arrival of Muslim armies in the seventh century.
Khusrau I (r. 531—579
c
.
e
.) reportedly had as
many as 12,000 women in his harem, probably
an exaggerated figure. In contrast, Greeks and
Romans practiced monogamous marriage, but
honorable women were still expected to care for
the home and their children, a notion supported
by the philosopher Aristotle (d. 322
b
.
c
.
e
.). Greek
and Roman law excluded women from public life,
and they were regarded as children by nature in
relation to men.
The harem in early Muslim society reflected
the influences of the ancient civilizations that pre-
ceded it. Pre-Islamic marriage practices in Arabia
were diverse, and scholars have found evidence
for both polygyny (having more than one wife)
and polyandry (having more than one husband).
In general, women were becoming more subordi-
nate to their fathers and husbands in m
Uhammad
’s
time, and polygyny displaced polyandry. Muham-
mad had a number of wives and concubines who
were called upon to veil and live in at least partial
seclusion at a distance from others, reflecting, per-
haps, his status as prophet and commander of the
believers. Nevertheless, the hadith and early his-
torical accounts indicate that women could play
roles of central importance in the early Muslim
community, such as Muhammad’s wives k
hadiJa
(d. 619) and a
isha
(d. 678). Muhammad’s son-in-
law a
li
bin
a
bi
t
alib
(d. 661), the fourth
caliph
and first Shii
imam
, is reported to have had nine
wives after the death of his first wife, F
atima
(d.
633), as well as a number of concubines, while
his son Hasan (d. 669) is said to have married
up to 100 women. Such practices were followed
in other Muslim households, especially in the
following century as wives and children of the
defeated Persians were taken captive and adopted
into the postconquest Arab Muslim society. Per-
sian harem practices were probably adopted by
Arab rulers at this time.
The image of a palace harem of seductive
women, dancing girls, and slaves as depicted in
a
rabian
n
ights
fantasies is partly a product of the
royal court of the a
bbasid
c
aliphate
(750–1258).
Royal wives and daughters had their own palaces
in b
aghdad
in the early days of the caliphate,
but, by the 10th century, they became secluded
in the palace of the ruler, out of the public eye.
They were attended by slave girls, entertainers,
and eunuchs; intruders could be put to death.
Reports that harem women intrigued against each
other to win the heart of the ruler or secure the
throne for one of their sons fed the imaginations
of Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries, fur-
ther contributing to the invention of exotic fan-
tasies about harem life that found their way into
fictional writings and Hollywood films during the
20th century.
New historical studies of Ottoman, Mughal,
and Persian harems of the 16th and 17th cen-
turies have yielded valuable insights about what
harem life was actually like and helped dispel
myths that have captured the Western imagina-
tion. This research has shown that royal harems
were highly organized complex communities
that assumed different characteristics at differ-
ent moments in history, depending on local cir-
cumstances, personalities, and configurations of
power. They often included non-Muslims as well
as Muslims. Upper-class women and children
were educated and trained in arts and crafts there.
Harem women exercised considerable political
influence in dynastic affairs and were not always
secluded from the wider society. A ruler’s mother,
wives, concubines, daughters, and servants were
involved in raising his sons and participated in
the politics of arranging royal marriages and the
succession. Indeed, some harem mothers and
wives, such as Hurrem (also known as Roxelana,
d. 1558) in Ottoman i
stanbUl
, Pari-Khan Kha-
num (d. 1578) in Safavid Isfahan, and Nur Jahan
(d. 1645) in Mughal d
elhi
, played central roles
in affairs of state.
Harem institutions came to an end with the
passing of the last Islamicate empires and the
dynasties that ruled them in the 19th and 20th
centuries. Nevertheless, they survive in the imagi-
K 292
harem
