Deconstructing the Erotic:

Early Modern and Modern Harem Views

             The nineteenth century saw an explosion of European women travelers in the Orient traveling for many reasons.  Before this time, travel for purely religious reasons was the only acceptable motive for women to venture outside traditional feminine spaces.[1]  The female European pilgrims took this conventional idea to experience travel in the Middle East under the guise of spiritual need.  Consequently, these pilgrimages resulted in the public acknowledgment of woman as narrator as travel diaries, journals, and narratives were popularized in the West.

The pilgrimages offered women independence in different areas of their lives.  First, it served as an escape from traditional female societal restrictions as women were able to experience the freedom of movement that men typically had in the public sphere.  Second, it provided a substitute to the private sphere of domesticity which was relegated to women, including the enclosure of religious women in convents.  Lastly, it allowed women to notice and take interest in foreign people and events.  Typically, this curiosity had been suppressed in women due to Christian ideas of female sin.[2]  Thus, these female travelers left their homes with both secular and missionary objectives which were focused either on the social conditions of women and the family or the political and religious situations in the East.  Anthony Trollope described a European woman traveler in his “An Unprotected Female at the Pyramides and Other Stories”:

She considered – or at any rate so expressed herself – that peas could not grow very well without sticks, and could only grow unsupported, but could also make their way about the world without any encumbrance of sticks whatsoever…she had no idea of being prevented from seeing anything she wished to see because she had neither father, nor husband, nor brother available for the purpose of escort.[3]

As women writers became more accepted in the nineteenth century, many women used this opportunity to voice their opinions on the ideologies and institutions of the East as well as the West.

One of these women was Cristina Trivulzio, Princess of Belgiojoso, an Italian-born aristocratic woman, who made her pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1852.  Cristina was afforded the independence of movement through her separation from her husband years earlier as well as through her political battles against the tyranny of the Austrian government in Italy.  Her diary shows her purely social interest as she traveled from Turkey through Syria, Lebanon, and Israel to gain a greater understanding of gender, family, and society in the East, especially focusing on the institution of the harem.  Cristina’s diary shows her adventurous spirit, intellect, and compassion as she studies the East with mostly unbiased eyes.

Although she attempts to view the harems without prejudice, she is clearly affected by the world of nineteenth century European culture.  She, like other women before and after her, is unable to travel to the East and leave her sense of cultural superiority behind.  Women travelers and writers from early modern times to the twentieth century were affected by Western social traditions and brought those ideas to the East.  Clearly, the harem became an institution which women of all times were interested in observing while also giving personal input on the positive and negative interpretations as compared to those in the West with which they were raised.

The Life of the Princess

Cristina’s views of the Orient, specifically the harems, were formed almost primarily by her Western European life and upbringing.  Many influences combined together to affect Cristina’s views of the world.  First, the aristocratic background of her family provided her a valuable education as well as financial viability in the world, although her economic situation would fluctuate due to political oppression in Italy.  Second, the changing political events in Europe and Cristina’s active involvement in politics and publishing facilitated her ability to be a visible woman and writer in society.  Lastly, her unsatisfactory marriage left her free to travel throughout almost her entire life and freed her from a traditional patriarchal relationship.

On June 28, 1808, Cristina Trivulzio was born in Lombardy to parents Jerome and Victoria Trivulzio, a family of Italian aristocracy.  Her family had roots in Lombardy since the twelfth century and her parents had been titled Count and Countess by Napoleon III before her birth.[4]  Her father died in 1812, when Cristina was four years old, and her mother quickly married the Marchese Alessandro Visconti d’Aragona.

In 1815, the Congress of Vienna returned Lombardy to Austrian jurisdiction and absolutist Prince Metternich forbade all technological change in Italy and outlawed all nationalist movements.  Despite this regulation, many secret societies were organized and deployed.  The Federazione was one of the most active in the goal to free Italy from foreign domination and establish an Italian prince as ruler.  Cristina’s stepfather was politically active as a leader of this liberal party in Lombardy.[5]

Cristina grew up with the benefit of an excellent education for a girl of the early nineteenth century that focused on ethics, the arts, politics, Classicism, and Romanticism.  Biographer Henry Remsen Whitehouse states that “her education was entrusted to men conspicuous not only for their learning but for the broadness of their views and political creeds.”[6]  She was afforded the benefits of free-thinking and self-expression through this education which ensured her later interest in politics and revolution.  Her parents seemed to have wished her to become an active participant in the world around her.

When she was fifteen years old, she fell in love with twenty-three year old Prince Emilio Barbiano di Belgiojoso d’Este and was married the next year on September 15, 1824.[7]  However, Emilio was known to live to excess in all areas including women, drinking, and gambling.  It was rumored that he married her for her money to escape gambling debts.[8]  They also had very little in common besides politics, and even that connection was weak as she was much more enthusiastic than he.[9]  They separated three years later.

