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The Renaissance historian Paolo Giovio explained why the Janissaries were a superior fighting force: “Their discipline under arms is due to their justice and severity, which surpasses that of the ancient Romans. They surpass our soldiers for three reasons: they obey their commanders without question; they seem to care nothing at all for lives in battle; they go for a long time without bread or wine, being content with barley and water.”18
The Janissaries were the first standing army originated in Europe, slave soldiers whose lives were dedicated to war, and who were prepared to fight at any time. In the early years of the empire marriage was forbidden. In fact, they were not supposed to consider any life outside their duties as soldiers. The Janissaries were a primary reason for the Ottomans’ success in battle, and they became the germ seed of an elite soldier class that flourished within the empire, until they wielded outsized power in the civilian, commercial, and political spheres. In 1826 the reigning sultan, Mahmud II, after patiently pla
The history of the Ottoman Empire parallels the history of the royal line. For all intents and purposes, the story begins with Osman and ends with Abdul Hamid II. (The last two sultans following Abdul Hamid were no more than figureheads representing the Young Turks and the British, respectively.) For centuries, the royal line was generated in the royal harem. It was here that the “politics of reproduction” were played out.19
“Harem” derives from the Arabic haram (h-r-m), with a “root meaning something like ‘forbidden’ or ‘taboo’ and evok[ing] constraint and often heightened sanctity as well.”20 In the Muslim household, it refers to the area of the home where the women live and work. The public is not to intrude on these i
The denizens of the harem numbered in the hundreds, with about half acting as servants to the other half. The women selected to pleasure the sultan and to bear his children were slaves, acquired for the most part in the outer realms of the empire, particularly Greece, eastern Anatolia, the Balkans, and the Crimean Peninsula. Under Islamic law, Muslims ca
In fact, most of the hundreds of odalisques would never spend even a minute with the sultan. They were under the constant guard and care of the black eunuchs. (Black eunuchs were captured in Africa by traders and, after being subjected to the most extreme form of castration—removal of all their genitalia—sold to the wealthy. The royal eunuchs were named after flowers: Hyacinth, Rose, Carnation.)
The imperial harem was no pool of wanton lust. If anything it was a prison filled with bored inmates, a highly formalized institution: “a machine to perpetuate the dynasty, even against the Sultan’s will.”21 Over the centuries, the sultan became something like a queen bee, sequestered at the center of a massive hive, protected and pampered and not really in charge of anything. The individual personality of any particular sultan was superseded by the idea and the institution. The sultan could always be replaced. “With the exception of such forceful men as Mehmed the Conqueror, Selim I or Murad IV, the Ottoman sultans were little more than cogs in a machine.”22 In the nineteenth century, sultans continued to lead a cocooned life, with activist Grand Viziers and other ministers actually ru
When the sultan wished to select a girl, he first had to obtain permission from his mother (his mother!), the Valida Sultana, in a long and complicated ritual. The girls were paraded before him, the royal selection was made, and the girl would be separated from the group and, over the next day, prepared for her meeting with destiny. She would be bathed, covered in a mudpack of oil and rice flour, and then scrubbed for hours. Her body would be shaved, her nails would be dyed, her eyelashes brushed with lemon kohl; she would be perfumed and he
In the morning, the sultan rose first, accompanied by his usual entourage. A royal secretary would enter the date of the encounter into a register. The girl would return to her cell and, if nine months later she did not produce royal progeny, she would probably never see the sultan again. Concubines who became pregnant with the sultan’s child immediately rose in status. Male heirs were prized, of course. Mothers of the princes and princesses had the highest status in the harem. Since the various children usually had different mothers (each concubine was permitted to have only one son by the sultan), this put the mothers in competition with one another. And once the new sultan was firmly enthroned, his mother became Valida Sultana, the most powerful woman in the realm, simply by dint of her ability to control him.
As a result of this competition, there was a very dark side to bearing sons for the sultan. Should a boy find his way onto the throne, all of his brothers were in immediate danger. Begi