Harem

In the Arab tradition, imitated by other Muslim cultures, the harîm حريم (cf. haram) is the part of the household forbidden to male strangers.

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

Word history

The word has been recorded in the English language since 1634, via the Turkish harem, from the Arabic haram (wives and concubines), 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.

History

Contrary to the common belief among some, a Muslim harem is the collective term for the wive(s)and in some cases concubines, only in the case of princes and the very rich it is generally part of a palace and its inhabitants do not necessarily consist solely of women with whom the head of the household has a sexual relation, their young offspring plus staff (women and eunuchs).

The Ottoman harem, in the Turkish Great Sultan's Topkapi seraglio (closed palace of probably the richest and most powerful Muslim dynasty) in the imperial capital Istanbul, typically housed several hundred women including wives (only four could be legal under Islam), 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 Topkapi Harem was, in some senses, merely the private living quarters of the Sultan and his family, within the palace complex.

Harems existed in Ancient Persia as early as the Achaemenid dynasty 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.

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 top-of-the market brothel consisting of many promiscuous women laying 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 nude attractive women lounging by spas and pools, congregating nude together, leisurely. See Harem Art.

While some Muslims assert that the Islamic religion never proscribes the use of harems, and that it (re)emerged rather as an extension of Ottoman culture, the institution pre-dates Islam and even Christianity (obviously under other names), but the Prophet Muhammad and his followers practiced slavery, accumulating women as war booty. The Qur'an allots these captured women, married or not, as property "of the right hand," and sexual relations are said to be lawful with them. As such, while these women were not kept in harem-style sections of the household, the tradition existed from the start in Islamic slavery practices.

Harem Art

|| Swoboda-shopping in harem mid19th.jpg, 1859-1914. Austrian]] || Quintana Blas Olleras-Harem Scene.jpg, 1851-1919, Italian]]

Harem Art					John frederick lewis-reception1873.jpg, 1805-1875, English]]	Frederick arthur bridgeman-harem fountain.jpg, 1847-1928, American]]		Ingre, Grande Odalisque.jpg, Grande Odalisque]]	Odalisque.jpg, Odalisque]]

Sources and references

(incomplete)

Mohammed Webb: The Influence of Islam on Social Conditions Paper, World Parliment 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 0195086775
Suraiya Faroqhi: Subjects of the Sultan : Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire I. B. Tauris (November 10, 2005) ISBN 1850437602
Billie Melman: Women's Orients : English Women and the Middle East, 1718-1918 University of Michigan Press (July 15, 1992) ISBN 0472103326
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 0521523036
Emmanuel Todd: The explanation of ideology: Family structures and social systems B. Blackwell (1985) ISBN 0631137246
Oleg Grabar: The Formation of Islamic Art Yale University Press; Rev&Enlarg edition (September 10, 1987) ISBN 0300040466

Non-Fiction

Etymology OnLine
Alev Lytle Croutier: Harem: The World Behind the Veil Abbeville Press; Reprint edition (July 1998) ISBN 1558591591
Alev Lytle Croutier: The Palace of Tears Delta; Reprint edition (January 2, 2002) ISBN 0385334915
Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul: The Sultan's Harem Penguin (Non-Classics); New Ed edition (July 3, 2001) ISBN 0140270566
M. Saalih : Harem Girl : A Harem Girl’s Journal Delta; Reprint edition (January 2, 2002) ISBN 0595313000
Fatima Mernissi: Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society Delta; Reprint edition (January 2, 2002) ISBN 0253204232
Andrew Rippin: Muslims (Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices) Routledge; 2 edition (November 30, 2000) ISBN 0415217822
Malise Ruthven: Islam: A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition (June 15, 2000) ISBN 0192853899
Kishori Saran Lal : The Mughal harem Aditya Prakashan (1988) (June 15, 2000) ISBN 8185179034

Fiction

Dora Levy Mossanen: Harem: A Novel Touchstone (July 30, 2002), ISBN 0743230213
Colin Falconer: The Sultan's Harem Crown (July 13, 2004) ISBN 0609610309
N. M. Penzer: The Harem : Inside the Grand Seraglio of the Turkish Sultans Dover Publications (May 13, 2005) ISBN 0486440044
Anastasia M. Ashman: Tales from the Expat Harem : Foreign Women in Modern Turkey Seal Press; Reprint edition (March 12, 2006) ISBN 1580051553

Sociology