Leyla: The Black Tulip

Leyla

The next morning, a girl slightly older than Laleena comes and leads her to an infirmary. There, Laleena is inspected alongside other girls for diseases, defects, and imperfections, along with their hands, feet, teeth, eyes, and ears. Over the past few months, Laleena had never been inspected so much! But this inspection wasn’t nearly as bad as the ones done by Cafer Efendi and the other traders.

After the inspection, the girl leads Laleena through the maze of corridors and staircases to a row of big apartments that must belong to important people. Inside a room, a large woman sits on a divan.

The woman asks Laleena to turn to be inspected again. The woman comments that Laleena’s hands are too small for housework, and asks if Laleena has any skills, such as sewing, cooking, music, or dancing. When Laleena responds that she doesn’t, the woman comments that Laleena knows Turkish. Laleena says she also knows a bit of Arabic and Georgian, as well as how to paint.

The woman’s eyes open wide and she reminds Laleena that she should not mention painting again! To paint the likeness of human beings is sacrilegious. Laleena knows this, but momentarily forgot—painting like her father did is against the Koran.

Instead, Laleena suggests that she may have a talent for growing flowers. The woman perks up when Laleena particularly mentions tulips, since tulips require special skill and patience.

Then, she asks Laleena her name. The woman says “Laleena” sounds like a gypsy fortune-teller’s name, and instead she’ll go by a proper Turkish name: Leyla. Every girl has her name changed so she’ll forget who she was in the past and become a new person.

Going forward, Leyla will study in the medrese, a religious school. She’ll study the Koran. She’ll learn to walk and sit gracefully, and how to talk without an accent. And, Leyla will garden under the Mistress of the Flowers.

When she’s dismissed, the girl escorts Leyla back outside. The girl asks Leyla for her new name, and introduces herself as Belkıs. The woman is the Kahya, the Chief Headmistress. She names and assigns every woman in the harem.

Belkıs explains that while working with the Mistress of the Flowers, Leyla will be in charge of helping manage the vast interior harem gardens. There are kitchen gardens, healing gardens, scented gardens, and flower beds. If Leyla does well as an acemi, she’ll be promoted. If not, they may move her to a different department.

Apparently Belkıs started out assigned to the Number One Wife of the Padishah before being moved to the Mistress of the Flowers. Belkıs didn’t like it there anyway, it was too stressful because so many people were always trying to plot against the wife and her son.

Leyla is confused… where are they? Belkıs responds that they are at Topkapı Palace, the home of the Sultan Ahmet, the ruler of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. They live in the harem, where the Sultan’s women and children live. There are no men allowed inside except the Sultan’s sons and the eunuchs. When Leyla comments it feels like a cage, Belkıs nods. Some reference the harem as the golden cage: they have great riches, but no freedom.