“The interior of thy dwelling is a sanctuary; they who violate it by calling unto thee, are deficient in the respect which they owe to the interpreter of heaven.”
This passage has not only rendered the interior of the dwelling, viz. the harem, an inviolable asylum to the female portion of the family, but it has made it a convenient place of refuge to pashas and efendis, where they often seek repose from the multitude of unwelcome visitors who infest, with perfect freedom, and at all hours, their selamluks.
The frequent visits of the Osmanlis to their harems, are not always indications of the attractions within, but other external motives may impel them thither; nevertheless, the inviolability of these precincts has induced the supposition that they contained naught but the shrine of the fair Goddess of Beauty, and her sly coadjutor.
The upper part of a house in America, or those rooms appropriated to the exclusive use of the ladies, are as sacred and inviolable as any Oriental harem; and are not, as a matter of course, supposed to be the scenes of mystery and intrigue. Indeed, it is fully evident that the same spirit of deference to the comfort of the fair sex, exists in America, where is seen over one of the principal entrances to the general post-office, the announcement, “Exclusively for Ladies,” which in Turkey would be intimated by the single and expressive word HAREM.
Again the “Ladies’ Cabin” on board the steamers would, in the East, be designated by the word Harem, written in golden characters, which would at once indicate its sacred nature, and inspire every Oriental with the respect due to the sex, which is even more imperative in that clime than in other lands, where they make a glory and boast of their excessive deference to the fairer portion of the community.
Hence how erroneous the impression, that the harem is a species of female prison, established by the tyranny of men, where the weaker sex are forcibly shut up against their will.
If the Osmanli ladies were under no other restrictions, their own sense of self-respect, based upon time-hallowed usage, and inculcated by the precepts of their religion, would compel them to the same seclusion. I one day happened to be in the dressing room of a pasha, adjoining the harem; when he left the room for a moment. In the interval, his daughter, supposing her father quite alone, suddenly entered the apartment; but on seeing me there, instinctively covering her face with the drapery of her sleeve, as suddenly disappeared. While I myself as instinctively displayed my sense of the courtesy due to a lady, by looking as far as I could in an opposite direction.
I heard her remarking to the slaves in the next room, that she was so mortified, for, instead of seeing her father there stood —— as large as life.
Her feeling at being seen without the precincts of the harem unveiled, was the same as would be experienced by a lady of this country, who should be surprised by the sight of a gentleman, when she was en toilette de nuit!
Nor is this seclusion entirely Mohammedan, but being an ancient custom of the East, it is practised by all who dwell in that clime. The families of the rayas, or non-mussulman subjects of the Porte, consisting of the Armenians, Greeks, and Jews, are also under the same social laws as their Mohammedan compatriots. It is true, that in proportion as European customs have found their way into these countries, the rigidity of the Christians has relaxed in this respect; because the observance in question has never been incorporated with their religion; whereas Mohammed, on the contrary, took special pains to enforce the practice upon his followers.