The Institution of Marriage with the Early Ottomans

According to the Koran, marriages of Muslims (believers) with non-believers were prohibited.   Over time six rules, legitimizing Moslem marriage emerged.  George Rakintzakis had listed these:

ª     The declaration of the couple that they would like to participate in a “conjugal union and communality of conditions and goods” ;

♠   A formal procedure, conducted in the set format;

♠   The intention of the couple to procreate;

♠   Their mental state – that they are of the right age and sound mind;

♠   Evidence that both parties are giving their agreement freely;

♠   Their eagerness to undertake and perform their shared duties. 12

Polygamy was based on the teachings of the Koran, and limited the number of wives to four for the ordinary man.   However, this restriction only applied to women, with whom a marriage contract has been signed.  In addition to legal wives a man could have any number of concubines, provided of course that he had the means to support them. 8, 12   

The number of wives was extended to 9 wives for Caliphs and Sultans, as they were successors of Mohamed (who may have had 14 wives). 12   The First wife was initially called Başkadinefendi, or until the 17th century also Haseki Sultan. 8

As Sunni Moslems, the Ottomans had adopted the Hanafi legal tradition, which while based on the Prophet’s teaching was the most liberal system that emerged.  Hanafi Law proposed a patriarchal structure, in which personal relationships were mirrored by state structures, where the sultan was the head of the family as well as the empire.  7

This was the reason why there was no formally recognised Queen as equal to the Sultan in the Ottoman court or in any other Islamic state.  Although some women reached the pinnacles of great power, sometimes elevated by their husbands or sons, the formal family head and head of the state remained the Sultan. 1

The Islamic law allowed women to marry one husband at a time, but he had to be of equal social status to that of her family. A husband from the Orthodox religion would be considered to be socially inferior. The Hanafi assumption that the man is head of the family also makes the notion of marriage between Moslem women and Christian men completely unacceptable, as the subservient wife, no matter what her background, would be of a higher status than her husband.  This is why there were no known marriages between Christian rulers and Ottoman Princesses. 9

Even where former Christian lords and important Ottoman allies converted to Islam, they were still prevented from marrying into the Sultan’s family. This applied to Evrenos Bey, Mihailoglu and Turhan Bey and their male descendants.  There was a fear that marriage with an Ottoman princess could encourage those prominent leaders to confront the sultans and challenge their power. 9

The marriages between Christian wives and Muslim husbands in the case of Theodora and Orhan, Tamara and Murad, Olivera Despina and Beyazid, were legal according to the more liberal Hanafi law.  This was only on condition that we assume that those princesses were somehow convinced to express their oral agreement with the marriage; that they had given their consent freely and the ceremony followed the prescribed format.  Such “consent” we know in practice was symbolic, rather than real and reflected the accepted powerlessness of Princesses throughout history.

At the same time, according to the Orthodox religion, such marriages were illegal as they were against the Civil and Canon laws; Muslims were considered as not only heretics, but also members of a separate religion.  Through these marriages, the Christian brides became involved in polygamy, prohibited by the Orthodox Church.   Also in several cases, the Christian brides, who were close relatives, married husbands, who were also closely related; those marriages could not be even blessed by the Orthodox Church. 12

The Hanafi law allowed Muslim men much greater freedom – not only could they marry non-Muslim women, but they could also own and have sexual relations with as many slaves as their financial situation could support.  This was one of the most important factors for the prosperity of the Ottoman dynasty – a man could produce legitimate children by both his wives and the slave women.  The children from the sultan’s wives however, had an automatic right to inherit only if the mother was a Muslim.  If a non-Muslim wife from a dynastic marriage – like Tamara, did not convert, any children she might have had would lose their right of succession.13

The children of a slave would be in the same situation as that of a wife, but they would need to be recognised by the sultan as his own.   In order to prove paternity it became necessary to keep strict nightly records of which slaves the sultan slept with, so that future babies could be “authenticated”.  To ease the process, wives slept with the Sultan on one day of the week (Thursday or Friday, according to different sources) and took turns every week – this was also a Muslim tradition.   There would be no difference according to the law between the child of a wife and that of a slave as their descent was seen to originate from their father, not their mother.  Sons were in theory treated equally, but with a care that none could grow so powerful as to challenge their father.  Dynastic custom disallowed princes to occupy positions higher that a Provincial Governor. 2

Although the use of slave women as concubines started at the time of Orhan Bay, their importance and number rose substantially after Mehmed the Conqueror.  After spending nine years in the Harem, the slaves had the right to leave and the sultans gave them a trousseau and helped them to find a husband.  They would also be given a document in which the sultan would sign their freedom. 2

At a later period, after the Bursa Empire – after Mehmed the Conqueror, it became practice for a period of time to restrict wives to one male child, after which they were not allowed access to the sultan’s bedroom. 13   This practice was obviously not yet put in place in Orhan and Murad I’s time, as Orhan had several children from both Nilüfer and Asporsha Hatun, Murad had more than one child from Gülchichek Hatun and possibly Tamara Shishman. 5

 Each prince was brought up by his own mother and educated initially at home and later at the Palace school.  At the age of 10-12 they would be appointed as a Provincial Governors. 1 The mother would accompany the prince and remain a constant support in a moral and advisory sense.  Fulfilling their role of custodians of royal power, the mothers of princes also took responsibility of the dynastic reproduction, which, of course gave them justifiable interest in the sexual lives of their sons. 

