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River Falls Journal
River Falls, Saint Croix County, Pierce County, Wisconsin
What is this article about?
Report on Ottoman Sultan's harem practices: Girls aged 7-10 are trained in schools for music and French. Unattractive or unintelligent ones are sold to nobility or, at 25, married to court officials. Sources include Circassians, Persians, Afghans; gypsies steal children for Turkish markets. Hungarian government inquired into thefts years ago, reducing but not stopping the trade.
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How Girls Who Do Not Please His Majesty
Are Disposed Of.
To train girls for harems their education
is begun at a very early age, children
from seven to ten years being usually
chosen for the purpose. The girls
are then sent to a regular harem school,
where they are educated and taught
various accomplishments.
Those intended for the Sultan's harem
are taught music and French. If, however,
as they grow older, they are found
to be stupid or wanting in good looks,
they are sold as slaves to the lower
nobility. Girls from Persia and Af-
ghanistan are in great demand, particularly
from the latter country.
Circassians generally supply the
Turkish slave market, not only with
their own children, but with girls who
have been stolen in their infancy from
Russia and the Roumanian provinces
of Hungary. The gypsies, it is stated,
up to the present time, entice young
children away from their homes and
travel with them to the market of Constantinople,
where there is a constant de-
mand for good-looking girls.
Some few years ago these thefts be-
came so common that the Hungarian
Government instituted an inquiry into
the subject, and since then the trade
has decreased, but it is still carried on
secretly to a certain extent.
One of the rules of the Sultan's
harem is that when a slave has reached
the age of twenty-five and does not
meet with the approval of the Sultan
she is immediately removed and mar-
ried to one of the court officials, whose
taste is not consulted, but who ac-
quiesces in the inevitable with truly
Oriental indifference.-Cor. Baltimore
News.
What sub-type of article is it?
What keywords are associated?
What entities or persons were involved?
Where did it happen?
Foreign News Details
Primary Location
Ottoman Empire
Key Persons
Outcome
unsuited girls sold as slaves to lower nobility or, at age 25, married to court officials without choice; trade in stolen children decreased after hungarian inquiry but continues secretly.
Event Details
Girls aged 7-10 are selected and educated in harem schools, learning music and French for the Sultan's harem. Those deemed stupid or unattractive are sold to lower nobility. Persian and Afghan girls are highly demanded. Circassians supply the Turkish slave market with their children and stolen girls from Russia and Romanian provinces of Hungary. Gypsies entice young children to Constantinople's market. Hungarian government investigated thefts a few years ago, reducing the trade. Harem rule: At 25, unapproved slaves are married to court officials.