harem

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term harem (from harim  /حريم / ḥarīm  / 'Holy, inviolable place; Sanctuary; sacred area; female family members, women, wife ') refers to a closed and guarded living area of ​​a seraglio or house in which the women, female relatives and underage children of a Muslim head of the family live (in contrast to the Selamlık ). As in Arabic, the ambivalence of the term also determines its meaning in German usage. On the one hand it stands for the protected area, on the other hand for female residents of the area. The cities of Mecca and Medina are referred to in Arabic as Ḥaram (or collectively as al-ḥaramain ) - a term that, like harām , is derived from the same root.

Harem gate in the Mughal Palace of Fatehpur Sikri (around 1570)

Islam

Ottoman Empire

In the consciousness and in the imagination of the Europeans, the harem as a place and the harem as a collection of women are dependent on the fantasies and myths that entwine around the harem of the Ottoman sultans.

“The historiography of Islamic countries is silent about women. This is especially true for rural women and women of the lower classes. But even the court chronicles contain hardly any information about the life of the harem residents: the harem remained mysterious and inexplicable as a place of residence, educational institution and social space. "

- Elçin Kürsat
Fictional harem scene with sultan by Jean-Baptiste van Mour (1671–1737), who lived in Istanbul from 1699–1711
Rooms of the Sultan's Mother ( Valide Sultan ) in the Harem of Topkapı Sarayı (Istanbul)
Harem ladies enjoying summer pleasures on the sweet waters of Europe , in the palace gardens on the Golden Horn, miniature from Hubannâme ve Zenannâme by Fâzıl-i Enderunî, illustration from the late 18th century
Childbirth in the harem , miniature from Hubannâme ve Zenannâme by Fâzıl-i Enderunî, illustration from the late 18th century

Even reports and paintings by European visitors to Constantinople, which were created in large numbers since the 16th century and whose authors sometimes pretended to know everything first-hand, depended on it.

The supposed conditions were subsequently transferred, together with the name “harem”, to similar things in other cultures and regions and at other times, for example to the “harem” of the Egyptian pharaohs and the Chinese emperors.

The view of the harem of the Ottoman sultans as a place of polygamy and polygamy is shown, for example, in a report by the Ottoman interpreter and chronicler Osman Ağa from Timisoara (* around 1671; † after 1725), which is based on the rules of the Koran .

“With us, women submit to the commandment of Allah and the word of His Prophet according to our faith. Those who can afford it can take four wives and keep as many concubines as they can. In this regard, our women have not a word to argue against. "

- Osman Ağa : From his conversation with Princess Lubomirska, wife of Prince Sieniawski

A harem with several wives or concubines was not very common in the Ottoman Empire . The Arab provinces were probably more widespread than the European and Anatolian ones. In the 19th century, for example, 16% of Muslim men in Nablus had more than one woman, in Damascus it was 12%, in Istanbul, however, only 2%. The harem of the Ottoman Sultan ( harem-i hümâyûn  /حرم همايون) was the greatest of its time. In the Topkapı Palace there were over 300 rooms, which were available for the harem of sometimes more than 800 (in 1633) women. From the 16th to the 19th century, however, the harem was not only a place of rule-based sexual pleasure for the sultan, but rather a place of dynastic reproduction and thus a place of family and thus imperial politics.

There was a strict hierarchy in the sultan's harem. At the head was the Sultan's mother ( Valide Sultan ), followed by the princesses of Ottoman blood ( Sultana ), then came the first main wife ( kadın  /قادين / 'Woman', plural kadınlar  /قادينلر), the mother of children of the Sultan (after the birth of a son a new Kadın was chosen), then the favorites ( hasekî  /خاصكیfrom Persian خاصگى, DMG ḫāṣṣagī ), then the Ikbal and Gözde (which has seen the Sultan, and who got the Sultan handkerchief), the harem servants (also odalık , " odalisques ", from oda  /اوطه / 'Gemach, Zimmer'), the harem students (palace slaves) and at the end the working slaves . The sultan's mother had a great influence on the harem because, as a former haseki , she knew best about the customs. She almost always selected the sultan's new ikbal for his bedchamber. She also tried to prevent monogamy so that no woman could gain too much influence. The next most important person in the harem was the chief of the black eunuchs ( Kızlar Ağası ). This supervised the work of all other eunuchs, whose job was to teach the women of the harem and to take care of their personal hygiene, as well as to regulate monetary matters of the harem. The Kızlar Ağası was also the link between the harem and the outside world.

