Women Under Polygamy/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV
POLYGAMY IN TURKISH SOCIETY
A Turkish gentleman informs me that the serai may, in the near course of time, become quite rare and curious in his country. Monogamy is now considered "good form," and plural marriage is beginning to be regarded as old-fashioned. Turkey has always been very susceptible to alien influences. She has during later years, absorbed much of the spirit of the West; and Turks who have lived for some time in England or France, return to their land with a new perspective of social life and ideals.
The bulk of the population of Turkey is monogamous. It would be correct to state that the polygamists are an almost insignificant number, confined entirely to the rich class. Many men married to one wife keep mistresses in a second establishment; but the lords of the large harems are few.
The ownership of a serai imposes several severe obligations apart from the high cost. A Turk cannot follow the example of the West, where the "kept woman" can be repudiated and cast aside, even if she is penniless. The law and public opinion of Turkey demand that a husband or a lover must provide for the discarded wife, or mistress, as well as the children of the union.
A prudent Turk, before venturing upon plural marriage, reflects that the claims of his wives and concubines are numerous and heavy. Custom is exacting in this matter. Several wives require several servants, separate apartments, carriages—for harem women do not walk out of the harem grounds—expensive fashionable gowns and hats, jewellery, and, above all, generous dowries. Eunuchs must be kept and well paid, for they are indispensable. There are a hundred-and-one incidental expenses to be reckoned with. Moreover, several wives means a big family. And in Turkey, where family affection is deep, a father is bound by conscience and the law, to maintain his offspring in comfort, and to provide for their future.
Besides the economic deterrent, there is the growing sentiment against polygamous unions. A cultured Turk, with a cosmopolitan experience, ponders upon the family life of the monogamous countries, and discovers something admirable in its loving comradeship with one woman. He deplores the defective education of the mass of women in his own country, and asks whether polygamy is not in a large degree the cause of this.
In many respects single marriage in Turkey affords a sound example to England and America. Divorce, though simple, is very rare. In the Western societies, where it is difficult, it is quite common. I think the scarcity of separation may be accepted as a tribute to the conjugal adaptability of the Turks. They make good husbands and wives. From all that I know of the men of Turkey, I am convinced that they excel in that sympathetic understanding of women which generally ensures success as a lover and husband.
Let us consider for a moment the temperament and character of the Turks. They are not so completely "Oriental" as the Hindus. The race is very mixed, and there is a strong strain of Circassian blood in the highest families. The salient traits of the Turk are ardour in sexual love, quick temper, fortitude, kindliness, and courtesy. Social intercourse is democratic; there is not a wide gulf of caste between employer and employed, and between master and slave.
A conspicuous quality of the Turk is his devotion to family life and his great affection for children. He not only loves his own children, but his tenderness extends to all children. Perhaps nowhere else can such fond fathers be found in the East or West.
Thackeray was impressed by the love of the Turkish people for their children. "I never saw more kindness to children than among all classes, more fathers walking about with little solemn Mohametans in red caps and big trousers, more business going on than in the toy-quarter, and in the Atmeidan." And he gives a description of grey-beards finding the greatest delight in playing with young children.
This love of children is confirmed by Sir Edwin Pears, in "Turkey and its People." "Paradise is beneath the ground over which mothers walk," said Mohammed. This esteem for maternity and gentle solicitude for the well-being of the young is one of the most beautiful traits of the Turkish character.
The man who understands children, and is loved by them, has certain qualities that appeal to women. Women say that tenderness is one of the virtues that they most esteem in men. This tenderness is nearly always apparent in the Turk. He is a born wooer, possessed of sympathetic insight into woman's inner soul. Art develops this natural gift; for the men of the East are diligent students of the art of love. Compared with them, the average Briton is an inexperienced amateur.
Regarded from the question of ensuring happy and healthy marital relations, Sir James Paget has some wise words upon our disastrous ignorance of the physical expression of conjugal love. No Oriental is allowed to marry in such ignorance. Turkish and Persian love poetry reveal this masculine appreciation of woman's nature. There is no doubt that the tranquil, felicitous married life in Turkey is due largely to the pains that men take in learning the art of love.
There is no rending sex-antagonism in Turkey, as in England at the present day. Men and women accept one another joyfully as gifts from the gods. They fulfil their sex-lives naturally, without concern as to which sex is the more virtuous or superior. I am not assuming that all is wrong with our own marriage system and that everything is right with wedlock in Turkey.
There are, however, certain sane and beneficial customs in Turkey that other nations might imitate. English and American women, who have seen the inner home-life of the Turks, frequently assert that the women are, on the whole, in a better position than in any other country of Europe; indeed, one American lady has declared that women in Turkey are more esteemed, and have higher privileges, than in the United States.[1]
Lady Mary Wortley Montague gives several pictures of Turkish harem life in her time. At Adrianople, she paid a visit to a serai containing about two hundred women. She was received with the utmost courtesy.