Throughout her early life she was very active in Italian politics.  She was a member of the Giardiniere[10] whose objective was to force the Austrians out of Italy and unite the country under a democratic King.  To help the cause, she stirred up support in the working class as well as the middle and upper class in Milan, Genoa, Rome, Naples, Leghorn, and Florence.  Consequently, the government began to notice her actions and record her activities.[11]  When she traveled to Switzerland to celebrate the new democratic constitution brought about by the defeat of the government, Prince Metternich ordered her return to Milan.  When she refused and a warrant was issued for her arrest, she fled to France,[12] “the Mecca of the revolutionary exile.”[13]

After her escape, a decree was issued in Milan ordering her to return within three months and surrender to officials or she would be declared civilly dead and her property and sources of income would be sequestered.[14]  With returning to Italy out of the question, she decided to paint fans and portraits for a living as well as contribute political articles to local French newspapers.[15]  During her time in Paris she hosted a popular Paris salon and worked to convert leading Frenchmen to the cause of Italian independence, received and helped fellow exiles, and was elected the President of the Academy of Women in France.  Also at this time, she was reunited very briefly with her husband and gave birth to a daughter, Maria, on December 23, 1838.[16]

When Italian cities under Austrian jurisdiction began to revolt, she decided to get involved.  In 1848, she recruited and commanded a troop of two hundred men to help fight in Milan against Austria and her army was the first to reach the fighting zone.[17]  In 1849 she was asked by the Assembly in Rome to organize and direct the military hospitals.  She accepted and created the first voluntary corps of military nurses in history and twelve hospitals were fully prepared by her in forty-eight hours.[18]

The revolution did not succeed and the Austrian government fined the Italian nobility massive sums of money[19] and began to investigate those who had helped the revolution.[20]  It is at this time Cristina decided to travel to the Orient.  Biographer Whitehouse states, “Exiled alike from home and adopted country, the Princess yearned for complete dissociation from the scenes and interests which during the last twenty years had witnessed and incited unavailing material sacrifice and intellectual effort.”[21]  She felt physically and mentally exhausted and left the West with high hopes for a new life.

Cristina left Rome on August 3, 1849 for the Orient and purchased a large amount of land in Turkey to reside on with her daughter and other refugees.  She lived in Asia Minor for four years during which she traveled to Jerusalem.  In 1853 she decided to make her peace with the Austrians so that her daughter would be financially stable on the family estates later in life.  However, the Austrians would not concede to her negotiations due to the level of revolt with which she had been involved.[22]

She returned to Paris until the Austrian government finally proclaimed a general amnesty for exiled Italians and the restoration of confiscated estates in December 1855.[23]  She moved back to Locate but did not stop her political involvement for a united Italy and continued to contribute money and support to the cause.  At last, on February 18, 1861, Italy was officially unified under a King and in 1870 French troops withdrew from Rome.  On July 5, 1871 at sixty-three years old, Cristina died in Milan due to illness.  She had lived long enough to see her life’s goals realized.  She was buried at Locate and left her villa for the use of the community.  In 1971, Charles Neilson Gattey reported that her villa was currently divided into apartments and occupied by over twenty families,[24] showing Cristina’s continuing dedication to help the working class.

Cristina was no stranger to writing.  During her lifetime she published numerous books and articles about subjects such as the Catholic Church, the history of Lombardy and the House of Savoy, the social condition of women, and the political condition of Italy and France.  She also founded and financed numerous new journals and newspapers.  Her work on her travels in the Orient was initially motivated by monetary needs but fits in well with her social and political interests.

The Historical Environment of the Princess

The nineteenth century was a time of both oppression and emancipation for women of Europe.  Differing circumstances in the lives of Victorian women allowed some women to challenge traditional patriarchal ideas of society and take charge of their own lives while others were under the sole authority of men.  Cristina lived during a time of great change and increasing knowledge.  As mentioned before, because of her separation from her husband and her early education, she was able to be a force and voice in European society despite the oppressive restrictions in Europe.  She made a name for herself in both her birth country of Italy and her adopted home of France and overcame gender restrictions to comment on the situations of women of the world. 

Women were the most numerous oppressed group in nineteenth century France.  The French family was patriarchal and hierarchal with the wife under the authority of the husband in all economical and social areas.  Education for women was minimal and mostly confined to Catholic institutions and divorce was made illegal in 1816 and continued that way until 1884.[25]  There were a handful of women who challenged these cultural ideas in France and pushed feminism and rights for women.  Cristina could be counted in this group and was a woman ahead of her time.  She had been afforded a good education by her family in her youth in Italy and she was separated from her husband and therefore was not under the jurisdiction of a man.  She had more freedom than many other Frenchwomen.

At the same time, Italy was also a country which maintained women’s places in the private sphere.  There were no public careers open for women and women who chose to work in the public were not considered respectable.  Most middle class women’s education was similarly confined to convents where nuns educated the women on only moral and spiritual matters.[26]  Although Milan became the national center for publishing, women were not allowed to participate in that aspect of life.  While Cristina spent most of her youth in Italy, she transcended gender boundaries to rise up above traditional female roles.  Her education was above and beyond spiritual training and she was very active in the printing of her works throughout her life.

