ŽENE U OSMANSKOM HAREMU IZMEĐU POZICIJE ROPSTVA I MOĆI

The aim of this paper was to clarify the role of women in the harem and to explore this topic a bit in order to refute the existing prejudices. The main sources used to write this paper was literature which predominately discussed the history of the Ottoman Empire, as well as articles and scientific papers that specifically wrote about this topic. The paper is divided into five chapters, including the introduction and the conclusion. In the begining it is written a brief overview of the history of the Ottoman Empire so that we could more easily understand the situation and events at court and the function of the harem in general. After that, it is explained the concept, origin and hierarchy of the harem. In continuation is analized the Sultanate of Women where have been listed the most influential women of that time and described the situation at the court in their time. We can conclude that the most important female person was the mother of the sultan, Valide Sultan. Given that she held all the strings in her hands instead of the sultan in the period of the Sultanate of Women it was she who was an essential figure at court.