The largest harem in our time. The largest working harem in the world
There are many legends and myths about harems. Is a harem bondage, a luxurious prison or a career opportunity for an Oriental woman? From Arabic, “harem” is a “sacred place”, “forbidden”. According to Muslim traditions, this was the name of the female half of the house, and entry there for men was strictly prohibited. Only the Sultan himself and the eunuchs serving there could get there. The largest harem in history existed for five hundred years among the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Each new sultan of the dynasty replenished the harem with new concubines, so in Istanbul, about a thousand odalisques lived at the same time in the sultan’s palace.
The position of a concubine in the female half depended on how close she was to the Sultan. If the owner did not really favor her, she was forced to play the role of almost a servant, doing menial work, listening to the ridicule of more successful odalisques. If the sultan singled out a concubine from the masses, and she gave birth to an heir, then her level in the hierarchy of the harem rose sharply to the status of his beloved wife. And this already entailed significant material benefits: the Sultan presented her not only with jewelry, but also with palaces.
In addition to the concubines themselves, all the Sultan’s relatives, as well as servants and eunuchs, lived in the female half of the house. With so many people, naturally, there was some intrigue and quarrels. As in any collective, different groups emerged that were at odds with each other in an effort to get closer to the ruler.
IN modern world many women dream of the harem of some rich sheikh. You can agree to enter into a contract for a certain period of time and provide for yourself financially for life. No job will give a woman such income. It is customary for Europeans to have a sympathetic attitude towards the concubines of the harem, considering them unfortunate slaves.
Women of the East approach this differently. They consider it an honor to be chosen for the harem, knowing that their lives, as well as the lives of their children, will be financially secure. Previously, if a concubine was not in demand, she could leave the harem after 10 years. At the same time, she was given severance pay: gold and diamond items, various fabrics and everything she needed to start life in a new place. They also received a lifelong allowance from the Sultan and enjoyed great influence in society.
In the harem, women did not live boringly and monotonously: there were theaters there, and teachers, musicians and artists were brought to the concubines. In addition, the Sultan’s beloved women were pampered with various spa treatments, carefully monitoring their appearance.
It happened that parents of girls from poor families deliberately gave their daughters to harems for payment. During the transaction, they signed documents stating that they renounced the rights to their daughter. But, if the girl had any defects in appearance or upbringing, the parents did not receive the agreed amount. They were paid less. The harem looked like educational institution. Concubines were taught various sciences, etiquette, eloquence, and the ability to please a man. Although the last skill might never be useful to many of them in their lives. Letters from the wives of the sultans that have survived to this day indicate that these women were very highly educated.
Many of the concubines, having spent years in the harem, may never have met the owner. Although the ruler’s masculine capabilities were glorified by the courtiers (for which they received money from the Sultan), he was still a mere mortal and, with all his desire, physically could not pay attention to all his odalisques. And if suddenly the padishah had no interest in the female sex at all (this also happened), then the fate of the entire harem was forced celibacy.
The structure of the harem resembled an official institution with its bureaucratic hierarchy. The surviving lists of positions of the harem residents amaze the imagination: here is the keeper of the seal, and the head of the wine cellar, and the treasurer, and a host of other positions that were well paid.
Bureaucracy extended to the ruler's bedroom. According to the law, the padishah must devote Friday night to one of his beloved wives, and not to his concubine. If the padishah neglected his marital duties, his wife could sue him. And since he had many wives, one of the odalisques kept a special journal in which she recorded the schedule of the padishah’s visits.
As we have already said, after a certain period of time, the concubine had the right to leave the harem “at her own request.” But many women refused this right, believing that life outside the harem would be much more difficult than an established life in a harem. The beloved wives of the sultans always had a very great influence on them and even interfered in state affairs. The Ottoman Empire even had a whole period of history, lasting more than a century, when women almost ruled the state. This period in history is now called the “female sultanate”.
With the ascension of each new sultan to the throne, the standards of beauty for the inhabitants of the harem also changed. For example, Sultan Ibrahim I preferred women with a body and especially for him, curvaceous girls were collected throughout the country. Having brought them to the palace, they were fed sweets and were not allowed to lead an active lifestyle, so that they would gain weight even more. The Sultan's favorite size was from 150 to 250 kg.
