Let us have a look into the ranks of women in the royal harem
Osman Ghazi (1281-1324) married two free women. Until Mehmed the Conqueror, the Sultans pursued their family life with from two to five women, some of whom were slaves. Those who came after him had two, three, four, five, and as will be described below, seven or eight and at the most eighteen. They may be listed as follows:
The First Category
Kadinefendi; the Sultans married from one to four of this rank, sometimes concluding the marriage contract, but they mostly lived as wives without marriage being contracted. The chief of these, that is, the First Wife, was called the Baskadinefendi. Until the end of the 17th century they were also called Haseki Sultan. This does not mean that all the Sultans had four kadynefendis. For instance, Yavuz Sultan Selim (1512-1520) had two.
The Second Category
Ikbal; towards the end of the Ottoman dynasty despite having at the most four ‘wives’ —either free or slaves— of the above category, one or two but by no means all the Sultans kept at the most four concubines of the category called ikbal. The first of these was called the Basikbal, who if the marriage contract was concluded with her became the Fifth Wife (Besinci Kadinefendi). There were Second, Third and Fourth Ikbals respectively.
The Third Category
One or two of the Sultans kept slave-concubines who were candidates for promotion to the rank of ikbal or kadinefendi. At the most these could be eight in number. The first four of these were called gozde and the second four peyk.
The following conclusions may be drawn
1. With one or two exceptions, the Ottoman Sultans had at the fewest two and at the most four or five wives at any one time. But over the periods of their lives, this number may have risen to twenty at the most.
2. The Sultans who took the Fifth Kadinefendi as wife were not exceeding the limit of four, stipulated by Islam, for the majority of these ‘wives’ were slave-concubines with whom no marriage contract had been concluded. The restriction to four wives refers to women with whom the contract is concluded.
3. It is noteworthy that although at the height of their power, the Ottoman Sultans ruled over lands stretching over twenty-four million square kilometers. They never threatened the honour of others, but chose this way to satisfy their needs, which was not forbidden by the Qur’an and was within the bounds of the contemporary moral values. In the face of all the immorality of the present time, it is a great error to classify as shameful what has been said above.
4. The gross misrepresentations of what the female slaves did in the apartments known as the Harem, bathing naked and taking part in orgies, are complete fabrications. If you make a tour of the Harem apartments in particular, you will see on the walls of the Sultans’ bedrooms, the princes’ rooms and everywhere suitable, Qur’anic verses and Hadiths of the Prophet instructing in the proper conduct of family life. That is, the Harem was a centre of instruction for the women who were partners to the Sultan. OTTOMAN HAREM ® CONTIN
