Beshir Agha: Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Imperial HaremThis book explores the life of el-Hajj Beshir Agha (ca. 1657-1746), the most powerful Chief Harem Eunuch in the history of the Ottoman Empire. In this capacity, he helped to shape and propagate the official Ottoman brand of Sunni Islam. El-Hajj Beshir was one of hundreds of East African eunuchs who served as guards and interlocutors for the imperial mothers, sisters, wives, and concubines who inhabited Topkapy Palace's enormous harem. Enslaved in his native Ethiopia as a boy, then castrated in Egypt, Beshir may initially have been purchased by one of Egypt's grandees before being introduced into the palace. Once installed in the palace, he quickly rose through the ranks of harem eunuchs to become harem treasurer by 1707. Following a brief period of exile in 1713-1714, he served as chief of the eunuchs who guarded the Prophet Muhammad's tomb in Medina--a peculiar institution inaugurated in the twelfth century and abolished only in the twentieth. Recalled to Topkapy Palace in 1717, el-Hajj Beshir spent the next thirty years overseeing the educations of crown princes and harem women while choosing and deposing a long series of grand viziers; in the process, he survived a major rebellion that resulted in the execution of a grand vizier and the deposition of a sultan. In his capacity as superintendent of the imperial pious foundations for the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, he amassed an empire-wide network of clients. Meanwhile, the mosques, theological schools, sufi lodges, and libraries that he founded throughout the empire helped to shape the religious and intellectual profile of the Ottoman state. |
Contents
EUNUCHS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE | 7 |
BESHIR AGHAS ORIGINS | 17 |
4 | 29 |
Copyright | |
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Abbasid Abyssinian African eunuchs Ahmed III Ahmed III's Anatolia Arabic Beshir Agha Book of Festivals Byzantine Cairo caliph castrated Caucasus chief eunuch chief harem eunuch chief tomb eunuch chronicle Damascus devshirme early Edirne Egyptian eighteenth century el-Hajj Beshir elite slaves empire's eunuch guard eunuchs who guarded European exiled to Cairo Eyüp Faqari faction fountain governor of Egypt grand vizier Gülnush Emetullah Habsburg Hanafi Hanafi legal rite harem treasurer Hekimoğlu Imam imperial harem imperial palace influence Ismail Bey Istanbul Jalfi legal rite Mahmud Mamluk sultanate Mecca and Medina Medina Mehmed Moralı Beshir Muslim Mustafa Mustafa II Nevshehirli Ibrahim Pasha noted in chapter Ottoman court Ottoman Empire palace eunuchs pilgrimage caravan pious endowments pious foundations Prophet Muhammad Prophet's tomb Qasimi Qazdağlı household Qur'an regimental religious sabil-kuttab Shafi'i Shi'ite sixteenth century successor sufi Süleyman Sunni Islam theological college tomb in Medina Topkapi Palace Tulip Era Turkish Umayyad wakil Yemen Zaydi