because it was prohibited to talk about the life in the harem she could tell nothing to them modern historians have been less restricted and their discoveries have challenged the old Western fantasies it's not where women lounged around and spent their time this sort of orientalist image we have we should think of the harem as a unique place as a collection of females who were more highly educated more highly trained and trained in a variety of ways than women and this is general Society so I think we might think of the imperial harem is the only female University in the Empire the latest undergraduate was the priests daughter Alexandra Liz Oskar now known as who REM the Laughing one when a woman like harem arrived in the harem she would be given further education and by education I mean some religious training a knowledge of Islam she would be taught the etiquette of the court she would be trained in the skill that most harem women were adept at but that is embroidery wonderful things the embroidery that she produced could be sold through agents on the market so it was a profitable skill it wasn't just a gentle womanly skill sorry our table early Newland electrical I be Steve they learned the palace attitude that was not very easy how to greet people and to walk backwards to leave the Sultan's room and how to be respectful and well behaved at all times and never be angry they had lessons every day and most learned to read and write and to read the Koran [Music] had the prying eyes of Western travelers pierced the outer walls they would have perceived a vastly different harem from the sexual paradise or Inferno of their imagining making love is the one thing most inmates of the harem were not doing at least if they were following the rules relatively few got to spend a night with the Sultan [Music] living there must have been very claustrophobic have you got a relatively small space with several hundred women living in it access to the outside world is very limited the views over Istanbul if you could get them must have been quite had quite an effect on people it was a very comfortable place but it was more like a comfy prison than a comfy bordello and the prison waters were the eunuchs only men who had been castrated were allowed into the harem on a regular basis and like the women most would spend their entire lives here the enclosure of women itself seems very objectionable but perhaps even more objectionable is the mutilation of young men in order to provide eunuchs to staff and protect the harem it was forbidden by Islamic law to castrate a Muslim or perform the operation on others so it was carried out by Coptic Christian priests in Egypt the method of castration and there are two types one is cutting the test is's and other twisting and crushing them sometimes there's a method called clean-shaven and which meant that they removed everything and it made it almost impossible for them to perform their usual body functions according to an ambassador they kept silver quills in their turbans and they would use those quills in order to urinate one of the duties of the eunuchs was to ensure that the concubines did not have sex with anyone but the Sultan men women or whatever else came to hand cucumbers were not led into the harem because they were used as a penis it is said but the guards themselves were not beyond suspicion the process of castration was very frightening and difficult for the boys and often out of fear their testicles would retreat they would remain intact and sometimes over time they would be able to function sexually there are many accounts of the eunuchs having relationships with the women in the harem this was one reason why the eunuchs in the harem were exclusively African it was one way of making sure that these men couldn't inseminate the female members of the imperial family without everybody noting that she'd given birth to a half black child but for who em as for most newcomers to the harem there was little opportunity for dalliance with UNIX or anyone [Music] if the girls were higher in the power structure of the harem they would be given their own quarters but the rest of the girls would share their rooms there are older women who watched over the younger girls to make sure that they weren't getting into any kind of a mischief such as talking in the dark sharing their bed together girls boarding school or comfy prison it was not perhaps the happiest of estates for the daughter of a priest but if her end dreamed of improving her lot there was always the possibility of sex with the Sultan though this too was hedged with its own barriers of ritual and restraint [Music] there's some report that you know Sultan's like to watch lots of pretty girls sort of jumping about and the all together there's the story that the Sultan would throw a handkerchief towards the woman he caught his eye the surprise virgin snatches of this prize and good fortune with such eagerness that she's ravished with joy before she is deflowered by the sultan such reports have never been verified and for most harem women not yet numbered among the favourites a handkerchief was just another item of laundry very few of them ever got to see the sultan let alone jump into his bed renewal to get anywhere and not just be washing the Sultan's Underpants the rest of your life you had to maneuver yourself into position with the women who chose who went to bed with the Sultan his mother in reality the Sultan's mother would scout for suitable candidates among these now derelict pools and fountains in the bowels of Topkapi [Music] and physical attraction was far from being her only criteria an eligible concubine would obviously need to be attractive she needed to be healthy because her principal job was reproduction because of the important role that mothers played in training their sons she also needed to be shrewd and the way they were introduced was that they were asked to go to a semi car with pool underneath the Crown Princess apartment and that was an opportunity for the Sultan's to watch them and observe them and choose their favorite whatever it was