A golden cage, a prison or a way to make a career for a woman of the East - the history and modernity of harems in our material.
Story
"Harem" translated from Arabic means "forbidden, sacred place." This word denoted the female half of the house in Muslim families, where men were prohibited from entering - an exception was made only for the owner of the house and eunuchs. The harem as a phenomenon originated with the Abassids, a dynasty of Arab caliphs who ruled the Middle East from 750 to 1258. Later, other eastern rulers and simply rich people created their own women’s hostels using the same model. One of the most famous and numerous harems existed in the Ottoman Empire for five centuries. Each of the sultans kept up to 1000 women at the palace in Istanbul in the so-called House of Bliss, constantly updating and expanding the collection of foreign odalisque concubines. Details about the lives of these women reached Europeans in the form of rumors and testimonies from missionaries and their wives, travelers and eunuchs, and became fully known after the overthrow of the last ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II in 1909.
There were harems in Rus' too. Strangely enough, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, revered as the baptist of Rus', had the largest staff of wives and concubines. His intense personal life is described in The Tale of Bygone Years: “Vladimir was overcome by lust, and he had wives... and he had 300 concubines in Vyshgorod, 300 in Belgorod and 200 in Berestovo... And he was insatiable in fornication, bringing married women to him and corrupting girls.” There is a lot of evidence that other Russian rulers kept harems - in closed chambers, and they secretly existed almost until the 18th century, until Peter I put an end to this custom.
One of the members of the Baghdad embassy, Ahmed ibn Fadlan, after his trip to the Volga in 921-922, wrote about a certain dissolute king of the Rus: “And his bed is huge and inlaid with precious gems. And with him sit on this bed forty girls for his bed. Sometimes he uses one of them as a concubine in the presence of his companions... And he has no other business than to marry (with girls), drink and indulge in entertainment. He has a deputy who commands the troops, attacks enemies and replaces him with his subjects.” However, this was recorded by an Arab traveler from the words of a certain Rus husband - probably a merchant, and it is quite possible that it was just a story for a foreigner. The writer did not see the Tsar of the Rus, Igor Rurikovich himself.
Modernity
Currently, harems are common in countries where Muslim religious traditions are strong. Polygamous families, built on the harem principle, also exist in states with a small Islamic population. For example, in Tanzania, where Muslims make up only 30% and Christians 60%, every fourth woman is in a polygamous marriage. married woman. And in Swaziland, where 82.7% of the population is Christian, the head of state, King Mswati III, maintains a large harem: he has 15 official wives and 25 children. Every year during the Umhlanga festival he chooses a new bride.
Hundreds of half-naked girls compete in a multi-hour reed dance, after which the king decides which concubine will join his collection. beautiful women. 47-year-old Mswati has not yet surpassed the number of wives of his father, King Sobuza II, who successfully got along with 70 spouses.
Recently, the leader of North Korea also has a personal harem. According to the South Korean press, although Kim Jong-un dispersed his father’s harem and declared loyalty to his one and only wife, singer Lee Sol-ju, he changed his mind: after the birth of his daughter and treatment for gout, he held a casting of beauties and acquired a “platoon of pleasure.”
By the way, as British scientists recently found out, a polygamous marriage benefits everyone: in a harem, women are less likely to go hungry, children get sick less often, such families usually have more livestock and income is higher than that of monogamous families.
Hierarchy
A woman's position in a traditional harem traditionally depended on her closeness to the ruler. If she did not enjoy attention, then, as a rule, she eked out a miserable existence, was subjected to ridicule and humiliation, and did hard work. If the concubine was loved by the owner and bore him a son, then her status rapidly rose to the level of the main wife, which promised all sorts of pleasures and gifts: from jewelry to real estate.
Today, when forming harems, Arab men are guided by the laws of the Koran, which allows them to have no more than four wives at a time, but with an important caveat: the husband is obliged to provide for his women equally and give them equal attention. That is, if he gives an apartment, then another must provide the same housing, not to mention bouquets and boxes of chocolates. Each inhabitant of the harem has her own, clearly defined range of responsibilities: traditionally, the youngest wife raises all her husband’s children, the eldest manages the other wives, and the other two keep order and work in the kitchen.
