HAREM, the European title for that portion of a polygamist's house which is devoted to the exclusive occupancy of his wives and their attendants, or, by a simple metonymy, for the female portion of his household. The woid harem is Arabic for anything forbidden or not to be touched. It is generally applied in Moslem law to such things as games of chance, draughts, chess, witchcraft, and portrait-taking, which are inconsistent with the religious code, and under the form of harem it is well known, even to Europeans, as designating the sacred inclosure of the principal mosque at Cairo and at Jerusalem (Haram-esclsagerig). The word seraglio, which is not unfrequently employed as equivalent to harem, is an equivalent modification of the Persian term scruff, which means a palace or large building, as in the familiar compound caravanserai. Wherever polygamy is maintained in the midst of a developed social life, the harem appears to be an almost inevitable institution. We consequently find it after a more or less rigid type among the Jews, the Babylonians, the Siamese, the ancient Persians, the Peruvians, etc. But it is among the modern Mohammedan peoples that it has attained its most perfect development; and the harems of the sultan of Turkey and the shah of Persia may be taken as the most elaborate and best-known specimens of the type. According to the Koran, the Mussubnan is required to satisfy himself with four wives, but the sultan may possess as many as seven. Each of these has her own suite of apart ments, her own garden and bath-room, and her own body of servants, male and female. They are not called by their names, but distinguished as kadin (or lady) number one, number two, and so on. The title of sultana is bestowed only on the mother, the sister, or the daughter of a sultan; and consequently it is the kadin who first gives birth to an heir to the empire who alone can have this distinction. She further obtains the title of hasseky or kasseky, but this is lost if the child dies. All the female slaves, or as they are called adalisktt (a European corruption of the word ocia/i/c, from ode, a chamber, and Ilk, belonging to), are at the absolute disposal of the sultan, and if, in spite of thenatural endeavors of the kadins to prevent such a contingency, one of them becomes the mother of her lord and master's first-born, she is advanced to the rank of sultana hassek,y. . It is
contrary to etiquette for the sultan to select his own favorites among the odalisks; he is expected to accept the choice made for him by his mother, who bears the title of vault-, and exercises great influence not only in the affairs of the harem but even in political matters. Every odalisk who has been promoted to the royal favor is henceforth consid ered sacred from all meaner patronage, and receives apartments and attendants of her own; but she has no further claim to the sultan's attention, and may have to console a life-long widowhood with the memory of the honor winch was once bestowed on her. The ranks of the odalisks are ever and anon recruited by slaves presented to the sultan by his female relatives or the state officials. An old and devoted favorite of the sultan occupies the post of kehaya or lady superintendent of the harem. A large body of eunuchs, both black and white, are employed as guards and gate-keepers. The white eunuchs have charge of the outer gate of the seraglio, but they are not allowed to approach tile women's apartments. and obtain no posts of distinction. Their chief, how ever, the kapott aghassi, or master of the gates, has part control over the ecclesiastical possessions, and even the vizier cannot enter the royal apartments without his permis- , sion. The black eunuchs have the right of entering the gardens and chambers of the harem. Their chief, usually called the kizlaer aghasst, .or master of tile maidens, though his true title is darus scadet aga, or chief of the abode of felicity, is an official of high importance. His appointment is for life. If he is deprived of his post he receives his freedom; and if he resigns of his own accord he is generally sent to Egypt with a pension of 100 francs a day. His secretary keeps count of the revenue of the mosques built by the sultans. He is generally succeeded by the second eunuch, who bears the title of treasurer or khazuandar, and has charge of the jewels, etc., of the women. The number of eunuchs is always a large one. The sultana valide and the sultana hasseky have each fifty at their service, and others are assigned to the kadins and the favorite odalisks. [Encyc. Brit., 9th ed.]