While reading The Imperial Harem by Leslie Peirce, I have found the role of women in the Ottoman empire interesting and unexpected. The idea of a sultan having multiple concubines did not come as a surprise to me, but the influence they had in the over all political system was unlike anything I have encountered so far in my historical studies.
The role women played in the system was extraordinary and seems to fit in like a puzzle when evaluating the success of the Ottoman Empire. Concubines who birthed a surviving son of the sultan were sent to live outside of the palace in the various different provinces, where they would govern it and receive training. Since they were sent to these provinces and given princely duties at the age of four or five, the mother would play a huge role in the governing of this province until the prince was older, and even then her influence and presences was extremely crucial. When a prince became sultan the mother would then assume the role of "The Queen Mother" which meant an great amount of power with in the palace. I never thought an empire would depend so much on the role of women. It was amazing to read about how a woman could rise from something like a concubine, who shares wifely like duties with multiple other women, to becoming something so prestigious as the Queen mother.
The key to the success of the empire in regards to woman's roles was the absence of legal marriage. My favorite part of the book so far is the chapter on "the favorite". The idea of a favorite concubine threatened the system because it placed too much power in one woman, and there for would create competition among the offspring and possible heir to the throne. I found the story of Suleyman and Hurrem to be the most captivating story I have yet come across in the course. Not only is it a love story but it is an example of how love can violate the sturdy, standard system that the Ottoman put so much faith into and it was threatened by something so simple as a legal marriage. I have yet to read on in the book but according to Pierce "the position of haseki did not disappear with Hurrem". This engages my curiosity. I am curious to read on and relate this story to other instances in the political system of the Ottoman Empire.
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I could not agree more! After reading Imperial Harem I felt so astonished towards the roles women were given and what was expected of them. I'm still questioning how their actual power came into play, like what kinds of strings were attached, how they were trusted, etc. I guess I'm just skeptical in that sense.. I'm surprised there weren't more women successful in "wooing" Suleiman the way Hurrem did. After all, each of the mothers had enough reason to; if my son was either going to be the next sultan or meet his death I think I would do everything I could to avoid his death...
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting thought. I didn't really think of other women when reading about Hurrem and her seduction. I'm sure many women would have killed to be in her position and might have been agitated by her influence over him especially since she was not even from the Middle East, she was Russian. It really is crazy to think about the influence women have to significant male characters through out history. It makes you wonder what other leaders could have been influenced by a woman the way Suliman was influenced by Hurrem.
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