Secret Garden: Topkapi
Palace Harem
As visitors enter the door of Topkapi Palace Harem their sense of anticipation
is tangible. Even today they envisage the possibility of meeting an odalisque,
her long skirt trailing on the ground as she walks. The word harem originates
from the Arabic harîm, comprising the concepts of secrecy, inviolability and
sacrosanctness that pervade the very walls of this place and marked life here
over the centuries that it was a closed book to strangers.
The Mysterious Ottoman Harem
The harem section of Topkapi Palace was carefully situated so that it could not
be seen from the state apartments and the courtyards where public affairs were
conducted. Tursun Bey, a chronicler at the time of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror
wrote, 'If sems [the sun] had not been a word which in Persian takes the
feminine article, even the sun would not be admitted to the harem.' Known in
other eastern countries as perde (purdah), zenâne or endrûnr, the royal harem at
the Ottoman Palace was known as the Dâr-üs-saâde, or Place of Felicity, while
the section of the palace known as the Imperial Harem encompassed both the harem
proper, the state apartments of the sultans, the quarters of his household and
the pavilions in the fourth courtyard.
The secrecy associated with the royal harem and the harems of upper and
middle-class Ottoman houses aroused the keen curiosity of foreign travellers and
artists who visited Ottoman Turkey, but their written accounts and pictures of
the harem were based for the most part on hearsay. With a few exceptions it was
not until the end of the 18th century, during the reign of the enlightened
reformist Sultan Selim III (1789-1807) that the architect and draughtsman
Melling, Daniel Clark and other artists were admitted to the palace harem to
draw from observation instead of imagination.
In 1909, following the deposal of Sultan Abdülhamid II, the Ottoman historian
Abdurrahman Seref Bey made a detailed study of the buildings and apartments of
the harem, and the women, princesses and princes who lived there. His findings
were published as a series of articles in 1910 and 1911 in the historical
journal Encümen-i Osmani Mecmuasi. The harem was home to the sultan himself, his
mother, wives, daughters, sons, brothers, the high ranking female officials who
managed the affairs of the household, hundreds of maidservants, and black
eunuchs.
The earliest parts of the harem quarters are the Golden Road, the sultan's
private kitchen, and that section known as Eski Hasekiler. The service sections
of the harem included kitchen, food cellar, baths, laundry, sick room and the
dormitories of the maidservants and black eunuchs. As the population of the
harem increased from the end of the 16th century onwards, mezzanines and
additional buildings were constructed containing bedrooms for the serving women
and self-contained apartments for the wives of the sultan. The 17th century
Ottoman writer Evliya Çelebi records that until the late 16th century the harem
did not move to Topkapi Palace, although the sultans conducted their daily
business there and often spent the night, going occasionally to the Old Palace
to visit their wives and children. Sultan Süleyman the Magnificient (1520-1566)
took only his wife Hürrem Sultan and some women-in-waiting to this palace, the
complete transferral of the harem from the Old Palace taking place during the
reign of Murad III (1574-1595). On 24 July 1665, while Mehmed IV (1648-1687),
his harem and household were at the palace in Edirne, a great fire broke out at
Topkapi Palace, destroying the Palace of Justice, the Council of State, the
Treasury, the Land Registry Office, most of the harem from the Carriage Gate to
the Apartment of the Sultan's Mother, and the kitchens.
The 17th century Turkish scholar Katip Çelebi wrote in his Takvimü’t-Tevarih
that the fire was started by a maidservant who had stolen a ring. Mehmed IV and
his mother returned to Istanbul to inspect the situation, and the sultan ordered
the construction of a new harem building whose interior walls were entirely
decorated with tiles. This was completed in 1668, but since Mehmed IV and his
successors who reigned during the second half of the 17th century lived for the
most part at Edirne Palace, the harem at Topkapi did not regain its importance
until the reign of Ahmed III (1703-1730), a period popularly known as the Tulip
Era. European baroque began to influence Turkish art and architecture at this
time, and the Tulip Era is characterised by a new naturalistic style which is
perhaps most strikingly exemplified by the painted wall decoration consisting of
vases of flowers and plates of fruit in the Fruit Room of Ahmed III in the
harem.
The passion for garden flowers became evident everywhere, on clothing,
furnishings and in architectural decoration, and extending even to the names of
the harem women, who began to be given melodious Persian names like Laligül
(Ruby Rose) and Nazgül (Shy Rose) that suggested they were as beautiful and
graceful as flowers. Later in the 18th century, rococo, with its delicate colour
schemes and light romantic motifs, began to influence Turkish art, and the
Pavilion of Osman III built on a terrace facing the Hünkâr Sofasi (Throne Room
of the Harem) and the gracefully decorated wooden structures known as the
Gözdeler Dairesi (Apartment of Favourites) above the Golden Road are typical of
this later style. Life in the royal harem was very different from that imagined
by Europeans. As an institution in Ottoman society the harem reflected the
secluded privacy of family life. The cariyes or maidservants who served the
women of the household were trained and educated in the skills and
accomplishments thought appropriate for women at the time, and after a certain
number of years in service allowed to marry. In the royal harem, under the
guidance of the sultn's mother or the principal officer of the harem household,
a woman known as the chief treasurer, the girls were taught to read and write,
play music, and the intricate rules of palace etiquette and protocol. Very few
were honoured even by the privilege of waiting at the sultn'sg table, and still
fewer became royal wives. After nine years of service the harem girls were given
their manumission document, a set of diamond earrings and ring, a trousseau and
some gold as their marriage portion, and suitable husbands found for them. They
were renowned for their good breeding and for their discretion, never being
known to reveal any intimate details about the royal family to outsiders.
Nevertheless, graffiti on the harem walls shows that not all cariyes were
contented with their lot: 'Dilferib whose heart burns / Is wretched / O God /
Alas alas.'
Written by H. Canan Cimilli who is a researcher and Keeper of the Harem at
Topkapi Palace Museum
Other Harem pictures can be found at the web-page
Topkapi Palace Photo Gallery-Dick
Osseman or
Click the following link to see the 360 panoramic pictures from theTopkapi
Palace Harem:
Harem-Topkapi Palace
TransAnatolie Tour
|