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HAREM, AND THE OTTOMAN WOMEN

Sultanas

It is a common fantasy to imagine sultans actually having sexual rela tions with hundreds of women in their harem. In some cases, this might have been true. For example, when Murad III died, over a hundred cradles were being rocked. But several sultans chose to take only one kadin Selim 1, Mehmed III, Murad IV, Ahmed II and as far as we can conjecture, they remained faithful to these women. Most sultans spent nights with different of their favored women in tum, and to prevent disputes among them, they kept a schedule. The haznedar (the chief treasurer) recorded each ''couching'' in a special diary in order to establish the birth and legitimacy of the children. This extraordinary chronicle, which survives today , discloses not only sexual intimacies but also such historical events as the executİon of Gülfem Kadin, one of Süleyman 's wives, for selling her ''couching'' turn to another woman. Much to the chagrin of Western minds, there seem to have been no outright orgies involving the sultan and his many women. It is not dİffıcult to assume, however , that some of the more debauched and insane rulers, like Ibrahİm, did indulge in less routine sexual rituals

A sultan's failure to favor each wife with equalenthusiasm stirred up a great deal of anxiety , insecurity and malevolence. Mahidevran Sultana, for example, mutilated Roxalena's face, Gülrish Sultana rushed the odalisque Gülbeyaz off a cliff, Hürrem Sultana was strangled, Bezmialem Sultana mysteriously vanished. Each glass of sherbet potentially contained poison. There were alliances, cliques, and a perpetual silent war.

This ambience affected not only the emotional climate of the harem but also state politics. ''The rigorous discipline, which turns the harem in a prİson, is justifıed by the passionate disposition of these women, which may impel them to who knows what aberrations,, commented historian Alain Grosrichard in Strncture du serail(1979).

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