HAREMS IN 19TH CENT. BRITISH EMPIRE.   Term Paper ID:23087 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines & compares perceptions of male & female Western/Victorian artists & travelers & cultural intentions of Arab/Oriental society in establishing harems.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines & compares perceptions of male & female Western/Victorian artists & travelers & cultural intentions of Arab/Oriental society in establishing harems. Paper Introduction: The Harem During the 19th Century British Empire Scrutiny of nineteenth century harem life in the East and travellers' responses to what they observed there provides an instructive pair of contrasts. Life in the eastern harems was elaborately organized to provide a constant or stabilizing oasis in the midst of the ongoing chaos which often reigned outside its walls (Walther 10). Travel presents itself as a continual transgression against established boundaries relying upon a nearly constant sense of movement (Leed 3). If as Albert Camus quipped in 1963 "What gives value to travel is fear" (Leed 1), what the orientalist custom of the harem offered was a sense of permanency, even if it was mere illusion, derived from an intricate design of restriction. When Westerners visited the Far East, their eye was often tricked and failed to see this lavish Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. London: Smith Elder,1869.Van Gennep, Arnold. In harems women could learn advanced skills in deportment,dancing, music, arts and beauty. The harem of AbdulHamid housed over 1, women. and J.H. Due to its ingrained reserve, and even further heightened by its nearovervaluing of gentility, nineteenth century culture in its Islamic, Judaicand Christian molds was conspicuously drawn toward investigating in depththat which could be hidden. the most intense and delicious in the world" (Thackeray 338).Thackeray does experience the harshness of this Islamic scene when hewitnesses an aging women bear her shrunken breast to the passing Padishah.He passes without acknowledging her presence and somehow this display offull femininity overcomes Thackeray with pity. In Muslimcountries, according to Saadami, sexual pleasure was not corrupted as itwas in its Christian counterpart. Within the harem was one of the few places where womenin oriental countries could routinely learn to read and write. Rites of Passage. In India the Persian word"zan" for women yielded "zanana" for the space allotted to women in wealthyhouseholds. Rather than judging itseems compelling to view the scenes of the harem as attempts to root aculture, or to allow its women to serve as its grounding principle.Certainly such maneuvering can be read by outsiders as restrictive, butthey also seem to possess a formative influence. Modification ensures longevity; adaptationpromotes continued growth. Harem etymologically derives from the Arabic"haremi" which has two distinctive references: 1) sacred taboo space and2) the special quarters set aside for women. Harem Years. Throughout thepiece, Thackeray's explicit assertion is that the pleasures which heexperienced first-hand in Constantinople were "the enjoyments of boyishfancy . Men could more easily yield to the fantasies suggested by theodalisque's ready pose of abandonment while women viewers saw in her nearconstant state of undress an appalling restriction of movement, a nearinability to enter into public life. A Collection of Nineteenth-century Episodes. It was not until 1926 that Turkey officiallyoutlawed polygamy. Woman's Consciousness, Man's World. Women and Sovereignity in the Ottoman Empire. Her words near the book'sbeginning, "I toil away, day and night, spinning cotton to earn a fewloaves of bread" are forgotten by most readers at the book's end after thatsuccession of vamps and seductresses (Walther 19). Harriet Martineau states that she tried to prepare herself to be openand in the most receptive of modes when she enters the two harems shevisits in Cairo and Damascus. First, sheasserts, "I cannot now think of the two mornings thus employed without aheaviness of heart greater than I have ever brought away from Deaf and DumbSchools, Lunatic Asylums, or even Prisons" (Martineau 259).Yet this disparaging comment about life in the harem cannot completelycontain her revulsion. In Ashanti andBuganda women of the wealthy upper classes were secluded. Thackeray andhis Oriental compatriots speak reverentially of the harem as if stillstroking the Odalisque in bliss. She sees the wide misinterpretation of these tales asalmost solely the product of Victorian invention. If as Albert Camus quipped in1963 "What gives value to travel is fear" (Leed 1), what the orientalistcustom of the harem offered was