Hathaway|237even hyperconsciousness, of Habashi difference—often in contradistinction to
a white, Venetian, Balkan, or literally Caucasian alternative—among Ottoman
courtiers and intellectuals. The most strident rhetoric in opposition to African
eunuchs seems to date from the period at the end of the sixteenth century and
the beginning of the seventeenth century when African eunuchs were becoming
steadily more influential and, indeed, challenging the white eunuchs for influ-
ence. At the same time, however, the African eunuchs’ ethnoregional and racial
differences, to say nothing of their emasculation, coexisted with their inclusion
in the broad category of Ottomans and servants of the sultan—for few people
desired the well-being and continuation of an empire more fervently than the
court eunuchs employed by that empire. An interview with the last surviving
court eunuch of China’s Qing empire (1644–1911), Sun Yaoting, who died in 1996,
is revealing in this regard. According to his biographer, Sun “had never stopped
lamenting the fall of the imperial system he had aspired to serve: ‘That was the
regret of his whole life.’”
In the Ottoman Empire, at least by the eighteenth century, the eunuch dif-
ference attested most viscerally in Levni’s Book of Festivals had arguably become
simultaneously a mark of distinction and a signifier of power. A castrated Ethio-
pian, el-Hajj Beshir Agha, had become one of the most powerful figures in the
entire empire. Yet despite his origins outside the empire’s farthest southern pe-
riphery, and despite his physical condition, he was as Ottoman as the grand vi-
zier, the sultan’s mother, or even the sultan himself. The Ottoman identity he had
acquired by virtue of being enslaved, castrated, and trained in the palace was ex-
traordinarily resilient, able to withstand the opposition and opprobrium of rival
courtiers (including rival eunuchs) and the misunderstanding of foreign observ-
ers. His distinctive color, features, and dress, as portrayed by Levni, singled him
out not as an outlandish misfit but as the most important person in any given
miniature. They signified, in fact, that the chief harem eunuch had become the
exemplary Ottoman.
Suggestions for Further Reading
Hathaway, Jane. Beshir Agha: Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Imperial Harem. Oxford:
Oneworld, 2006. This biography of the most powerful Ottoman chief harem eu-
nuch is aimed at a general educated readership.
Lewis, Bernard. Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1990. This study offers a broad historical examination of
attitudes toward harem eunuchs and others of African origin.
Necipoğlu, Gülru. Architecture, Ceremonial, and Power: The Topkapı Palace in the
Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. New York: Architectural History Foundation;
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991. This authoritative work analyzes the layout and
functions of the Ottoman imperial palace.