Open up your face
The inhabitants of eastern harems traditionally lead secluded and closed lives. We can see rare portraits of women from the harem thanks to painting and photography. For example, the Iranian Shah Nasser ad-Din Shah Qajar, who ruled in the second half of the 19th century, was a passionate amateur photographer and personally photographed his wives; his assistant and court photographer was Anton Sevryugin, a native of Russia. From ancient photographs of the Shah, plump Iranian women with fused eyebrows and mustaches look at us. Their short skirts, reminiscent of ballet tutus, were sewn under the impression of the Shah's trip to St. Petersburg, where he visited in 1873 at the invitation of Alexander II and watched Russian ballet.
Career
Researchers compare life in a harem to an English-style school for girls or a nunnery. In addition to the young concubines and wives of the ruler, all his female relatives lived in the female half of the house, as well as numerous mentors, maids, eunuchs assigned for protection and assistance... Naturally, passions boiled there, intrigues were woven, their own groups formed, and each girl dreamed only about how to achieve the position of a beloved wife.
Modern harem holders try to ensure that their women live separately and, if possible, rarely see each other. Ideally, one wife should not see her husband entering the other wife's house. However, a man’s level of income does not always allow for compliance with these rules. In less affluent families, the wives live nearby and run a joint household.
How to get into a harem?
Traditionally, girls and young women entered harems in different ways. Some were bought at slave markets, others were presented to rulers as gifts from viziers and nobles, and others were voluntarily given away by relatives, since staying in the harem of a sultan or shah in the East was considered a prestigious and profitable career for women. Theoretically, even the last maid could become a concubine, and then the wife of the ruler. This happened, for example, with Slavic girl Anastasia Lisovskaya, who was kidnapped by the Tatars from the city of Rohatyn in modern Ukraine and forcibly taken to the Ottoman Empire. According to legend, she was presented to the young Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in honor of the beginning of his reign; at that time she was only 15 years old.
The beautiful, intelligent girl quickly pushed aside all her competitors and over time became the most powerful sultana in the history of the Ottoman Empire. She was allowed what others were not allowed: to sleep with the Sultan out of turn, to give birth to not one, but five children from him, to be called the honorary title Haseki, introduced specifically in her honor. For about a quarter of a century, Anastasia, known under the names Hurrem Sultan and Roksolana, ruled the Sultan, the harem and the entire Ottoman Empire. She became the only official wife of the Sultan - neither before nor after her did the rulers of the Ottoman Empire enter into official marriage. And although her son Selim II was not the first son of Suleiman, she ensured that it was he who came to power, eliminating her husband’s first-born. We know about Roksolana’s appearance thanks to a portrait by an unknown artist, painted in the middle of the 16th century.
Nowadays, many women strive to get into the harems of wealthy men, as this promises material wealth and, by concluding a contract for several years with some sheikh, you can get rich like no other job. This attracts even European and American women to eastern harems. Among polygamous millionaires, it is considered prestigious to have a Western girl among models, celebrities, and beauty queens as a wife. For example, the holder of the title “Miss USA - 1992” Shannon McKetik visited the large harem of the Sultan of Brunei. After three months in the harem, she sued for being used as a prostitute. However, it was established that there was no sexual harassment and Miss McKetik was treated more than well: for her work, which consisted of entertaining the head of Brunei, she received $100,000 and a diamond necklace as a gift. By the way, in the palace of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah there are 1788 halls and rooms - this absolute record in the world, and his harem, according to media reports, contains about 700 girls.
According to the Koran, Muslims should not keep Muslims as slaves. Therefore, harems, as a rule, consist of foreigners. Traditionally, Slavic and Caucasian girls were in demand, and Circassian slaves were highly valued. Newcomers who arrived in the harem were first given new names, converted to Muslims and taught the language. The most beautiful and gifted girls were taught literacy, singing, dancing, etiquette, because over time they could become the mothers of the heirs to the throne. But the main science was the science of seduction and love: professional seductresses were raised from shy and quiet women.