The bed companions chosen by the Sultan from the harem were called Ikbal ( ikbâl  /اقبال- who only spent one night with the Sultan), these then eventually became cadins; they ran their own court with eunuchs and harem maids in a strictly secluded seraglio. All of the sultan's children, whether chief wives or concubines, were considered legitimate. The ladies of the harem were almost exclusively of non-Muslim origin from many countries, as it was forbidden to enslave Muslims. The harem students were taught many skills, for example, they learned to read and write Turkish, sewing and embroidery, dancing, singing and making music. They were then often married to dignitaries if they did not remain in the sultan's harem. There they were intended for personal service with the higher-ranking ladies or even with the sultan. In this case, they were Gedikli  /كدكلو / Called 'the elect'. The sultan (or the valid sultan ) chose his new ikbal from among their ranks . The kahya kadın , the superintendent of the harem, was directly subordinate to the sultan's mother .

Usually the sultan's single daughters ( sultana ) also lived in the harem. It also served as an education for them. If an Ottoman princess was married to a high dignitary, the latter had to pay a very large morning gift, usually a palace on the banks of the Bosphorus for his new wife. He had to dissolve any existing marriage or an existing polygamous household immediately. This sultan's son-in-law ( Damad ) was ranked under his wife for life and usually lived separately from her.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the harem became an important center of power in the rulership of the Ottoman Empire. The favorite wives, mothers and grandmothers of the sultans such as Roxelane , Mrs. Suleyman I , or Kösem Mahpeyker , Mrs. Ahmed I , mother Murad IV and İbrahim as well as grandmother Mehmed IV exerted a decisive influence, which is why this period is known as kadınlar saltanatı ( Female rule ).

After troops of the Young Turks stormed the harem of the deposed Sultan Abdülhamid II on April 24, 1909, hung the head eunuch on a lantern on the Galata Bridge and released the slaves, the families of the slaves were asked to give their daughters, as far as they could be identified to be picked up from Constantinople and brought home (mostly in the Caucasus ). But for many former harem residents there was only one way out: to be marveled at in the West for money. Such a group of women and eunuchs could be seen at a Völkerschau in Vienna before the First World War .

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk , the founder of modern Turkey, forbade polygamy for the republic . Tunisia is the second state in the Islamic world in which polygyny is also prohibited by law, in other Islamic countries it is permitted and is also practiced.

Mughal Empire

During the heyday of the Mughal Empire (1526–1707) in northern India, the situation was generally comparable. All four large palace complexes of the Mughals in Delhi , Fatehpur Sikri , Lahore and Agra had structurally separate women's areas ( zenana ) that were sealed off from outside influences and views by separate gates, high walls and jalis - a constellation that was often also used by the Mughal Rajput princes was taken over (e.g. in Amber Fort near Jaipur ). With Nur Jahan (1577–1645), the 20th wife of Emperor Jahangir , who came from a Persian family, a woman had a great influence on politics; she also excelled as a builder. Her niece Mumtaz Mahal (1593–1631) married Prince Khurram, the later Mughal ruler Shah Jahan , as the third wife . Their political influence, however, was significantly less; she died giving birth to her 14th child. The Taj Mahal was built in her honor .

Other cultures

China

In Imperial China 's harem were (Chinese: Guifang ,桂芳) comparable institutions and polygamy likewise common practice here but this was almost entirely due to Adel limited. The first mention at the time of the Chu dynasty (~ 800 BC) was in connection with succession battles among the ruler's sons. Especially the Daoism promoted the harem system by claiming that the frequent traffic with different, younger concubines possible strength vitality. The Dowager Empress Lü (191–180 BC, Han dynasty ) therefore had all concubines and their sons murdered after the death of her husband. Under Emperor Han Wudi (141–87 BC), the eunuchs of the harem gained more and more power. Some harem ladies and later imperial widows such as Wu Zetian (625–705), who even declared herself the only empress of China, but also concubines (e.g. Yang Guifei , ~ 750), had a very strong influence on the empire. The last in this series was Cixi (1835-1908), who rose from concubine to main wife, the aunt and foster mother of the penultimate and last emperor of China.