"The first sofas were covered with cushions and rich carpets, on which sat the ladies, and on the second their slaves, behind them, but without any distinction of rank by their dress, all being in a state of nature, that is, in plain English, stark naked, without any beauty or defect concealed. Yet there was not the least wanton smile or immodest gesture among them. They walked or moved with the same majestic grace, which Milton describes our general mother with. There are many among them as exactly proportionate as ever any goddess was drawn by the pencil of Guido or Titian, and most of their skin shiningly white, only adorned by their beautiful hair, divided into many tresses, hanging on their shoulders, braided, either with pearl or ribbon, perfectly representing the figures of the graces."
Mohammedan modesty is chiefly manifested by women in the practice of covering the face from the gaze of the other sex. There is much less solicitude for concealing the body. Friends who have surprised Eastern women, when bathing in the rivers, tell me that the women run to put on their veils, and so long as their faces are covered, they are not concerned about the rest of their figures. But we are told that Mohammedan women are shocked at the evening dress of English women.
The Turkish veil is a more complete covering for the face than the Arab yashmak. It is of muslin, and covers the whole head. Over the veil is worn a hood, attached to an unlovely garment that reaches to the heels and encases the body.
In the East there is a reluctance on the part of well-bred women to show the feet. Turks are inclined to make a fetich of their women's feet, somewhat after the manner of the Chinese. Strabo refers to "the courtesan Rhodope, whose sandal was carried off by an eagle and dropped in the King of Egypt's lap as he was administering justice, so that he could not rest until he had discovered to whom this delicately small sandal belonged, and finally made her his queen."[2]
A Turkish beauty's slippers are an important part of her clothing. The foot has an erotic significance among most Moslem peoples, and, to a certain extent, in Spain, which owes many of its ideas and practices to the Moorish conquerors. Students of sexual pyschology are aware that boot-and-shoe fetichism is common in most countries.
The same passion for powerful scents that prevails amongst the Egyptian women is noted in the harems of Constantinople. There is very frequent reference in Oriental love poems to the odour of the loved one. Odorous tresses are described, and likened to the smell of musk and civet. This keen olfactory sensitiveness is normal in Arabia and Turkey. The Turks love the heavy perfume of the lily. They are especially fond of musk and myrrh, and women often use strong perfumes in their baths and unguents. The "lotus woman" of the Hindus, the flower of her sex, should possess the natural aroma of musk. In the "Song of Songs," which is typically Oriental, we read of "myrrh," "spices," and "sweet herbs."
The haremlik, or the women's quarters, in the houses of Turkish aristocrats is furnished in modern European style, the fittings and furniture tending to lose their Eastern character. English pianos are to be seen.
The ladies of the haremlik can gaze upon the outer world through apertures in the darkened windows, but they are not seen from without. They go out at will, like the women of the Imperial Harem, but always veiled.
Dancing is one of the accomplishments of the women of the seraglio. The Turkish dancers sway the upper part of the body from the hips, and often writhe with snake-like motions. The feet play a subordinate part in most Oriental dances; but the arms are in constant waving motion, sometimes extended on either side, or raised above the head.
Among the troupe of Turkish dancers who appeared in London a few years ago, many of the performers were very proficient in a peculiar movement of the head from side to side without any motion of the neck. This is an important feature of dancing in Turkey, and the movement is strangely suggestive of dislocation of the neck. It appears to be extremely difficult, but a Spanish professional dancer, with whom I am acquainted, tells me that she learned the head movement in about a week by practising in front of a mirror.
The dances are often protracted, and very exhausting to the artists. Whirling round at a great rate is a part of the art. This giddy evolution is sustained for many minutes, and causes a sense of vertigo in the spectator. The girl becomes almost frenzied. She whirls faster and faster, and finally reels to a couch, her face drenched and white, almost in a state of collapse from the prolonged and violent exertion. Most of the dances are voluptuous, and describe amorous passion. They are less graceful and pleasing than the peasant dances of Spain.
Although some Turkish women are excellent dancers, they are not fond of physical exercise, and the sporting or athletic woman is unknown in the society of Constantinople. The men are often fine equestrians, and some are formidable wrestlers, but they have no liking for field-sports.
Devotions, the toilet and bathing occupy much of the women's time. They are very fond of the hot vapour bath and the heated chambers, and some of them will spend the greater part of the day at the hammam.
No harem ikbal allows her hair to turn grey. Such sign of age must be remedied by every device of art. Dye is used constantly for the hair upon the first appearance of fading. Wrinkles in the skin of the face are treated by massage and emollients.
