Inside The Seraglio

Ahmed III (1703-30) was the 23rd sultan of the imperial Osmanh dynasty, which ruled over the Ottoman Empire for over 600 years until 1922. Ahmet III's predecessors had created an empire that stretched from the Danube to the Nile, from the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf. But by the time of the reign of Ahmet, the empire was in decline, as the sultans ceased to lead their armies into battle, preferring to spend their time in Istanbul's fabled palace of Topkapi Sarayi - the House of Felicity.

Inside the Seraglio takes us behind the doors of Topkapi Sarayi and the later Ottoman palaces. Like Ahmet III, most of the later sultans were weak and dissolute, and they were often dominated by their mother or favourite wife. John Freely reveals the imperial harem and the women who dwelt there along with their guardian black eunuchs, as well as all the others who served and amused the sultans. Such was life in the House of Felicity - described here with lively wit, and illustrated throughout with fascinating images of the sultans and their sequestered court.