09. The Royal Household
The Royal Household
Chapter VIII
Having said so much of what is done in the royal residence, some notice of that building may not be unacceptable. In the general disposition of parts, it is like all other palaces of Persia, but is much inferior to those of Isfahan and Shiraz; and, as the ruins of Persepolis attest, immeasurably so to the abodes of the ancient kings, being altogether wanting in that substantiality of structure and costliness of material which are usually associated with the idea of a royal residence; and the impression made by these circumstances is strengthened by the miserably tawdry style of the internal decorations. This Sir William Ouseley very properly characterizes in his notice of the audience chamber; and Mr. Frazer still more distinctly and perfectly in accordance with our own impression. “The splendor of Persian palaces consists in quantities of tawdry gilding, painting, and enamel, with an infinite multitude of little mirrors, inlaid work of glass, painted glass windows, and a whole crystal shop of lusters, lamps, vases, and fancy ornaments of cut glass. Nothing more frippery can be imagined; and, although the first effect be rich and glittering, it will not bear inspection.” The general plan of this, as of all other oriental palaces, and, doubtless, of those of the ancient Persian and even of the Hebrew kings, is that of a succession of courts, separated from each other by high walls or ranges of building. The courts themselves are adorned with reservoirs or rectangular tanks of water, paved walks, bordered with plane-trees, and having flower-beds between.
There are three halls of reception, the largest of which is thirty-five feet by twenty-five. It stands on a range between two courts, and on the sides looking out upon them is entirely open from the ceiling to the floor, the roof being supported on these sides by tall wooden columns, and the room protected by ample curtains hanging from the roof, and capable of being raised or lowered at pleasure. The two extremities of this room consist of deep recesses, covered with small mirrors, placed at a very great number of angles, and presenting to the beholder a thousand images of himself at once.
Another of these rooms has its walls on three sides covered with mirrors, and is open on the fourth. The third room has a beautiful window of stained glass on one side, and a large fountain, entirely of glass, in the center. The principal hall of reception, where the shah appears on great public occasions, opens on another court, and is the best arranged room in the building; it usually contains the marble throne already mentioned, which is supported by human figures of the same material; and the open front of the room itself, looking upon the court, is adorned with five marble columns. This sufficiently describes the part of the palace which may be examined by strangers in the absence of the court; but there is a large portion which no man is ever permitted to enter, forming the harem, inhabited by the female part of the royal establishment, of which no description can be given. It may, however, be collected from comparison with other palaces, and from the reports of ladies who have been admitted to visit the inmates, that the apartments are arranged on the same plan as in the more public part, but with, generally, smaller rooms, and less of what is considered splendor of decoration. The building, taken on the whole, conveys no very exalted idea of Persian magnificence. The exterior is altogether destitute of any pretensions to architectural beauty. But the extent of ground covered by them is very great, comprising, as the structure does, not only the royal residence, but quarters for the guards, and many extensive ranges of apartments. Among these are the record chamber, which was also in ancient times contained in the palace, Ezra 6:2; the treasure chamber, Ezra 6:1; the “palace of the sun,” where the king sometimes receives ambassadors; also private chambers, one of which bears the remarkable name of “the palace of the cypress grove,” which is a remarkable analogy to Solomon’s “house of the forest of Lebanon;” and another bears the name of the Gulistan, or “bed of roses.” There are also ten baths, and two or three gardens; and when, to all this, we add the buildings necessary for the accommodation of the numerous females (at one time from eight hundred to one thousand) who, under Futteh Ali’s reign, constituted the royal harem, we may form some idea, not only of the extent of the building, but of the vast supplies of provisions required daily for the support of the royal establishment. On this last point, the analogy to Solomon’s establishment is, no doubt, very perfect. According to 1 Kings 4:22-23, the provision which that great monarch’s household required for one day was, “thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer, and fatted fowl.”
We are not able to supply a corresponding account of the consumption of the modern Persian palace; but, which is perhaps better, we can give one of the consumption of an ancient Persian establishment, even that of Cyrus. Polysenus relates, “In the palace of the Persian monarch, Alexander read a bill of fare for the king’s dinner and supper, that was engraved on a column of brass, on which were also other regulations which Cyrus had directed. It ran thus:
‘Of fine wheat flour, four hundred artabae (a medium artaba is an Attic medimnus[Equal to about 11¾ gallons].);
of second flour, three hundred artabae;
and of third flour, the same—in the whole, one thousand artabae of wheat flour for supper.
Of the finest barley flour, two hundred artabae;
of the second, four hundred;
and four hundred of the third—in all, one thousand artabae of barley flour.
Of oatmeal, two hundred artabae.
Of paste, mixed for pastry of different kinds, ten artabae.
