Seraglio

A seraglio, serail, seray or saray (from fa, سرای, sarāy, palace, via Turkish and Italian) is a castle, palace or government building which was considered to have particular administrative importance in various parts of the former Ottoman Empire.

"The Seraglio" may refer specifically to the Topkapı Palace, the residence of the former Ottoman sultans in Istanbul (known as Constantinople in English at the time of Ottoman rule).
The term can also refer to other traditional Turkish palaces (every imperial prince had his own) and other grand houses built around courtyards.

Etymology

The term ''seraglio'', from Italian, has been used in English since 1581.
The Italian Treccani dictionary gives two derivations:
# one via tr, seray or (with the variants ''seraya'' or ''saraya''), which comes from fa, سرای, sarāy, palace or, per derivation, the enclosed court for the wives and concubines of the harem of a house or palace (see );
# the other — in the sense of enclosure — from Late/ la-x-medieval, serraculum, derived from Classical Latin , , which comes from , .

The term may also be spelt ''serail'', via French influence, based on the Italian term.

Harem

Since the Topkapı Palace's harem (commonly known as "The Seraglio harem") grew in prominence and fame, the term saray/serail/seraglio began also being commonly used as a synonym of ''harem'', the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in an Ottoman household.

In Ottoman culture

Besides the Topkapı Palace ("The Seraglio"), the most famous seray is the Grand Serail ( ar, السراي الكبير, Al-Sarāy al-Kabir) in Lebanon, which is the headquarters of the prime minister. It is situated atop a hill in downtown Beirut a few blocks away from the Lebanese Parliament. The hill was the site of an Ottoman army base from the 1840s, which was built up, fortified, and expanded in the 1850s. At first it was known as ''al quishla'', from the Turkish word ''kışla'', meaning barracks.

Other examples include:
* the Grand Serail of Aleppo, in Syria; a French construction inspired to the Ottoman tradition.
* the Red Serail of Tripoli, in Libya. Located in central Tripoli, it also houses a museum.
* the new presidential palace of Turkey, completed in 2014, popularly called '' Ak Saray'' ("White Palace").

In Italy

In modern Italian the word is spelled . It may refer to a wall or structure, either for defence — such as the Serraglio of Villafranca di Verona, a defensive wall built by the Scaligeri — or for containment, for example of caged wild animals. The ghettoes established in many Italian cities following the promulgation by Pope Paul IV in 1555 of the papal bull ''Cum nimis absurdum'' were initially called , .Debenedetti-Stow, Sandra (1992)
"The Etymology of "Ghetto": New Evidence from Rome"
''Jewish History'' 6 (1/2), The Frank Talmage Memorial Volume: 79–85

Seraglio is also the name of the artificial island on which Mantua is located.

In popular culture

In the context of the ''turquerie'' fashion, the seraglio became the subject of works of art, the most famous perhaps being Mozart's Singspiel, ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' (''The Abduction from the Seraglio''). In Montesquieu's ''Persian Letters'', one of the main characters, a Persian from the city of Isfahan, is described as an occupant of a seraglio.

Homophones

''Saraya'' is also used as a military unit title in the Arab world. In this case the Arabic is , a different word from "saraya" () as in a building. The etymology is also different from the building: The etymology of سرية is from Arabic and communicates the idea of a "private group". However the plural is (''saraya''), indistinguishable from the term "saraya" which is a variant (in the singular) of saray (the building).

The normal translation for is ''company'' (military unit), but in the case of the Lebanese Resistance Saraya the term is often arbitrarily translated as ''brigades''.

Another example is the Syrian Defense Saraya.

See also

* Caravanserai, another word involving ''saray'', is an inn or rest stop for caravans
* Sarayburnu (also known as Seraglio Point)
* Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon, now the office of the prime minister of Lebanon
* ''The Abduction from the Seraglio'', opera singspiel by Mozart

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{Cite book
, first = John
, last = Freely
, author-link = John Freely
, title = Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul
, year = 1999

Ottoman culture
Concubines of the Ottoman Empire
Harem

ar:سراي