In the nineteenth century, the Middle East was penetrated by European commerce and ideas.  Politically and socially, the East in the nineteenth century was a time of conflict between maintaining previously held institutions and adapting to the changes coming in from the West.  Ideas that European institutions, especially the military, were superior to the Ottoman Empire and that external Christian influence was a threat to the state of Islamic society began to take hold in the East at this time.[27]  When Cristina traveled to the Middle East, she was exposed to traditional Islamic institutions as well as Christian ones.  She could see the differences between the two and form her opinions on what she observed.  Because of her Western European and Christian beliefs, as well as her desire as a woman to rise above tradition, she focused on Islamic familial customs and brought her Western morality to an East which was trying to hold onto its own institutions.

The Narrative of the Princess

Although the town of Jerusalem was her ultimate goal, Cristina was not emotionally attached to the Christian Orient because it did not afford her views on Islamic family institutions.  She seems to include Jerusalem as an afterthought, preferring to witness and comment on the social institutions of the East, particularly those involving women and children.  After entering the Christian Orient, she writes that “Sites and monuments were about to divide the curiosity hitherto and almost solely devoted to manners and customs.”[28]  In this way, she seems to discuss Christian institutions as a distraction to her previous interests. 

Far from excited at this prospect, Cristina expresses regret and a lack of emotion.  In Beyrout she experiences her first tinge of numbness when she tries to find the Biblical forests of cedar with no result.  “This kind of surprise threatens every traveler who visits the land of the Bible, possessed with too vivid ideas of it derived from the sacred text.  I considered myself thenceforth as duly advised.”[29]

Her next stop in Nazareth resulted in the same experiences as her eagerness could not compete with the realities of nineteenth century Biblical areas.  She arrived in the city of Nazareth on Tuesday night during Holy Week.

At first I regretted my arrival at night; a few hours later I rejoiced at it, because I thus delayed a peculiarly sad experience – one that I have already alluded to – the impossibility of feeling that emotion on viewing famous localities, which an ideal contemplation of them, and the anticipations excited by them, usually produce in me.  I experienced deceptions of this kind both at Athens and at Rome.[30]

In the morning, she is still hopeful for an emotional connection with the area, but is again disappointed.

I ran to my window, impatient to compare the reality with the conceptions of my dreams…in vain I called to mind the grand old records of the Bible and the Evangelists; there was nothing to excite in me that enthusiastic glow which so many choice spirits have acknowledged in presence of the self-same objects.  Humiliated and discouraged, I left my room…[31]

In Nazareth she visits the Church of the Annunciation and other Biblical sites.  She is very unemotional when describing these sites.  “I will not discuss the authenticity of the monuments of Nazareth; I will simply state of what they consist.”[32]  She is doubtful as to the validity of the sites as well as disgusted with the modern decoration assigned to such spiritual areas.  She comments on the chapel built on the site of the house where Jesus Christ sat with his disciples which had been modernized, whitewashed, and the windows covered with decorated curtains.[33]

At last arriving in Jerusalem on Saturday, the night before Easter, she finally gives over to emotion as she overlooks Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee.

A strange tumult filled my breast; I felt my heart throb and my eyes fill with tears, as if I were restored to a beloved country.  Strange to say, this sense of comfort and deep joyfulness remained with me during the whole of my sojourn in Jerusalem.  This arrival at an unknown city had to me all the charm of a return to a familiar place.[34]

She seems to be surprised at her own emotional reaction.  Having had no attachment to shrines and Biblical sites previously, this feeling is expressed as a welcome addition to her experience.  However, it is easy to question the suddenness of the feeling and how it may have been forced; especially as no other mention of sentiment is made throughout her stay in Jerusalem until the exact moment of her departure.  Through the month of her stay she visits many important Christian sites and areas.  In her tour of Jerusalem, she describes the church of the Holy Sepulcher, the fountain of Siloam, the garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, the gardens of Solomon, the River Jordan, and the Dead Sea.  Throughout all of these references, she is very descriptive and historical, rather than spiritual.  However, upon leaving Jerusalem she comments, “But the hour for departure had struck.  I had been a month at Jerusalem…I left the ancient walls behind me, within which my feelings had been so deeply stirred.”[35]  The only emotional commentary afforded in Jerusalem was attained in the leper’s asylum and hospitals where she was able to interact socially with the people of the area.  She is “deeply affected” by the Jewish lamentation for sin every Friday at noon outside of the temple,[36] and the leper’s asylum had “a horrible effect” on her “mingled with pity and disgust”.[37]

The reason for Cristina’s spiritual detachment is explained in her statement in Jerusalem.  “I was seeking, in the Orient, for something more than sites and monuments.  It is Oriental life…”[38]  Oriental Harems and Scenery shows this interest as it is dominated by descriptions of the everyday lives and actions of the people of the East.  Cristina’s overwhelming commentary of the men, women, and children of the Orient show her interest in the social conditions of the world, similar to her love of the people of Italy.