a sense of permanency, even if it was mereillusion, derived from an intricate design of restriction. In their documentary-style accounts,British and American travellers repeatedly can be glimpsed stumbling toachieve the proper perspective. Shedescribes its ready response to the Arabian Nights as an "era when purityfloated like a thick veil over the corrupt and bloated features of anhypocritical society" (Saadami 133). When Florence Nightingale travelled abroad at age 29 she wasspellbound by the wonders of Egypt, writing home: "Yes, My Dear People! The Hidden Face of Eve. 19 . Ancient orientalpalaces in Babylonia and Persia set aside spacious sections of theirpalaces exclusively for the housing of women. New York: David McKay Co., 1974.El Saadani, Nawal. New York: Basic Books, 1991.Martineau, Harriet. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987.Pierce, Leslie P. Curiously both Nightingale and Martineau are drawn to think inextremes, in the polarities of heaven and hell when they make their visitsto Egyptian harems. Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam. Nineteenth century Westernpainters highlighted the sensuality of the harem, repeatedly rendering theOdalisques as bountifully curved and inviting. Prior to Islamic culture women in the Orient possessedconsiderable power. Monuments and Maidens. That is not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating (Leed 5).As will be observed what these men and women travellers to nineteenthcentury harems saw were sights which could neither be fully apprehended ortranslated. The reoccurring image of the odalisque's sensual abandonment whilelying undressed on luxurious couches as captured by Ingres in Odalisque andSlave (1842), Dinet in Moonlight at Laghouat (1897) or Delacroix inOdalisque (1845) (Croutier 31, 44, 56) contrasts with Harriet Martineau'sfar less romanticized account of life lived in these quarters. The transition from matriarchal rule in the Orient topatriarchy transpired as men gained increasing control of religion and theeconomy (135). Sherif Hetafa. Eastern Life, Present and Past. Women Travellers of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Although the Sultan neverofficially married any members of his harem or signed any legal contractswith them, women who had risen to the harem's highest ranks need never fearfor their future. Yet civilized to anextreme degree of gentility, themselves corsetted and restrained by aculture which was uncertain what was the exact status of women in a worldundergoing the radical changes introduced by the rise of the IndustrialRevolution, religion's decline and the rise of science, most particularlyDarwinian evolutionary theory, these Victorian travellers to the Orient hadno given point of reference by which they could integrate or incorporatethe sights which they encountered. Quar-tering women behind the confining walls of a harem alsoserved the secondary purpose of protecting women against marauders. As the symbol of the harem's power, theSultana gave her orders to her highest ranking assistant, the KyahyaKhatun, to execute her wishes. Here the imperialist tone of colonial prejudice is more highlyvisible in these writers than the painters who responded with a simplerresponse of near child-like delight rather than adult censorship. It was in the harem that women were the best trained within orientalcultures. Outsiders, especially males were denied access to theserestricted areas. In "TheSecrets of the Hareem" included in Eastern Life: Present and Past (1848)Martineau intentionally emphasizes the weary sense of decay enveloping thetwo Harems which she visited. For these viewers to tell was somehow to be called upon tojudge. that I could tell you thenew world of old poetry, of Bible images, of light, and life, and beautywhich that world opens" (21).Although this opening line penned for her collection of letters later to becompiled as Letters from Egypt: A Journey on the Nile 1849-185 speaks ofwonder, Nightingale too would be less generous with her praise whenconfronting the oriental harems. Intimacy, Stark concluded, begins in seclusion. . As shall be further explored,part of the difference in the tone of observation rendered here may begender-based, revolving around the distance between the male and femalegaze. Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines . Boston: Beacon Press, 1981.Gibb, H.R. . . VanGennep suggests that the more highly evolved and secure a civilization isthe more likely its transactions are to be publicly conducted.Consideration of the following passage in relationship to the Islamicstructuring of their world around the secretive chambers of the harem isquite revealing. . Anthropologists would suggest that also being contested in thevariance between these two lifestyles is an alteration within the givencultures themselves. Althoughwomen were required to wear the ya-smak, the piece of cloth to be worn onthe face which veiled everything but the eyes. Nightingale was sensitive to thedifferences in class status which could make her uneasy in her travels.Travelling by steamer from Cairo to Alexandria, she was disheartened to seehow the society women were exalted even as they shunned their servant, "thechastened white Nun" (Nightingale 19). London: George Prior, 1982.Warne, Marina. Reality is to be distanced. Due to training andindoctrination, these women could not share Michael Crighton's 1988testimonial vision: Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. Thackeray's tribute toConstantinople is luxuriantly wrapped in the boyish delight of fantasiesneither to be fully abandoned nor ever adequately realized. The Colonial Harem. A man entering a harem or aiding a woman in escaping onecould be killed. New York: Frederick A. Wars have been started andkingdoms destroyed by this very cultural impasse. According to the cultural andlegal legacy of chattel, women's purity was to be preserved above all.Chastity was to be pre-served as if it were an extension of a man'sproperty. After an Odal had been promoted to theroyal couch, she was assured a fairly high level of monetary security andstatus. Eric Leed reflecting in the late twentieth century asserts that"Travel is as familiar as the experience of the body . Ironically,in travelling abroad and entering these harems these Victorian womencloaked themselves in their own culture's veilings albeit unconsciouslydoing so. Trans. According to Saadami the haremrepresents the fertile mixing of matriarchal and patriarchal cultures(Saadami 135). Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1963.Goodall, John S. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. In a semicivilized society, on the other hand, sections are carefully isolated, and passages from one to another must be made through formalities and ceremonies which show extensive parallels to the rites of territorial passage (26).Although current multicultural scholars might debate his value-ladenobservations, suggesting that differences between civilizations are notalways best arranged in an hierarchial order, nevertheless, Van Gennep'simagery does underscore that the physical structuring of the haremreinforced the society's desire to turn inward in the midst of thethreatening disarray which lingered outside its boundaries. They were expected to perfect themselvesto an ideal level. As Crighton's astute words indicate the portrait is morerevealing of who they are than what they were actually seeing. Revealing Reveiling. In harems the Sultana wasrecognized as the woman of highest rank, followed next by the mother-of-the-heir apparent, the Bash Kadin Effenai, then the other chief wives, theKadin Effendi, then the mothers of the youngest children, Hanun Effendis,then the Odalisques or Odals, women of the lowest rank. . Painters revelled in this non-restrictive gaze andpresented these hedonistic sights without reserve. White eunuchsguarded the outer gates of the harem while inside black eunuchs watchedover the gardens and the inner chambers. Yet hiscommentary with its intentional evocation of imaginary space, hiscomparison of the Turkish baths, the spires of the Byzantine mosques, theparade of the Padishah to the best of Drury Lane's theatrical productionsoffers a more accurate metaphor for the enduring strength of the Orientalharem than Nightingale and Martineau's more restrictive theologicalreferences. For those women who aspired to become more than domestic drudges or commodities on the marriage market, travel offered the kind of adventure imaginable to them heretofore only in the Gothic or romantic novels of the day -- encounters with the exotic, with the exciting, the renewing, the inherently self- fulfilling. Women occupying the liminal space of the harem could beguile theWestern male as well as the Oriental. However, the greatest abuses of the haremsetting are said to have occurred in Persia, Morocco, and India. Although Nightingale can admit to glimpsing paradisewhen visiting one of the richest harems in Egypt, she finagles her way intoone of the poorest and most run-down, a harem where their cook Mustafalives (Nightingale 165). Among theOdalisques, these women could be subdivided into the 1) Ikbals or theSultan's favorites; 2) Geuzedés, literally tran-slated as "the eyed ones"or the women who the Sultan had noticed and was considering as auditioningto be his newest sexual partner. In the morning she saw the hospital run by the Sisters of SaintVincent de Paul and Pasha's harem in the afternoon. Kramers. Similarly, theTurkish called their harem space "seraglio" which they borrowed from theItalian for enclosure. If as Leed suggests "the history of travel is the study of a force -mobility" (21), an investigation of Western women's Victorian travels tothe Orient and its harems underscores that cultures in transition clash aseach perceives the other to be stagnant, as not moving with the force ordirection that the other desires. