Seraglio

The term seraglio, from Italian, has been used in English since 1581. The Italian Treccani dictionary gives two derivations: • one via or (with the variants seraya or saraya), which comes from or, per derivation, the enclosed court for the wives and concubines of the harem of a house or palace (see ); • the other — in the sense of enclosure — from Late/, derived from Classical Latin , , which comes from , . The term may also be spelt serail, via French influence, based on the Italian term. Harem Since the Topkapı Palace's harem (commonly known as "The Seraglio harem") grew in prominence and fame, the term saray/serail/seraglio began also being commonly used as a synonym of harem, the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in an Ottoman household. == In Ottoman culture ==

, Lebanon , Syria , Libya Besides the Topkapı Palace ("The Seraglio"), the most famous seray is the Grand Serail of Beirut () in Lebanon, which is the headquarters of the prime minister. It is situated atop a hill in downtown Beirut a few blocks away from the Lebanese Parliament. The hill was the site of an Ottoman army base from the 1840s, which was built up, fortified, and expanded in the 1850s. At first it was known as al quishla, from the Turkish word kışla, meaning barracks. Other examples include: • the Grand Serail of Aleppo, in Syria; a French construction inspired to the Ottoman tradition. • the Red Serail of Tripoli, in Libya. Located in central Tripoli, it also houses a museum. • the new presidential palace of Turkey, completed in 2014, popularly called Ak Saray ("White Palace"). Seventeen saraya were established in Palestine during Ottoman rule; most were established by regional officials and their families such as the Ridwan dynasty and Zahir al-Umar and his family. == In Italy ==

In modern Italian the word is spelled . It may refer to a wall or structure, either for defence — such as the Serraglio of Villafranca di Verona, a defensive wall built by the Scaligeri — or for containment, for example of caged wild animals. Seraglio is also the name of the artificial island on which Mantua is located. == In literature and the arts ==

In the context of the fashion, the seraglio became the subject of works of art, the most famous perhaps being Mozart's 1782 Singspiel, (The Abduction from the Seraglio), based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's 1781 (Belmonte and Konstanze, or The Abduction from the Seraglio). In Montesquieu's 1721 Persian Letters, one of the main characters, a Persian from the city of Isfahan, is described as an occupant of a seraglio. == Homophones ==

Saraya is also used as a military unit title in the Arab world. In this case, the Arabic is , a different word from "saraya" (), as in a building. The etymology of the two terms also differs: is from Arabic and communicates the idea of a "private group". However, the plural is (saraya), indistinguishable from the term "saraya" which is a variant (in the singular) of saray (the building). The normal translation for is company (military unit), but in the case of the Lebanese Resistance Saraya the term is often arbitrarily translated as brigades. Another example is the Syrian Defense Saraya. == See also ==

Notes References == Bibliography ==