16th century AD

UNESCO Courier, Dec, 1991 by Caroline Haardt

SULTAN, seraglio, harem: such words long epitomized Ottoman civilization in the dreams of Westerners. The master of an immense empire stretching from Egypt to Persia and from Baghdad to Belgrade, the sultan seemed to be a fabulous character who enjoyed limitless power and endless pleasure. It was easy to imagine him living in his harem as if in a garden of earthly delights.

The reality was very different. The harem was a restricted enclave governed by punctilious protocol and strict rules, subject to the authority of the valide sultan, the ruling sultan's mother. In it love was codified, if not ritualized. And if some sultans abused its pleasures, others only went there for the sake of custom; and the majority only visited it in moderation.

In the middle of the sixteenth century the women of the sultan's seraglio moved into the harem of the Topkapi, a new palace which was to be the imperial residence until the nineteenth century. Marvellously situated on a hill overlooking the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, the immense complex covers 700,000 square metres, with its vast gardens, its murmuring waters and its terraces overlooking the sea. At its heart was the harem, where only the sultan had the right to enter and move around freely.

This forbidden domain adjoined the barracks of the halberdiers-with-tresses, though mountain troops from Anatolia who cut the wood that fuelled the palace fires. To avoid temptation, these soldiers wore high collars that made it impossible for them to turn their heads, and their long, braided locks served as blinkers.

As time passed, the harem grew, spreading outwards in labyrinthine fashion around its central core. There are more than 400 rooms in its three precincts: the living quarters of the black eunuchs; the women's quarters, where the apartments of the sultan's mother, daughters and odalisques were situated; and the men's apartments, where the sultan and the princes of the blood lived.

One enters the harem through a gate leading into the Domed Hall with Cabinets, where merchants deposited jewellery, furs and clothing for the concubines. The living quarters of the black eunuchs, which have a courtyard decorated with blue, green and turquoise ceramic tiles, are three storeys high. The size and decoration of the apartments and the baths varied according to the eunuchs' rank.

At the entrance to the women's quarters, an inscription on the bronze door recalls the sultan's sovereignty. This is a world where the play of light, the splendour of the ancient tiling and the refinement of the decoration combine to produce an impression of paradise on earth. In these apartments with their rich hangings, luxurious carpets and deep divans, it is easy to imagine the beautiful kadins (the sultan's principal consorts, officially recognized as such though not married to him) waiting bejewelled for their master.

The way to the apartments of the valide sultan lies through a courtyard, decorated with twenty-five marble columns. From a small wooden belvedere situated nearby, it was possible to survey all the activities of the harem.

These palatial quarters comprise a series of rooms in the Western style, with monumental chimneypieces, mirrors and areas of wall decorated with paintings. In the bedroom are panels painted with imaginary landscapes, a baldaquin of gilded wood, and divans with shimmering fabric. An arched doorway leads to the queen mother's private prayer room.

The queen mother's baths are arranged in the same way as those of her son. The first room was for undressing, while sipping drinks or sherbets; in the second cold water was provided; hot water in the third. The basins and tubs were of alabaster.

The sultan's private apartments consist of four great rooms, the most beautiful and the best preserved of the harem. In the Imperial Hall, a dais with marble columns and a balustrade of gilded wood encrusted with mother-of-pearl was used by male musicians and singing girls. The sultan's throne, surmounted by a baldaquin, stood on a pearl carpet which had been embroidered in the harem. On his visits to the harem this was where he gave the receptions that no one from the city or even the palace could attend, where the women danced, played music and recited poems.

The vast Privy Chamber of Murad III, which was built by the great architect Sinan, displays all the splendour and nobility of late-sixteenth-century Ottoman art. Its beautifully worked dome is supported by four arches. The decoration of the walls is handled in such a way as to present a subtle gradation of colours and light, from lower panels coated with a unique red varnish (the secret of their manufacture perished with the Iznik craftsman who made them) to stained-glass windows above. A fountain decorated with stone flowers and a huge gilded heart are set opposite one another. "Water is the source of live," the Qur'an proclaims. There are many fountains in the Harem, and the incessant murmur of water, it is said, served to muffle the voice of the prince during his secret conversations. . . .