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.Nightingale, Florence. Restricted accessis an impulse for her as normative as our ancestors' fight-or-flightresponse. Their financial status was set for life even if thesultan was to sever his ties with them. . The Allegory of the Female Form.New York: Antheneum, 1985.West, Rebecca. Incontrast, Martineau seems overcome by the concept of men believing that itis their right to house multiple sexual partners under one roof. The Imperial Harem. Yet this very inability to enter into another cultural space variantfrom one's own is at the core of civilization. Since both Nightingale and Martineau aredrawn to think of the harem as a nearly celestial or unreal realm existingbetwixt and between heaven and hell, it seems fair to observe that thesewomen could not confront sexuality or its ordained chambers withoutthinking of them in theological imagery. He refers toBluebeard commenting that he would rather not risk entry into the harem onpain of death. Harems were officially run by the Sultan'smother, the Sultana Validé. Haremquarters were established well in advance of the Islamic precepts set forthin the Koran. He muses that if he were tobe incarnated as the Padishah or Father to this alms-begging crowd, he toowould pass with both an indifference, an inability to solve their problems(348). Yet this was to be contrasted with the principal lady sittingnearby, an incongruity, dressed in a shambles sitting on a mud floor withno furniture for her lounging. She canadmit to the splendor of the first well-established wealthy harem, yet sheseems intent on visiting one which is run-down so that her lowest opinionof the system can be verified. As suggested by its high level of appeal to the Western eye,repeatedly drawn in fantastic detail by such foreign nineteenth centuryartists as Jean-Auguste Ingres, John Frederick Lewis, Jean-Jules-AntoineLecomte de Nouy, Frederick Goodall, Alphonse-Etienne Dinet, Conrad Kiesel,Jean-Léon Gérome, Eugène Delacroix, John Singer Sargent, Jean-JosephBenjamin-Constant, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and at the start of the twentiethcentury Henri Matisse (Croutier 16-197), the harem offered artists thechance to chip away at the sometimes stultifying veneer of western poses ofrespectability. The Mind of the Traveler. New York: E.P. A Journey through theNile, 1849-185 . Symbols operate by allowing the viewer to grasp what is lessfamiliar or ineffable. Gender and the Makingof Modern Egypt. The Memoirs of an EgyptianFeminist (1879-1924). New York: Oxford UP, 1993.Rowbotham, Sheila. Dutton & Co., 1965.Morris, Mary, ed. William Makepeace Thackeray travels to Constantinople with acontrasting sense of amazed appreciation for what he terms the space of"the great fairy scene" (337) and a view worthy of Drury Lane's theatricalmanufacturing, one of a "Stanfield diorama" (338) with all its illusionarypageantry outdistanced by Orientalism's flair. Seclusion of women in thehousehold was fundamental to the Oriental conception of sex. Myrna Godzich and WladGodzich. you are forced into direct experience. Since the Arabian Nightsfocus on but one stratum of society, they offer to the non-wary reader ahighly slanted view of the Islamic world. Saadami cleverlyreminds her readers that the Victorian mind too desired to be veiled. In "Constantinople" Thackeray makes clear that his gift is to losehimself in imaginative space. Works CitedAlloula, Malek. When Westernersvisited the Far East, their eye was often tricked and failed to see thislavish panorama set before them without colonialist prejudice. On her last day in Egypt, Nightingale visited two vastly differentscenes. If women disobeyed the rules of the harem,they were subject to corporeal punishment by the eunuchs who guarded them.Curiously, labor between the eunuchs was raci-ally divided. In the East there was noparallel outcry against women as chattel. He much prefers fantasy to reality.Stumbling about the gardens of the Sultan's palace and edging closer to theharem's inner sanctums, he admits that he is grateful for the pleasure ofimagining what lies inside rather than actually seeing it. Whereas respectablecitizens of the British Empire would conventionally feel obliged to censorthe sensual