The Muslim idea of hospitality follows her throughout her journey and she notes that this Muslim institution is the way she is able to view common harems firsthand.  She first comments on the erroneous previous narratives in which other European travelers have described Oriental hospitality as virtuous and generous.  She describes the rules of hospitality in Eastern society which marks the guest, or mouzafir, as sent by God and always welcome within the homes of Muslims.  Cristina, on the other hand, feels that the welcome offered by Muslims is less openhanded and more opportunistic.  “Your host overwhelms you with kindness during your sojourn at his house, but if on your departure you do not award him twenty times the value of all that he has given you…he will pelt you with stones.”[39]  She assures the reader that this description does not apply to all Muslims and then disputes her own portrayal by illustrating the excellent hospitality she received throughout her travels.  In almost every city and town, she is invited into the harems and allowed to live with the women and converse with both the husband and wives.  Because of the importance of hospitality to Islamic society, Cristina was able to observe those familial practices she became occupied with. 

In many of the homes she stayed at in the Orient, she was treated as an honored guest and describes Eastern opinions of travelers and guests.

In an oriental town, a departure as well as an arrival is an affair of considerable importance – it produces a state of excitement throughout the entire community…custom transforms for the moment, every traveler, however insignificant in himself, into a sort of idol, to which too great homage cannot be paid…it is certain that a traveler in the Orient does not feel himself a stranger in a place he visits for the first time, and in which he may have no friends or acquaintances.[40]

Not only in homes was Oriental hospitality assured, but on the road she experienced random acts of generosity.  Cristina was met by native musicians and mountaineers who “had come accordingly to wish us a pleasant journey, and likewise to invite us to partake of their refreshments.”[41]  They fulfilled Oriental rules of hospitality by refusing “all our attempts to induce them to partake of our provision, the obligations of hospitality forbidding it.”[42]  Not only was the traveling group given sustenance, the mountaineers offered protection for the travelers as they rested in the heat.  These early descriptions of Eastern hospitality confirm Cristina’s impressions on the kindness paid to all people regardless of culture.

            After leaving Jerusalem, Cristina suspended her journey to write on her political impressions of the Orient and comment on the place of women in society.  She felt that due to her long journey and detailed observations, she was able to see “the true character of Islamism” and speculate as to its future prosperity.[43]  This is probably also due to her early education in politics.  At this point, she takes all her impressions on her journey and examines the government and religion of the Turkish and Arabic Orient.  Not one-sided, Cristina is able to look at the positives and negatives of the East although she acknowledges her Christian upbringing and the hardship of examining “belief and doctrine both diametrically opposite.”[44]

            First, Cristina discusses the Ottoman Empire as a theocracy ruled by a supreme god and legislated by dogma, rather than reason.  Far from reproaching this idea, she feels a government has merit for ruling this way and writes, “…there is no principle of government, neither that of divine right nor that of universal suffrage, that can compete with the theocratical principle.  What source more direct, and what origin nobler, than revelations, prophecies, and miracles?”[45]  This form of government allows no question or conflict since all regulations come from the supreme ruler.  While seeing the benefits of this mode of government, she also sees the negatives in the monotonous and rigid nature of a government which brooks no progression in the world.  The system remains fixed and resigned to the past as the world around it moves into the future.

            Second, she also sees the Koran in beneficial and harmful ways.  She has read the Koran and feels, with the exception of Christianity, it is the best religious legislation in the world.  “I believe that the legislation of Mahomet is superior to any which prevailed before him, or which still prevails with other Asiatic populations.”[46]  She acknowledges that the doctrines of Islam were made for the express purpose of forming a military society and that the customs accepted in the East, such as polygamy and slavery, were included to aid in this endeavor and make life pleasurable for the men in a military society.  She feels that these foreign Islamic customs which are so misunderstood in Christian society were necessary to a society with extremely different goals.  “His end was not to create a new or a better society, nor even to form a nation, but to create an army…granting them every enjoyment that can be procured within a camp, to promise them eternal happiness in return for unqualified submission.”[47]

            Here is where Cristina includes her social interest in the institution of the family and women in Islamic society.  She understands how the government would see the family as a detriment and distraction to a military society.  To Cristina, Islam compares women to other vices in society such as painting, sculpture, music, poetry, and wealth.  Women were seen as rivals to societal goals as they increased the bond to community entertainments rather than combat.  Thus, women were not included in a future Paradise after death and were not allowed an immortal soul.

