The Ottoman Imperial Harem. The infamous institution where slave women were held against their will in golden cages. Hundreds of beautiful women laid around, some taking baths others half naked. Waiting for the Sultan to notice them and call them to his bedroom. Or – not. However, this was the portrait European travellers painted in the west and this complicated institution still is seen as an over-glorified brothel. Thus here is the good, the bad and the ugly of the imperial harem.



Sources:
The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire - Leslie Pierce
Lessons from the Ottoman Harem on Culture, Religion, and Wars - Murat Iyıgun
Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel and the Ottoman Harem - Reina Lewis
The Turkish Embassy Letters - Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

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