pleasures revealed in the harem and feel almost overwhelmed bythe sheer mass of flesh displayed at the "hamams", the luxurious Arabicbaths (Croutier 48). C.S.V. As will be observed, they all too oftenslipped into a theological convention in order to tame these secularassaults to their culturally imprinted and excessively restricted sense ofdecency. Sometimes it is thedeluded who best understands the underpinnings of illusion. Scholars studying this text, theonly non-nursing piece penned by Nightingale, observe that Nightingaleempathized with the nun and projected on to her own almost unbearable senseof isolation and alienation (Nightingale 19). As a nurse, Nightingale's assessment of the hospitalscene as the true hell seems more realistic, compelling and revealing. In The Hidden Eve: Women in the Arab World Nawal El Saadami assertsthat the power of the harem essentially revolved around familial tiesrather than sex itself (Saadami 125). Women in Islam. Indianconquerors were renown for plundering and carting off women for their ownzantans. New York: Viking Press, 1982.Zuhur, Sherifa. The allure of theOdalisque could readily be slotted into the celebrated tradition of thenude, an artistic convention centuries old. Martineau seems overwhelmed by what she has seen. A "daira" or monetary allowance, a suite of apartments, and aretinue of servants appropriate to her new rank. In contrast to written observations of the Orient, thesepainters were far less inhibited in their presentations. Desperate for an emotional outlet, she often found it, late in life, through travel. Yet these womentravellers seem to have been seeking escape rather than a strongchallenging to their well-rooted belief systems. Significantly oriental culture has no counterpart to the prophets ofancient Israel who raged against polygamy. Saadami is particularly disturbed by the popularizedWestern misreadings of one of the Orient's most enduring set of tales, AlfLasila wa Laila translated as One Thousand and One Nights or, more simply,Arabian Nights. She exclaims that the Sultana'sdress was the most beautiful item she had ever viewed, an exquisite Brusasilk. Eunuchs stand before a "faded curtain"(1 1), the chief lady sits on cushions on the floor "ill and miserablelooking" (1 2) and overseeing one of the harem's invalids is a "sensiblelooking old lady who had lost an eye" (1 3). A study ofthe harem transfixed by both the masculine and feminine gaze of thenineteenth century observer is necessarily filtered through an almostequally patterned culture of restraint, that of the Victorian era. The Harem During the 19th Century British Empire Scrutiny of nineteenth century harem life in the East and travellers'responses to what they observed there provides an instructive pair ofcontrasts. The depravity and idleness of these settings hasbeen largely misrepresented. Harems had previously beenestablished on non-Mohammadian cultures in West Africa. Freudianthought would observe that these Western painters of the harem seemed tocreate with their id while many of the scribbling observers remainedcentered in the restrictive space of their superego. Ihave set my first footfall in the East, and oh! Their writings reveal their own inability to drop their habits ofcustom and be stripped bare by what they see. New York: The Feminist Press, 1987.Thackeray, William Makepeace. Fantastic, Grotesque and Mysterious. Civilizations survive in movements very similar tothose of threatened organisms. The concept in India traces itself back to the Persian"andarum" identified as the inner quarters of a house. it is the two worlds that I saw on that one morning"(Nightingale 122). What seems to have transpired, slowly emerging within the nineteenthcentury itself was that the reality of passage replaced that of ritual,fulfilling its prior cultural function (Leed 2-5). Islamist Gender Ideology inContemporary Egypt. Letters from Egypt. Women were admired for and activelysought to cultivate "fitna" or feminine seductiveness (Saadami 135). There is no mystery about why this should be so. