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What Life Was Like As A Member Of The Sultan s Harem In The Ottoman Empire By Sarah Crocker/Feb. 19, 2021 1:30 pm EDT For much of history, the harem of the Ottoman Empire was purposefully mysterious. Sequestered in the Ottoman sultan s palace, the harem was a place that was physically set apart from not just the rest of the court but from the entirety of public life. The women inside were connected to the sultan, typically either by blood or by intimate relationship, and were expected to spend the vast majority of their lives apart from the world. Because of this withdrawal, there was a dearth of information about what it was really like to live in the harem. Western observers, many of whom began reporting back about the harem and other aspects of Ottoman life in the 19th century, weren t especially careful or sensitive. Their accounts, influenced by their own assumptions and misconceptions, produced an inaccurate and sensationalist picture of the harem, as the journ ....