At the same time, the girl had to remain modest and dutiful: after the owner cast a favorable glance at her, the concubine had to put herself in complete order with the help of her retinue (bath, hair removal, rubbing with oils, etc.) and crawl on all fours to the bed, proving his submission, and also kiss the edge of the sofa on which the master lies. After an act of love, she was destined for a reward and promotion up the hierarchical ladder of the harem.
In the 21st century there is no training for wives, but there is selection and testing. The girl must be virgin, have clear AIDS tests, undergo a medical examination and interview.
Examines the recruits of the matchmaker's harem - mashate. These people observe the behavior of the concubines and deliberately provoke quarrels in order to study the characters of the girls. A woman in a harem must be flexible and be able to resolve domestic conflicts. To avoid quarrels, a man must be fair: sleep with his wives on a first-come, first-served basis, without depriving anyone of attention or gifts.
Staff turnover and divorces
Europeans have always sympathized with the inhabitants of the harem, comparing their existence to a prison or life in a golden cage. Eastern women have a different attitude towards this lifestyle: they are glad to be in the care of a wealthy man and know that they and their children will not need anything.
In former times, there was a constant turnover of personnel in the harem. Concubines could leave the palace after nine years of service if they were not in demand, after which they were given a diamond set, gold watches, fabrics, and everything that was required to furnish the house. They were also paid a regular allowance. These women were called palace women and were highly respected in society. At a personal request, it was possible to leave the harem ahead of schedule.
Today, divorce in Islam is a simple matter. A man or woman only has to say “Talaq, talaq, talaq” three times, which means “Divorce, divorce, divorce,” and get freedom. If there is one wife, you will have to give her half of the property, if there are two of them, each receives one third. The children remain in the care of their father. But girls, as a rule, stay with their mother.
However, there is a way to remain without a penny after living in a harem - to commit adultery. If four witnesses testify to the wife’s infidelity, then the husband may not pay anything, but it is usually impossible to find so many eyewitnesses.
After the death of the owner of the house, his women usually receive freedom. During the Ottoman Empire, the former ruler's harem was moved to an old, shabby palace, where the first ladies lived out their lives. It's different these days. Thus, Kim Jong-un, having come to power in 2011, immediately dissolved his father’s harem and was demonstratively monogamous for some time.
A year earlier, 70-year-old Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad died. The country's new leader, his son Bashar al-Assad, ordered 40 of his father's concubines to leave Syria within 24 hours, without taking any of their personal belongings or jewelry with them. The German newspaper Bild noted that among the women there were Germans, Swedes and French - and not a single Arab girl. Officially in Syria it is allowed to have one wife, but no one prohibits having common-law wives.
About women's happiness
The inhabitants of the rulers' harems could not be called unhappy recluses. They had a prosperous and entertainment-filled life: the palaces had their own theaters, ballet troupes, and orchestras. The retinue that surrounded each bride or wife provided the pampered young lady with comprehensive care for her appearance, like modern beauty salons: manicure, pedicure, hairstyle, makeup, new outfits, etc. Eunuchs, although they could not replace male society, still diluted the female team; artists, musicians, and teachers came to visit the ladies, and life was not monotonous: games in the garden, walks and other girlish fun were allowed. In modern times, the inhabitants of a harem do not have an army of maids and eunuchs at their disposal; they have to do housework themselves, but the richer the husband, the better the standard of living of his harem. In many countries, as a result of emancipation, women no longer want to share a man with others; monogamy is becoming fashionable.
A harem is an image of a separate world, a closed environment of luxury and sexual excitement with a flavor of cruelty and danger. The Venetian Ottaviano Bon, a traveler of the Renaissance, describes the harem this way: “In their home, women live like nuns in a monastery.” And a little lower: “Girls break all previous ties once and for all as soon as they enter the seraglio. They get new names...
The eastern harem is the secret dream of men and the personified curse of women, the focus of sensual pleasures and the exquisite boredom of the beautiful concubines languishing in it. All this is nothing more than a myth created by the talent of novelists. A real harem is more pragmatic and sophisticated, like everything that was an integral part of the life and way of life of the Arab people.
