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Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2021 02:19:56 +0000 (UTC)
From: "robert1glynn@yahoo.com" <robert1glynn@yahoo.com>
Subject: "In The Boy Harem" ("Historical" and "Adult Youth")
This is my second effort at a historical fiction, the first is "The
Cabin Boy". Different from my usual stories, I greatly enjoy writing
these stories, and hope you find them enjoyable as well.
Please contribute to keep Nifty running free. This is truly a remarkable
resource for the queer community.
I love hearing from readers and will respond to all, though some times
I'm a bit slow in getting back.
My e-mail is: robert1glynn@ymail.com
In The Boy Harem
by Robert Glynn
INTRODUCTION
A single paragraph in the definitive history "The Ottoman Centuries -
The rise and fall of the Turkish Empire" by Lord Patrick Balfour
Kinross, set me on a historical chase that eventually led to my writing
this manuscript.
The paragraph I refer to, is a brief mention of the fact that the Sultan
of Tunis, Moulay Hasan, who ruled Tunis during the Caliphate of Suleiman
the Magnificent, was known for possessing a harem of four hundred
"ravishing" boys.
As soon as I read that, I had to know more about this astonishing tale.
I am an academician, a historian focused on the Ottoman Empire, I live
and teach in Virginia, with access to the remarkable historical resources
available around the District of Columbia, and, I frequently conduct
research in Istanbul. I felt I was in an ideal position to explore,
seeking more information about this unique, and fascinating, bit of
history.
In the United States Library of Congress, and in the Bayazit State
Library, and the Millet (or Peoples) Library, both in Istanbul, I found
hints, references, and important context regarding, Sultan Moulay Hasan.
Then, in the Suleymaniye Public Library, and in the Ottoman Studies
Section of the Istanbul Research Center, I found original manuscripts,
and correspondence, regarding the Boy Harem of Sultan Moulay Hasan. Most
importantly, I found a collection of letters written by the Chief Black
Eunuch of the Seraglio of Sultan Moulay Hasan.
The following comes from my research which I have chosen to share in the
form of writings from the Chief Black Eunuch.
A warning: much in this first chapter deals with the difficult story of
the castration of Sayon. His story is critical to the story of Moulay
Hasan, and his magnificent Boy Harem, with its four hundred ravishing
boys, which will unfold in later chapters.
*********************
CHAPTER ONE: THE EUNUCH
I am Sayon, the Kizlar Agha, or Chief Black Eunuch, in the Harem of
Sultan Moulay Hasan.
I am the slave of Sultan Moulay Hasan, and I am the Master of his Harem.
I was born somewhere, far to the south and east of Egypt. As a boy of
eight, nine, or perhaps ten years, I was captured by slavers, and,
because of my great beauty as a child, I was fully castrated.
Islam forbids the enslavement of Moslems or their castration, it does not
forbid the use of castrated non-moslem slaves.
There are two primary sources for castrated slaves. The white slaves,
infidels, taken in war or offered in tribute, from the northern lands of
Albania, Serbia, and Transylvania, and the black slaves captured from the
southern lands in Africa.
The Christian and Jewish slavers, who provide the white castrated slaves
for sale in the great slave market in Constantinople, by tradition, and
with a certain squeamishness, castrate boys in one of two ways.
The first technique is to remove just the, penis, leaving the testicles
intact. The child slaves castrated in this way, as they grew, developed
sexual feelings when they reached puberty but have no normal way to
express them, and, it was learned, could easily be manipulated with their
anger and frustration, and made into excellent guards, warriors,
executioners, and torturers.
The second method, practiced by the Christians and Jewish slavers,
required removing the boy's testicles and leaving the penis intact.
This, of course eliminated the possibility of reproduction, and reduced
male aggression and competitiveness, and this was believed to produce
servants unable to produce their own progeny, and able to focus on the
greater good. Such castrated slaves staffed the administration and
bureaucracy of the empire.
The black, and Arab, slavers, out of Africa, however, were much less
fastidious, and less concerned about a greater than fifty per cent death
rate among the castrated men and children they produced. They produced
what are called "shaved" slaves. That is, boys who had both their
penis and testicles removed.
To "shave" a boy, forgive me for this seemingly casual description of
an absolutly horrific process, entailed quickly slicing off the genitals,
both the penis and testicles, inserting a tube of tin or straw to
preserve the urethra, and then searing the wound with boiling oil to stop
the bleeding. Only about fifty per cent of the boys, children five or
six years old typically, survived this procedure and their accompanying
transport.
