Inside The Seraglio [Mass Market Paperback]

John Freely writes in a clear and concise manner that makes what could be complex material simpler to read. And the characters, from the royal courtiers to the concubines to the sultans themselves are all portrayed with fascinating insight. The text is illustrated throughout by some beautiful prints and sketches as well.

This is a great book about the inner workings of the court life of the Ottoman dynasty, and will likely whet the reader's appetite to do delve more deeply into the subject.

"The end of the Crimean War was celebrated at a banquet in Dolmabahçe Sarayi on 13 July, 1856, an occasion that also marked the dedication of the new palace."

Private means private, although there isn't much sex in the book. But it does dispel a few European myths about the Sultan's love life--for instance, the myth that he tossed a handkerchief to the woman with whom he wished to spend the night. Only Sultan Ibrahim the Mad (1640-8) seems to have lived down to our expectations. According to Demetrius Cantemir (his biographer):

"'As Murad [Mad Murad, the previous sultan] was wholly addicted to wine, so was Ibrahim to lust...He cover'd the walls of his chamber with looking glass, that his love-battles might seem to be acted in several places at once...he put whole sable skins under him, in a notion that his lust would be inflam'd, if his love-toil were render'd more difficult by the glowing of his knees...'"

Mostly, the author writes about the politics of the seraglio: the power of the Sultan's mother, the 'valide sultan'; the imprisonment and frequent murder of his brothers; the hierarchy of concubines, wives, favorites, and eunuchs. It's quite a fascinating and beautiful, self-absorbed world, although I wouldn't have wanted to have been one of the Sultan's brothers. It's no wonder three Sultans in a row went mad while they were imprisoned by the previous ruler (before Mad Murad came Sultan Mustafa, whose "mental condition had not been generally known he became sultan, but then it became obvious to all who came into contact with him that he was insane and incapable of ruling on his own..."

Many of the Osmanli Sultans were deposed and reincarcerated by their relatives, and the rumor about their concubines ending up in a sack in the Bosphorus seems to be verified by the author.

All in all during Osmanli rule, it was a bad time to be a Sultan's brother, or a deposed Sultan's concubine.

If you'd like to read about the public lives of the sultans, try "The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire," by Alan Palmer. Another fascinating book about the Seraglio of Topkapi Palace in Instanbul is, "Harem: The World Behind the Veil," by Alev Lytle Croutier, whose grandmother actually lived in one.