Although she writes matter-of-factly, Cristina eventually concludes with the positives of this foreign doctrine.  She sees the ideas of Islamic society as a precursor to growth and morals.  Through the hospitality given to her in her travels, she witnessed the sympathy and gentleness of the Turkish people.  She noticed the lack of quarrels, bad humor, and maltreatment in the homes she visited.  On the contrary, she witnessed modesty, respect, and dignity toward family and guests.  She writes on the Turkish character, “A sentiment of sincere piety, a firm faith, admirable patience, the most affecting resignation in times of trial, a love of the true, the good, and the beautiful, and self-abnegation, such are the principal traits of the Turkish character.”[48]

However, despite her listing of the favorable traits in Islamic society, Cristina ends her discourse on the theocracy of the government by stating the firm necessity for reform and progression.  This reform would resemble Christianity in its entirety.

Let them in the name of the same power and principles which formerly transformed true believers into soldiers, convert them now into men.  Let them cast down and trample under foot the fatal barrier which separates the Orient from civilization, and teach their people to turn their faces in prayer to the Occident.  Let them open the ways of study and action to the people, let them recreate the family by abolishing polygamy; for if one wife constitutes the family, more than one destroys it.  Without pronouncing the name of Christ, let the people, however, be initiated in the civilizing doctrines and the moral standard of Christianity; let them, in declaring themselves the expounders of the Koran, profoundly modify the principles and the commandments recorded on its pages.[49]

Throughout this chapter, Cristina seems to be afraid to judge, to be harsh.  She feels like she would be turning her back on her new friends in the Orient.  She uses every possible argument to be an unbiased historical, political, and philosophic observer until the end.  At the end, her criticism invades her prior arguments and retracts her conceptions.  Her beginning statement that the opposing beliefs of the West and East make it hard to be an impartial observer is shown in this chapter.

Harems and the Princess

The word “harem” is derived from the Arabic “haram” and means “that which is prohibited”.  It applies equally to the part of the house consigned to women and the women themselves.[50]  Before the prophet Mohammed, Arab women lived very free lives and there were no marriage rules in society.  However, the Koran established regulations for behavior within the homes of husbands and wives claiming that women could not be trusted due to their sexual nature and needed to be segregated from men.[51]  Polygamy remained legal in Turkey until 1926.[52]  Women were to be veiled in the presence of all men, not speak in public, and obey their husbands.[53]  Historian Leslie Peirce defines the harem as “a space to which general access is forbidden or controlled and in which the presence of certain individuals or certain modes of behavior are forbidden.”[54]  Despite these restrictions, the harem was popularized and romanticized in Western Europe in the early eighteenth century when Antoine Galland published the Arabian Nights.[55]

The travel ideas of European women in Victorian society were shaped by the definition and separation of the public and private spheres, and the ideas of the masculine and feminine in society.  Coming from these Victorian ideals, many female travel texts were used to critique the idea of domesticity and Western patriarchy.[56]  The Orient served this purpose as it had the duality of desirability and distaste for European audiences.[57]  It is no surprise, then, that many female travel narrators chose the subjects of the harem, polygamy, and female subjugation in the East as their overriding themes.

Because the harems were off-limits to men, these women were allowed entrance to the institutions and the opportunity to express their observations where male writers did not have direct examination.  This led to a feeling of legitimacy and reliability in female narratives since the women had actually been there, in essence, the author’s own experiences were more important than rumor or unfounded information.[58]  Thus, harem literature became very popular as a nineteenth century genre due to the public’s curiosity of an institution kept secret and forbidden.

In the 1850s, there was an upsurge in Britain of publications written by women, many of these focusing on the harem, and by 1871 there was an increase of travel to the Orient.[59]  These women writers seemed to have the objective to describe and change the previously held Western conception of the Eastern woman as an erotic object.  However, these accounts were not without embellishment or bias, they were all contradictory parts of the whole picture.  Each Victorian woman was motivated by her own experiences and concerns which changed according to her own domestic arrangements.

Not until the late 1700s were Christian men or women allowed to visit harems in the East.[60]  Before this period, two specific accounts were given of the harem in Constantinople, one by a man and one by a woman.  The first was by Thomas Dallam who visited Constantinople in 1599 to help set up an organ which Queen Elizabeth had given to the Sultan Mohammad III.  Dallam was allowed to view the harem briefly through a grate in the wall and described the women as pretty and wearing rich clothing.[61]

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s letters from the embassy in Turkey are the first examples by a woman of non-religious writing about the Orient and the harem.[62]  She accompanied her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu in 1717 to Turkey where he was appointed ambassador to the Court of St. James.[63]  From a letter written to her sister Lady Mar from Adrianople on April 1, 1717 she described the beauty and freedom of the women.

It must be owned that every beauty is more common here than with us.  ‘Tis surprising to see a young woman that is not very handsome.  They have naturally the most beautiful complexions in the world and generally large black eyes…Upon the whole, I look upon the Turkish women as the only free people in the empire.[64]

Lady Montagu had the freedom to visit the harems and was extremely interested in the social lives and traditions of the Turkish women.  She romanticized the harem and her experiences there, and it was due to her status as an upper class ambassador’s wife that she was privileged to visit the rich harems of Turkey.  However, it is impossible to tell if her impressions were exaggerated and idealized in her letters to her friends and family or if they were her actual impressions.