The harem of a Chinese emperor in the 19th century consisted of an empress, two wives, eleven concubines and numerous concubines. The concubines, in turn, were divided into different ranks. The majority of the women in the imperial harem came from families of the Eight Banners , meaning they were either Manchu , Mongolian , or Han Chinese. Sometimes Koreans were also taken into the harem by Turkic peoples . The choice of wives and concubines was not made by the incumbent emperor, but usually by the widow of the previous emperor. The concubines were chosen from a number of girls who had just reached sexual maturity and were proposed by the elders of the clans. The chance that a clan member would become an influential figure in the Chinese court in this way was not very high. However, attaining such a position strengthened the influence of a single clan. The emperor's dealings with his empress, his two wives or concubines and the other concubines were subject to a number of traditional rules, which were intended to ensure that the emperor had regular sexual intercourse with a large number of harem women and that he had once a month with the empress. Every sexual encounter was noted in lists.

Thailand

The earlier kings of Thailand also maintained an extensive harem, called the "inner palace" or "inner city", which no man except the king was allowed to enter. King Chulalongkorn (1853-1910) had a total of 152 wives.

Judaism

The Bible warns the Jews in Deuteronomy 17:17 LUT against polygamy. Nevertheless, according to 1 Kings 11 : 3 LUT , King Solomon had a harem (Hebrew: Harmon , ארמון) with seven hundred head wives and three hundred concubines, among whom according to 1. Kings 9:24 LUT there was also a pharaoh's daughter . That Solomon owned them and other pagan women sparked discussions with the Jewish priesthood.

Pharaoh empire

The pharaohs in ancient Egypt also had a harem. Due to the religious and dynastic incest , the queen, i.e. the main wife, was often her own sister. Princesses of lands conquered or made allies were brought to the Pharaoh's harem as a pledge of peace. As temple inscriptions in Karnak , Elephantine and Abu Simbel report, Ramses II brought a daughter of the Hittite king Ḫattušili III. therefore to yourself. The Mittani princess Taduḫepa , who is sometimes and probably wrongly equated with Nefertiti , also came to Egypt in this way. A wealthy, distinguished Egyptian could also keep a harem with slave women.

reception

Jean-Léon Gérôme - Harem Bath (1876)

The institution of Islamic polygamy, and in particular the harem, which was protected from prying eyes, held a strong fascination in Christian Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. The portrayal of harem scenes was a popular subject in orientalist painting . Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867) or Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), for example, painted erotically tinged fantasies in which the harem was inhabited by mostly naked odalisques who were just waiting to be their master.

In contrast, Ottoman artists such as Abdülcelil Çelebi Levni, Buharî or Enderûnlu Fâzıl offer realistic harem scenes in which the residents are shown in everyday situations and dressed.

The unsuccessful liberation of two European women kidnapped in a Turkish harem and the generosity of the harem owner are the focus of Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail .

Karl May lets his hero Kara Ben Nemsi free a beautiful Montenegrin from the slavery of a harem in the adventure novel Through the Desert , which in an early version was entitled Through Desert and Harem . Several of his fictional characters express the sharpest criticism of the harem as an institution. Zykyma describes it as "hell", as "most wretched servitude" and as "most terrible depth of damnation"; Hajji Halef Omar's wife Hanneh calls the “very poor harem economy” a “great and completely unforgivable insult to all women”. These reports and testimonies “from the inside”, that is, from affected women, be they Christians or Muslims, are typical of Karl May. His strategy of warding off criticism of his portrayals of the harem and Islam as a whole was reflected in German-language literature widely taken over, for example by Peter Scholl-Latour .

See also

literature

  • Osman Ağa : Between Pashas and Generals. Report by Osman Ağa from Timisoara on the highlights of his work as a divan interpreter and diplomat. Translated, introduced and explained by Richard Franz Kreutel / Friedrich Kornauth, from the series Richard Franz Kreutel (ed.): Ottoman historians. Volume 5, Styria Verlag, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1966.
  • Vittoria Alliata: Harem, freedom behind the veil ; Original title: Harem, memorie d'Arabia de una nobildonna siciliana ; translated from Italian by Ragni Maria Gschwend; 9th edition, Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M. 1991 282 p .; ( Ullstein book , 34177) ISBN 3-548-34177-2 .
  • Bertrand Michael Buchmann: Austria and the Ottoman Empire. A bilateral story. WUV University Press, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85114-479-1 .
  • Herbert Franke , Rolf Wedding slip : The Chinese Empire. Volume 19 in the series Fischer Weltgeschichte , Fischer Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1968, ISBN 3-596-60019-7 .
  • Roswitha Gost: The History of the Harem. Verlag Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96044-4 .
  • Hans Georg Majer: The Harem of Mustafa II (1695-1703). In: Osmanlı Araştırmaları , Volume 12 (1992), [1] (PDF, 2.05 MB).
  • Leslie P. Peirce: The imperial harem: women and sovereignity in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press, New York 1993, ISBN 0-19-507673-7 .
  • Fariba Zarinebaf-Shar. In: Jonathan Dewald (Ed.): Europe, 1450 to 1789; Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 2004, ISBN 0-684-31203-4 , Volume 3.

