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six Panoptic Bodies

BLACK EUNUCHS AS GUARDIANS OF THE TOPKAPI HAREM
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Harem Histories
This chapter is in the book Harem Histories
86 •panoptICBodIesBlack eunuchs as guardians of the topkapı haremJateen LadThe conviction that the closely guarded thresh-old of the harem is synonymous with the space and body of the black eunuch finds perhaps its most candid expression in Jean-Léon Gérôme’s painting Le Garde du Serail (1859) (fig. 1). In an act of direct confron-tation, the eunuch stares back at the viewer, his luminous golden robes further drawing our gaze to him and away from that which he guards. The loose folds of his sleeve and a red sash purposefully reveal a cluster of weapons ready to dispense a severe punishment to any potential transgressor. The eunuch’s faint shadow is cast onto a stout wooden gate crowned by a simple muqarnas arch and geometric relief. The sparse yet graceful lines decorating the surface of the door contrast with its only other detail—a bulky wooden lock which only the eunuch is entrusted to open or close.1Gérôme’s representation of the black eunuch is symp-tomatic of the tainted lens through which European art-ists and writers historically imagined and represented the Oriental harem. The anonymous figure of the black eu-nuch came to stand as a dark reminder of the eroticism and despotism inflaming the fictitious seraglio;2 his body pur-
© 2020 Duke University Press, Durham, USA

86 •panoptICBodIesBlack eunuchs as guardians of the topkapı haremJateen LadThe conviction that the closely guarded thresh-old of the harem is synonymous with the space and body of the black eunuch finds perhaps its most candid expression in Jean-Léon Gérôme’s painting Le Garde du Serail (1859) (fig. 1). In an act of direct confron-tation, the eunuch stares back at the viewer, his luminous golden robes further drawing our gaze to him and away from that which he guards. The loose folds of his sleeve and a red sash purposefully reveal a cluster of weapons ready to dispense a severe punishment to any potential transgressor. The eunuch’s faint shadow is cast onto a stout wooden gate crowned by a simple muqarnas arch and geometric relief. The sparse yet graceful lines decorating the surface of the door contrast with its only other detail—a bulky wooden lock which only the eunuch is entrusted to open or close.1Gérôme’s representation of the black eunuch is symp-tomatic of the tainted lens through which European art-ists and writers historically imagined and represented the Oriental harem. The anonymous figure of the black eu-nuch came to stand as a dark reminder of the eroticism and despotism inflaming the fictitious seraglio;2 his body pur-
© 2020 Duke University Press, Durham, USA

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. I NORMATIVE IMAGES AND SHIFTING SPACES
  5. one Early Women Exemplars and the Construction of Gendered Space 21
  6. two Normative Notions of Public and Private in Early Islamic Culture 49
  7. three The Harem as Gendered Space and the Spatial Reproduction of Gender 69
  8. II ROOMS AND THRESHOLDS
  9. four Caliphal Harems, Household Harems 85
  10. five Domesticating Sexuality HAREM CULTURE IN OTTOMAN IMPERIAL LAW 104
  11. six Panoptic Bodies 136
  12. seven Where Elites Meet 177
  13. eight The Harem as Biography 211
  14. III HAREMS ENVISIONED
  15. nine Harem/House/Set 237
  16. ten Dress and Undress 261
  17. eleven Harems, Women, and Political Tyranny in the Works of Jurji Zaydan 290
  18. twelve The Harem as the Seat of Middle-class Industry and Morality 319
  19. thirteen Between Harem and Houseboat 342
  20. Bibliography 375
  21. Contributors 401
  22. Index 405
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822393467-007

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. I NORMATIVE IMAGES AND SHIFTING SPACES
  5. one Early Women Exemplars and the Construction of Gendered Space 21
  6. two Normative Notions of Public and Private in Early Islamic Culture 49
  7. three The Harem as Gendered Space and the Spatial Reproduction of Gender 69
  8. II ROOMS AND THRESHOLDS
  9. four Caliphal Harems, Household Harems 85
  10. five Domesticating Sexuality HAREM CULTURE IN OTTOMAN IMPERIAL LAW 104
  11. six Panoptic Bodies 136
  12. seven Where Elites Meet 177
  13. eight The Harem as Biography 211
  14. III HAREMS ENVISIONED
  15. nine Harem/House/Set 237
  16. ten Dress and Undress 261
  17. eleven Harems, Women, and Political Tyranny in the Works of Jurji Zaydan 290
  18. twelve The Harem as the Seat of Middle-class Industry and Morality 319
  19. thirteen Between Harem and Houseboat 342
  20. Bibliography 375
  21. Contributors 401
  22. Index 405
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