HAREM, or HAREEM' (Ar. "the pro hibited"), is used by Mussulmans to signify the women's apartments in a household establish ment, forbidden to every man except the hus band and near relations. The practice of erect ing and maintaining a separate apartment for the women of a well-to-do household dates back to early times in Chaldea. The Egyptian palaces followed with the most elegantly equipped con structions for the harem. The Scriptures, the Odyssey and various ancient chronicles all refer to the harems. The Persians, Babylonians, Hindus, Arabs, Siamese and ancient Peruvians all maintained harems. But it is the Turkish harems of which most has been written. The women of the harem may consist simply of a wife and her attendants or there may be sev eral wives and an indefinite number of concu bines or female slaves, with black eunuchs, etc. The management of the establishment is gen erally entirely in the hands of the females. The
greatest harem is that of the sultan of Turkey. The women of the imperial harem are all slaves, generally Circassians or Georgians. Their life is spent in bathing, dressing, walking in the gardens, witnessing the voluptuous dances per formed by their slaves, etc. The women of other Turks enjoy the society of their friends at the baths or in each other's houses, and appear in public accompanied by slaves and eunuchs; but the women of the sultan's harem have none of these privileges. It is of course only the richer Moslems who can maintain harems; the poorer classes have generally but one wife. Consult Harvey, 'Turkish Harems and Circassian Homes) (1871) ; Lane, 'Man ners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians) (1871) ; Loti, Pierre, 'Les Desenchantees) (1906) ; Van Sommer and Zwener, 'Our Mos lem (1907).