# Talk:Ottoman conquest of Lesbos

Is it just me, or is "as servants in the Sultan's harem" a little mealy-mouthed? Would "as sex slaves in the Sultan's harem" not be more accurate. As it stands the wording gives the impression that these captives will be serving light refreshments or dusting the statuary. Gog the Mild (talk) 13:47, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

Hmm, well, it depends. The harem properly was the Sultan's household, and comprised a number of institutions, including the palace school. Many of the Christian boys who "entered the harem" did so as part of the devshirme, and were trained in the palace school, going on to become Janissary commanders, officials, viziers, etc. The source is somewhat unclear here, I'll have to hunt down the original primary source for this. Constantine   ✍  19:37, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
Fair point. (Although I wonder about the "harassment" situation of a 10 year old slave boy in the imperial palace, devshirme or not.) In the Aftermath part of the article, the only person or group specifically mentioned as being consigned to the harem is the "famously beautiful" Maria. If by "harem" in the lead you were referring to devshirme, at least for the males, it may be clearer if it were rewritten to avoid mention of the word harem; if only one female ended up there it is arguably not relevant enough for the lead.
Although I am sceptical about that; from 10,000 prisoners, only one female ended up in the Sultan's harem? And what did happen to the rest of the young women from the 800 sent to the Sultan's household? Or the female part of the group sold into slavery for that matter? Non-imperial harems? All of that said, I am certainly happy to bow to your greater knowledge, and breadth of sources, in this area.
If you were thinking of devshirme I can see why you used an ambiguous word like "servent" and I withdraw "mealy-mouthed", which was perhaps a bit ill advised of me. Gog the Mild (talk) 20:20, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
Good point, I've fixed the lede. I am pretty sure that "servants in the palace" means pages (iç oğlan and acemi oğlan), hence again in the harem, but until I find better sources, let's leave it at that. On the last comment, probably more ended up there, but the question is what the sources tell us. Mehmed had a habit of bringing princesses of the territories he conquered into his harem, as a token of victory, so these are specially noted in the sources. Unless my memory fails me, this was rarely, if ever, done by the other sultans. Constantine   ✍  21:03, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
Your edit seems fair. A pity that there isn't more detail in the sources, but I don't imagine that the travails of freshly captured slaves was the sort of thing which got recorded very often. Gog the Mild (talk) 08:56, 11 January 2018 (UTC)