When Princes started marrying young – from the time of Murad I‘s children, their young wives and mothers would accompany them to the area they were given to govern.  Mothers still had the duty to prepare their sons in the ways to receive, preserve and use power, using their own knowledge, experience and influence amongst the members of the sultan’s family.  The mother would also be her son’s champion in the struggle for the throne, once the sultan died.  10

The West European ideas of the Ottoman Harem were built by the notions of the paramount importance of a group of women, segregated together, to the power mechanisms of the Ottoman Empire.  When did the seclusion of women start? To the early rulers the harem was “unknown and unwanted” – they were too occupied fighting their battles, setting up the state and playing diplomatic games with friends and foes.  This indulgence in sensual life, as perceived by western writers and painters, only became established when the Empire had secure borders, full coffers, not so many battles to fight and the Sultans enjoyed a lot of leisure time. 4, 6, 10

Let us first look at the etymology of the word harem.  It is derived from the Arabic word haram, which means “that, which is inviolate”, as opposed to halal, which means, “that, which is lawful.  As an example – the whole area within a certain diameter in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina is haram – this indicates that things allowed elsewhere, were not permitted there.  The meaning of the word has expanded to include in its meaning “holy, protected, sacred, one which should not be violated, forbidden”.  When this linguistic meaning is applied to the house of the Muslim family, the part, occupied by the women is called the Harem, as it is their sanctuary, which should not be violated by outsiders and is forbidden to them. 6

One of the institutions, related to the harem is that of the eunuchs.  In the Middle East and the Far East, the use of eunuchs to guard the women in the harem was well known and proven. The early Ottomans were totally unfamiliar with this practice until they established Constantinople as their capital.  This was one of the many practices they adopted from the Byzantines – there have been many references to the existence of eunuchs in Byzantium. 14  Their roles were often much wider than guarding the women – many of them were important members of Government – e.g. John the Orphanotrophus, who was the Emperor Michael IV’s Chief Minister and his brother. 4  

Eunuchs were mentioned at the wedding of Theodora and Orhan – they carried the bride. The practice, existing in Byzantium was that eunuchs could not become monarchs, as they could not produce successors for the empire.  This was the reason, why many emperors castrated their nearest male relatives as soon as they took the power, in order to ensure their dedicated service. 3   The practice of using eunuchs came to be adopted by the Ottomans only in the middle of the 15th century.

Not only there was no harem in the early Ottoman palace and no eunuchs, but also they were not familiar with royal seclusion or any elaborate court ceremonials. 4    After the new capital in Adrianople became embellished with many new buildings, so the Sultan’s life began to change. Affluence, success and pomp accompanied a need for privacy. The first demonstration of this new type of life was given by the descriptions of the opulent wedding of Beyazid with Delvet Shah Hatun – a Germiyan princess. 11  

Sultans gained a much closer knowledge of the routines and rituals of the Byzantine court from the royal Princesses and high-ranking Greek ladies, whom they married.  So, gradually some of the Byzantine practices were adopted, including the seclusion for the Sultan and his wives.  With the introduction of the harem, the use of eunuchs followed as a necessary practice, relating to the polygamy of the sultans (it would be much easier to guard one woman and much more difficult to guard several!). With the rapid advance of the Ottoman armies on the Balkans, as well in Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and Persia large numbers of slaves were captured, which included eunuchs.  By 1541, the institution was fully established. 6. 11

The marriages of the early Ottoman sultans with Christian princesses and ladies were dynastic marriages, based on a long tradition of history, connecting Muslim and Christian dynasties in the web of life in the 14th century’s Balkan s and Anatolia.  Their mere existence weakened the prejudices on the subject of mixed marriage existing on both sides.

 

The Institution of Marriage with the Early Ottomans

 

1.     Imber Colin: The Ottoman Empire 1300 – 1650 – the Structure of Power, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2002, p 87 – 128

2.     Akşit Ĭlhan:TheMystery of the Ottoman Harem, Aksit, Istanbul, 2005, p 27 – 59

3.     Psellus Michael: Fourteen Byzantine Rulers, Penguin Books, London 1966, p 75 – 146

4.     Battuta Ibn: Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325 – 1354, Translated and selected by H. A    R. Gibb, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, London, 1924

5.     Rulers of the Ottoman Empire – based on the four volume edition of Boyut Publishing Group “Ottoman History” (Osmanli Tarihi), selected and translated by Svetlozara Kostova, Kibea, Sofia, 2003 p 10 – 13

6.     Penzer N. M.: The Harēm – Ann Account of the Institution as it Existed in the Palace of the Turkish Sultans with the History of the Grand Sergalio from its Foundation to the Present Time, George G. Harrap @ Co Ltd, London, Bombay, Sidney, 1936, p 10 – 230

7.     Ahmed L: Women and Gender in Islam, Chapter 6: Medieval Islam, in University of Alberta Tutorial: Women, Class and Islam, 1997, published by Consortium of Middle Eastern and African Studies, p 104 – 105

8.     https://www.osmanli.org.tr/eng/articles/016.asp

9.     Finkel Caroline: Osman’s Dream – the Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300 – 1923, John Murray, London, 2005;p 26 – 40

10.  Peirce Leslie P.: The Imperial Harem – Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Harem, Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford, 1993, 14 – 18

11.  Gibbons Herbert Adams: The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire – A History of the Osmanlisup to the Death of Bayezid I (1300 – 1403), Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1916, p 148 – 179

12.  Rakintzakis George Emm.: Orthodox-Muslim Mixed marriages ca. 1297 – 1453;  an unpublished M.A. Thesis form the University of Birmingham, May, 1875, p 116 -120

13.  Hanimefendi Leyla (Saz): The Imperial Harem of the Sultans – Daily Life at the Çirağan Palace during the 19th Century; Translated from French by Landon Thomas; Second print, PEVA, 1955, 35-203

14.  Haldon John: State, Army and Society in Byzantium – approaches to Military, Social and Administrative History, 6th-12th Centuries, Variorum, 1995, 234-281

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