I was now focusing on my project about the world of Caucasus white slave girls who at one time graced the harems of the wealthy. It was very much the way of affluent Persians that upon marriage the bridegroom would at the same time establish his own private harem, full of Georgian and Circassian slaves (all from the Caucasus mountains), having negotiated with the brides family how to go about this. And so it was, throughout the Near East, from Constantinople to Mecca, that those girls considered to be the most beautiful of the whole of humanity, were sold to a lusty mans pleasure. This was the last remaining slavery, long after the West Indies black slave trade was done away with, for it was something the Ottoman Empire especially, and the Arabic colonised Mohammedan world in general was lax to give up, slavery being upheld within the Koran. Those slaves who were from Nubia, African black women, were used as domestic servants, and the women of the Caucasus, prized for their beauty, were sex slaves to enjoy in ones harem, so expensive that they could only be bought by the trés riche, and who would be showered in luxury and even end up as the wives and mothers of sultans and pasha's. On the one hand it was said those girls families wanted their daughters to enjoy such wealth and opportunity, and on the other we see examples of the girls being capture and stolen away by marauders. Slavery was quite the way for most ancient peoples. Going to war against neighbouring territories was not just about acquiring land and plunder, but was about profiting from slavery. Any European was vulnerable to being stolen away, white women always the ones most highly desired by other ethnicities. Naturally I have considered this as a way my own distant ancestresses from the Caucasus would have ended up far from home. The ideal of the perfectly beautiful Caucasian woman long captured the imagination of the masses, although in our multi-cultural sensitive times I doubt this is what modern people would indulge their thoughts on; the persecutions of certain others, yes, of Africans, of the Irish famine victims, of feminist causes, of witches of old, but never do they seem to acknowledge that Europeans in their masses have suffered too. And yet our ancestors suffered immeasurably along the path towards civilisation and human rights. My impoverished Londoners lived through horrendous situations, and those are but our people of more recent history, which we may identify and find records about; what to speak of those whose stories are ever lost to us. When I look at slavery I know not in what ways this personally affected my ancestors, other than that this would have been a reality among which they lived. Interestingly I have seen a theory, now presented, that Leonardo Da Vinci's own mother was a Circassian slave, Catherina, whom his father, as a lawyer, managed to gain freedom for. To our ancestors such women were the most beautiful of creation, which in itself presents another challenge to modern peoples, that women of fair features and pale skin may have been regarded to have in some way attained aesthetic superiority. And yet our ancestors had no qualms with that. It was just so, whether this came from the perspective of Europeans or darker ethnicities. In 1819 when the Persian ambassador came to London, he did so with the companionship of his most prized Circassian slave woman, and with a carriage of black slave eunuchs to guard her. So much did the Londoners wish to set eyes upon her beauty that in great numbers they would stand outside the ambassadors house in Berkeley Square, but she was well hidden, her rooms constantly guarded by two of the black eunuchs with sabres in their hands. She became an invisible celebrity, said to be musically adept and to have a cultivated mind. Esteemed gentlemen guests to the home never hd the opportunity themselves to see her. But as for some of the women of high society, they were made allowance of, and one of those ladies sketched a picture of her, full length and in traditional dress, which she gifted to the lady proprietor of the house, who in turn sold it to the Lady's Magazine, who printed this, at a cost, for their readership. What a scoop they had, the face that so many had wished to set eyes upon. In 1841, when an Austrian man, Baron Welzlar, converted in Constantinople to Islam, his sponsor there gifted him a beautiful Circassian slave. This was the stuff of dreams and fantasies. In 1856 the sultan of Constantinople gifted 75 Circassian female slaves to an old man of Mecca. Both the Russians and the British tried to stop this white slave trade, but for long it continued, and yet who knows of such history, not so many really.
