Perhaps the most striking symbol of Ottoman decadence — and the actual root of much of it — was the sultanate’s harem system. In the morning of the empire the unveiled Turkish women were the free and respected companions of their warrior-husbands. With the accumulation of wealth based on conquest, they gradually changed from partners into luxuries, and finally into luxury-objects. The superabundance of female slaves that were one of the prized spoils of war led to a kind of erotic inflation; the Sultans, and their principal warlords acquired increasingly imposing retinues of concubines, and
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