Marià Fortuny - The Odalisque - Google Art Project

François_Boucher,_Ruhendes_Mädchen_(1751,_Wallraf-Richartz_Museum)

An odalisque (, tr, odalık) was a

chambermaid A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...

or a female attendant in a Turkish seraglio, particularly the court ladies in the household of the Ottoman

sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

. In western usage, the term came to mean the harem concubine, and refers to the eroticized artistic genre in which a woman is represented mostly or completely nude in a reclining position, often in the setting of a harem. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, 1814

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, 1814

Etymology

The word "odalisque" is French in form and originates from the

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

''odalık'', meaning "

", from ''oda'', "chamber" or "room". It can also be transliterated ''odahlic'', ''odalisk'', and ''odaliq''. Joan DelPlato has described the term's shift in meaning from Turkish to English and French:

The English and French term odalisque (rarely odalique) derives from the Turkish 'oda', meaning "chamber"; thus an odalisque originally meant a chamber girl or attendant. In western usage, the term has come to refer specifically to the harem concubine. By the eighteenth century the term odalisque referred to the eroticized artistic genre in which a nominally eastern woman lies on her side on display for the spectator.

Origin as the Turkish ''odalık''

An ''odalik'' was a maid that tended to the harem, but she could eventually become a concubine. She was ranked at the bottom of the

social stratification Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). As ...

of a harem, serving not the man of the household, but rather, his concubines and wives as their personal chambermaid. ''Odalıklar'' were usually slaves given as gifts to the sultan by wealthy Turkish men. Generally, an ''odalık'' was never seen by the sultan but instead remained under the direct supervision of his mother, the Valide Sultan. If an ''odalık'' was of extraordinary beauty or had exceptional talents in dancing or singing, she would be trained as a possible concubine. If selected, an ''odalık'' trained as a court lady would serve the sultan sexually and only after such sexual contact would she change in status, becoming thenceforth one of the consorts of the sultan. Ingres_Odalisque_esclave_Fogg_Art

Later Western usage of the term

Gustave Léonard de Jonghe - The Afternoon Siesta

W. S. Gilbert refers to the "Grace of an odalisque on a divan" in Colonel Calverley's song "If You Want A Receipt For That Popular Mystery" from the

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

opera '' Patience.'' In popular use, the word ''odalisque'' also may refer to a mistress, concubine or paramour of a wealthy man. During the 19th century, ''odalisques'' became common figures in the artistic movement known as

Orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...

, being featured in many erotic paintings from that era. By the later 19th century, Turkish writers such as Melek Hanum used the word odalisque to refer to slave-concubines when writing in English:

If any lady possesses a pretty-looking slave, the fact soon gets known. The gentlemen who wish to buy an odalisque or a wife, make their offers. Many Turks, indeed, prefer to take a slave as a wife, as, in such case, there is no need to dread fathers, mothers, or brothers-in-law, and other undesirable relations.

In 2011, the Law Society of British Columbia brought a disciplinary hearing against an unnamed lawyer for referring to another lawyer's client as living with an odalisque. The Law Society found that the word's use, though an extremely poor choice, did not rise to the level of professional misconduct: “ 8… A lawyer, more than anyone, should be aware of the importance of using words carefully, alive to their nuances. Whether his failure to do so is the product of naïveté, as suggested by his counsel, stupidity or lack of care, it is at least unintelligent and certainly inexcusable.”The Law Society of British Columbia: "Decision of the Hearing Panel on Facts and Determination"
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References

Sources

* Jeffrey Eugenides (2013) Middlesex; pg 495 "... Stretched across the couch, a Pisceasn Odalisque..." * ''The Imperial Harem'' by Leslie Pierce * ''The Nature of the Early Ottoman State'' by Heath W Lowry

External links