A traditional harem (from the Arabic “haram” - forbidden) is primarily the female half of a Muslim home. Only the head of the family and his sons had access to the harem. For everyone else, this part of the Arab home is strictly taboo. This taboo was observed so strictly and zealously that the Turkish chronicler Dursun Bey wrote: “If the sun were a man, even he would be forbidden to look into the harem.” The harem is a kingdom of luxury and lost hopes...
Haram - forbidden territory
During early Islam, the traditional inhabitants of the harem were the wives and daughters of the head of the family and his sons. Depending on the wealth of the Arab, slaves could live in the harem, whose main task was the harem household and all the hard work associated with it.
The institution of concubines appeared much later, during the time of the Caliphates and their conquests, when the number beautiful women became an indicator of wealth and power, and the law introduced by the Prophet Muhammad, which did not allow having more than four wives, significantly limited the possibilities of polygamy.
In order to cross the threshold of the seraglio, a slave underwent a kind of initiation ceremony. In addition to the virginity test, the girl mandatory should have converted to Islam.
Entering a harem was in many ways reminiscent of being tonsured as a nun, where instead of selfless service to God, no less selfless service to the master was instilled. Concubine candidates, like God's brides, were forced to sever all ties with the outside world, received new names and learned to live in submission. In later harems, wives were absent as such. The main source of the privileged position was the attention of the Sultan and childbearing. By paying attention to one of the concubines, the owner of the harem elevated her to the rank of temporary wife. This situation was most often precarious and could change at any moment depending on the master’s mood. The most reliable way to gain a foothold in the status of a wife was the birth of a boy. A concubine who gave her master a son acquired the status of mistress.
From slaves to sultanas
The largest harem in the history of the Muslim world was the Istanbul harem of Dar-ul-Seadet, in which all the women were foreign slaves; free Turkish women did not go there. The concubines in this harem were called “odalisque”, a little later the Europeans added the letter “s” to the word and it turned out to be “odalisque”.
The Sultan chose up to seven wives from among the odalisques. Those who were lucky enough to become a “wife” received the title “kadyn” - madam. The main “kadyn” became the one who managed to give birth to her first child. But even the most prolific “Kadyn” could not count on honorary title"Sultanas". Only the mother, sisters and daughters of the Sultan could be called sultanas. Just below the “kadyn” on the hierarchical ladder of the harem stood the favorites – “ikbal”. These women received salaries, their own apartments and personal slaves. The favorites were not only skilled mistresses, but also, as a rule, subtle and intelligent politicians. In Turkish society, it was through “ikbal” that for a certain bribe one could go directly to the Sultan himself, bypassing the bureaucratic obstacles of the state. Below “ikbal” were “konkubin”. These young ladies were somewhat less fortunate. Conditions of detention are worse, there are fewer privileges.
It was at the “concubin” stage that there was the toughest competition, in which daggers and poison were often used. Theoretically, the Concubins, like the Iqbals, had a chance to climb the hierarchical ladder by giving birth to a child. But unlike the favorites close to the Sultan, they had very little chance of this wonderful event. Firstly, if there are up to a thousand concubines in the harem, then it is easier to wait for the weather by the sea than for the holy sacrament of mating with the Sultan. Secondly, even if the Sultan descends, it is not at all a fact that the happy concubine will definitely become pregnant. And it’s certainly not a fact that they won’t arrange a miscarriage for her. Old slaves watched over the concubines, and any noticed pregnancy was immediately terminated. In principle, it is quite logical - any woman in labor, one way or another, became a contender for the role of a legitimate “kadyn”, and her baby became a potential contender for the throne. If, despite all the intrigues and machinations, the odalisque managed to maintain the pregnancy and did not allow the child to be killed during an “unsuccessful birth,” she automatically received her personal staff of slaves, eunuchs and an annual salary “basmalik.”
