Tag Archives: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

no naughty bits

The life of a eunuch. Its from a bygone era, but one not form a so-distant past. In Ottoman Turkey, the eunuch, both white and black enjoyed a certain status of the social scale, and those scales seemed to be … Continue reading

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messy antics

Passion unchained. Does absolute power equate with absolute bliss? For the Sultan’s of the Ottoman Empire for the most part; the effort to reconcile two antagonistic ideas seemed to almost take a perverse pleasure. Seraglio life could be characterized as … Continue reading

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caucasian cream of the crop

In selecting a concubine, a Sultan held a regular weekly levee at which the virgins of the harem were brought in for his inspection; he dropped a hankerchief at the feet of the one who pleased him most, indicating she … Continue reading

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dinner is served: lonely at the top in the HMS Sultan

The social life in the Grand Seraglio was not all it had been cracked up to be. The power exercised there by the Sultan was absolute to be sure. But did it bring bliss? … When the Sultan got back … Continue reading

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suspicious minds

Good to walk around with a mirror just to see who may be sneaking up on you. Hard to find a Sultan who wasn’t suspicious and didn’t keep a food tester on the payroll. And lets not talk about the … Continue reading

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royal etiquette: eye of the Sultan

His Majesty’s seamy service.Throne Room Without and Within. Modern Turkish history contains much to be proud of, but it was preceded by a long and unbroken seamy past of plots hatched and destinies decided within the walls of the Grand … Continue reading

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seraglio hide and seek

Don’t look back, it might be catching up to you. Being a Sultan was not an occupation, some call it a calling, others a divine right of kings. In any event, it was not for the faint of heart. Lots … Continue reading

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who’s the fairest sultan of all

The Grand Seraglio. As opposed to Seraglio Minor. Yes that Grand Seraglio with the violence, the death and the sex fueled only the passion thatsix thousand concubines can command and the wayward restlessness of the Janissary guards. Frontier justice and … Continue reading

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vintage violence

Janissaries were uneducated except in violence and were fanatically conservative. In 1763, when Lord Baltimore passed through Constantinople, he observed that the Corps was still carrying bows and arrows, sabers and lances, having never got used to firearms. Sultan Selim … Continue reading

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absolute bliss and the grand seraglio

Within its walls, the Turkish sultans sought the answer to an ancient question: Can absolute power bring absolute bliss? …. The Grand Seraglio in Instanbul. Until 1852 this was the Sultans’ residence, a palace known in the West as the … Continue reading

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