What were the purpose of "Harems" and where and when did they exist? Did they allow one man to have hundreds if not thousands of offspring? IF so, does that mean some nations have many offspring from same ancestor?

 The idea of the Harem or Zenana within Islamic states has become so twisted overtime that most people do not even seem to understand what the harem actually was. This perception of this “exotic harem” as a place of sexual debauchery. A place where hundreds of young women are imprisoned to live a life of sexual exploitation, jealousy, drama, and political intrigue. The truth is however far more complex.

Origin of the Harem institution

We have to understand that the women in this Islamic society were supposed to be in a state of purdah (seclusion or segregation). An ideal woman was not to be involved in public life. Nor was she to be seen by men, save her immediate family. However, this segregation based on sex was often not practical for the common populace, as women also had to work in society to contribute to the family. This practice of seclusion was possible only for those with the financial means to allow the women in the family to remain at home. Therefore, the practice of purdah was a sign of high status, and became a hallmark of the upper class society in the Islamic world. Note that these ideals of a woman among the nobility within the Middle East preceded the rise of Islam.

The harem, in its simplest description, was just the secluded portion of the household within the Islamic world in the medieval era. It was the portion of the household that was off-limits to most males, with the exception of a few family members. The purpose of which was to create a separate portion of the household where the women of the family could live in a state of purdah. The women living in the harem could include the wives, daughters, sisters, mother, grandmother, other female relatives, pre-pubescent children, and female servants of the man (and perhaps his sons as well). These women would spend most of their time within the harem, and would be veiled from public eyes even while traveling outside of the harem.

Remember how I mentioned that the harem became a hallmark of the nobility and upper classes. The implementation of this purdah by the royalty within powerful states meant the creation of a separate portion in the palaces capable of housing hundreds of women. A harem capable of housing not only the female family members (and children) of the Sultan and his sons. But also female servants, staff, administrators, and eunuch guards (to serve as intermediaries) to maintain this separate portion of the palace. This does not mean that there were no concubines within the harem. However, the concubines only formed a small portion of the harem institution as a whole. The imperial harem would often have its own internal politics, traditions, budget, and administration. Some of the most powerful women within the state would be living inside of this harem. The harem, as a result, was often one of the most well-defended portions of the palace. This is how the ideal of segregation based on sex eventually resulted in the evolution of the harem into a separate and powerful institution within Islamic states.

A more realistic artistic depiction of the activities of the women of the Mughal harem. Women going on with their everyday lives. A few women can be seen playing a board game.

The “exotic” harem

It should be quite clear by now that the harems were not the kinky sex dungeons with hundreds of concubines that some people imagine them to be. This begs the question how the perception of the harem changed so much that it no longer represents anything even close to reality. Orientalists, both artists and writers, from the early modern period were largely responsible for the inaccurate perception of the harem within Europe. This has led to many fanciful stories about Islamic sultans having harems filled with hundreds or thousands of women to fulfil their sexual appetite.

Another important factor at play here is Islamophobia. It is common enough for people to promote such stories, regardless of the authenticity, as a part of their anti-Muslim rhetoric. Stories of Muslims enslaving thousands of women in their harems, defined by them as pleasure houses filled with concubines, are among the most popular among such communities. Take the story about the Mughal Emperor Akbar having five thousand concubines within his harem for his sexual gratification, from the book “The Naked Mughals: Forbidden Tales of Harem and Butchery”, as an example. Such people usually rely on half-truths or lies altogether to promote their own narrative. That is because they are less interested in learning the truth and more interesting in associating anything related to Islam or Muslims in a negative light.

An orientalist depiction of a harem by Giulio Rosati, an Italian painter who focused on paintings related to Islamic culture. Like many other orientalists, he never actually travelled to these Islamic kingdoms that his paintings depicted. Such orientalists ended up creating a very inaccurate perception about what the harem actually was within Europe.

Evils of the Harem

Now, this is not to say that the institute of the harem should be praised as a great thing. Nor should we try to replicate such practices in the modern world. The harem, and practice of the seclusion, certainly had its faults. The women of the harem were often as much inhabitants as prisoners of the harem. Their contact to the outside world was limited and controlled regardless their own will. The social isolation of the women from public society could also result in the infantilization of the women, as was noted by a British woman who lived within a harem for a while. Take for example the accounts of Miss Smith, after some time in a Tunisian harem, made note of the women trapped within the harem as “animals in the zoological gardens whose cages very much resembled their grated windows”. It was also common enough, due to the prevalence of slavery, for some of the women to be living in the harem, as slaves or concubines, against their will. Some of the lower class women would often be forced to live in small and cramped quarters for the entirety of their lives, without the option of leaving the harem. This can be seen by the poetry of a “harem woman, an Ottoman slave” (in her own words) from the Ottoman Empire.

There were also indirect negative consequences of the institution of the harem. One of the largest being the expansion of slave trade of castrated boys. This was despite castration itself being forbidden by Islamic law. However, these states would find convenient loopholes around this issue. The existence of the harems created a high demand for eunuchs, who were chosen to play the intermediary role in the harem. A demand which would be fulfilled by the castration of young boys in nearby kingdoms to be sold into slavery within these Islamic states.

We should however try to remain objective about these faults. Rather than fabricating evils for the sake of vilification of anything related to Islam or Muslims.

Depiction of a slave market in Algiers in the Maghreb region. Such markets serve as a great source for the Islamic states (via slave traders) to buy castrated boys/men to serve as eunuchs within the harems.