The joy of those not honored However, the lowest stratum of the harem also had their own hope for happiness. For example, only they had a chance for at least some kind of personal life. After several years of impeccable service and adoration in their eyes, a husband was found for them, or, having allocated funds for a comfortable life, they were released on all four sides. Moreover, among the odalisques - outsiders of the harem society - there were also aristocrats. A slave could turn into a “gezde” - awarded a glance, if the Sultan somehow - with a look, gesture or word - singled her out from the general crowd. Thousands of women lived their whole lives in the harem, but they didn’t even see the Sultan naked, but they didn’t even wait for the honor of being “honored with a glance.” If the Sultan died, all the concubines were sorted by the gender of the children they had managed to give birth to. The girls’ mothers could easily get married, but the mothers of the “princes” settled in the “Old Palace”, from where they could leave only after the accession of the new Sultan. And at this moment the fun began. The brothers poisoned each other with enviable regularity and persistence. Their mothers also actively added poison to the food of their potential rivals and their sons.
A few words about eunuchs
In addition to the old, trusted slaves, the concubines were watched over by eunuchs. Translated from Greek, “eunuch” means “guardian of the bed.” They ended up in the harem exclusively in the form of guards, so to speak, to maintain order. There were two types of eunuchs. Some were castrated in early childhood and had no secondary sexual characteristics at all - a beard did not grow, a high, boyish voice and a complete lack of perception of a woman as a member of the opposite sex. Others were castrated at a later age. Partial eunuchs (that’s what those castrated not in childhood, but in adolescence were called) looked very much like men, had the most low masculine basque, sparse facial hair, broad muscular shoulders, and, oddly enough, sexual desire. Of course, the eunuchs could not satisfy their needs naturally due to the lack of the necessary equipment for this. But how do you know when we're talking about about sex or drinking, the flight of human imagination is simply limitless. And the odalisques, who lived for years with an obsessive dream of waiting for the Sultan’s gaze, were not particularly picky. Well, if there are 300-500 concubines in the harem, at least half of them are younger and more beautiful than you, what's the point of waiting for the prince? And in the absence of fish, even a eunuch is a man.
In addition to the fact that the eunuchs monitored order in the harem and at the same time (in secret from the Sultan, of course) in every possible and impossible way they consoled themselves and those yearning for male attention women, their duties also included the functions of executioners. They strangled those guilty of disobedience to the concubines with a silk cord or drowned the unfortunate woman in the Bosporus.
I read a review about this harem like "a place saturated with women's grief". The oppressive atmosphere of the past still makes itself felt in the present and is literally in the air...
We didn't feel any of this there. We walked through these rooms, corridors and halls, marveling at the impressionability of others and our own impressionability, but not from what we saw, but from other people’s impressions.
Upon my return, I had to run my eyes over everything that would be interesting to know about such places.
“One woman loves,” Gyulchatay wondered from that same film, “one sews clothes, one cooks food, one feeds the children... and all alone?”
The largest harem, as usual, was, of course, the Sultan's. And of all the sultans, the largest harem was the sultan named Selim. According to various sources, there were from 365 to 500 women in his harem. 
The most famous harem concubine in history is Roksolana. When Suleiman married Roksolane this caused a wave of indignation in society. Traditionalists of that time did not understand how the Sultan dared to pay attention to only one. For that time it was absolutely unnatural. 
Because Roksolana came to the harem through the slave market and as a result was presented to the Sultan, the opinion that people did not enter the harem of their own free will is very widespread. In fact, many (and after the abolition of slavery, almost everything) the Sultan's wives came to the harem "almost voluntarily"- most of the girls were sold by their parents to a special school at the harem, where they were trained. 
Fathers sold their 5-7 year old daughters and signed a document agreeing never to see their own child. The girls received a new name and began a long training in various feminine wisdoms. 
There was a strict hierarchy in the harem. And the main thing here was not the Sultan, but his mother. She was rightfully considered the most powerful inhabitant of the harem, followed by the Sultan’s unmarried sisters, his daughters, and only then his wives. You could become the Sultan's master's favorite by giving birth to a son. Considering the number of competitors for this position, this was not the easiest way to win his favor. 
However, more boys were born in harems than girls. 
If for nine years the Sultan never had a chance to be alone with his concubine, then she received the status of a free person. She had the right to leave the harem, sometimes a husband was chosen for her and even provided with a dowry. 
The inhabitants of the harem changed quite often. After 35 years, women usually retired. And they even received some payments when they were no longer at court. 
A harem could be called a kind of female dorm, but... There were also rooms for eunuchs.