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Diving into my son George's archeo-genetics I saw he was of the European tribes, markedly of the Visigoths, but also the Illyrians, Gauls, Franks and Thuringii. His actual closest modern connections were to France and Spain, before even his Italian. It was interesting how his Italian father, Francesco, had been so drawn to this area in which we now lived, especially to the Visigoths, who had sacked Rome, and with him having been so anti-Rome, and of his pro-piracy, which was the past-time of the Illyrians. And, then again, how apt that George had French nationality. George's closest archeo-genetic match was to a Gaul in Lombardy. His second was to a Scythian Moldovan (ah, like his sister Rosina), this being a woman who again had Gaul dna, so being a woman who had married into the Scythians. Thirdly there was a match to a woman of the Thuringii tribe found in Bavaria, her head having been fashioned during her youth into an unnatural state, according to a noble's ideas of beauty at the time, and who was buried with her jewellery. Fourthly there was another Lombard burial, this time the dna being of the Franks. Then there was a bronze age Gaul, then a mixed Gaul Illlyrian found in Germany, then a bronze age mixed Frank Illyrian found in Prague, then a mixed Frank Ostrogoth found in Hungary; and lastly a bronze age burial in Serbia of a mixed Gaul Etruscan. Interestingly, Serbia was listed as one of George's modern populations. And like me he had a genetic connection to King Louis XVI of France. The dna of King Louis XVI was mainly Illyrian mixed with Roman, Gallo-Roman, Thracian and Roman-Hispanian. So George was, through his father, very much of the tribes of Europe. From me he had Roman gladiators, massacred Vikings and Merovingian nobles. And amazingly he had a Greek connection to one of the people who had perished in the Himalayas at Roopkind lake, this being another match to Rosina's own ancestors. Really interesting to see was that George had a match to crusader from Tuscany who had gone to the Holy Land, found there in Lebanon where he had been slain by either the Moslems or the Mongols. A connection to plague victims was made mention of as well. I now turned to looking at my Aunty Lolly's archeo-genetic dna, she being my fathers sister. Her ancient dna was pretty much like mine really, of Celts, Saxons, Franks, Danish Vikings and Vandals. And of modern populations she was mostly Irish and Welsh. Her closest archaic match was to the Bell Beaker peoples. Many individuals of Britain and Europe had good matches to Lolly. Lastly I was looking at my mothers archeo-genetics, aha, so very Viking. Her largest influence was of Icelandic Vikings, after which were Saxons, Celts, Vandals and Danish Vikings. Iceland appeared to be part of the wider domain of her Shetland seafarers, her father being of a Shetland family. One Viking, a victim of the Saint Brice massacre at Oxford, was close in genetics to my mother. Even this connection was classed as very unique, for which all research categories were freely opened up for this individual, which others would have to pay for. Although this young man was a Viking his dna was very mixed, there being primarily Celt and secondly Icelandic viking. This would be attributed to the Viking pioneers having taken native celtic girls for their wives. Other less dominant dna types in this individual were Saxon, Vandal and Pict. Likely then this Viking individual was linked to our Shetlanders and maybe even was a direct ancestor. I'd already come to understand by now that our Shetland ancestors were not exclusively Viking, as had been previously presumed. As it could be seen by the example of early settlers of Iceland, regardless that those pioneers were Viking men, they took along with them many Irish slaves, the most alluring women of which they made wives of. These women were Celts and Picts, and though their men folk had the fate of being enslaved and massacred, as was generally the way of the more attractive women throughout ancient history, their beauty saved them. Another match to my mother was of a Celt in bronze age Scotland, discovered during landscaping work in the garden of Evergreen House on the East Lothian coast. Those remans formed part of a larger bronze age burial ground. Other matches to Icelandic Vikings came up, one being a Gaelic Viking mix and this person being one of the last Vikings to still practise the Norse religion before all would embrace Christianity. All I was discovering was so interesting to me, and yet it was late and sleep was overwhelming me, for which I had to suspend all for now. ![]() The rains came down on and off all day, sometimes great torrents which knocked off the wifi. I engaged myself in studying the white slave trade, specifically the Circassian girls of the Caucasus, of which there was much written in old British newspapers. Even when the western trading in black slaves was banished, this trade in white slaves continued, an ongoing prerogative of Islamic society, the whole system of harems depending on it. Britain was very slow to condemn this, for which they were accused of hypocrisy, having ended their own slave trade. In a way they were glamourising this selling of beauty to the very rich, by which some of the ladies ended up as wives and mothers of kings. Of course, I look because I theorised long ago that by this trade in white flesh my matriarchal DNA was lightly disseminated down from the Caucasus into the Middle Eastern countries. Genghis Khan is also recorded to have carried these mountain people away as slaves, as had the Persians too. I still have to consider whether it is Armenians who are a real source for my DNA. Still the Caucasus mountains in some way hold the key. And, then, also, I have been informed there is a connection to somewhere in Central Asia. And all I can ever do at this present state in time is speculate. And one day science may progress to clarify all totally. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. |
AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. Categories
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