Zarinebaf|197non-Muslims. They also resulted in attempts to restrict the power and influence
of women even at the highest levels of politics and society, especially within the
imperial harem.
Crossing Harem Boundaries
The imperial harem was both a sacred and a political institution whose roots date
back to the ancient Near East (Sassanid Iran). The Ottoman Empire inherited this
institution from earlier Islamic states but expanded it through the constant in-
flux of slaves and war captives. The harem was foremost the dynastic household,
housing the male and female members of the royal family, headed by the valide
sultan, and served by a large staff led by the chief black eunuch. Both the imperial
household and its staff were characterized by a rigid social hierarchy.
The survival of the dynasty was the most essential function of the harem,
therefore strict sexual regulations ensured the birth of several sons to the sultan
from different concubines. This helped ensure an abundance of potential heirs to
the throne and the clear transition of power from one sovereign to the next. A
concubine who bore a son gained a special status as his haseki (favorite wife). If
her son became the next sultan, she then became the valide sultan, thus ruling
the imperial harem.
The princes (sons of the sultan) were assigned to governorships in the prov-
inces where they set up their own households and gained experience in provincial
administration, with their mothers serving as their advisers. The valide sultan
was an important link between dynastic generations, preserving continuity and
reproducing and maintaining the dynasty during times of instability. Before the
concept of seniority in the male line was established in the seventeenth century,
dynastic succession led to war between the princes, who were sometimes born to
different mothers. To eliminate this threat, some sultans eliminated rival princes
and even ordered the murder of their own sons, brothers, and nephews. In the
seventeenth century the harem became a highly politicized and violent institu-
tion where the killing of unruly concubines, infanticide, and even regicide were
accepted norms. This reality stood in sharp contrast to the Orientalist image of
the harem as a place of overt sexuality and sensuality where everyone served to
pleasure the sultan.
As the sultanate became concentrated in the imperial harem in Istanbul
after the discontinuance of princely provincial governorates, the principle of
seniority was established in the male line in the early seventeenth century. In
an attempt to control the princes’ political activities, they were confined to the
imperial harem, where the chief black eunuch and the valide sultan monitored
their activities and chose their sexual partners. Princes could no longer establish
their own households and military bases in the provinces or gain battlefield ex-
perience. As a result, both the valide sultan and the chief black eunuch gained