Slaves Of The Sultan Book 1 — Allan Aldiss

So, too, is the wife of a young Greek rebel from Crete, then still part of the large Ottoman Empire - together with a former French governess. The Empire was run as a police state under the tyrannical rule of the Sultan who ruled from 1878 to 1909 when he was deposed by the Young Turks. Terrified of assassination, it was only in his harem, surrounded by his scared slave women and guarded by his loyal black eunuchs that he felt really safe. The Sultan was also a virile voluptuary, who enjoyed a large harem of mainly subjugated Christian slavegirls, including the four heroines of this story. The harem moved between the modern park-like complex of the Yildiz Palace built on a hill overlooking the beautiful Bosphorus and the large single building of the equally modern Dolmabahce Palace, down on the on the water's edge. What will now happen to the two innocent English girls, as well as the Greek married woman and the French governess? This is a story, based on historical facts, of real male domination in a real harem not very long ago.