Harem
Arabic ḥarīm
Main
in Muslim countries, the part of a house set apart for the women of the
family. The word ḥarīmī is used collectively to refer to the women
themselves. Zanāna (from the Persian word zan, “woman”) is the term used
for the harem in India, andarūn (Persian: “inner part” [of a house]) in
Iran.
Although usually associated in Western thought with Muslim practices,
harems are known to have existed in the pre-Islamic civilizations of the
Middle East; there the harem served as the secure, private quarters of
women who nonetheless played various roles in public life. Muhammad did
not originate the idea of the harem or of the seclusion and veiling of
women, but he sponsored them, and, wherever Islam spread, these
institutions went with it. The virtual removal of women from public life
was more typical of the Islamic harem than of its predecessors, although
in many periods of Islamic history women in the harem exercised various
degrees of political power.
In pre-Islamic Assyria, Persia, and
Egypt, most of the royal courts included a harem, consisting of the
ruler’s wives and concubines, their female attendants, and eunuchs.
These royal harems performed important political, as well as social,
roles. Rulers often added wives to their harems as a means of cementing
political alliances. As wives attempted to maneuver themselves and their
sons into positions of power, the harem became an arena in which rival
factions fought for ascendancy at the court. Since these women were
usually from influential and powerful families, harem intrigues
frequently had wide-ranging repercussions, including, in some cases, the
downfall of dynasties.
Large harems were common in the wealthy
households in Arab countries through the early decades of the 20th
century. In the wealthier houses, each wife had her own set of rooms and
servants; women in less affluent households had smaller quarters and
less privacy, but even the poorest Arab household provided separate
living quarters for men and women. By the second half of the 20th
century, the full harem system existed only among the more conservative
elements of Arab society.
In imperial Turkey the sultan had an
elaborately organized harem, or seraglio (from Italian serraglio,
“enclosure”), with disciplinary and administrative officers, overseen by
the sultan’s mother, the vâlide sultan. After 1926, when the Turkish
republic made polygamy illegal, the seclusion of women became less
popular.