This was done to me, later than most, at an age that allowed an all to
clear memory of the terrible process. The pain was horrific,
unimaginable, and unforgivable.
Although my memories are somewhat faded, and confused of this time, I
know my village was attacked by slavers, my parents and many others from
the village were murdered. I and four other boys, were captured, striped
naked, roped together and marched for many days. We were feed poorly and
given only a little water twice a day.
After a long while, we arrived in a village where we boys were locked in
a hut. We slept that night on simple woven palm matts and were given
only a small amount of water and no food. The next morning we were taken
one by one, I was taken first, and we were castrated.
I survived. I, and other like me, were made, in order to become eunuchs,
and servants, in the harems of the Caliphate.
Many of us developed large unsightly scars from this disfiguring
assault. A few others, and I was one of these, have a relatively smooth,
even expanse between our legs where others had genitals.
Because of my beauty as a child, my relatively light complexion, and
because of the fact that I healed with little scaring, I was destined to
the harem of a high official of the empire.
While I was recovering from this vicious, disfiguring assault, I was
visited by an old man, also a slave, and a healer, who, after my injury
initially scabbed over, treated my wound every day, many times a day,
with an herbal oil balm, and with gentle massage, and tapping, on the
wound that helped me heal with almost no visible scaring.
This man, may he, and his family, forever be blessed, came to my bed four
or five, or more times a day. His application of this miraculous unguent
of healing herbs and oils on my genital wounds, was a gift beyond
compare. He coated my grievous wounds with this blessed balm, and
massaged and tapped my tortured flesh. He helped me recover and have a
presentation, not of a deformed, butchered boy, but of a beautiful
eunuch, somewhere between, and neither, a man or a woman.
Very few, if any, boys received the treatment I received after my
castration. I later realized, I had been treated this way for two
reasons. I was seen to be exceptionally beautiful, and, perhaps more
importantly, because the other boys who were captured along with me, had
died, from their brutal treatment. If money was to be made from this
cruel enterprise, it all came down to me. Another death was just to
expensive.
The man who anointed my wound explained his tapping, patting, massage
would minimize the scaring between my legs and thus make me more
desirable as a eunuch slave.
The man said I was truly beautiful, more so than most of the boys he saw,
who were castrated. He said, if I cared for the wound by applying the
herbal oils he gave me, and even more if I massaged and tapped on the
wound as he instructed me every day, many times a day, for the passing of
a full year or more, I would be the most beautiful eunuch ever.
In addition to his gentle care, I was well fed, with soups of meat and
vegetables, bread and milk. I was bathed daily, and my bed was kept
clean.
When I had recovered from my brutal, inhuman, castration, and it was
obvious I would survive, even thrive, in spite of all I had endured, I
was taken from this village.
This time, I was not marched naked in the forced company of other slaves,
and used cruelly by brutish slavers, but rather was allowed to ride a
donkey, in the company of a small group of merchants and their servants,
who were mounted on camels.
We rode north for many days, through a very harsh land, staying in small,
old, established caravansary until, one night when we stayed at a much
larger caravansary, and joined a larger caravan of merchants, with their
wares, slavers with their slaves, and camel herders with their beast.
I was much talked about in this company, and treated as though I was
something rather like a valuable gem. I was often commanded to reveal my
nakedness, and the smoothness between my legs was much admired.
I continued using the herbal unguent I had been given by the old man who
had restored me to health and life, and practiced the massage, and
tapping technique he had taught me. I continued this practice for the
subsequent two years.
After long travels, of many, many days, through the lands of Ethiopia and
Nubia, the caravan reached the mighty city of Khartoum, beyond the sixth
cataract on the White Nile that flowed through the great desert. This
great city was so much more than my small village that I trembled with
awe at all I saw. Again, here I seemed to excite great interest, and
admiration.
Then, after a short while, on to the North, through the desert, we pass
five more cataracts, passing into the land of Egypt, at the first
cataract at Aswan.
In Aswan, the merchants I traveled with, sold their camels and my donkey,
and with their goods, servants, and myself, purchased passage on seven
small wooden vessel, called feluccas, that traveled on the great river by
capturing the wind in great sheets of cloth. This was very strange and
wonderful to me.
Our trip was as if we were flying on some great beast down the valley of
the Nile, with all of Egypt, and its great wealth and many wonders,
displayed before me.
After many days passed thus, we arrived at a place where the great River
Nile emptied into a might sea, and where was the city of Alexandria.