Although the Turks excel in affection for their children, infant mortality is high owing to defective hygiene and the incompetence of physicians. The secluded life of the women in the seraglio, and the average home in Turkey, is not the best environment for mothers. It cramps the intelligence, and perpetuates antiquated and often foolish and injurious practices in the rearing of infants. The nurses in the harem are not properly trained, and many children die through their mismanagement.
Women of the haremlik have the chief care of their children during the years up to the marriageable age, and their influence is great during childhood and adolescence. Being imperfectly educated, and inexperienced in all that concerns the larger life of the world, the average Turkish mother, in spite of her parental tenderness, is not often a competent instructress of the young. She is almost always very conservative in her views and her habits, and she accepts all the ideals in which she has been trained from earliest infancy. The spirit of "the unchanging East" fetters and cramps her mind.
Upon this influence of the mothers Halib Halid has some reflections in his interesting "Diary of a Turk," published in 1903.
The mixture of the white and the more pigmented races in Turkey has produced a distinct type of beauty amongst the women. Many Turkish ladies are fair, with grey or blue eyes and light brown hair. Some are handsome brunettes, with luxuriant black hair. The eyebrows are rather heavy and arched.
A Turkish beauty has tender, almond-shaped eyes, with pointed corners to the lids. Her face is often "made up" with various powders and rouge, and the rim of the eyelid is stained. In form the women of Turkey incline to plumpness and roundness, but they are often finely modelled. Their attractions begin to fade before middle-age, in spite of bathing, massage, and constant attention to the preservation of their good looks and their figures.
"About a century ago, Lady Craven wrote:—"I think I never saw a country where women may enjoy as much liberty and fear from all reproach as in Turkey." This opinion is confirmed by almost all the observant travellers whom I have questioned, and in numerous volumes to which I have referred. Several English women have written of the women of Turkey as down-trodden, immured and secluded, but such a view is scarcely just. Certainly, judged from a purely Western standpoint, Turkish women are debarred from specific forms of freedom enjoyed in Christian countries. But when a balance is struck, we shall perhaps realise that the difference between the status of the English woman and her sister in Turkey is not so marked as it appears.
Turkey has solved the problem of involuntary celibacy for women, which is one of the most palpable defects of the monogamous marriage system. We have tens of thousands of spinsters who are actually doomed to the single life against their inclination, to say nothing of a large number of women who profess a preference for celibacy. Such a phenomenon is quite incomprehensible to the Eastern intelligence. The main function of woman, from Nature's decree, is reproduction, and this the Oriental accepts without hesitation. Infecundity is the worst misfortune that can befall a Turkish or Hindu wife. More wretched still is the state of celibacy, except when voluntarily adopted, as in the case of priestesses and saints.
Enforced continence for numbers of women, and prostitution, the twin evils inseparable from monogamy, are mitigated, if not entirely banished, in polygamous states. Lifelong virginity is practically unknown in the East. The social evil exists, but to a limited extent, and under different conditions from those prevailing in Christian monogamic societies.
"Sacred prostitution" was in reality a rite for the promotion of fertility. The paramours of the women in the Temple of Mylitta repeated the words, "May the goddess be auspicious to thee!" showing clearly that the ritual had a fecundating meaning. The forms of prostitution surviving in the East are plainly derived from old religious observance, and originally they were not of a mercenary or vulgar character, but of very sacred and serious import.
Among the Corinthians this practice began to lose its pious associations. The priestesses were ministers to men rather than to the deity. This transition is explained by Havelock Ellis in his valuable examination of hetairism[3] from the earliest ages. Whenever Mohammedans and Hindus have come into relation with Western conquerors, traders, and travellers, prostitution has arisen and spread. In Burma the custom was unknown before the advent of the English. And so with whole of India.
Mohammed denounced prostitution, and it was scarcely known in Moslem countries during the first centuries of the faith. Nowadays, the evil is fostered by the constant influx of foreigners in the Eastern cities. For example, in Turkey, the keepers of brothels are usually Jews, and their chief patrons are Christians. The same may be said for Egypt. Sir Edwin Pears, in "Turkey and Its People," 1911, writes that the social evil is apparent in Constantinople. On the other hand, I have been informed by friends who have lived in Turkey that there is comparatively little prostitution.
Miss Annie Bowman Dodd and Mrs. Lucy M. J. Garnett, to whose writings I have referred, present the views of cultured observers upon the status of the women of Turkey. Neither of these ladies have dwelt only on the darker aspect of the lives of Mohammedan women and the "degradation" of the haremlik. Their testimony is impartial, and therefore valuable.
- ↑ See "Palaces of the Sultan," Anna Bowman Dodd, and Mrs. Garnett's "Women of Turkey."
- ↑ Quoted by Havelock Ellis, "Erotic Symbolism," "Studies in the Psychology of Sex," Vol. V.
- ↑ Op. cit.