40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lavish opulence within a confined life, October 2, 2002
This book could be considered a companion to "Inside the Seraglio" by John Freely. Whereas the latter volume describes the harem from the point of view of the Sultan, this book describes it from the point of view of the women. The author herself lived in Turkey, in an old building that was once the harem of a pasha. Her paternal grandmother, Zehra, lived in a harem until 1909 when the institution was abolished and declared unlawful after the fall of Abdulhamid, the last Osmanli Sultan.
"Harem" is lavishly illustrated with photographs, Turkish woodcuts, and Persian miniatures of tastefully clad ladies within their private world. There are also paintings of what European artists imagined (for the most part) the interior of a Turkish bath or seraglio might look like. "La grand Odalisque" by Ingres adorns the cover and Gérôme, Delacroix, Renoir, and John Frederick Lewis are among other European artists whose paintings embellish these pages.
The details of everyday life in a wealthy sultan's harem (the author focuses on the Seraglio of Topkapi Palace in Istanbul) stuns the reader's senses. Dinners were set on velvet cloths embroidered with silver. The napkin rings were mother-of-pearl set with diamonds. The sherbet might have been concocted from the essence of violets or roses, as well as more commonplace fruit juices.
And the clothing! Veils of sheerest muslin, tasseled caps of velvet embroidered with pearls, trousers of Bursa silk, vests and girdles encrusted in precious stones. European males may have fantasized about the state of undress in a harem (as witnessed by their paintings), but their wives and daughters--those who were fortunate enough to actually visit a harem--wrote home about the intricate and beautiful costumes. Even the color of a lady's handkerchief could convey an unspoken message, rather like the Victorian Language of Flowers. Red signified passionate love. Purple meant 'suffering from love.' A torn, burned handkerchief signaled that its owner was dying of heartache.
Wives, concubines, and female relatives were not the only inhabitants of a rich man's harem. There were also the eunuchs. The author goes into quite a bit of detail (as she does with everything in this wonderful book) about the different types of eunuchs and how they were created. Male readers might even want to skip this chapter since it involves verbs like 'bruising and crushing,' 'dragging,' 'twisting,' and 'searing.' A prepubescent boy had the best chance of surviving the various operations.
Eunuchs were also employed by the holy mosques in Mecca and Medina, as attendants for the female worshippers.
One of the questions most frequently asked of the author is whether harems still exist, and in the last section of her book, "Harems Today," she answers, "yes, they do." The only disappointment in this otherwise fantastic and opulent history is that Alev Lytle Croutier was not able to include a photograph of a modern harem. A still from the James Bond movie, "The Spy Who Loved Me" has to serve as a rather silly substitute.
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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Harem, a Confused Look at History, July 13, 1999
By A Customer
Harem wins five stars for book design, and only one for content. Alev Lyttle Croutier obviously spent a tremendous amount of time finding artwork to illustrate her book. However, most of the paintings that she selected are elaborate European orientalist fantasies of Haram life and not actual historicaly relevant pieces. Perhaps Ms. Croutier should have spent a little more time researching her topic. Aside from some pretty staggaring historical mistakes and gross generalizations about Islam, the book contains very little usefull information for scholars. Most of Haram: World Behind the Viel focuses on a single royal Turkish Haram - with very little cross-cultural analysis. If you are interested in orientalist art or detailed descriptions of eunich castration than this is the book for you, but if you are looking for actual scholarship - look elsewhere.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Behind The Veil is clear, fascinating and worth your time., July 24, 2002
This book is a great introduction to the world of the imperial harem. It's packed with interesting information, but not too dense to enjoy. Croutier has a personal edge over most harem writers: All the women of her family lived in harems, and taught her about them. They taught her the important things to be pleasing to a man, such as removing the body hair with a homemade lotion, the particular use of henna, and making excellent Turkish coffee. The paintings add more than just prettiness; they illustrate the feelings and ideas about harems throughout the ages. This book is matter-of-fact, yet accepts that many Westerners had and still have very erotic, exotic ideas about harems, leading to flights of fantasy. But one cannot forget that the women in harems were real women, and not just playtoys. Croutier shows us this by translating a poem found on the wall of the Seraglio:
For a two-bit
Mirror lost,
This sitting here is caught
By the men of the century.
The odalisque had been "imprisoned for stealing a cheap mirror." These women, the slaves and sultanas alike, made the best of their lives as they could, and the author has turned their stories into a beautiful, inspiring book. A round of applause for Alev Lytle Croutier.
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