that brought who rammed to the attention of the Sultan or indeed his mother the preparations for her first night with him would have followed a well-established ritual party shall the day she is going to be with the Sultan she goes to the bathhouse and has face and body treatments and her hands and hair are painted with henna the idea of any hair on the body was a thought of horror and so they would remove any kind of hair including their pubic hair what they used was really an awful smelling paste that contained arsenic and if you left it too long it could burn the skin very badly and they used mussel shells to scrape it off they would put henna four fingers above the pubic area it's a decorative beautiful design detail concubines were assumed to be virgins but I don't think we can assume the naivete and the innocence it's that kind of goes along with the whole notion of virgins I mean these women were prepared for their job I don't know the details we have stories written by European observers are they fanciful are they true it's hard to know all the older women and those who have had his good graces before go to the favorite of the day congratulating her for the great distinction which she has received and saluting her as befits the concubine of the emperor dressing her superbly and taking her out with countless jewels she would be given new clothes and shoes and and trained also in the erotic arts we don't really know exactly what that entailed I think we have to assume however that the Sultan's mother his sister's experienced women high-level women within the harem would probably provide the finishing touches would explain a particular person that the concubine would encounter my son is like this your Lord is like this [Music] the court musician Albert Baba V provided a colorful account of the courtship ritual while music is played the women sing before her and conduct her to the door of the chamber where there is a eunuch who tells the Sultan of her arrival and has her enter when the Sultan commands it as soon as she sees him she must go to him running and kneel at his feet and he receives her and holds what conversation seems good to him with the woman's music continuing to play at the door while she is with him there are also stories of her entering the bed from the foot of the bed so the Sultan would be waiting for this beauty to crawl from the foot of the bed and reach him [Music] whatever happened that night Suleiman wanted it to continue Haram was invited back to his bed again and again she was soon firmly established as the Sultan's favorite to the exclusion records tell us of all others [Music] the Venetian sources tell us that he fell in love with her a deadly rivalry had reached into the harem it was not simply a question of who would occupy the Sultan's bed it was a far more vital conflict over who would produce the next ruler of the Ottoman Empire the new favorite who REM or the old favorite mahidevran Mahadev Ron was the mother of the oldest son so that her M coming in obviously being the Sultan's new favorite was a threat to her according to Venetian report mahidevran picked a fight with her M and called her soiled meat a piece of meat off the slave market and this provoked a physical struggle between them [Music] her name's face was scratched her hair was pulled and the next time the Sultan called for her M she replied she was unworthy of his attention since she was soiled meat and of course this intrigue Sulaiman picks his curiosity and he calls her again and she tells the whole story of course with Mahadev Ron appearing as the bad guy here's an early sign of her M's intelligence and ability to manipulate the whole palace system Purim knew how to play her cards you have to think how the women we know about got to where they got we know about them because they fought their way tooth and claw up the ladder it was horribly intensely sort of concentrated baller intrigue battling jockeying for position hoping to produce an heir poem gave birth to her first son Prince meth met in 1521 if Suleiman had played the game by the rules he should now have moved on to a new woman but he didn't the for her Em's time if a concubine of the Sultan produced a son then she was kicked out of bed hirin produced one son but then she produced several more suleiman kept her in his bed there are a number of reasons why they follow this one mother one son principle mothers were important advisors to their sons so for us two sons to have to share a mother meant they only had half of an advisor I'd have a support if a woman is identified with only one son she is completely with him in this game of power and it was a game who em had to win under Islamic law all sons had an equal right of inheritance but in the Ottoman Court the losers lost more than the throne the sons of a sultan were in combat survival of the fittest the one who was strongest most able became the Sultan [Music] the sons were going to vie amongst themselves to become the Sultan and it was winner-takes-all they had to race to Constantinople they had to raise the support and when they were acclaimed Sultan they put all their brothers to death all Genesis have had problems in securing an uninterrupted and legitimate succession many wars have been started in England and France by discontented royal brothers or cousins or other relations the Ottoman solution was to have a harem say there was no lack of male hours after the Sultan's accession other male members of the dynasty were murdered if had lived in those days since I was a younger brother I would probably have been strangled very young or even as a small child but then after being strangled I would have been buried with great ceremony which is not much of a consolation by 1530 Suleiman had five sons and four of them were by harem who am troubled people they weren't used to a sultan keeping up a relationship with one woman and they worried that Suleiman had had gone head over heels in love the foreign sources tell us that people even went so far as to call her a witch because of their fear that she had some how seduced the Sultan new