In Alexandria, a city even more wondrous than Khartoum, I was taken
immediately to the great slave market. I saw many men and boys, women
and girls, sold in the open air market, but I was taken to a smaller
building where a crowd, of what appeared to be wealthy men, and their
representatives sat a small tables, sipping a hot dark beverage that
smelled wonderfully good, and that I later learned was called coffee.
The tables ringed a raised platform on which, when I and the merchants I
accompanied, entered, stood a beautiful naked women. There were man men
talking and gesturing, and I realized they were bidding for the girl.
While this was going on, I was led to a side wall where a row of naked
slaves, men and women, boys and girls, stood. Other men, stood round the
naked slaves and inspected them, and commented on them.
I was striped naked and stood at the end of the row of naked slaves. As
soon as I was made naked, I could tell the amount of interest in me began
to rise.
Men talked about me, pointed at me, smiled, and looked at me with a
hungry lust in their eyes. Much of the crowd moved closer toward me.
Those closest to me touched me, especially stroking my smooth bare pubis,
but also stroking my hair, my belly, and buttocks. Some made so bold as
to feel in the cleft ass and touch my anus, and a few went so far as to
enter me there with probing fingers.
The woman on the stage was sold. A handsome youth, strong of body, and
a dark ebony in color mounted the stage.
His sale began. It proceeded and another slave mounted the stage, bids
were cast. Sold. Another slave mounted the stage. The line of naked
slaves moved forward.
Soon enough it was my turn. Many men by then, had taken the opportunity
to look at me and to feel me. When I stepped on the stage, the crowd
fell silent.
The auctioneer said, "Here, gentlemen, is a eunuch beyond compare. Here
is a eunuch, more beautiful than has ever been seen. Here is a eunuch so
perfect that he appears to have been born without disfiguring
genitalia."
"How much would you pay to own such a beauty? How much would you pay,
not only to own such lovely creature, but to possess these flawless lips
and this exquisite bottom?"
While he spoke the auctioneer turned me this way and that, in order to
show off my attributes to the bidding public. He ran his hands over my
smooth pubis, and bent me over, exposing my anus to the clearly
appreciative crowd.
"This, gentlemen, this hole, is a virgin hole, awaiting your pleasure."
"What, I ask you, Gentlemen, what am I bid?"
************************
I was sold to a man who turned out to be another slave dealer. I never
even learned the name of this man who had bought and owned me.
I was taken to a house, and locked into a room with a bed, the nicest bed
I had ever slept in, for three days.
The simple garment, a plain white cotton robe, I had been given by the
merchants who owned me before, was taken from me and replaced by a most
beautiful gown, woven of some fine material unknown to me, now I know,
this was silk from China. The simple, but elegant robe was so finely and
thinly woven my body was completely revealed beneath it. The gown, a
pale blue color, was cut low around my neck, and hemmed so high it did
not cover my bottom or my, "shaved" groin.
I was treated very well, and given wonderful food, better than I had ever
eaten.
During these days many men were brought into my room, and allowed to
inspect me. Many touched me and were even allowed to penetrate my anus
with their finger. They talked about me, in languages I did not
understand, and then left.
On the fourth day I was taken in a horse drawn carriage through the city
of Alexandria, to the harbor, where I was placed on a huge vessel, like
the ones I had traveled on down the Nile, but much, much grander, and
told by a servant who spoke my language, that I was to be taken to the
great Imperial City of Constantinople.
That same servant began to instruct me in the Arabic language.
After many days of travel on the vast sea, we arrived at distant
Constantinople, the magnificent, almost magical, Imperial City, the home
of the great Caliph, who ruled over all the Moslem world, it was here, I
was told, I would be sold to a powerful Lord.
Nothing had prepared me for what I saw. A vast city, of teeming
humanity, with towering minarets, mosques, palaces, markets, and more,
all surrounded by a wall, impossibly huge and tall. What was I compared
to this?
I was taken to the great slave market in Constantinople.
As in Alexandria, I was shown, not in the main market, but in a more
exclusive market for the great lords. Again I was striped naked, and
exposed to the buyers.
This time, the process was more sexual. I was proclaimed to be a virgin,
which was not true, several of the slaver who had first captured me had
used me sexually.
