THE SULTAN’S HAREM.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XIII, 28 March 1896, Page 344

THE SULTAN’S HAREM.

The harem of the Moslem autocrat is a sealed book to the outer world. What goes on behind its ever-closed doors, what has gone on for generations past, will never lie told. Fifteen hundred inmates make up the harem of the Sultan, and it is a remarkable fact that the seraglio is constantly recruited at an enormous rate, slave girls being continually brought from all parts of the Turkish dominions, particularly Georgia. Children are also secured, taken in at a tender age and placed under the charge of women of experience to be trained in manners, music and dancing, and fitted for the position of harem favourites. What becomes of the older inmates in many cases may be readily surmised. A harem is a little world, in fact, by itself. Its constitution is peculiar and known by few. Into four classes the women and girls are divided. At the head stand the Kadines, who are more or less legitimate wives, though never officially espoused. It should be remembered that it is not the custom for the Turkish Sultan to marry, though instances of Padishahs having done so are matters of history. These women of the first class—the Kadines - number four. They are the grandes dames of harem life. Each has her equal court in every detail, from mistresses of robes down to scullions. Though seemingly equal in rank, there is some slight difference in title. The first is called the Bach-Kadine. Then comes the Skindji-Kadine, or second lady ; the ArtanieKadine. or little lady. Over all these, however, the mother of the reigning Sultan (or his foster mother if his own mother be dead) has preeminence. She is called Valide-Sultane. and her title is Tatch-al-Mestourat, or ■Crown of the Veiled Heads. - The whole harem acknowledges her as complete mistress of the household. The second class of women of the harem are the Ikbals, or favourites, from among whom the Kadines are usually selected whenever a vacancy occurs in their ranks. The third class of harem beauties are the Guienzdes, literally, • The young ladies who are pleasant in the eyes ’ of their master, who may in their turn attain to the dignity of Ikbals. The fourth class is known as the Alaikes, and consists of the children who are gradually trained in the ways of the harem Contrary to accepted belief, the Turkish harem woman is not altogether the indolent individual. These women are continually watched by spies, and should they venture to cast even a look upon any man they might pass their case is dangerous. The account of an eye-witness of the tragic death of one of the Sultan's harem favourites would seem to show that the monarch of Turkey has no idea of mercy. He says : —' I have a friend, a man in place and power, who had been detained in the palace of one of the Ministers until three hours past midnight, and who. on passing across the deep bay near the Castle of Europe, was startled byperceiving two caiques bearing lights, lying upon their oars in the centre of the stream. His curiosity being excited, he desired his boatman to null towards them, when at the instant he came alongside he discovered that they were filled by police officers ; and at the same moment a female, closely shrouded in a yasmak and with the mouth of a sack, into which her whole bodv had been thrust, tied about her throat, was lifted in the arms of two men from the bottom of the furthest caique and flung into the deep waters of the bay. As no weight had been appended to the sack, the miserable woman almost instantly reappeared upon the surface, when she was beaten down by the oars of the boatmen, and this ruthless and revolting ceremony was repeated several times ere the body finally sunk.’