In the nineteenth century, women became more interested in the harems of the common people, rather than the royal harems in Constantinople.  Common Muslim households provided different observations than had previously been held about the imperial culture.[65]  To go along with this new interest, the new Victorian ideas of gender and middle class respectability affected female writers’ perceptions of the harems.  Unfortunately, these European ideals so overrode the opinions of the East that the descriptions can teach the reader more about Western cultural ideals than any accuracy of Middle Eastern institutions.[66]  Most of the views of the harems at this time were critical and often derivative of missionary agendas.[67]

According to historian Billie Melman, harem literature was primarily concerned with three things.  First, the traveler was more interested in the customs, behavior, and principles of Muslim women rather than describing a narrative of the journey.  Second, the traveler focused on the separate private female sphere in the harem.  Lastly, the traveler challenged the myth of Oriental women as erotic objects.[68]  Cristina’s harem observations fit these three criteria.  Throughout her account, Cristina focuses on the Oriental women in society and their interactions with men and children.  Rather than describe endless environmental or economic features of the Orient, in all villages and towns she finds the family unit the most important aspect.  Also, while her descriptions of the harem and women dominate the work, they are far from positive; instead she portrays Eastern women in an unflattering light.  As a woman traveler, Cristina’s portrayal of the harem and women fits the typical feminine travel account.  She foreshadows the effect her harem descriptions will have,

I may perhaps destroy some illusions in speaking so disrespectfully of the harem.  We are familiar with descriptions of it in the Arabian Nights, and other oriental tales; we have been told that it is the abode of love and beauty; we have authority for believing that the written descriptions, though exaggerated and embellished, are yet based on reality, and that it is in these mysterious retreats one is to find collected together all the wonders of luxury, art, magnificence and pleasure.  What a mistaken idea![69]

From the beginning, Cristina’s descriptions of the harem paint a picture of an unromantic, impure place.  The first harem she visits is in the town of Tcherkess where the ninety year old town leader has many wives, none over the age of thirty and describes the harem as “somber”, “smoky”, “confused”, and “infected”.  In her conversations with the husband, Cristina discovers that the man could not even stand to live within his own harem walls for any length of time and out of hospitality allowed her to sleep in his own apartments relegating himself to the outside.  “Although it was the middle of January, and the town and the fields were covered with snow, he preferred his chilly fountain, damp pavement, and blasts of cold air, to the warm but impure atmosphere of the harem.”[70]

She notices the lack of air and light within the rooms of the harem contributing to the uncleanliness and unhealthiness of the harem.  Sarcastically she comments on the amount of light in the rooms.

Let it not be understood, however, that it is ever very dark in these windowless apartments.  The houses being but one story high, the stack of the chimney never rising higher than the roof, and being very wide, it frequently happens that by bending forward a little, one can perceive the sky outside above the aperture.[71]

She never states the reasons why she thinks the harem is kept so enclosed, but does notice that the ladies do not complain and have become used to it.  Being a Victorian woman, the furnishings afforded in Europe would be entirely different from other areas of the world and she makes no room to understand different domestic arrangements.  She compares the harem to a convent, being silent and well-guarded.  Although the furnishings of pillows and mattresses give the rooms some warmth, she is struck by the overall ugliness of the harem buildings.  The gloominess of the harem rooms were often closely detailed in women’s writings.  Rather than portray the rich and sumptuous furnishings of the Arabian Nights, the West was to have a vision of the common harem thanks to women travelers de-emphasizing the erotic.

The rooms of the harems are not the only aspects worthy of a critical eye; Cristina views the harem women in similar ways.  Rather than see the beauty that previous travelers had written about, she portrays the women in unpleasant terminology.  She critiques the clothing, make-up, and cleanliness of the women.  She comments on the lack of mirrors or combs in the East and how this contributes to the slovenly and ugly vision.  She describes their faces in her writing,

As to the paint which they apply immoderately, both in variety of color and in quantity, its distribution can only be regulated by mutual consultation, and as all the women living under one roof are so many rivals, they willingly encourage the most grotesque illumination of their respective faces.  They apply vermilion to the lips, red to the cheeks, nose, forehead, and chin, white wherever a vacant spot occurs, and blue around the eyes and under the nose.[72]

Rather than contribute to Western notions of the sexual Orient, women writers like Cristina chose to portray a more realistic view of women, arguing that harem women were not the perceived beauties they had been made out to be.

Cristina uses her travel narrative and observations of the harem as platforms for female liberation.  This idea of female emancipation is subtle and not for religious reasons, but solely for the maintenance of familial and societal morals.  The women are described as replaceable and disposable by the men with whom she holds conversations.  Cristina converses with an attendant who talks about the ease with which a man can “fill the gaps that death has left in his harem.”[73]  In this same conversation, Cristina discovers that women over the age of thirty are not considered young or beautiful any more.  She writes,

When one of his wives loses the freshness of youth, when, by any other cause, she ceases to please him, he abstains from summoning her to him, and soon forgets her existence.  If, at the bazaar, he chances on an attractive female slave, he purchases her, takes her to his house, and proclaims her his favorite.[74]

This leads into a description of the rivalry within the harem by women and children alike.  Cristina feels the system of polygamy in the East creates hostility within the harem as power is maintained by one woman.  This results in a lack of emotion and connection within familial relationships.

