ODA
(OH-duh)
A
room within a harem Common
clues: Harem
room; Harem chamber; Seraglio room; Sultana's chamber; Concubine
cubicle Crossword
puzzle frequency:
once a year Frequency
in English language:
31776 / 86800
An
oda is a room within a harem found in the Ottoman Empire.
The
word oda simply means "a room" in Turkish. The English
and French term odalisque also derives from the related Turkish
word odalık which means "a chamber girl" or "a
concubine".
During
Ottoman period the harem division of the Topkapı Palace was
home to the Valide sultan (Sultan's mother); the odalisques and
wives of the Sultan; and the rest of his family, including
children; and their servants. There were nearly 300 odas in the
harem and it housed as many as 500 residents, which sometimes
amounted up to 300 women, their children, and the eunuchs.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Oda".
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