Harem: The World Behind the Veil

For almost 400 years, until 1909, the Grand Harem in Istanbul's Topkapi Palace was home to as many as 2000 odalisques bought at slave markets for a price lower than the going rate for a good horse. The Turkish author relates the day-to-day experiences of the women who inhabited these chambers: what they ate, wore, the games they played together, the opium-induced reveries in which they passed long hours. Croutier also considers the harem in larger contexts: as the ``unbelievably repressive'' Moslem equivalent of purdah; as ``a unique archetype of the collective unconscious--matriarchy incubating in the cradle of patriarchy.'' But ``harem'' is Turkish for ``forbidden, protected,'' and the Grand Harem guarded its secrets from the world successfully. Partly because Croutier doesn't always evoke harem life well in her own words, we wish for--but don't hear--the voices of the women themselves. Ultimately, the text is a choppy amalgam of history, reminiscence, conjecture and intermittently overblown writing (``The walls seemed to whisper secrets pleading to be heard''). Much more evocative are the 125 photographs and reproductions of art works included here. Author tour. (June)