However, I suppose, to demonstrate my usefulness, two youths on the stage
with me, held me and used an ivory carved phallus coated in some kind of
oil, to fuck my anus. The phallus was not too large, and the boys were
gentle, but the fact that I was being sexual used, fucked in the ass,
with a sexual toy in front of, perhaps, a hundred or more men, made this
an experience far beyond anything I had ever done. After the youths used
my ass, they did the same thing with my mouth. I, to my shame, tasted my
own excrement on the ivory phallus.
Bidding was high for me. It seemed that my smooth pubic area, combined
with my boyish beauty, in face and body, commanded an extremely high
price.
I was purchased by representatives of Abu Abdullah Muhammad IV, the
Sultan of Tunis, I learned later. I was taken from the slave market
directly to a ship in the harbor and we sailed toward the setting sun, to
the great city of Tunis.
**********************
We sailed for some days on what I was told was the vast Mediterranean
Sea, along the northern coast of Africa.
Arriving at Tunis, we passed through a narrow channel, into a great body
of water called the Lake of Tunis. The slave who accompanied me, and who
had been instructing me in Arabic, explained, that the Lake of Tunis was
the jewel of the City of Tunis and indeed the very reason for its
existence. Though called a lake, because it was almost entirely
surrounded by land, save for its very narrow channel opening to the sea,
it was indeed a great protected ocean bay that, it was said, could
shelter all the ships that sailed the ocean sea at the same time.
We sailed across the Lake and docked in the heart of Tunis. I was taken
to the harem, in the palace of that auspicious figure, The Sultan of
Tunis, Abu Abdullah Muhammad IV.
The Sultan's harem, as is traditional, was under the direction and
control of the Sultan's Mother, and I was presented to her and the
members of her court, which included the Sultana, the first wife of the
Sultan, and the Sultan's three principal concubines, and several of
their older male children.
When I was presented to the court, there was considerable discussion
about me, that I did not understand, however, two eunuch were ordered to
strip me naked. When I stood naked before the Sultan's Mother's court
there was an even greater buzz of conversation about me, and several of
the Sultan's older male children, stepped forward to inspect, and touch
me. Hands ran over my smooth genital-free pelvis and my bottom.
This ended when the Sultan's Mother spoke, and the eunuchs led me,
naked, from the room. I was taken first, to a bathing chamber, where I
was scrubbed and allowed to soak in a hot bath, and then massaged with
hot oils, and perfumes. After that, I was offered the most amazing
feast, and tucked into a beautiful feather bed.
************
Let me interrupt my story at this point to describe the Sultan's Harem.
In addition to the Sultan's Mother, who ruled over the Harem, and the
Sultana, the first wife of the Sultan, there were three other principal
wives. There were, also, well over one hundred other beautiful, young,
female, concubines of the Sultan.
In addition to this large coterie of highly competitive wives and
concubines, the harem was filed with their children, more than two
hundred of them, the number changed almost daily, and each child was
viewed by their mother, as the next Sultan.
Eunuchs were required to provide all the services needed to feed, clothe,
and keep happy this large retinue. Only eunuch were allowed in the
Harem to ensure the sanctity of the wives of the Sultan, because of their
inability to mate and reproduce children.
Because the harem was filled with so many beautiful concubines, and was a
secret and forbidden place, those outside it's walls, imagine it as a
den of debauched sexual delights. The truth, however, is while the
Sultan did gambol with his wives and concubines, of course, the harem
was, in reality, much more a nest of petty jealousies, gossip, and
plotting and intrigues, than a garden of sexual delights.
This may be best illustrated by the fact that, upon the death of the
Sultan, the harem becomes a murder chamber, as the contestants for the
throne seek the death of brotherly rivals, and the struggle ends when
only one survivor remains alive, but, let me return to my story.
**************
For the next good while I was entirely in the hands of the eunuchs of the
harem. Mornings were spent learning Arabic, afternoon I studied manners,
social interactions, and the ways of life in the harem. I was also
visited, almost every day, by the second son of the Sultan, Moulay Hasan.
Moulay Hasan expressed his interest in me, and as my language skills
grew, he talked to me about his life in the harem.
My facility with language, my quick wit, and my ability to grasp social
relationships, led me to gain favor among the eunuchs of the Sultan's
harem, and with Moulay Hasan.
However, and here again, I skip forward in my story to say, it was my
beauty and willingness, indeed eagerness, to grant sexual favors to the
Sultan's second son, Moulay Hasan, that was eventually to prove most
beneficial and important to my future life.
Moulay Hassan, when we first met, was fourteen years old, not long past
his puberty, and comfortable in his manhood. His interest in me was both
obvious and flattering.