Of cresses, chopped small and sifted, and formed into a kind of ptisan, ten artabae.
Of mustard-seed, the third of an artaba.
Male sheep, four hundred.
Oxen, a hundred.
Horses, thirty.
Fat geese, four hundred.
Doves, three hundred.
Small birds of different kinds, six hundred.
Lambs, three hundred.
Goslings, a hundred.
Thirty head of deer.
Of new milk, ten marises (a maris contains ten Attic choes [Therefore now equal to 7½ gallons]).
Of milk whey, sweetened, ten marises.
Of garlic, a talent’s worth.
Of strong onions, half a talent’s worth.
Of knot grass, an artaba.
Of the juice of benzoin, two minae.
Of cumin, an artaba.
Of benzoin a talent’s worth.
Of rich cider, the fourth of an artaba.
Of compound juices, one artaba.
Of cumin paste, the fourth of an artaba.
Of millet-seed, three talent’s worth.
Of anise flowers, three minae.[A mina is about 15 1/6oz. avoirdupois.]
Of coriander-seed, the third of an artaba.
Of melon-seed, two capises (a capise is an Attic choenix [Nearly a quart.]).
Of parsnips, ten artabae.
Of sweet wine, five marises.
Of salted gongylis, five marises.
Of pickled capers, five marises.
Of salt, ten artabse.
Of Ethiopian cumin, six capises.
Of dried anise, thirty minse.
Of parsley-seed, four capises.
Oil of sisamin, ten marises.
Cream, five marises.
Oil of cinnamon, five marises.
Oil of acanthus, fire marises.
Oil of sweet almonds, three marises.
Of dried sweet almonds, three artabae.
Of wine, five hundred marises (and if he supped at Babylon or Susa, one half was palm wine, and the other half wine expressed from grapes).
Two hundred loads of dry wood,
and one hundred loads of green.
Of fluid honey, a hundred square plathae(containing the weight of about ten minae).
When he was in Media, there was to be added, of bastard saffron-seed, three artabae. Of saffron, two micas.
This was the appointment for dinner and supper. He also expended in largesses, of fine barley, a thousand artabae;
and of other kind of flour, a thousand artabae.
Of rice, five hundred artabae.
Of corn, five hundred marises.
Of corn for the horses, twenty thousand artabae.
Of straw, three thousand loads.[Chopped straw, for the food of the horses; doubtless “the load” throughout must be understood as a mule or horse-load, not a cart-load, as the term may suggest to the English reader.]
Of vetches, five thousand loads.
Of oil of sisamin, two hundred marises.
Of vinegar, a hundred marises.
Of cresses, chopped small, thirty artabae.
All that is here enumerated was distributed among the forces that attended him. In dinner, in supper, and in largesses, the above was the king’s daily expenditure.’” This document is curious and interesting, for the information which it affords respecting the kinds of provisions supplied to these ancient courts, and the vast extent of the regal establishments. Its authenticity receives corroboration from the fact that most of the articles enumerated in the record are such as the ancient dominions of Persia supplied, and such as essentially agree with the dietary still in use in the same countries. Some of the items are curious, such as thirty horses, and would afford occasion for much remark, from which the necessary limits of this small volume warn us to abstain.
It is added: “While the Macedonians read this appointment of the Persian monarch’s table with admiration of the happiness of a prince who displayed such affluence, Alexander himself ridiculed him as an unfortunate man, who could wantonly involve himself in so many cares.[24] And he ordered the pillar on which these items were engraved to be demolished, observing to his friends, that it was no advantage to a king to live in so luxurious a manner, for cowardice and dastardly were the certain consequences of luxury and dissipation.”
Persia will probably never again see such a domestic establishment as that which Futteh Ali Shah possessed. He had perhaps the largest family of children that was ever born to man. The number of his wives is a point on which curiosity can never now be satisfied; for not only were they subject to death, in which case vacancies were speedily filled up, but many were sent out of the harem to be married to the great officers of state to whom the king wished to evince distinguished favors. Those ladies who had borne him sons were, however, never lost sight of nor abandoned by the king. As soon as it was known that a man-child had been born, the mother had a superior establishment immediately allotted to her, and she at once rose to the possession of a degree of weight and influence which was denied to those who gave birth only to a girl. As in the case of Solomon, the wives were of two classes; of the first, called Ahdee, all Mohammedans are limited to four, and kings cannot exceed that number. Solomon had three hundred; but some of these must have been more privileged than the others, as Pharaoh’s daughter evidently was. Of the secondary class of wives, who are unprotected by law, and whose condition is more within the king’s arbitrary power, though not so much so as that of purchased slaves, there is no limit but the royal will. The present Persian kings claim the absolute power of calling to their harem the daughters or sisters of any of their subjects, from the highest to the lowest; and, however really distasteful this may be to the parties concerned, resistance, evasion, or even hesitation, is never thought of for a moment. Old custom has taught them to regard this as an undoubted privilege of royalty, to which it would not only be disloyal, but absurd, to oppose more than a regret. The Scripture itself affords one of the most signal instances of the exercise of this right, in the appointment of officers in all the provinces of the realm, by king Ahasuerus, to “gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women (the harem), unto the custody of Hege the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women,” Esther 2:3. And that this was quite in accordance with the generally, acknowledged rights of the sovereign is shown by the fact, that this order was given not upon the willful and arbitrary impulse of the royal caprice, but by the advice of the councilors of state. It was under this order that Esther was introduced into the royal harem; and from this explanation it will be seen that neither she nor Mordecai could do anything to avert this lot, whatever regret it may have occasioned.