The rivalry for power with which the mothers are agitated, is a source of animosity, envy, ill-humor, pride and anger for their children.  ‘My mother is the handsomest!  Mine is the richest!  Mine is the youngest!  Mine was born at Constantinople!’  Such are the boasts which children make, when there arises a desire in their breasts to humiliate those whom they call brothers![75]

She also devotes much time to examining the relationship between children and parents within the harem situation.  She observes the lack of feeling and emotional attachment mothers have for their children and the consequent unconcern the children have for family members.  She discovers that daughters are married or given away after the age of ten, while boys remain with the household until the age of fourteen when they are established in an occupation.  This rotation of children assures the harem of a small family at any given time as well as economic prosperity.  With this enlightenment as to the how children are raised, Cristina becomes passionate in her discussion with a father.

You will part with them when they get to be ten or fourteen years old?  You will not be anxious to know what becomes of them?  You will never see them more?  And if they should return some day to seat themselves again at the family board, you will treat them as strangers, and will witness their departure forever without bestowing on them one of those kisses which you are now so lavish of?  What will be your fate some day, in your deserted home, when children’s voices shall no longer be heard there?[76]

This arrangement of children to parents is very foreign to traditional Victorian ideas of family and motherhood and Cristina cannot control her prejudice.  Many women writers used their observations and experiences to uphold the traditions and institutions of the West.  The bond shared between mothers and children was firmly ingrained in European society as middle and upper class Victorian mothers had responsibility for the upbringing of their children.  This view towards the raising of children in the East continued into the twentieth century.  One French historian studies the suffering which harem children experienced from their parents because of their connection with the harem.  Germaine Tillion writes, “Nowhere exists an insulated misfortune that is solely feminine, nor an abasement that afflicts daughters without miring their fathers, or mothers without marking their sons.”[77]  Thus, the institution of polygamy in the East affects generation after generation ceaselessly.

            Many writers used their descriptions of the harem and the Eastern woman as a model of subjugation as a platform to raise the status of all women of the world.  The harem became, in essence, a symbol of the oppression of the female gender, especially in marriage.[78]  It could show the negatives of a husband’s supreme power over his wife, the fear of adultery, and the sexual oppression of all women.[79]  By unromanticizing the West’s concept of the erotic East, the writers could both portray a more realistic notion of polygamy while also making a case for the necessity of reform.

Similar to Cristina, other nineteenth century female travelers used the harem as displays for their ideas and opinions.  One of the most popular was Grace Ellison who was an unmarried, adventurous traveler at the end of the nineteenth century.  Ellison felt that the Oriental woman was a younger sister needing the help and experience of Western women.[80]  Through her travels, she befriends many harem women and lives within the harems to gain a greater knowledge of their life experiences.  Her harem work takes a purely feminist approach in that she is looking for solutions, rather than only commenting on the tyranny.  She feels that the women need to make up for lost time in order to overcome their oppression, “I have faith in the women of Turkey.  With education – for these women, though of great culture, are not educated – they will acquire the necessary perseverance and exactitude, the lack of which keeps the Turkish woman behind the rest of Europe.”[81]  She later helps two Eastern women to move to Europe and publish their own accounts of the institutions of Turkey.  “The dawn is coming slowly, but it will come if the Turkish woman really wishes it, and works always with that aim before her – the uplifting of her sex.”[82] 

Demetra Vaka was born in Turkey but moved to Europe and America during her adolescence.  At the turn of the century, she returned to Turkey to visit old friends who had been married into harems.  Because of Vaka’s European upbringing, she felt closer to monogamous institutions, although she could understand and relate to the women in polygamous relationships.  Conflicting with Cristina, she comments on the lack of rivalry and jealousy, rather the harmony of the harems.  She allows the harem women their voices and transcribes their opinions on polygamy and motherhood.  She sees beauty in the Eastern women as well as a calm simplicity.

There was so much of the sublime in them, which is lacking in our European civilization…It is true that in Europe and America there are, and have been, women who sacrifice their lives for big causes.  But as a rule it is a cause to which glory is attached…With these Turkish women the sacrifices came in the small things of daily life, things for which they received no thanks, for which their names did not become immortal.[83]

Vaka has many conversations with the harem women regarding the institutions of the East and she seeks to understand their ideas and dreams rather than condemn them.

            Another nineteenth century female writer, Maria Theresa Asmar was a woman who had grown up in Iraq and published her travel diary in which she related her opinions of the harem.  Her account is filled with glowing descriptions of the harem women and the luxury of the apartments, entertainments, and food.  Although Asmar’s account concerns the harems of the rich, she does not attempt to portray them in an unflattering light.  Her account shows her in awe of her surroundings and the women and enjoying herself.