When I gained sufficient fluency in Arabic, and in the social graces, I
was invited to attend the Divan of the Sultan. Entering the throne room
of the Sultan I bowed low to his eminent grace. The Sultan bid me to
rise and come to him on his regal Divan.
He took me in his arms and said, "You are truly as beautiful as I have
been told. My son Moulay Hassan," and here he gestured to his son, who
stood nearby, to join us, "has asked if he could have you to serve as
his valet. He promises to be responsible for your education, and told me
he desires you, and no other, as his servant. Would you, my beauty,
choose to be the servant of my son, Moulay Hassan?"
"I will serve your son with all my heart, Sultan."
"Then you shall be his," the Sultan said.
When the Sultan gave me to his son, Moulay Hassan kissed his father, and
thanked him, and taking my hand, he pulled me away from the Divan and to
his bed chamber.
Though my knowledge of Arabic, and of life, at this point was yet
lacking, it was sufficient to let me understand, that when Moulay Hassan,
pulled off the beautiful garments I wore, that his intentions were of
using me as much more than just a valet.
When he had me naked, he held me at arms length and looked at me most
carefully. "You are truly beautiful," he said, touching my smooth,
perfectly shaved pubic region, bare of all trace of genitalia, "neither
boy nor girl, a perfect eunuch, the most beautiful eunuch that has ever
lived. Turn round," he commanded, and he inspected, quite closely, my
fundament, "but this, this is both boy and girl, and is as exquisitely
beautiful as are you. I am so happy Father gave you to me. Tell me your
name, my love."
"Gwandoya," I told him, the name my father had given me.
"Well, that will never do. I shall name you Sayon, It means `most
beautiful' and you are the most beautiful eunuch ever seen." He pulled
me into his arms and kissed me.
His kiss was divine. From that moment on I was truly his. I was the
slave of Moulay Hasan.
Moulay Hasan and I became inseparable lovers. We shared each others
secrets, and each other's bodies.
Moulay Hasan was wild to take me. Every day, most often more than once
day, some times four, five or more times a day, Moulay Hasan took me as a
man takes a woman, his beautiful, large sexual member in my eager bottom,
till he spent himself in me.
In our love making we learned something no one else seemed to know.
Indeed we, like every one else, thought that a eunuch, having lost their
manhood, was simply not a sexual creature. We, however discovered there
remained, deep inside me, in my innermost part, accessible through my
anus, there was a sexual part of me that he could reach. A sexual nature,
that Moulay Hassan could touch, use and release.
This knowledge was not quickly gained. It came from many delightful
hours of mutual playing and love making. When we first discovered the
pleasure that Moulay Hasan could give me with his lovely male member in
my rectum, he began to explore further. Moulay Hasan used, first, his
mouth and tongue on my nether hole, and subsequently his fingers, and
eventually, as I grew and matured, even his entire hand, and on rare
occasions his foot, inside me, in search of my pleasure.
As Moulay brought me joy, he allowed me to reciprocate, with my mouth and
fingers, and eventually with my entire hand, inside his anus, deep in his
rectum.
Because I, of course, could not fuck him as he fucked me, he gave me an
artificial penis, he told me it was called a dildo, carved out of ivory,
and had me fuck him with it. Moulay Hasan found this quite as exciting
as I did. He commanded another dildo to be carved of wood and made with
a harness of leather that allowed me to wear it strapped round my hips,
to fuck him as, he fucked me.
So that we could both understand better, Moulay Hasan fucked me with
these two dildos in the same way I fucked him. Eventually he had a
number of phallus, of various sizes, shapes, and materials created for
our play. He even had devices made that were designed to allow us to
wear them in our rectums for extended periods of time. Moulay Hasan and
I would sometimes wear these devices in our bottoms even when we
interacted with others in public.
These experiments led Moulay Hasan to understand that it was not only
possible, but for him, desirable, to gain pleasure through sexual
congress with men, in addition to having sex with me, a eunuch. Men were
in short supply in the harem, but Moulay had some contact with other
males, groomsmen, in the stables, soldiers who trained him in the arts of
war, and others. Some of these were open to homosexual interactions with
a royal prince, which he enjoyed greatly. Moulay Hasan discovered he
liked being fucked, as much as he enjoyed fucking.
The fruit of our sexual congress, and experimentation, was a deepening of
our love, and we discovered soon enough that I was able to produce from
my pee hole the same clear, lubricating fluid that Moulay Hasan produced
when he was sexually aroused. This was an absolutely amazing discovery.