And an absolutely reliable fact is interesting that the life expectancy of eunuchs was approximately 15-17 years longer than the life expectancy of men in similar conditions of existence. 
At the palace there were huge kitchens, where a couple of thousand people worked around the clock to feed all the inhabitants of the palace. According to some reports, together with regular or visiting guests Sultana, the inhabitants of the palace were slightly less than 12 thousand people. 
The Sultan ruled the country, and the Sultan was ruled by his women. So, for example, through the gifts of the Sultan’s mother, he was influenced. 
There are many legends associated with harems. For example, how a man recognized his beloved among all three hundred inhabitants of the Sultan’s harem. In Russians folk tales By the way, there is a similar plot, only, of course, without mentioning the harem. 
Or about how the Sultan could give as much gold as she weighs for a girl he especially liked. Here it immediately becomes clear where all these stories about the prohibitive wealth of the Sultan and the bottomlessness of his treasuries come from. 
The tradition according to which women are required to wear a burqa dates back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad. At first, his wives began to hide their faces from strangers, and then other Muslim women adopted this. 
Currently, the tradition of polygamy is not preserved in all Muslim countries. And where this phenomenon takes place - mainly in the upper strata of society. For the most part, this is simply due to the need to have an heir. 
The last inhabitants of this harem left its walls in 1909. 
How Roksolana-Hurrem and other inhabitants of the palace of Sultan Suleiman lived and what in the series does not correspond to historical reality
“The Magnificent Century” is one of the most popular Turkish TV series. An exciting love story, gorgeous scenery and costumes, the fate of an entire dynasty. The series is called historical, although many critics noted the distortion of facts. And yet the creators tried to recreate the oriental flavor. Especially the life and everyday life of a harem.
The plot centers on the fate of a Ukrainian concubine Alexandra/Roksolany(or Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska). This is the story of the most influential and powerful woman of the Ottoman Empire. Being a simple concubine, she managed to achieve the love of the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the tenth sultan to rule the Ottoman Empire from the 1520s, becoming the chief wife and mother of the heir to the throne.
Intrigue, slander, lies, cunning, bribery, murder - Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska used everything in order to achieve her goal. Actually, the creators of “The Magnificent Century” did not exaggerate here. In those centuries, treachery reigned in harems.
Fact: According to historians, the ancestors of harems are the dynasty of Arab caliphs of the Abassids, who ruled in the Middle East from the mid-700s to the middleXIIIcentury. The harem of the Ottoman Empire enjoyed the reputation of being the largest for five centuries.
Kingdom of Women
A harem or haram is a women’s monastery where outside men are not allowed to enter; it’s not for nothing that the word “haram” in Arabic means “forbidden.” During the Ottoman Empire, wives, young children, concubines, slaves, numerous Sultan relatives lived there, as well as eunuchs who served them and acted as guards. Harems lived their own lives; they had their own special etiquette and rules. Each of them had a strict hierarchy. The most influential and intelligent inhabitants of harems could also influence state policy.
Large harems numbered more than a thousand concubines and were symbols of the power of the ruler; the degree of respect accorded him depended largely on the “quality” and quantity of the harem. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the largest in area in the world was the Winter Harem of the Grand Seral of Topkapi in Istanbul, which consisted of 400 rooms. It was built back in 1589. At the beginning of the twentieth century, at the time of the overthrow of the Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1909, the number of its inhabitants decreased significantly - from 1200 to 370 concubines.
Court agents paid huge sums for beauties at slave auctions. A non-beauty had no chance to get there. Huge sums were spent on their maintenance - sometimes harems ruined the owners and emptied the treasury.
During the Ottoman Empire, after the death of the owner, the harem, which had become unnecessary, was moved to an old and far from luxurious palace, as the new sultan recruited new odalisques. Over time, the inhabitants of the harem began to often be disbanded altogether. This, for example, usually happens today.
The main, and often the only, visitor to the harem was the husband, the owner of the house. The guardian of the Sultan's chambers, the vizier, as well as the eunuchs, were also allowed to enter. Some harems allowed “guests,” such as storytellers or musicians.
The life of the inhabitants of the “female kingdom” was not limited to the walls of the palace. Many harem beauties could visit relatives and go out into the city (accompanied, of course).