After a woman has once been taken into the harem, her male relations can see her no more; but some intercourse can be maintained with her, either through her female relations, or the eunuchs of the palace. Esther had no female relations; and, therefore, when Mordecai wished to communicate with her, their correspondence was entirely carried on through Hegai, the eunuch in immediate attendance upon her. All the messages of Mordecai, and the replies of Esther, were conveyed orally by this channel. So much jealousy with respect to the inmates of the royal harem was manifested, as excited the astonishment of the ancient Greeks. It was death to touch any of the king’s women, to speak to them, or even to come near them, or their litters, when they travelled. Hence, the indignation of the king at the seeming presumption to which the agony of his despair had driven the convicted Haman in his appeal to the queen, Esther 7:7-8. According to the existing custom, if any of the king’s wives are to go out to the gardens, or for any other purpose, notice of this is given the day before, and no one dares appear on the road at the time indicated. Anyone who is then inadvertently upon the road has to flee on the first intimation he obtains that the cavalcade is approaching; or, if this is out of his power, he must turn his back as it passes, and till it has reached a considerable distance. If any of these precautions be neglected, a man may expect to be roughly handled, if not slain.
It was understood, that of wives of both the classes indicated, Futteh Ali Shah usually maintained from eight hundred to a thousand. This was about the number of Solomon’s wives and concubines. But this Persian king had a far more numerous progeny than Solomon. There were born to him, from first to last, one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty sons, and about a hundred and fifty daughters; and, through these, his descendants increased so rapidly, that, at the time of his majesty’s death, had his descendants been all gathered together, he would have seen, it is said, a tribe of full five thousand souls, men, women, and children, clustering around his throne.
It will appear from what has been stated, that the Persian court has no lady answering to the queen-consort of European courts, although one of the wives of the king may, from circumstances, or from the king’s mere favor, be invested with some distinction over the others. So when queen Charlotte addressed a letter and sent presents to “the queen of Persia,” it is understood that some difficulty was felt in determining to which of them that character should, for the occasion, be understood to apply—who should receive the presents—in whose name the letter should be answered. The matter must, in fact, have occasioned much discussion and difficulty in the harem; though, no doubt, it was determined in favor of the one who at that time happened to be in possession of its chief place; some who might, from their standing, have been better entitled to it, being away, presiding over the establishments of the princes, their sons, in the provinces. In fact, lady Gore Ouseley, at Shiraz, visited the mother of the prince-governor as “the queen;” and at the capital, she visited one of the inmates of the harem, also as “the queen.” The short account sir William Ouseley gives of these visits affords a glimpse of the interior of the royal harem, which may be acceptable to the reader.
“The lady proceeded to the interview in a palanquin,[25] followed by a kadjavah, containing her two English maid-servants, and escorted by some gentlemen of the embassy on horseback. The latter were not admitted beyond the outer court, but the lady and her attendants were conducted by the chief of the black eunuchs to the interior. After traversing various apartments, lady Ouseley was at length introduced to ‘the queen,’ who received her most graciously. A chair had been provided for the lady, but the queen, supported by cushions, sat in the usual manner on a carpet of soft felt spread on the floor. Her ample trousers, or drawers, were so stiffened with jewels and embroidery, that she could scarcely move her legs; her feet were just visible, and her slippers appeared to be encrusted over with pearls. The daughter, a princess of sixteen or seventeen years, was also sitting; but ten or twelve young women, supposed to be the wives of the prince, her son, stood during the interview in silent and respectful attendance. Meanwhile, the English maids were entertained in a separate apartment, and, it appears, were a little offended at the manner in which some of the queen’s ladies endeavored to gratify their curiosity respecting the different articles of European dress. The visit lasted about half an hour; and the queen found means of expressing her regret at that mutual ignorance of each other’s language, which prevented her from expressing the offers of kind services to the English lady which she desired to render.”