concubines were brought into the harem in the hope of tempting Suleiman from the path of fidelity they included two Russian women with the same highly prized looks as harem women given directly to the Sultan would be highly cultivated attractive intelligent women naturally she might see a competition anyway the story goes she was so put out through a fetch let the Sultan had to give them away so here we see another sign of for him being able to manipulate the politics of the harem and and to use her own special position as a real favorite of the Sultan other eligible concubines were married off as virgins to Suleiman's courtiers and then in 1534 fourteen years after Suleiman and harem first made love the Sultan made an even bigger break with tradition Western observers were astounded this week there occurred a most extraordinary event unprecedented in the history of the Sultan's Sullivan has taken to himself as his Empress a slave woman from Russia he married her which is the incredible thing Sultan's didn't marry their concubines they didn't et the concubine by definition is a man's female slave according to the religious law you can't marry your own concubine so you have to free her in order to marry her there is great talk about the marriage and none can say what it means one thing it meant was power for the first time in their history the Ottomans had a queen after she was married we start calling her for insulting and she was really like a queen she builds up diplomatic relations and she also influences her husband politically in another move that impressed Western observers for em occupied new apartments next to her husband [Music] the chambers of the Sultana are very splendid with chapels bars Gardens not only for herself but her maids as well but for long periods the two lovers were apart Suleiman was a fighting Sultan who had already extended his empire westward took Belgrade he destroyed the whole of the Hungarian ruling classes in 1526 the Battle of MU house at a stroke and rode into Buda a conqueror and by 1529 he was at the gates of Vienna but even on campaign his thoughts were with her M he sent frequent love letters and poems where we can get nearer to his personality is through his poems which are remarkable for any ruler the green of my garden my sweet sugar my treasure my love who cares for nothing in this world my master of Egypt by Joseph my everything the queen of my heart's Road my land of the Roman Caesars my Baghdad and Khorasan [Music] lovely lovely poems exist that pass back and forth in correspondence between the two if the seas were to become ink and these trees pens when could they write an account of this parting there is no limit to the burning anguish of separation let my soul gain at least some comfort from a letter your son and daughter weep from missing you but who REMS letters also reveal her fears for the safety of her sons the favored heir to the throne was Prince Mustapha the son of hürrem's old rival Mahadev Ron Mustapha had the support of the army and the Grand Vizier ibrahim pasha some visas were captured slaves lat ibrahim pasha he did become a companion and a favorite of the sultan they would generally dine together and he would his bed was in the same room as the Sultan's or even stories of intense emotional relationship some Europeans spoke of a sexual relationship maybe yes maybe no in any event that was a very close emotional and political relationship so there's a very young man probably in his twenties he was suddenly the top man in the Empire after the Sultan himself Suleiman had cemented this relationship by giving his own sister in marriage to Ibrahim none of this pleased the ambitious harem [Music] Abraham's prestige for something she could not tolerate we should not forget that we are talking about power politics here sixteenth century Ottoman Empire was at its height that meant tremendous power so of course she wants to undermine it in one of her letters her M refers to a disagreement with Ibrahim Pasha she writes to Suleiman and now you inquire about why I'm not with Ibrahim Pasha you'll hear about it when you will hear about it when I am granted my next meeting with you for the moment give the Pasha our greetings we hope they will be acceptable to him [Music] Ibrahim played into her hands within a very short space of time he acquired lots of wealth Soloman the magnificent could figure out where that wealth was coming from at least partially it was graph if graft and corruption were among Abraham's faults another was an arrogant assumption of his own worth he's reported by one ambassador as saying though I am the Sultan's slave whatever I say is done I can at a stroke make a Pasha out of a stableboy I can give kingdoms and provinces to whosoever I choose and my Lord will say nothing against him Ibrahim confidence was misplaced and on the 15th of March 1536 Ibrahim Pasha accepted as usual the Sultan's invitation to dine with him painful for the year they eat at the same table until late at night according to Ramadan traditions they talk and entertain themselves and then they go to bed [Music] we didn't really know what happened that night but obviously the Sultan had decided that the Grand Vizier had become too powerful as a complement to his boyhood friend Suleiman apparently ordered the same method of execution reserved for his own kin go rotting with a bowstring so there would be no spilling of royal blood but Ibrahim put up too much of a struggle [Music] Suleiman in both ottoman sources and in European sources is frequently portrayed as a man of iron anything that threatened the state or that threatened his own integrity as ruler would motivate him to take violent moves the next morning Ibraheim body was found outside the palace this is a reminder of how Ottoman government worked you could raise a peasant from the dust to be Grand Vizier but his life hung by a thread if the sugeun the next day Abraham's wife Sullivan's sister comes to the palace and blames the Sultan for her husband's death Sullivan goes to the harem to find shelter in her arms arms it's hard to see that Solomon