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- Herausgeber: The Rainbows
- Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
Everyone is interested in knowing about the lifestyle of ancient kings. Especially with their harem. Harem is an Arabic word meaning enclosure, inner palace, forbidden or sacred place. A harem is a sacred place reserved for women to which no man other than a king or prince is allowed to enter. The harem housed the wives, concubines, minor sons, unmarried daughters, female relatives and concubines of the king, sultan or emperor. Besides, there were hundreds, thousands of young women in the harem to entertain the king or the princes. The more aristocratic, powerful and wealthy the king, the more women he had in his harem. It is Lord Acton who says: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." Is it that power yields desire, the desire to tame, the desire to win? In history it is true not only for kings but queens also. The kings had concubines and harems of thousand prized girls. So also, the queens did not fall behind in building harems or having their desire fulfilled with hundreds of men. Egyptian beauty queen Cleopatra, Queen Enzinga of Angola, Queen Catherine of Russia, Princess Diana are very effective counterparts of their fellow kings. However they are also revered in history. They seem to be very effectively able to manage their public and private lives. Cleopatra had her desire fulfilled with several Roman generals. It is said that she had satisfied more than a hundred romans in a single night. Queen Enzinga had her own Arabian nights, killing the male after the mating. Queen Catherine is said to be dead in her attempt to have a relationship with a horse. The lusty life of princess Diana is an example to itself in the modern world. This book tries to have a glance into the secret private lives of kings, queens and concubines.
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Kings, Queens and Concubines: True Stories of Love, Lust and Passion
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Kings, Queens and Concubines: True Stories of Love, Lust and Passion
Maria Arnoldt Wilson
Published by The Rainbows, 2022.
Tabla de Contenido
Título
Title Page
Kings, Queens and Concubines: True Stories of Love, Lust and Passion
Concubine and Religion
The English Venus Princess Diana
Diana and bodyguard Barry
Diana, Dodi Al Fayed
Controversial sex lives of two famous queens who rocked history
The African Tigress: Who was Queen Anna Nzinga?
Queen Catherine, her tiger and her unending affairs
What did queens do to attract kings in ancient times?
The secret of their beauty
The Egyptian Venus: Queen Cleopatra
Queen Cleopatra, Cleopatra Biography and Facts
Cleopatra's two lovers were Roman generals
Kings and their thousand concubines
Everyone is interested in knowing about the lifestyle of ancient kings. Especially with their harem. Harem is an Arabic word meaning enclosure, inner palace, forbidden or sacred place. A harem is a sacred place reserved for women to which no man other than a king or prince is allowed to enter.
The harem housed the wives, concubines, minor sons, unmarried daughters, female relatives and concubines of the king, sultan or emperor. Besides, there were hundreds, thousands of young women in the harem to entertain the king or the princes. The more aristocratic, powerful and wealthy the king, the more women he had in his harem.
During the reign of the then kings, the truce continued more or less. And the wives and daughters of the defeated in the war were brought to the harem as slaves. Sometimes someone was brought in marriage or as a gift. Some were bought as slaves. All of them used to spend their entire lives as concubines of kings or emperors. But if the fate is good, one would get the chance to become the king's wife.
In many ancient cultures and religious traditions, rulers and elite members of society had not only wives but also concubines. A number of factors are considered as reasons for keeping concubines. Among these were the fulfillment of a sexual desire, the birth of many children and the manifestation of nobility. In ancient times, emperors are known to have kept thousands of concubines.
The practice of taking concubines is believed to have originated in China. But it is not exclusive. The practice of taking concubines dates back thousands of years to ancient Mesopotamia and Babylonian civilizations. At that time, the daughters of many elite families of the society also became concubines. Many of whom were originally slaves. Later many got the status of wife again.
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In Mesopotamian culture some women served as priestesses in cities or states. Although they held high positions in society, none of them married. The men of that time saw these women priests as prostitutes. But they used to respect them from the religious place.
Concubine and Religion
Concubines are mentioned in various religions and scriptures. The Bible also talks about it. The Israelites kept many concubines besides their wives. They socially divided wives and concubines. Wives had to be supported. But that was not the case with concubines. At that time Emperor Solomon (1011-931 BC) is said to have had 300 concubines in addition to 700 wives. Although concubines are not acceptable in Christianity today. However, some Bible researchers think that concubines were practiced to increase the population of the world at that time.
Concubines were also permitted in Judaism. A concubine is called a piljesh in Hebrew. Which means a resident of the house. According to the Babylonian Talmud, there was only one difference between a concubine and a full wife. And that is the marriage contract. The Jewish thinker Maimonides believed that concubines were strictly reserved for kings. Again, the kings did not allow many common people to have concubines. Maimonides argued that commoners should not engage in any sexual relations outside of marriage.
Taking concubines was also allowed in Islam. But it follows certain rules. In ancient times two sources of concubines were permitted under Islamic rule. One is non-Muslim women taken as prisoners of war. And women bought as slaves. In pagan or pre-Islamic times there was a social law of buying and selling slaves. However, after conversion to Islam, those slave women were allowed to be freed or formally married.
Mistresses around the world
Slave concubines were very rare in ancient Greece. But it has been seen throughout the history of Athens. At that time their law allowed them to kill the children of their concubines. Because even though concubines were allowed in ancient Greece, they refused to grant citizenship to their children. Roman law treated concubines a little differently. At that time a Roman man could take such a woman as a concubine. A woman who is socially unmarriageable. Roman men could keep such women as formal concubines.
The Romans were also quite interested in homosexuality. So at that time, Roman men could also have concubines. But none of these would have prevented them from getting married.
