Beshir Agha: Chief eunuch of the Ottoman imperial harem
William Armstrong - william.armstrong@hdn.com.tr
‘Beshir Agha: Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Imperial Harem’ by Jane Hathaway (Oneworld, 131 pages, $30)
Ottoman court eunuchs were for a long time figures of lurid fascination among European outsiders. Right up until the collapse of the empire at the start of the 20th century, eunuchs seemed to embody the Ottoman Empire’s exoticism. They were seen as an outdated and bizarre institution enigmatically situated at the top of an oriental empire.
But that view was misleading. For centuries court eunuchs were key to the administration of the empire, playing a crucial practical role at the summit of power. University of North Colorado Professor George Junne last year published an interesting study on the political importance of the Ottoman chief eunuch’s office over the centuries, detaching its image from that of debauched personification of Ottoman decadence to the agent of hard power politics. Many black eunuchs were enslaved for the express purpose of serving at the court, where their lack of familial and community ties – as well as their dependence on the ruler - bred loyalty. But many of them did in fact accrue extraordinary authority during their lives.
The historical record is sparse so the book is relatively slim. But Hathaway does provide details of Beshir Agha’s life and background where possible. While his origins are impossible to know exactly, he was one of the thousands of boys swept up in the brutal swirl of the sub-Saharan slave trade, castrated in Upper Egypt, sold in Cairo, and then brought to the Topkapı Palace at a young age to serve in the imperial center.
Beshir Agha held various positions before he was appointed as Chief Eunuch. Like other officials, eunuchs were always vulnerable to shifts in the political winds, and Beshir Agha was exiled to Cyprus for obscure reasons in 1713. The cause of his exile cannot have been too serious because he was soon employed again as one of dozens of eunuchs protecting the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.
His big moment came when he was recalled to Istanbul in 1716 at around the age of 60, to be appointed as Chief Harem Eunuch under Sultan Ahmed III. Ahmed III’s reign is associated with the “Tulip Era,” a period of cultural efflorescence and extensive European contact in the Ottoman Empire. It also saw the belated introduction of the first Ottoman language printing press. Beshir Agha built up an eclectic collection over the years, and Hathaway describes him as “clearly one of the great bibliophiles of the 18th century.”
Along with literary pursuits, Beshir Agha was on the hard edge of Ottoman imperial politics for three decades. He deposed the previous grand vizier – an office that had by then virtually displaced the sultan as the empire’s prime decision-maker - within a year of his own appointment as chief eunuch. He then proved instrumental in promoting his favored Nevşehirli İbrahim Pasha to the post.
Ahmed III was overthrown in 1730 but Beshir Agha remained as chief eunuch under Sultan Mahmud I. Throughout the reign of both he cultivated extensive patron-client relations and accumulated great authority. “He brought the office to the pinnacle of its political and economic influence, making the chief eunuch the principle force in the education of Ottoman princes and thus in the shaping of Ottoman sultans,” Hathaway writes. As protector of the Holy Places and responsible for the pilgrimage routes, Beshir Agha also left his mark on the Ottoman brand of orthodox Sunni Islam of the Hanafi legal rite. At times the chief eunuch was second only to the sultan and the grand vizier, while “at others [he was] second to none for all practical purposes.”
Before his death in 1746 - by then well into his 90s - Beshir Agha had become “one of the wealthiest, most powerful, and longest-lived chief harem eunuchs in Ottoman history,” writes Hathaway. “Although the Ottoman harem would see a number of influential chief eunuchs right up until the empire’s demise following World War I, never again would a single chief eunuch occupy the office for so long or exercise such a monopoly on power.”
Over centuries, the Ottoman Chief Eunuch occupied a fascinating, paradoxical position as “elite slaves.” Despite their brutal enslavement and cruel castration, they “received all the privileges that accompanied their high status, including access to the finest education available and to lavish clothing, accouterments, and accommodations.” While a great number of those singled out as eunuchs in Abyssinia ended up dying during castration, a few were able to rise to the very top. Beshir Agha is of course an exceptional case but he is certainly a fascinating one.
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