“It had been settled that on the eighth of December, lady Ouseley should pay her respects to the principal or favorite queen—her, at least, whom the king had appointed to receive the presents brought from England—a preference most flattering where rivals were so numerous. At eleven o’clock, lady Ouseley proceeded to the dreg, or palace, being conveyed in her palanquin by several Persian ferashes. She was accompanied, as on a former occasion, by her daughter; and one of her English maids followed her in a kadjavah. Many inquiries had previously been made concerning the refreshments most pleasing to lady Ouseley. It was asked whether she usually smoked the kaleon (as all Persian ladies do), or preferred tea to coffee; at the same time, the king graciously intimated that a chair should be provided for her accommodation, although the queen would sit, according to custom, on a carpet. At her return, lady Ouseley told us she had been conducted, with much ceremony, into a large room, of which the floor was covered with cloth of gold. She found there the royal favorite, who was a very handsome woman, an infant prince, her son, and thirty or forty female attendants, all profusely decorated with jewels. Soon after her introduction coffee and sweetmeats were presented to her on trays of solid gold. The queen smoked, but a kaleon was not offered to her visitor, who had declared herself incapable of enjoying the intended honor. Lady Ouseley delivered a miniature picture of Queen Charlotte, and her letter to the Persian queen, who received them with much grace. The picture was set in diamonds, computed to be worth several thousand pounds; the latter was splendidly illuminated, and a translation had been annexed by the ambassador. The zan-i-shah, or ‘king’s wife,’ (like the one already mentioned), seemed much encumbered by the drawers or pantaloons which she wore; their stiff embroidery of jewels almost crippling her legs.” This interview, like the former, lasted about half an hour. In Persia it was the former, but not the ancient custom of the court, for the princes of the blood to be immured in the harem, where their education was entrusted to women and eunuchs; and, until the death of the king, his destined successor was unknown. It was then also considered that the son of the humblest purchased slave in the harem was as eligible to succeed as the offspring of the proudest princes. The present dynasty has changed these customs, and, in doing so, has produced a greater conformity to ancient usages. The young princes are no longer shut up in the harem till one of them is called “out of prison” to reign, Ecclesiastes 4:14, but are allowed to quit it as soon as they are past the age to require maternal care and female attendance. The king’s power over them is, however, of the most absolute character. There is no fixed rule for their treatment, and they are regarded as being, much more than the courtiers or any other subjects of the crown, entirely subject to his authority and control. They have no legal rights of any kind, nor does any power exist which can interfere between them and their sovereign. This clearly arises from the combination, in the same person, with respect to them, of the authority of the king and the parent, which are the two most absolute powers known in the east. Their condition is entirely dependent upon the feelings and policy of the royal father, as it seems to have been in the case of the Hebrew kings. He can appoint any one of them to succeed to the throne whom he pleases. This power used to be often exercised in preferring one of the youngest, or the least nobly born by the mother’s side; but Futteh Ali Shah exercised it by giving effect to the notions he had inherited as the chief of a tribe, by passing over his eldest born, who was the son of a purchased slave, and assigning the succession to his second son, whose mother was of noble birth. No one questioned his right to do this; and when the son whom he had preferred died before him, he transferred the nomination to his son, the father of the present king. The feeling which induced this preference we recognize in Scripture, in the advancement to the heritage of Abraham of the younger, but wellborn, Isaac, to the elder, but slave-born, Ishmael; and the right, in the Hebrew kingdom, of the king to nominate the son who should succeed him, is prominently set forth in the circumstances attending the nomination of Solomon over his elder brothers—first, the royally-born Absalom, and then Adonijah—for, although his election was directed by God, it was his own public declaration which gave it validity in the state. Hence the anxiety which was felt by Nathan and the other friends of Solomon to obtain from him a distinct declaration of his intention as to the succession, and the prompt action upon that declaration when obtained. In connection with this subject, the whole of 1 Kings 1 may be studied with much interest. In the Hebrew monarch it seems to have been the general rule for the eldest son to succeed to the throne, although the reigning king did possess the abstract right, and sometimes exercised it, of naming another of his sons. The spirit of change seems to be now penetrating even to the east, which has so long rested in its ancient habits and institutions. How long, therefore, the usages we have described may continue to exist is uncertain, and we have on this account felt the more satisfaction in bringing together such of them as might be rendered interesting to the student of the Bible by scriptural remembrances. A greater change still—a change of much greater interest—impends, as we hopefully expect, over the anciently great, and still interesting people, whose regal customs this book describes. In that change, which the Spirit of God alone can produce, they will be enabled to embrace and worship a Redeemer in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they are now content to respect as a teacher and a prophet, and to behold Him as the real “King of kings,” the true “Center of the universe.”