At the dawn of the empire, sultans married the daughters of rulers of other states, but over time, former slaves increasingly became wives. And in the history of the Ottoman Empire, the very first slave whom the Sultan officially took as his wife was Hurrem. The history of the “Magnificent Century” is built on this.
Truth and fiction
The story of Hürrem's appearance in Suleiman's harem is told truthfully. It was actually bought at the market by the Sultan's vizier Ibrahim Pasha(actor played the role in the film Okan Yalabik) as a gift to the Bishop. At that time the girl was 14 years old. All concubines intended for the harem were taught the Turkish language, music, dancing, poetry, and handicrafts. Women of other faiths, as happened with Roksolana, had to accept the Muslim faith. The science of love and sexual wisdom was taught by ladies with extensive experience - specially hired mentors or, for example, relatives of the Sultan.
Each woman in the harem had her own status, rights and responsibilities. Based on her status, the amount of her salary, the number of chambers and servants allocated to her, and the right to occupy a certain position were determined. And this hierarchy is also well reflected in the series.
During leisure hours, the concubines went to the hammam, read, danced, played music, and told fortunes. But it was impossible to cast a spell; they were punished for it. And this is also shown in the series. Many viewers remember the scenes where Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska visits the sorceress and fears that someone will find out about it.
Women who enjoyed special favor received expensive gifts; pampering the harem was one of the main duties of the spouse. Ottoman sultans sometimes gave entire palaces to their beloved concubines and showered them with jewelry - the latter was actively displayed by women. According to legend, Sultan Suleiman (played by the actor Halit Ergench) even made expensive jewelry with his own hands. After the first night, he gave Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska a ring with a drop-shaped emerald.
Facts that the filmmakers embellished
The image of the historical Hurrem differs from the one embodied by the Turkish actress Miryem Witherly. The memories of the Venetian ambassador of those times have been preserved. He writes that Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was more pretty than beautiful. In “The Magnificent Century” Hurrem is simply a beauty. And it’s hard to call her modest. However, all those tricks and techniques that she used to win the favor of Suleiman and then achieve privileges for her sons are indeed recorded in history. Researchers confirm that after her appearance in the harem, Sultan Suleiman stopped “entering” other women.
Another romantic fiction of the creators of “The Magnificent Century” is connected with the story of Suleiman’s first wife. In reality Mahidevran Sultan(in the series she was played by the actress Nur Aysan) was not the wife of the Sultan. And after, in a fit of jealousy, she tried to poison Hurrem, she was forever expelled from the palace. In the series, the ruler forgave her, allowing her to return to the palace.
The creators of the series also embellished the external image of the heroines. First of all, this concerns clothing, which the costume designers of the “Magnificent Century” noticeably modernized. Such low-cut dresses were definitely not worn during the Ottoman Empire. Outfits in those centuries were much simpler in style; the main richness of the costumes was the decoration, as well as expensive and textured fabrics with sparkles and gold threads. And, of course, decorations.
The creators of “The Magnificent Century” also took liberties with the heroines’ hairstyles. While in the series the beauties sported luxurious curls, the real inhabitants of the harems wore their hair in neat hairstyle. Oriental beauties The 16th century did not even dare to think about walking around with loose hair - most often they had to wear braids.
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The inhabitants of modern harems are most often free to do whatever they want with their hairstyles. But as far as hierarchy and internal rules are concerned, the principles remain the same. And today harems are far from a relic of the past. According to statistics, more than 40% of women in Pakistan, Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Madagascar, Iran, Iraq and some African countries live in polygamous marriages.
The owner of one of the largest harems was the ex-president of Iraq Saddam Hussein- According to some sources, he had about five hundred concubines. And in the harem of one of the richest men of our time - the Sultan of Brunei - there are about seven hundred women. Very often, it is not Eastern women who end up in modern harems, but Europeans and Americans. Thus, at one time, Miss USA 1992 was in the harem of the Sultan of Brunei. Shannon McKetick. And in 2000, after the death of the former President of Syria Hafez Al-Assad it turned out that among his 40 concubines there was not a single Arab girl - as the European press wrote, among them were Germans, Swedes, and French.