Harem

Bunch, Justin Hist. 121 Fall 2014 Prof Zarinebaf Cultural Transference via Mongol Means In the early 13th century many settled civilizations from Europe to Asia were shaken and sundered by a group of people who were previously unheard of. A group of people not unlike the nomad tribes of the Middle East led by the Prophet Muhammad, a group of people not unlike the Saxons and later Vikings of continental Europe who brought about the destruction of the Roman Empire many years prior. For like…

Born Cabell Calloway III, on December 15, 1907, in Rochester, NY, Cab Calloway was a multitalented individual. Not only was he a big band leader during the swing era of jazz, but he was also an actor, author, drummer, and singer. With humble beginnings in a large family, Calloway was exposed to music at an early age. His parents expected him to follow his father’s footsteps into the world of law, but after some time at Chicago’s Crane College, Calloway realized his true passions were in the…

share a palpable erotic charge in Firebird. Picture: David Kelly The Firebird follows a simple tale of good versus evil. As the wicked immortal, Koschei and the good but mischievous Firebird taunt each other in the moonlit tragic garden with Koschei’s harem of beautiful captive girls and a mob of evil creatures. Koschei has a new captive,…

During the Enlightenment period, Europeans began to see themselves as the most rational and thoughtful people of the land and particularly ruined the reputation of Turkish people using musical exoticism emphasizing and theatrical musical stereotypes of the Turkish. Exoticism popularizes a trend influenced by different ethnic groups or civilizations. Musical Exoticism in particular is very interesting. It is intriguing how, in the 1700s, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart used his musical talents to help…

Xerxes Xerxes the Great was the king of the Persian Empire from 486 BCE to 465 BCE. Xerxes was born “around 520 BCE” (Iran Chamber Society). His father was Darius the Great and his mother was Atosa, who was the daughter of Cyrus the Great. With close relatives who were held in high esteem to the citizens, Xerxes did not have to do much to prove himself as a worthy ruler. After the battle of marathon, Xerxes father died. Xerxes decided to try and conquer Greece because his father…

An ambitious women’s ascent to obtain the very apex of political power in a patriarchal, Confucian society, Wu Zhao’s humble beginnings as a daughter of a lumber merchant to becoming the emperor of China was a story of deception and murder. Many things contributed to the rise of Wu Zhao, including her education and experience, gaining the affection of the emperor, and how she manipulated others in court. Once she gained a position in court, she was able to stay in power due to her network of…

Societal beliefs can have a great effect on our body image. Everyone knows that Superman is strong and has bulging muscles and that Barbie is thin and successful. That has been engrained in our heads, ever since we were children. Much of our society follows particular beauty ideals that are very impractical, just like Barbie and Superman. These ideas are reinforced in our Westernized states. Looking at socio-cultural beliefs, they emphasize a current societal standard to look thin. They not…

The Interior of the Palm House on the Pfaueninsel near Potsdam (The Art Institute of Chicago, 1996.388) is an oil painting on canvas produced in 1834 by the German painter, Carl Blechen. The piece is 52 ½ by 50 inches, depicting a scene of lush greenery and four women who have the appearance of stepping from the pages of a fantasy novel, all united within the pastel confines of ornate greenhouse walls. Despite its mystic and dream-like properties, Blechen 's Interior of the Palm House is…

A fundamental facet of empire is conflict, and throughout the early modern period, the Ottoman Empire of the Turks was in continual conflict with its European neighbors. In 1716, as part of an effort to protect British economic and political assets from this conflict in this trans-imperial borderland, Sir Edward Wortley Montagu was dispatched as ambassador to Istanbul. Accompanying him on the journey was his wife Mary, who would eventually become one of the most influential women in 18th century…

The word Moors derives from the Latin mauri, a name for the Berber tribes living in Roman Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco). It has no ethnographic meaning but can be used to refer to all Muslims, Berber or Arab, who conquered the Iberian Peninsula. These Moors, who were religious fanatics, arrived in Spain in the year 711 and thus began a period of history which would shape Iberia differently than the rest of Europe as the land adapted to a new religion, language and culture.…