Harem: Part 2, The Eunuchs

Sultans retained a large number of eunuchs, sometimes as many as 800, to guard the women of the harem. Once again, keep in mind that I am writing of the most famous harem of all, the Topkapi in Istanbul. Where and how did the sultans get this corps of eunuchs? Most were either non-Muslim prisoners of war or slaves, were castrated before puberty, and spent their entire lives in servitude to the sultan within the latticed walls of the extravagant, labyrinthine harem on the shores of the Bosporus in Istanbul. Or, shall I call it Constantinople? With the exception of the occasional outing, the life of the eunuch was confining, although not nearly so much as that of the odalisques. And let's not forget the all too frequent charge to bundle up a young woman in a sack, leave the halls of the harem, row beyond the shores of the point that contained the massive, exquisitely tiled complex, and dump her into the rapid undercurrents of the Bosporus. Oh, yes. At the bottom of this historic waterway lies the bones of many young women who perhaps came into the bad graces of the sultan's mother, or of women far more powerful within the harem. And what was her particular crime? Perhaps she had just given birth to the sultan's son. Whatever her "crime", life within the harem was precarious, and filled with just as much mystery and intrigue as the secret passages and hidden chambers of the Topkapi Harem itself.


Because eunuchs were so trusted by the sultans, many became quite powerful. Unlike the odalisques, the young women of the harem, eunuchs were well informed of circumstances in the outside world. They stood next to the sultan as he met with foreign dignitaries and were privy to what the king discussed in foreign affairs as well as all the secrets within the palace. Do not forget the story of Esther, and the advice given to her by Hegai, the eunuch, concerning how to gain the favor of King Xerxes, and become queen.

In the beginning, and, once again, I am talking about Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire, white slaves from Russia were used as eunuchs. But they had a high mortality rate, so, usually the eunuchs were black. Most came from around the modern day areas of Ethiopia and the Sudan. They were stronger and had more endurance and had a higher survival rate from the castration process. However, their color also proved to have another purpose purely related to their relationship with the women they were charged to watch over. As hard as it is to believe, the process of castration was not always permanent, and a eunuch fathering a child, though rare, was not unheard of. If an odalisque gave birth to a child of mixed race (the loss of sexual organs did not always mean the eunuch lost sexual desire), thus evidence that a eunuch had usurped his authority, her life and that of her child hung in the balance. Many women in the harem died young.

More often than not, the castration process occurred before they left Africa. The mortality rate, as you can imagine, was very high. Think of the sweltering heat and humidity. How did they heal? They were buried up to their necks in sand for this process. (If this is too much information, perhaps you'd be better off reading my last blog about the Jack Daniels Apples.) If they survived, they became a hot commodity (pardon the pun). There were different types of castration, but maybe I shouldn't go into that. Even Sir Richard Burton, famed author of The Thousand and One Nights wrote of this.

The life of the eunuch in the Topkapi Harem mirrored that of the young women they watched over. The castration process resulted in the eunuchs being somewhat effiminate, so they tended to enjoy the same types of lavishness and pampering they gave to the women. Many became musically incined and very poetic. They dressed in lavish clothes, bathed in the palace pools, ate sweets, and grew fat. Their training began when they were young and new at the palace. Sometimes, they even got married, which resulted in them having to live outside the harem, and the end to this part of the story.