Heretofore, it was thought that all of a man's fluids were produced in
his testicles. I was living proof this was not so.
We continued our experimentation, and soon discovered an even more
amazing phenomenon, that with deep stimulation, by penis or by hand, in
and toward the front of my rectum, toward where my penis had been, I was
able to reach a sexual climax, and to produce a generous oozing of milk,
very like an intact man.
This was a source of great joy to me, and to Moulay Hasan, who loved to
drink my eunuch's milk.
I demonstrated, and taught this, to all the eunuchs of the harem.
*************
Moulay Hasan, in accordance with his agreement with his father, the
Sultan, diligently attended to my education. I studied with the eunuchs
of the harem learning all the management, accounting, housekeeping, and
social skills required to run an elaborate organization like the harem.
Additionally, Moulay Hasan, provided me with a wonderful elderly Greek
tutor who taught me to read and write, and educated me in the arts,
literature, natural history, rhetoric, philosophy, music, dance, and
more.
Over the years, as I grew and matured I came to understand the nature of
the harem, and the trial that Moulay Hasan must inevitably face, upon the
death of his father.
Moulay Hasan and I spent many, many long hours in discussions planing our
future and preparing for the royal transition. An important aspect of
that future became our plan to establish a boy harem under my control,
along with the eunuchs of the harem, when Moulay Hasan became Sultan.
I built strong and deep relations with all of the eunuch of the harem.
The eunuchs had always been a nearly invisible underclass that were
depended on to make every thing function, but never taken seriously.
Moulay Hasan and I worked to change that.
I taught the eunuchs, stating with the young ones, that they too could
have a sexual life. I, and Moulay Hasan sometimes joined me in this
pleasurable work, taught the eunuchs how they could sexually please
themselves, their fellow eunuchs, and Moulay Hasan. A few of the of the
eunuchs in the harem still had their penis's, having only been
testicularly castrated, and these were initiated into providing
themselves, and the other eunuchs, with sexual fulfillment.
Eventually, as time passed, all of the eunuchs came under our influence,
I explained the benefits that could flow to them when Moulay Hasan
established a boy harem after he became Sultan, and we established a well
planned, and dedicated conspiracy.
All of this had to be undertaken very slowly and carefully. The harem is
a traditional, conservative institution. Filled with plots and
conspiracies, gossip and backbiting. Failure would be met with death,
success with the greatest rewards.
Fortunately for us, to most of the harem dwellers, the eunuchs were
nearly invisible, more like furniture than humans. We were able to move
in this world in a way that had never been seen before.
*********************
All of this came to a head in the month of Ramadan, 1526. Abu Abdullah
Muhammad IV, the eminent and illuminated, Sultan of Tunis, the father of
Moulay Hasan, was taken ill. Pains in his stomach, with much vomiting of
blood, indicated his condition was most grave. All of the court was
deeply concerned and praying for his recovery.
On the sixteenth day of Ramadan, the Sultan's physicians, two skilled
eunuchs, who had attended him faithfully for years, told me that the
Sultan was close to death and could not be expected to survive the night.
At the same time, in accordance with our plan, the physicians told the
other members of the court that while the Sultans condition was grave,
what he needed most was rest, nourishment, and their prayers.
That night, the Sultan passed, peacefully, into paradise, attended by his
faithful eunuchs. When I was advised of the death of the Sultan, I
signaled the implementation of our long readied plans.
When a Sultan dies his successors are forced into a battle to the death.
Brothers struggle with brothers, till only one survives to assume the
throne.
In this case, the eunuchs of the harem were advised first of the death of
the Sultan and they sprang into action. Throughout the harem, eunuchs
approached the unsuspecting sons of the Sultan and slit their throats, or
slipped a stiletto between their ribs, and into their master's heart, or
offered them poisoned wine we had supplied.
Almost before the battle was begun, it was over. Only one of the
Sultan's sons, Rashid, the eldest son, managed to survived the initial
attack of our eunuchs, and he was forced to flee the harem, accompanied
by a small retinue. Rashid, eventually emerged in Constantinople to
argue his case as the elder son, to the throne in Tunis, before the
Suleiman the Magnificent.
Suleiman, however was engaged in war with the infidels, in the Levant
and in Europe, and had little interest, or resources, to deal with what
appeared to be an already settled inheritance in distant Tunis.
Thus in a moment, my Master, my love, Moulay Hasan, became the Sultan of
Tunis, and I became the Master of the Boy Harem.