Julia Pardoe (1806 – 1862) was a well known British writer and traveller. Born in Yorkshire, she spent much of her life traveling in Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Her experiences informed her numerous books on travel and historical subjects. A keen observer, she was well known for her in-depth knowledge and understanding of the "East" and was best known for her books on her travels in the Ottoman Empire, where she first arrived in 1836 in company of her father, Major Thomas Pardoe. This voyage inspired her to write her first major book, "The City of the Sultan And Domestic Manners of the Turks" (1836), where, among other things, she described meeting Georgian women, including Devlehai Hanoum, the wife of the Ottoman foreign minister, who greatly impressed her.
The illness and subsequent death of the Buyuk Hanoum had long delayed the visit which I had been requested to make to the harem of the Reiss Effendi, or Minister for Foreign Affairs; and it may be remembered that this was the lady to whom I alluded in a former portion of my work, as having failed to find favour in the eyes of the Sultan on the occasion of the Princess Salihe's marriage ; and whom he had been graciously pleased to excuse from all further attendance at court, in favour of a fair Georgian, whom he had himself provided as her successor.
The aged Minister had received with all proper gratitude the gift of his Imperial master; and had not failed to make the lovely slave his wife with all possible speed. And the anticipation of seeing this far-famed beauty added no little to the desire which I felt to avail myself of the very kind and flattering invitation of the family.
Having, therefore, suffered a sufficient time to elapse after the death of the Buyuk Hanoum to testify my sympathy for her loss, I prepared for this long-promised visit, and made it in company with some Greek ladies, friends of my own, and well known in the harem of the Minister. On passing the Salemliek I was much disappointed by the discovery that the Reiss Effendi himself was [away] from home ; but on reaching the harem we were more fortunate, and having delivered our cloaks, veils, and shoes to a group of slaves who received us in the marble entrance-hall, we followed one who led the way up a noble flight of stairs to a vast saloon ; and in the next instant I found myself standing beside Devlehai Hanoum, the beautiful Georgian.
And she was beautiful—magnificent! Tall, and dark, and queenly in her proud loveliness; with such a form as is not looked on above half a dozen times during a long life. The character of Georgian beauty is perfectly dissimilar from that of Circassia; it is more stately and dazzling; the whole of its attributes are different. With the Circassian you find the clearest and fairest skin, the most delicately rounded limbs, the softest, sleepiest expression — the lowest voice —and the most indolently graceful movements. There is no soul in a Circassian beauty; and as she pillows her pure, pale cheek upon her small dimpled hand, you feel no inclination to arouse her into exertion— you are contented to look upon her, and to contemplate her loveliness.
But the Georgian is a creature of another stamp : with eyes like meteors, and teeth almost as dazzling as her eyes. Her mouth does not wear the sweet and unceasing smile of her less vivacious rival, but the proud expression that sits upon her finely arched lips accords so well with her stately form, and her high, calm brow, that you do not seek to change its character. There is a revelation of intellect, an air of majesty, about the Georgian women, which seems so utterly at variance with their condition, that you involuntarily ask yourself if they can indeed ever be slaves; and you have some difficulty in admitting the fact, even to your own reason.
Nearly all the ladies of the Princess Azme's household are Georgians : and I have already had occasion to remark that her harem is celebrated for the beauty of its fair inhabitants. But Devlehai Hanoum left every individual of the Imperial Serai of Ortakeuy immeasurably behind her. And as she welcomed us without rising from her sofa, I felt, woman though I was, as though I could have knelt in homage to such surpassing loveliness!
The sofa on which she was seated, occupied the deep bay of a window overlooking the Bosphorus, at the upper end of a saloon which terminated in a flight of steps leading upwards to a second apartment, that, in its turn, afforded similar access to a third: and this long perspective was bounded by the distant view of a vine-o'ercanopied kiosk, beneath which a fine fountain of white marble was flinging its cool waters on the air, from the midst of clustering vases, filled with rare and beautiful flowering plants.
Groups of slaves were standing about the sofa; and gilded cages, filled with birds, were arranged in its immediate vicinity. I was much amused by a superb parrot, evidently the favourite of the harem, which had become so imbued with its high-bred tranquillity, as to speak almost in a whisper : and which kept up a perpetual murmur of such phrases as the following: " My heart! — My life! — My Sultan, the light of my eyes! — Am I pretty ? — Do you love to look upon me? " and similar sentimentalities.
Devlehai Hanoum was dressed in an antery of white silk, embroidered all over with groups of flowers in pale green ; her salva, or trousers, were of satin of the Stuart tartan, and her jacket light blue ; the gauze that composed her chemisette was almost impalpable, and the cachemire about her waist was of a rich crimson. Her hair, of which several tresses had been allowed to escape from beneath the embroidered handkerchief, was as black as the plumage of a raven; and her complexion was a clear, transparent brown.
But the great charm of the beautiful Georgian was her figure. I never beheld any thing more lovely; to the smoothly-moulded graces of eighteen she joined the majesty and stateliness of middle life ; and you forgot as you looked upon her, that she had ever been bought at a price, to remember only that she was the wife of one of the great officers of the Empire.
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