Web links

Commons : Harem  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Harem  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Leslie P. Peirce: The imperial harem: women and sovereignity in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press, New York 1993, ISBN 0-19-507673-7 , pp. 3-5.
  2. ↑ a b Elçin Kürsat: Harem women and rule in the Ottoman Empire in its heyday. ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pu-aktuell.de
  3. ↑ a b Madeline C. Zilfi: Women in the Ottoman Empire: Middle Eastern women in the early Modern Era . Brill, Leiden 1997, ISBN 90-04-10804-1 , p. 163
  4. ↑ Koran, Sura 4, verses 1-3; Sura 23, verses 1-6
  5. ↑ Osman Ağa: Between Pashas and Generals. Report by Osman Ağa from Timisoara on the highlights of his work as a divan interpreter and diplomat. Translated, introduced and explained by Richard Franz Kreutel / Friedrich Kornauth, from the series Richard Franz Kreutel (ed.): Ottoman historians. Volume 5, Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1966, p. 36.
  6. ^ Leslie P. Peirce: The imperial harem: women and sovereignity in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press, New York 1993, ISBN 0-19-507673-7 , p. 122.
  7. ↑ a b Bertrand Michael Buchmann: Austria and the Ottoman Empire. A bilateral story. WUV-Universitätsverlag, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85114-479-1 , p. 69.
  8. ^ Leslie P. Peirce: The imperial harem: women and sovereignity in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press, New York 1993, ISBN 0-19-507673-7 , p. 3.
  9. ↑ Roswitha Gost: The history of the harem. Verlag Albatros, Düsseldorf 202, ISBN 3-491-96044-4 , p. 188 ff.
  10. ↑ a b c Fariba Zarinebaf-Shahr. In: Jonathan Dewald (Ed.): Europe, 1450 to 1789; Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 2004, Volume 3, p. 132.
  11. ↑ Roswitha Gost: The history of the harem. Verlag Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96044-4 , S, 72.
  12. ↑ Roswitha Gost: The history of the harem. Verlag Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96044-4 , pp. 171-175.
  13. ^ Leslie P. Peirce: The imperial harem: women and sovereignity in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press, New York 1993, ISBN 0-19-507673-7 , vocabulary p. XIII.
  14. ↑ Roswitha Gost: The history of the harem. Verlag Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96044-4 , p. 201 ff.
  15. ↑ Roswitha Gost: The history of the harem. Verlag Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96044-4 , pp. 261-263.
  16. ^ Herbert Franke, Rolf wedding slip: The Chinese Empire. Volume 19 in the series Fischer Weltgeschichte. Fischer Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1968, ISBN 3-596-60019-7 , pp. 43, 81, 89, 93, 157-158, 331.
  17. ↑ see main article Cixi
  18. ↑ Tamara Loos: Sex in the Inner City: The Fidelity between Sex and Politics in Siam . In: The Journal of Asian Studies , Vol. 64, No. 4 (2005), pp. 881-909.
  19. ↑ The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. 3 volumes of the Old Testament, Pustet Verlag, Regensburg 1920.
  20. ↑ Gert Ueding (Ed.): Karl-May-Handbuch . 2nd ext. u. edit Edition. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2001, ISBN 3-8260-1813-3 , p. 155f
  21. ^ Karl May: German hearts, German heroes. 1885–1888, 4th delivery, text version of the first edition on the website of the Karl May Society (accessed on November 17, 2009)
  22. ↑ Karl May: Am Jenseits , 1899, first chapter - Eine Kijahma , text version of the first book edition on the website of the Karl May Society (accessed on November 17, 2009)
  23. ↑ Iman Attia (ed.): The "western culture" and their other. For the deconstruction of orientalism and anti-Muslim racism. Transcript, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-8376-1081-9 , pp. 64f.