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972.Walther, Wieebke. Travel actually surfaces as one of the mostcommon metaphors to explicate transformation or transitions of all sorts(Leed 3). Trans. Historically, the firstregions to work toward reform and eventual abolishment of harems were theYoung Turkish Party, the Persian Babists, and the Egyptian upper classes(Gibb 123). Life in the eastern harems was elaborately organized to providea constant or stabilizing oasis in the midst of the ongoing chaos whichoften reigned outside its walls (Walther 1 ). Can it really be so startling that within a culture asrepeatedly assaulted as the ancient Islamic world was that women werestationed within highly guarded chambers and asked to dwell inside thelord's house? Most of the women amidst itspages lie as if forever supine rotting in the luxury of their chambers.The mother of Aladdin is one of the few female characters who is not royaland must realistically labor for her living. Anthologists beginning their own field of study inthe nineteenth century theorized that prior to the modern era cultures wereintegrally based on ritual and strongly dependent upon rites of initiation. Trans. Coinciden-tally, Van Gennep uses an architectural motifto frame his thoughts: A society is similar to a house divided into rooms and corridors. The term harem officially can be applied to alloriental households where polygamy was allowed. Victorians felt considerable uneasewhen presented with the matriarchal remnants of the harem most readilyobservable in the woman's delight in her sexual prowess. London: John Murray, 1871.Leed, Eric J. The contrast between their newly acquired freedom and the perceivedsense of the harem as a place of imprisonment must have been, at the least,mightily disconcerting. The more the society resembles ours in its form of civilization, the thinner are its internal partitions and the wider and more open are its doors of communication. . Feminists, Islam and Nation. Victorians Abroad. Writing home to herfamily, Nightingale seemed to lament "If heaven and hell exist on thisearth . Sober Truth. . So she feels compelled to continue, eventuallyasserting that to live in a harem would be to live in hell: "I declarethat if we are to look for a hell upon earth, it is where polygamy exists:and that as polygamy runs riot in Egypt, Egypt is the lowest depth of thishell" (Martineau 26 ). Sex and Power in History. Stokes Co., 1934.de Riencourt, Amaury. . . What is veiled and not fully visible allows him to imaginethe ideal more fully: "the pleasure of beholding it being heightened as itwere by the notion of the invisible danger sitting next door, with upliftedscimitar ready to fall on you-- present though not seen" (Thackeray 361).Filtered through his subconscious Thackeray seems to be observing thatthese women are already sexually well attended, at service to the Sultanand served themselves by an ever-ready "uplifted scimitar." With hismasculine gaze, he feels included within the space of the harem rather thanimprisoned or overly restricted as Nightingale and Martineau themselvesfelt after actually these type of quarters. New York: Atheneum, 1981.Hamalian, Leo. Nightingale is a detailed observer of the beautyand decay entwined in the same viewing. Trying to understand the seemingly Jungian impulse buried inthe Islamic psyche's need to sequester its women and domestic life is anaddressing of women's primal relationship to sexuality and theestablishment of intimate patterns of bonding. Desiring to reveal that which is hiddenbeneath the veil united rather than divided eastern occupants of the haremwith their equally curious Western observers. in all times, inall places it is a source of reference, a ground for symbols" (Leed 4).When Victorian women travelers stumbled across the harem's threshold, theywere unwittingly entering into a realm which was as fantastic and surrealto them as it was to their masculine counterparts. This insight underscores that harems wereestablished as a political means of maintaining the status quo. TheWestern response to the harem, especially by that of British imperialsubjects, is poetically rendered through the Mohammadian custom of veiling. This extreme highlighting of difference helps toexplain the high moral tone which the Victorian diarists sometimes adopt asif their own personal freedom, sense of dignity and the nineteenthcentury's high standards of purity have been violated. In the West images of the harem have often been exaggerated andspuriously represented. In Rites of Passage Van Gennep highlights how the rites ofterritorial passage reveal how the society itself is structured. Writers and traveljournalists of the nineteenth century were much less likely to yield tothis sense of painterly abandonment. The harem, whether scandalizing the West or fortifying thepolitical status quo of Islamic power, surfaces as an intricately patterneddream-state, simultaneously partaking of worldly pleasures even as itsfantastical bliss would transcend all that is earthly. Victorian Lady Travellers. Reviewing the origins of the harem within Arabic culture itselfallows greater flexibility in responding to the myths, stereotypes andlegends which it created. . She begins her observations with thistelling disclaimer that "this subject is as little agreeable as any I canhave to treat" (Hamalian 99). Almost equally drawn in and