himself would have done it without her making him on she wanted to be absolutely sure of her control and until he brahim was out of the way there was always a danger that she might be packed off herself she was ruthless she had to be ruthless but the danger remained and death was not under her m's exclusive control in 1543 who rams ambitions received a fatal blow her young son Prince Mohammed was struck down by smallpox [Music] his death began a new race for the succession and the front-runner was Mustapha now in his 30s the son of hürrem's old rival Mahadev run this would mean death for harem surviving sons Solomon's favorite son was must have first he was also a favorite of the army it was Dolly was strong it was handsome he comes through he was gonna be a great ruler and everyone thought very highly of it must if I were to ascend the throne the murder of her own children would be inevitable it was impossible for her m to accept this story is usually looked at as one of intrigue and competition among the mothers around their sons I think there's a larger political context for this Mustafa was very very popular with the soldiers he was a rival to his father without meaning to be just by virtue of his popularity and the Sultan was persuaded that Mustapha was conspiring against him the story is that who M had an ally it was the husband of her daughter Mahima harem women could establish important alliances with male political actors - the marriages of their daughters and this daughter's husband was the Grand Vizier the new Grand Vizier was an important ally for her m and ideally placed to whisper slanders in the Sultan's ear word began to reach Solomon while he was out on campaign that must if I was plotting against him and most of her himself was very upset when news of these allegations reached him and he went to see his father [Music] most of her reached Suleiman's base in Iran and went straight to his tent a Western diplomat reported what happened then as soon as he entered the tent several sturdy mutes made a determined attack upon him they hurled Mustafa to the ground and throwing a bowstring round his neck strangled him it was said that suleiman urged the mutes to greater efforts but haram was widely blamed for her role in the murder I don't think she Lehman would have listened to these stories if he hadn't himself felt that there was a legitimate threat and that despite the fact that he was going to alienate so many people by executing his son that this was probably the wiser move for the integrity of the Empire if tradition paints her aim as the villain of the piece it was at a time when powerful women were widely perceived as a threat to the established order her aims contemporaries were Queen Elizabeth of England Catherine de Medici of France than Mary Queen of Scots whom the Calvinist John Knox dubbed the monstrous regimen her M aroused similar hostility among the Ottoman elite though the extent of her power has been disputed ahem was obviously a very powerful woman it's difficult for us to know how powerful because of course you know as today in the corridors of power things are decided in corridors not written down she was his eyes and ears and of course when the Sultan is away it means she could probably do a few things on her own account as well Karim was a very smart and shrewd person and she would write giving him news of what was going on books within the family but also political news there's one letter she wrote when Suleiman was fighting the Iranians she said so everybody here in Istanbul is waiting to your good news they're ready to set up a parade and we don't have any good news from you you need a victory no if a messenger arrives saying no progress here nothing there no-one is going to be very happy my Sultan Haram was sensitive to public opinion and she embarked on an ambitious building plan one of the major expressions of power was building building large mosques that had in the prerogative of males in the dynasty and Haram is in some ways the first woman who builds quite publicly but the public expression of hürrem's power was undermined by a fatal flaw she had removed the main rival for the throne but she had two sons and they couldn't both rule under Ottoman law one would have to die before the problem could be resolved she became seriously ill Suleiman old now and also in bad health kept vigil at her bedside but even as he watched her fight for life he must have known he would have to make a terrible choice over which of their sons would succeed him it was probably her Rams fortune that she did not live long enough to see the power struggle between her two sons the younger son took arms against his older brother and the sultan Suleiman had his youngest son executed as a traitor but by then he had lost the love of his life herim died on April the 18th 1558 38 years after she had first entered the harem Suleiman takes to a sort of ascetic lifestyle he dines off earthenware platters and this is the man who was changing his clothes everyday into a sort of cloth of gold he becomes religious but morbid eight years after Hurons death Suleiman joined her in the cemetery of sulemani mosque 400 years later her m's tomb has become a shrine for women who cherished the memory of a great ottoman queen grant really builds the foundation of this very public power that women have although she herself was unpopular at this time her power was as a concubine and that troubled people that she was a concubine a sexually active woman in power a problem harem had devoted 38 years of her life to ensuring that one of her own sons succeeded to the throne but ironically instead of providing the world with another Suleiman the Magnificent she had blazed the trail for future generations of harem women whose power would eclipse even her own [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Absolute History

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Keywords: timeline, harem, sulimans harem

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Length: 48min 44sec (2924 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 25 2020