A new practise

I had heard of the practise of employing eunuchs about one’s palace, in part because they could be employed in one’s harem without fear of them doing anything improper, at least on their own account, in part because their lack of children made them less likely to indulge in family intrigues, with intrigues of one sort or another being something of a problem in palaces.

I had also heard of monarchs who did not allow many of their subjects the privilege of looking at them. Where the form was for subjects to prostrate themselves on the ground at the approach of the monarch. I think the Aztec emperor may have been one such. While a concubine of the Chinese emperor was only allowed to consult her doctor by poking her left hand through the curtains of her litter. Doctors who, in consequence, became very good at reading palms.

But today I read of a new practise. It seems that the Ottoman Sultan, in his glory days, a long time ago now, could not bear that there should be idle chatter in his presence, or, indeed, any sort of chatter at all, and to this end hired a squad of deaf, and presumably dumb, retainers to look after him, retainers who managed their work by means of a sign language. With the additional advantage that they would be unable to sneak on any of the idle conversations that he might have with his intimates. Perhaps his concubines, generals or chiefs of police.

Unfortunately, knowledge of this sign language eventually leaked out to the court at large, with many of the courtiers learning this new language. And maybe some of the retainers learned to lip read. All of which meant in time that a lot of the substance of the aforementioned idle conversations did leak out. All privacy was lost.

And we all know what happened to the Ottoman empire in the end.

And should you read and wonder about the gentleman of the stool at reference 1, the stool in question is not the chaise percée of the English monarchy, where the gentleman of the stool was another important and honourable office, rather a stool to be used for mounting the imperial mule.

I learned about this from the report at reference 1 about the paper at reference 2 from the august journal at reference 3. Unusually for these days, this paper has not leaked out into the internet at large and so I am not able to add much to the little that I learned about all this from reference 1.

And lastly, given that the JSTOR mission is to 'contextualise current events with scholarship', I wonder why this paper, from the fifteen year old depths of Islamic deaf scholarship should surface now? Is is just like any old newspaper of the ordinary sort, which keeps a pile of trivia to hand against a rainy day, a day when news is slow?

PS: I last noticed JSTOR nearly two years ago at reference 4. Perhaps I ought to have another go at their library. Plus, DPLA no help today with the furniture tax of reference 4, only offering a couple of bits of unrelated oral history from the Mid West, so perhaps JSTOR can do better?

Reference 1: https://daily.jstor.org/the-secret-sign-language-of-the-ottoman-court/.

Reference 2: the Deaf in Ottoman Syria, 16th - 18th Centuries - Sara Scalenghe – 2005.

Reference 3: http://www.arabstudiesjournal.org/.

Reference 4: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/perplexed.html.