repelled by this foreign style of living,Victorian authors and diary-keepers alike struggle with this odd renderingof the oriental tension displayed by women of the harem, stasis in themidst of flux, eroticism as foreplay for progeny, continuity foregroundedby diversity. The formalityof ceremony and ritual safeguards against the erosion accompanying rulestoo easily pushed aside. Philadelphia: Leaand Blanchard, 1848.Middleton, Dorothy. Continuing, she observes that "outside are thewilderness, or the neighboring unfriendly cities, or the raiding deserts;inside the intimacy where strangers or dissenters are watched with fear oranger" (Leed 3).Stark's observation suggests that civilization has for centuries needed thereassurance of confined quarters, has felt compelled to build walls forprotection, and to barricade what one prizes most behind securely watchedwalls. Maiden Voyages. The Khatun was assisted by Kalfas who inturn gave orders to "alaiks" or pupil-slaves. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1981.Lane, Edward Williams. Writings of Women Travellers. Women in the Arab World. Harems were elaborate in their organization. Trans. Pairing the contrasts evoked by observation of the harem by Westernwomen travelers in the nineteenth century is that reoccurring tensionconceived as stability opposed to corruption, tradition eyed by convention,stasis challenged by passage. Salt. Commentary in the Koran merely regulated what was alreadyuniversally practiced by Oriental custom. For both Nightingale andMartineau as Western Victorian observers the harem was to be regarded as anunworldly realm, a place of passage which was inextricably tied to aculture which neither could or desired to fully grasp. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.Shaaeawi, Huda. Theseskills were learned in case there was a need for harem women to serve admin-istratively as secretaries. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1993.Badran, Margot. Albany: SUNY Press, 1992.----------------------- 1 Ladies On the Loose. Passage between confined quarters ascharacter-ized by the harem will necessarily unsettle women newly freedfrom such restrictive measures in their own lives. It seems fitting thatThackeray insists that this return to a scene of his former boyish wonder"caused a thrill of pleasure and awakened an innocent fullness of sensualenjoyment that is only given to boys" (Thackeray 338). In Ladies on the Loose:Women Travellers of the 18th and 19th Centuries Leo Hamalian conjecturesthat for women of that era: Travel seems to have been the individual gesture of the housebound, male-dominated, very proper lady. Princeton: Princton UP, 1995.Barton, Margaret and Osbert Sitwell. The Irish Sketch Book and Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo. Yet her response is nearly singularlynegative. Her high status could only be detected byslave who hovered nearby to try to answer to her needs (Nightingale 167). Above all, travel promised a segment of life, a span of time, over which a woman had maximum control (Hamalian xi).Most important in Hamalian's scholarly observations is the insight thatthese Victorian women in experiencing one of their own most intensiveperiods of personal liberty would have easily been subject to extremedismay upon encountering the heavily restricted lives of odalisques in theharem. Yet it was proper for citizens ofthe British Empire to mouth their restraint as they announced that theirtrue interest in such women could only be half-hearted. From Gilgamesh to Global Tourism. The twentieth century travel writer andadventurer Freyda Stark while visiting Nejaf, Iraq could afford to be lessjudgmental and more poetically reflective in her journalist commentary.Sipping coffee in the midst of a "stone-flagged square" before a mosqueshoved into the space by the surrounding "pressing houses", she realizesthat for several thousand years of history a sense of security has beenderived from "the close-packed enclosure of small cities crammed withinwalls" (Leed 3). Margot Badran. Horace Walpole'scelebrated 1789 letter to Mary Berry revealed how an eighteenth century mancould be both magnetized and repelled by these portraits of Islam's sultryheroines: "I do not think the Sultaness's narratives very natural or veryprobable, but there is wildness in them that captivates" (Croutier 175). Women were so entirely perceived as property that if theywere murdered or maimed, no one was called to account for this outcome. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. Travel presents itself as acontinual transgression against established boundaries relying upon anearly constant sense of movement (Leed 3). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.