The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher

The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher
Author: Douglas Scott Brookes
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2010-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0292783353

In the Western imagination, the Middle Eastern harem was a place of sex, debauchery, slavery, miscegenation, power, riches, and sheer abandon. But for the women and children who actually inhabited this realm of the imperial palace, the reality was vastly different. In this collection of translated memoirs, three women who lived in the Ottoman imperial harem in Istanbul between 1876 and 1924 offer a fascinating glimpse "behind the veil" into the lives of Muslim palace women of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The memoirists are Filizten, concubine to Sultan Murad V; Princess Ayse, daughter of Sultan Abdulhamid II; and Safiye, a schoolteacher who instructed the grandchildren and harem ladies of Sultan Mehmed V. Their recollections of the Ottoman harem reveal the rigid protocol and hierarchy that governed the lives of the imperial family and concubines, as well as the hundreds of slave women and black eunuchs in service to them. The memoirists show that, far from being a place of debauchery, the harem was a family home in which polite and refined behavior prevailed. Douglas Brookes explains the social structure of the nineteenth-century Ottoman palace harem in his introduction. These three memoirs, written across a half century and by women of differing social classes, offer a fuller and richer portrait of the Ottoman imperial harem than has ever before been available in English.

The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Harem

The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Harem
Author: Jane Hathaway
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2018-08-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107108292

A study of the chief of the African eunuchs who guarded the sultan's harem in Istanbul under the Ottoman Empire.

When We Were Gods

When We Were Gods
Author: Colin Falconer
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2002-03-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0609808893

Re-creates the life and loves of the storied queen as she ascends the throne of Egypt, embarks on passionate love affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and struggles with the intrigues of the Roman Empire.

Empress of the East

Empress of the East
Author: Leslie Peirce
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2017-09-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0465093094

The "fascinating . . . lively" story of the Russian slave girl Roxelana, who rose from concubine to become the only queen of the Ottoman empire (New York Times). In Empress of the East, historian Leslie Peirce tells the remarkable story of a Christian slave girl, Roxelana, who was abducted by slave traders from her Ruthenian homeland and brought to the harem of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent in Istanbul. Suleyman became besotted with her and foreswore all other concubines. Then, in an unprecedented step, he freed her and married her. The bold and canny Roxelana soon became a shrewd diplomat and philanthropist, who helped Suleyman keep pace with a changing world in which women, from Isabella of Hungary to Catherine de Medici, increasingly held the reins of power. Until now Roxelana has been seen as a seductress who brought ruin to the empire, but in Empress of the East, Peirce reveals the true history of an elusive figure who transformed the Ottoman harem into an institution of imperial rule.

Life after the Harem

Life after the Harem
Author: Betül İpşirli Argit
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2020-10-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108488366

The first study exploring the lives of female slaves of the Ottoman imperial court, drawing from hitherto unexplored primary sources

Some Girls

Some Girls
Author: Jillian Lauren
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2010-04-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0452296315

A jaw-dropping story of how a girl from the suburbs ends up in a prince's harem, and emerges from the secret Xanadu both richer and wiser At eighteen, Jillian Lauren was an NYU theater school dropout with a tip about an upcoming audition. The "casting director" told her that a rich businessman in Singapore would pay pretty American girls $20,000 if they stayed for two weeks to spice up his parties. Soon, Jillian was on a plane to Borneo, where she would spend the next eighteen months in the harem of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, youngest brother of the Sultan of Brunei, leaving behind her gritty East Village apartment for a palace with rugs laced with gold and trading her band of artist friends for a coterie of backstabbing beauties. More than just a sexy read set in an exotic land, Some Girls is also the story of how a rebellious teen found herself-and the courage to meet her birth mother and eventually adopt a baby boy.

The Sultan's Harem Bride

The Sultan's Harem Bride
Author: Annie West
Publisher: Mills & Boon
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-06
Genre: Harems
ISBN: 9780263256383

WANTED: Desert princess to join harem Sultan Asim of Jazeer has hundreds of women at his beck and call. So why does he want the only one who threatens to reveal his family's shameful secrets? Journalist Jacqui Fletcher jumped at the chance to write a history of the harem - not to become a sultan's plaything! But it's hard to remember her assignment when the sultan's sensuous caresses spark a fire she's never experienced before... Asim is looking for a pliable princess for a marriage of duty. Brave, beautiful Jacqui couldn't be more wrong for him. So why does holding her feel so right? Desert Vows Duet Two powerful desert princes...and the only women who can tame them. As desire burns hotter than the desert sand, can these powerful sheikhs withstand the heat of temptation? Book 1: The Sultan's Harem Bride Book 2: The Sheikh's Princess Bride Praise for Annie West The Sultan's Harem Bride 4.5* TOP PICK RT Book Review West's desert romance of duty versus love stars a haunted but brave heroine and an autocratic yet caring hero. The exotic, sumptuous settings exemplify palace life, and the royal co-stars are memorable. The first love scene is a sensual buffet. Rebel's Bargain 4.5* RT Book Review West's second-chance romance is an imaginative and intensely thrilling brainteaser, ripe with shrouded misconceptions. Her silver-spoon hero and wounded heroine are passionate and convincing. Damaso Claims His Heir 4.5* TOP PICK RT Book Review West's page-turner set in colorful Brazil is impressively perfect, starring her well-matched, rags-to-riches hero and her unjustly scandal-ridden royal heroine. Her illuminating, expert narrative brings the breathtaking story and the explosive lovemaking to life.

The Imperial Harem

The Imperial Harem
Author: Leslie P. Peirce
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 404
Release: 1993
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195086775

The unprecedented political power of the Ottoman imperial harem in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is widely viewed as illegitimate and corrupting. This book examines the sources of royal women's power and assesses the reactions of contemporaries, which ranged from loyal devotion to armed opposition. By examining political action in the context of household networks, Leslie Peirce demonstrates that female power was a logical, indeed an intended, consequence of political structures. Royal women were custodians of sovereign power, training their sons in its use and exercising it directly as regents when necessary. Furthermore, they played central roles in the public culture of sovereignty--royal ceremonial, monumental building, and patronage of artistic production. The Imperial Harem argues that the exercise of political power was tied to definitions of sexuality. Within the dynasty, the hierarchy of female power, like the hierarchy of male power, reflected the broader society's control for social control of the sexually active.

The Women Who Built the Ottoman World

The Women Who Built the Ottoman World
Author: Muzaffer Özgüles
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2017-06-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786722089

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Ottoman Empire remained the grandest and most powerful of Middle Eastern empires. One hitherto overlooked aspect of the Empire's remarkable cultural legacy was the role of powerful women - often the head of the harem, or wives or mothers of sultans. These educated and discerning patrons left a great array of buildings across the Ottoman lands: opulent, lavish and powerful palaces and mausoleums, but also essential works for ordinary citizens, such as bridges and waterworks. Muzaffer OEzgule? here uses new primary scholarship and archaeological evidence to reveal the stories of these Imperial builders. Gulnu? Sultan for example, the favourite of the imperial harem under Mehmed IV and mother to his sons, was exceptionally pictured on horseback, travelled widely across the Middle East and Balkans, and commissioned architectural projects around the Empire. Her buildings were personal projects designed to showcase Ottoman power and they were built from Constantinople to Mecca, from modern-day Ukraine to Algeria. OEzgule? seeks to re-establish the importance of some of these buildings, since lost, and traces the history of those that remain. The Women Who Built the Ottoman World is a valuable contribution to the architectural history of the Ottoman Empire, and to the growing history of the women within it.