| Harem (household) |
Article Index for Harem |
Website Links For Harem |
Information AboutHarem (household) |
|
In the Arab tradition, imitated by other Muslim cultures, the ''harîm'' حريم (cf. '' Haram '') is the part of the household forbidden to male strangers. In Western languages such as English , this term refers collectively to the wives in a Polygynous household as well as the "no-males allowed" area, or in more modern usage to a number of women followers or admirers of a man. WORD HISTORY The word is recorded in English since 1634, derived via Turkish harem, from Arabic ''haram'' "wives and concubines," originally "women's quarters," literally "something forbidden or kept safe," from root of ''harama'' "he guarded, forbade." HISTORY Contrary to the common belief, a harem is not necessarily a part of a palace and its inhabitants do not necessarily consist solely of women with whom the head of the household has a sexual relation. For example the Ottoman Harem , the harem of the Great Sultan 's Topkapi Seraglio (closed palace) in the Turkish capital Istanbul, would contain several hundred women including wives (only four could be legal under Islam), mistresses, the sultan's mother, daughters and other female relatives, as well as Eunuch s and Slave girls to serve the aforementioned women. During the later periods, the sons of the Sultan also lived in the Harem until they were sixteen, when it might be considered appropriate for them to appear in the public and administrative areas of the palace. The Topkapi Harem was, in some senses, merely the private living quarters of the Sultan and his family, within the palace complex. , Grande Odalisque]] Harems existed in Ancient Persia as early as the Achaemenid dynasty and lasted well into the Qajar dynasty. The women of the royal harem played important though underreported roles in Iranian history, especially during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution . ''Harem'' is also the usual English translation of the Chinese Language term ''hougong'', 後宮—literally meaning "the palaces behind." ''Hougong'' are large Chinese royal Palace s for the emperor's consorts and female attendants. The women who lived in an emperor's ''hougong'' sometimes numbered in the thousands. The institution of the harem exerted a certain fascination on the European imagination, especially during the Age of Romanticism (see also Orientalism ), due in part to the writings of the adventurer Richard Francis Burton . OTHER USE In zoology, Harem means the females in a group of animals living together, which only mate with the single of in any case less numerous adult males, a prerogative he must defend against external challengers. SEE ALSO
SOURCES AND REERENCES (incomplete) FURTHER READING |
|
|