Comparing Harems: Abbasid and Ottoman Harem Organization

Comparing Harems: Abbasid and Ottoman Harem Organization

Presentation by Linda Webber

Given at the College of Brockport, SUNY, on April 10, 2013

In Islamic culture, the private and forbidden domain of women in the home is known as the harem. Harems range in extravagance from those of the Medieval Islamic Empires of the Abbasid and Ottoman Turks, to the everyday necessities of the common Muslim family. The following research delves into the organizational structures of the luxurious harems of Medieval Abbasid and Ottoman Empires; comparing the two different empires’ harems within the political, economic, and social spheres that the royal women lived in.