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The term “odalisque” refers to female slaves who served in large households in Turkey until the 19th century. They served the wives and children of the household and rarely interacted with men. Odalisques were not concubines, but some became concubines in the Grand Harem. Westerners found the harem fascinating, resulting in myths and legends. The odalisques depicted in Orientalist paintings were often young and beautiful, but their life of leisure was unknown to most actual odalisques.
The term “odalisque” refers to female slaves who served in large families in the region of the Muslim world now known as Turkey until the 19th century. Most famously, the odalisques served in the menagerie of the Ottoman sultans. Many people have misconceptions about odalisques, thanks in large part to the Western school of painting known as Orientalism, in which odalisques and other female slaves were often subjects of pictorial interest.
This word is French and is taken from the Turkish odalik, which simply means “maid”. As a general rule, odalisques were found only in large households which required a large support staff and served the wives and children of the household in a variety of ways. Odalisques could entertain, clean and perform a variety of tasks around the harem, the area of a house set aside specifically for the use of women, and indeed they rarely interacted with the men of the household.
In rare cases, odalisques became concubines. Some people mistakenly believe that “odalisque” can be used interchangeably with words like “concubine” and “lover”, but in reality this is not the case. Most of the odalisques who served as concubines were in the Grand Harem of the Turkish sultan, and they had to work hard to gain concubine status. In the more general Muslim community, odalisques were simply hard-working servants owned by powerful and wealthy families.
Although Muslims were permitted to own slaves, they were encouraged by religious authorities to manhandle their slaves. All children born to slaves were generally considered free, with the slaves themselves attaining freedom upon the death of their masters, if they had not been manumitted beforehand. For some families, sending a daughter to serve as an odalisque in the Grand Harem was considered a wise decision, because she would be guaranteed room and board and, should she become a concubine, she could benefit from a variety of gifts and privileges.
As Westerners began interacting with the Islamic world, they found the world of the harem particularly fascinating, probably because they were usually not allowed in. As a result, all sorts of myths and legends arose around the harem and the people who lived there, and many of these legends have found their way into fictionalized accounts of harem life and paintings. The odalisques depicted in Orientalist paintings are typically quite young and beautiful, and were often painted in languid postures, wearing minimal clothing. However, the life of leisure enjoyed by the odalisques in these paintings would have been unknown to most actual odalisques.
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