            The end of the Victorian period led to a uniting of Western and Eastern women in the goals of independence.  Organizations were founded to help Oriental women in their fight against tyranny, such as the Society for the Defense of Woman’s Rights.  Spokeswoman Belkis Hanum cited three specific goals as necessary for the path to awakening Eastern women.  First, clothing would be altered to eliminate ornament and other harem features as well the veil.  Second, workshops would be open to women in order to assist women in learning trades and securing employment.  Lastly, “moral, mental, and physical development” would be aided through the founding of newspapers, magazines, and lectures.[84]

In the early twentieth century, the writer, Halide Edib describes her childhood in a polygamous household.  She feels the institution of polygamy is detrimental to the family and produced continuous anxiety in the home.  She tries to be subtle in her critique but the reader feels her negative experiences wholeheartedly.  “The wives never quarreled, and they were always externally polite, but one felt a deep and mutual hatred accumulating in their hearts, to which they gave vent only when each was alone with father.”[85]  This account is rare in that a grown child is reliving her experience in a harem household.  The conclusion that polygamy is harmful validates the nineteenth century European female writer.

Two American mid twentieth century travelers also had opportunities to talk to harem women and witness aspects of the harem first hand.  Elizabeth Fernea and Jane Dolinger were both able to enter harems in the East after the decline of the institution.  Fernea was the wife of a social anthropologist who was doing research for his doctorate which led to them both spending the first two years of their married life in a village of Iraq.  During this time she befriended the women of the local harem of the village official and became popular with the women of that community.  She described the women as real, some more beautiful than others; some more kindly than others.  She describes positive experiences and conversations with the women who are happy with their lives.

Similarly, Dolinger lived in a harem for over a month without the husband’s knowledge as he was out of the country.  In gathering information for her book, she had the opportunity to have many conversations with the women as to their status.  The issue of polygamy was discussed matter-of-factly, neither side understanding the other.  The women could not understand the West’s concept of love and tried to define and explain polygamy for Dolinger.  Raria, the first wife of the harem talks about her understanding of polygamy to Dolinger:

Is it not possible to love four beautiful flowers with all one’s heart?  Who is to say that the fragrant rose is less fragrant than the modest violet, or that the violet is less enchanting than the sweet-smelling lilac, nor still the lilac more regal than the golden daffodil?...Not only can one love four flowers, or four wives equally well, but for that matter, a dozen or a hundred.”[86]

These mid-twentieth century authors show the differences in women’s thinking.  Harems of today can still be eroticized, however the institutions practiced within them are now meant to be understood and described rather than swiftly and outwardly criticized.

            As was shown, throughout the last few centuries, the visions of harems and harem literature in the West has changed considerably.  Before the nineteenth century, literature was scarce, but what the knowledge of the West confirmed a luxurious, beautiful place of rest and entertainment.  The Victorian age brought new ideas of the subjugation of women and the necessity for reform.  Victorian women worked to change conceptions of the harem into an unromantic reality to praise Western cultural notions while also working to modify female oppression.  The twentieth century produced literature which placed importance on understanding Eastern institutions and giving Oriental women a voice in their lives.  Twentieth century female authors connected with the women across cultural boundaries in order to show societal differences to the West and the futility of reform.

            Cristina was one of the early female authors of the nineteenth century who saw the need to record her observations of harem life.  However she, like others, could not control her own Western biases.  She commented on the immorality of the familial institutions as well as the general ugliness of the women.  Although the other parts of her journal are dominated by observations without opinion, the social lives of the people of the Orient dominate her passion.  She fits in with other women writers of the nineteenth century.

The Conclusion of the Princess

            Cristina Trivulzio, Princess of Belgiojoso is an interesting woman who was active throughout her life in Europe and the Middle East.  Although two English biographies have been written about her, much is still to be discovered.  She was an enlightened, learned Victorian woman who voiced her opinions on a variety of subjects.  Like other women before and after her, she was occupied with social issues in the East and was influenced by European culture and values during the time of her life.  Women travelers and writers before, during, and after the nineteenth century were obsessed with comparing distant traditions and learning about foreign life.  As the centuries wore on, the urge to help change foreign social institutions and women’s lives increased until, in the mid-twentieth century, after many of the struggles for women’s rights were over, women were finally able to overcome prejudice and seek to understand the conditions of life for women of other cultures.

Cristina’s journey to Jerusalem was not undertaken as a religious quest, but as a learning experience of a culture foreign to her life.  Her compassion to women led to her focus on the harems of the East as well as family institutions, but bias oftentimes interfered in her descriptions.  Her journey was undertaken as a single woman and mother but she was able to command respect in the East and garner excellent hospitality by the men in all towns and villages.  As a woman writer in the nineteenth century, Cristina deserves a place among the best.