for secretarial work. Discipline is strict, and continued disobedience
leads to corporal punishment by the eunuchs. All
the women of the harem are absolutely under the control of the
sultana validé (who alone of the harem of her dead husband is
not sent away to an older palace when her son succeeds), and
owe her the most profound respect, even to the point of having
to obtain permission to leave their own apartments. Her
financial secretary, the Haznadar Ousta, succeeds to her power
if she dies. The sultan’s foster-mother also is a person of importance,
and is known as the Taia Kadin.
The security of the harem is in the hands of a body of eunuchs both black and white. The white eunuchs have charge of the outer gates of the seraglio, but they are not allowed to approach the women’s apartments, and obtain no posts of distinction. Their chief, however, the kapu aghasi (“master of the gates”) has part control over the ecclesiastical possessions, and even the vizier cannot enter the royal apartments without his permission. The black eunuchs have the right of entering the gardens and chambers of the harem. Their chief, usually called the kislar aghasi (“master of the maidens”), though his true title is darus skadet aga (“chief of the abode of felicity”), is an official of high importance. His appointment is for life. If he is deprived of his post he receives his freedom; and if he resigns of his own accord he is generally sent to Egypt with a pension of 100 francs a day. His secretary keeps count of the revenues of the mosques built by the sultans. He is usually succeeded by the second eunuch, who bears the title of treasurer, and has charge of the jewels, &c., of the women. The number of eunuchs is always a large one. The sultana validé and the sultana hasseki have each fifty at their service, and others are assigned to the kadins and the favourite odalisks.
The ordinary middle-class household is naturally on a very different scale. The selamlik is on the ground floor with a separate entrance, and there the master of the house receives his male guests; the rest of the ground floor is occupied by the kitchen and perhaps the stables. The haremlik is generally (in towns at least) on the upper floor fronting on and slightly overhanging the street; it has a separate entrance, courtyard and garden. The windows are guarded by lattices pierced with circular holes through which the women may watch without being seen. Communication with the haremlik is effected by a locked door, of which the Effendi keeps the key and also by a sort of revolving cupboard (dutap) for the conveyance of meals. The furniture, of the old-fashioned harems at least, is confined to divans, rugs, carpets and mirrors. For heating purposes the old brass tray of charcoal and wood ash is giving way to American stoves, and there is a tendency to import French furniture and decoration without regard to their suitability.
The presence of a second wife is the exception, and is generally attributable to the absence of children by the first wife. The expense of marrying a free woman leads many Turks to prefer a slave woman who is much more likely to be an amenable partner. If a slave woman bears a child she is often set free and then the marriage ceremony is gone through.
The harem system is, of course, wholly inconsistent with any high ideal of womanhood. Certain misapprehensions, however, should be noticed. The depravity of the system and the vapid idleness of harem life are much exaggerated by observers whose sympathies are wholly against the system. In point of fact much depends on the individuals. In many households there exists a very high degree of mutual consideration and the standard of conduct is by no means degraded. Though a woman may not be seen in the streets without the yashmak which covers her face except for her eyes, and does not leave her house except by her husband’s permission, none the less in ordinary households the harem ladies frequently drive into the country and visit the shops and public baths. Their seclusion has very considerable compensations, and legally they stand on a far better basis in relation to their husbands than do the women of monogamous Christian communities. From the moment when a woman, free or slave, enters into any kind of wifely relation with a man, she has a legally enforceable right against him both for her own and for her children’s maintenance. She has absolute control over her personal property whether in money, slaves or goods; and, if divorce is far easier in Islam than in Christendom, still the marriage settlement must be of such amount as will provide suitable maintenance in that event.
On the other hand, of course, the system is open to the gravest abuse, and in countries like Persia, Morocco and India, the life of Moslem women and slaves is often far different from that of middle class women of European Turkey, where law is strict and culture advanced. The early age at which girls are secluded, the dulness of their surroundings, and the low moral standard which the system produces react unfavourably not only upon their moral and intellectual growth but also upon their capacity for motherhood and their general physique. A harem woman is soon passée, and the lot of a woman past her youth, if she is divorced or a widow, is monotonous and empty. This is true especially of child-widows.
Since the middle of the 19th century familiarity with European customs and the direct influence of European administrators has brought about a certain change in the attitude of Orientals to the harem system. This movement is, however, only in its infancy, and the impression is still strong that the time is not ripe for reform. The Oriental women are in general so accustomed to their condition that few have any inclination to change it, while men as a rule are emphatically opposed to any alteration of the system. The Young Turkish party, the upper classes in Egypt, as also the Babists in Persia, have to some extent progressed beyond the orthodox conception of the status of women, but no radical reform has been set on foot.
In India various attempts have been made by societies, missionary and other, as well as by private individuals, to improve the lot of the zenana women. Zenana schools and hospitals have been founded, and a few women have been trained as doctors and lawyers for the special purposes of protecting the women against their own ignorance and inertia. Thus in 1905 a Parsee Christian lady, Cornelia Sorabjee, was appointed by the Bengal government as legal adviser to the court of wards, so that she might give advice to the widowed mothers of minors within the harem walls. Similarly trained medical women are introduced into zenanas and harems by the Lady Dufferin Association for medical aid to Indian women. Gradually native Christian churches are making provision for the attendance of women at their services, though the sexes are rigorously kept apart. In India, as in Turkey, the introduction of Western dress and education has begun to create new ideas and ambitions, and not a few Eastern women have induced English women to enter the harems as companions, nurses and governesses. But training and environment are extremely powerful, and in some parts of the Mahommedan world, the supply of Asiatic, European and even American girls is so steady, that reform has touched only the fringe of the system.
Among the principal societies which have been formed to better the condition of Indian and Chinese women in general with special reference to the zenana system are the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society and the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. Much information as to the medical, industrial and educational work done by these societies will be found in their annual reports and other publications. Among these are J. K. H. Denny’s Toward the Uprising; Irene H. Barnes, Behind the Pardah (1897), an account of the former society’s work; the general condition of Indian women is described in Mrs Marcus B. Fuller’s Wrongs of Indian Womanhood (1900), and Maud Dover’s The Englishwoman in India (1909); see also article Missions.
Authorities.—The literature of the subject is very large, though a great deal of it is naturally based on insufficient evidence, and coloured by Western prepossessions. Among useful works are A. van Sommer and Zwerner, Our Moslem Sisters (1907), a collection of essays by authors acquainted with various parts of the Mahommedan world and strongly opposed to the whole harem system; Mrs W. M. Ramsay, Everyday Life in Turkey (1897), cc. iv. and v., containing an account of a day in a harem near Afium-Kara-Hissar; cf. e.g. art. “Harem” in Hughes, Dictionary of Islam; Mrs S. Harvey’s Turkish Harems and Circassian Homes (1871); for
