An Englishwoman in a Turkish harem

It is a landscape of unending and beautiful sadness which surrounds the Konak where I am now living. In my home away yonder I had imagined that where the sun shines there must b...

But to return to the burden of letter-writing. Another Turkish friend, a lady who has stayed in England, considers one of the most disagreeable features of our civilization is o...

The Turkish home in which I am staying at present has little in common with the harem described by most Western writers, and no doubt those readers accustomed to the _usual_ not...

It has been the privilege of many foreigners visiting Constantinople to witness the ceremony of _baise-main_, which takes place at the Dolma Bagtché Palace, but it does not fall...

The Baïram festivities have ended sorrowfully for us. This house, which a few days ago echoed with mirth and laughter, is now silent--as silent as a grave. The whole Konak is as...

I have been to one of the Turkish feminist meetings, which take place every Friday afternoon upon which it is possible to find speakers. This society is not organized according...

This is the anniversary of the foundation of the Ottoman Empire--a red-letter day for Turkish feminists. To-day for the first time the various women’s societies have held a mass...

I have been this afternoon with Fâtima buying “birth” presents. In a Moslem house it is difficult to find a more appropriate name for these presents, which correspond to our chr...

There are not many, it is true, but there are Turkish writers and Turkish women writers. For so long, however, it has been the habit to condemn wholesale everything Turkish that...

No book on Turkey would be complete without a chapter on polygamy--in justice to the Turk such a chapter is necessary. It is the chapter to which every reader will turn first of...

I had given up hope of seeing a Turkish house where there was more than one wife. I was sorry, and Fâtima was sorry that she was unable to satisfy my curiosity. The opportunity...

Alas! I have stayed too long in the charming society of Fâtima. In my quiet Eastern existence I have not noticed the flight of time. I came for a week, and I have stayed over tw...

A European official, who has lived here all his life (and he is an old man now), is astonished at my recklessness in trusting myself as I have done to the protection of the “uns...

I have been with Fâtima to the Holy Tomb of Eyoub. Ever since I came here I have looked forward to this experience; not so much, let me confess at once, to see the beautiful por...

But what a curious feeling of loneliness and desolation one has on first entering this house. What has happened to the poor place? Has it been successfully burgled? Have its inh...

The house itself is built as most Turkish houses are built, with two separate entrances--the Haremlik and the Selamlik--and a central entrance hall, arranged as a lounge, from w...

I have been to stay with Zeyneb at her little Yali on the shores of the Bosphorus. I had not seen her since she so resolutely and for ever closed the book of her European experi...

And now the time has come for me to return to my native land, I ask myself what have been my final impressions of my life as a Turkish woman. All these weeks, which have slipped...