In Sultan Abdul-Medjid’s time, blue-eyed, delicate beauties with golden hair were the most admired by the Sultan; fair beauties consequently became extremely recherchées, and the grand ladies of the capital vied with each other in their assiduity in finding out and educating them, in order to present them to the seraglio. By degrees the taste for Laypisca, or golden locks, became so general in Turkish society as to make the fortune of many a Pera perruquier, who sold for a guinea the tiny bottle of fluid that changed the dusky hair into golden tresses, whilst the ladies paid the penalty of its abuse in the injury done to their eyes and the nervous maladies contracted by its use. Besides this, all the seraglio ladies indulged to a great extent in paint, rouge, and rastuk (antimony) for the eyes and eyebrows.
A French proverb says, “La femme est un animal qui s’habille, babille et se barbouille.” If this can be applied to any particular class of womankind, it is surely to the inhabitants of the fairy-land I have attempted to describe.
The Validé Sultana, or mother of the Sultan, ranks first in the seraglio; one of the wings of the palace nearest to that occupied by her son is set apart for her use. She possesses state apartments, has an innumerable train of slaves, and every mark of attention is paid her not only by the Sultan, but also by all the high functionaries of the Porte, who at times have more to dread from her influence and interference than from the Sultan himself. The other members of the Imperial family rank next by courtesy, but these are all under the direct control of the Hasnadar Ousta, or superintendent, who, with her assistant, the second Hasnadar Ousta, attends to all the wants of each department, regulates their internal administration, and acts as go-between of the Sultan and his wives when they have any request to make to him, or when he has orders to give respecting them; she also regulates the receptions and ceremonies as well as the expenses. Some of her duties are of the most delicate, difficult, and responsible nature, and require a great amount of judgment and experience. The person appointed to this important post is generally the favorite slave of the Validé.
Very few of the seraglio inmates, except young princesses and other children that are brought up from their infancy in it, possess any knowledge of writing, or have had the advantage of regular training. All started in life from the same condition: chance alone settles the difference between the wife, odalisk, favorite, and Imperial mother, and draws a line between them and their luckless sisters left to the exercise of menial functions.
Education, much neglected as yet among Turkish women, has made very little progress in the seraglio, where it would prove an invaluable aid to those destined to hold the responsible positions of wives and mothers of Sultans. If the former, instead of being chosen as they are from a host of human beings chained to the service of a single individual, with the sole object of amusing his leisure hours, attending to his wants, and giving him the progeny that is to succeed him on the throne, were selected, as in other countries, from among educated ladies, and their number fixed (or reduced to one) by the laws of religion and civilization, how different would seraglio life be! Dignity and esteem would replace humiliation; woman, elevated to her true sphere, would exercise her influence for high and noble objects, instead of the unworthy purposes which she effects through the only channel left open to her.
Under such a system it will not be surprising to hear of vice and corruption prevailing in a centre where virtue is crushed, and the benefits of sound education are neither acquired nor appreciated. The correctness of this statement, which may appear severe, can only be understood and appreciated by those who have come in contact with inmates of the seraglio, and are well acquainted with the language, manners, and customs of the Turks. Such persons would have no hesitation in admitting that exceptions are to be found in the seraglio, as well as in the rest of Turkish society. The class which is in the minority consists of those naturally gifted natures, to be met with in this country as elsewhere, who possess virtues that yield not to the influences of temptation and vice, and become ladies in the true sense of the word. The real Turkish Hanoum, or lady, is a dignified, quiet person, elegant, sensible, and often naturally eloquent, condescending and kind to those who gain her good-will, proud and reserved to those who do not merit her esteem. Her conversational resources are certainly limited, but the sweetness and poetry of the language she uses, the pretty manner in which her expressions are worded, and the spirited repartee that she can command have a charm that atones for her limited knowledge. Her manners, principles, and choice of language offer a pleasant contrast to those prevalent among the generality, and render her society extremely agreeable.
There is another class of serailis who present a not less interesting study. Sensitive and refined, fragile and dreamy in appearance, gifted perhaps with virtues they have no occasion to exercise, or with strong and passionate feelings that in a seraglio can never find vent in a solid and healthy affection, they become languid and spiritless, verging towards decline, to which they fall victims, unless released (as occasionally happens) by being set free and married.
Another class of serailis is the independent set, who are denominated Deli Serailis, or wild serailis, famous for their extravagant ideas, disorderly conduct, and unruly disposition; endowed with the bump of cunning and mischief, joined to a fair amount of energy and vivacity, they carry out, in spite of high walls and the watchful surveillance of more than a hundred eunuchs, all the wicked plans and mad freaks their disorderly minds and impulsive natures suggest to them; their language, manners, and actions are such as no pen can describe. In the reign of Sultan Abdul-Medjid, the misconduct and extravagance of this set had reached its climax, and attracted the attention even of that indulgent sovereign, who was induced to order the expulsion of the most notorious. A few of them were exiled, others given in marriage, by Imperial order, to some dependants of the palace, who received official appointments or were sent into the interior. These unfortunate men, burdened with their uncongenial helpmates, were but inadequately compensated by the rich gifts they received at the same time. During a long residence in the interior of Turkey, I became personally acquainted with a number of these ladies. One of them, a stout, coarse-looking woman, would not even deign to show that outward appearance of respect required from every Turkish woman towards her husband. She was the wife of a sub-governor, in whose house I passed a day and night; she was gay and of a sociable disposition, but evidently not much attached to her husband, whom she designated as Bezim Kambour (my hen-pecked one), and to whom she addressed invectives of a very violent nature, accompanied, as I was subsequently informed, by corporal chastisement.
A second seraili, worthy of mention, was a thin Circassian brunette, married to a governor-general of high rank. She had a propensity, rather unusual amongst Turkish women, to an abuse of strong drinks, and she and her boon companions indulged in this excess to such a degree as to shock and scandalize the Mohammedan portion of the inhabitants wherever she went.
The other serailis of this class were so strange and extravagant in their manners, and their actions had made them so notorious, that details of their freaks would be as unedifying to the public as painful to me to describe.