Editing Eunuch (section)

====Ottoman Empire====
[[File:Ottoman eunuch, 1912.jpg|thumb|Chief Eunuch of [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Sultan]] [[Abdul Hamid II]] at the Imperial Palace, 1912]]
During the period of [[slavery in the Ottoman Empire]], eunuchs were typically slaves imported from outside their domains. A fair proportion of male slaves were imported as eunuchs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/lewis1.html |title=Bernard Lewis. Race and Slavery in the Middle East |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1994 |access-date=April 24, 2021}}</ref>

The [[Imperial Harem|Ottoman court harem]]—within the [[Topkapı Palace]] (1465–1853) and later the [[Dolmabahçe Palace]] (1853–1909) in [[Istanbul]]—was under the administration of the eunuchs. These were of two categories: black eunuchs and white eunuchs. Black eunuchs were slaves from [[sub-Saharan Africa]] via the [[Trans-Saharan slave trade]], the [[Red Sea slave trade]] or the [[Indian Ocean slave trade]], who served [[concubinage in Islam|the concubines]] and officials in the Harem together with chamber maidens of low rank.

The white eunuchs were slaves from the [[Balkans]] or the [[Caucasus]], either purchased in the slave markets or taken as boys from Christian families in the Balkans who were unable to pay the ''[[jizya]]'' tax. They served the recruits at the [[Palace School]] and were from 1582 prohibited from entering the Harem. An important figure in the Ottoman court was the [[Chief Black Eunuch]] (''Kızlar Ağası'' or ''Darüssaade Ağası''). In control of both the harem and a net of spies among the black eunuchs, the Chief Eunuch was involved in almost every palace intrigue and thereby could gain power over either the sultan or one of his viziers, ministers, or other court officials.<ref>Lad, Jateen. "Panoptic Bodies. Black Eunuchs in the Topkapi Palace", Scroope: ''Cambridge Architecture Journal'', No.15, 2003, pp.16–20.</ref>

One of the most powerful Chief Eunuchs was [[Beshir Agha]] in the 1730s, who played a crucial role in establishing the Ottoman version of [[Hanafi]] Islam throughout the Empire by founding libraries and schools.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hathaway|first=Jane|title=Beshir Agha : chief eunuch of the Ottoman imperial harem|year=2005|publisher=Oneworld|location=Oxford|isbn=1-85168-390-9|pages=xii, xiv}}</ref>

=====Algiers=====
In the 16th century, an Englishman, [[Samson Rowlie]], was captured and castrated to serve the Ottoman governor in Algiers.

=====Coptic involvement=====
In the 14th century, the Muslim Egyptian religious scholar Taj-al-Din Abu Nasr 'Abdal-Wahhab al-Subki discussed eunuchs in his book ''Kitab Mu'id al-Ni'am wa Mubid al-Niqam'' ({{langx|ar|كتاب معيد النعم ومبيد النقم}}), a title that has been translated as ''Book of the Guide to [Divine] Benefits and Averting of [Divine] Vengeance'' and also as ''Book of Tutor of Graces and Annihilator of Misfortunes''. In a chapter dedicated to eunuchs, Al-Subki made "the clear implication that 'eunuchness' is itself an office," Shaun Marmon explained, adding that al-Subki had specified occupational subgroups for the ''tawashiya'' [eunuchs]: the ''zimam'' watched over women, and the ''muqaddam al-mamalik'' over adolescent boys.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Marmon|first=Shaun Elizabeth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHbmCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62|title=Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic Society|date=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-507101-6|page=62|language=en}}</ref>

[[Edmund Andrews (surgeon)|Edmund Andrews]] of [[Northwestern University]], in an 1898 article called "Oriental Eunuchs" in ''[[The American Journal of Medicine]]'', refers to Coptic priests in "Abou Gerhè in Upper Egypt" castrating slave boys.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ilIKAQAAMAAJ|title=Journal of the American Medical Association|date=1 January 1898|publisher=American Medical Association.|via=Google Books}}</ref>

[[File:Sebah, Pascal – Ottoman Eunuch.JPG|thumb|A black eunuch of the Ottoman Sultan. Photograph by [[Pascal Sebah]], 1870s.]]
Coptic castration of slaves was discussed by [[Peter Charles Remondino]], in his book ''History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present'',<ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VS-2aLdskbAC&pg=PA99 |title=History of Circumcision|first=P. C.|last=Remondino|date=1 June 2001|publisher=The Minerva Group, Inc.|via=Google Books|isbn=9780898754100}}</ref> published in 1900. He refers to the "Abou-Gerghè" monastery in a place he calls "Mount Ghebel-Eter". He adds details not mentioned by Andrews such as the insertion of bamboo into the victim. Bamboo was used with Chinese eunuchs. Andrews states his information is derived from an earlier work, ''Les Femmes, les eunuques, et les guerriers du Soudan'',<ref name="books.google.co.uk" /> published by a French explorer, Count [[Raoul du Bisson]], in 1868, though this detail does not appear in Du Bisson's book.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/lesfemmesleseun00bissgoog#page/n141/mode/2up|title=Les femmes, les eunuques et les guerriers du Soudan|year=1868|publisher=E. Dentu}}</ref>

Remondino's claims were repeated in similar form by Henry G. Spooner in 1919, in the ''American Journal of Urology and Sexology''. Spooner, an associate of [[William J. Robinson]], referred to the monastery as "Abou Gerbe in Upper Egypt".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mz1YAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA522 |title=The American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Volume 15|author=Henry G. Spooner|year=1919|publisher=The Grafton Press|page=522|access-date=11 January 2011 |quote=In the Turkish Empire most of the eunuchs are furnished by the monastery Abou-Gerbe in Upper Egypt where the Coptic priests castrate Nubian and Abyssinian boys at about eight years of age and afterward sell them to the Turkish market. The Coptic priests perform the 'complete' operation, that is, they cut away the whole scrotum, testes and penis.}}</ref>

According to Remondino, Spooner, and several later sources, the Coptic priests sliced the penis and testicles off [[Nubian people|Nubian]] or [[Habesha people|Abyssinian]] slave boys around the age of eight. The boys were captured from Abyssinia and other areas in [[Sudan]] like [[Darfur]] and [[Kordofan]], then brought into Sudan and Egypt. During the operation, the Coptic clergyman chained the boys to tables, then, after slicing off their sexual organs, stuck a piece of bamboo into the urethra and submerged them in neck-high sand under the sun. The mortality rate was said to be high. Slave traders made especially large profits off eunuchs from this region.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhcTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA467 |title=Northwestern lancet, Volume 17|year=1897|publisher=s.n.|page=467|access-date=11 January 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D0OdC7GDJ6oC&pg=PA100 |title=The African diaspora in the Mediterranean lands of Islam|author1=John O. Hunwick |author2=Eve Troutt Powell |year=2002|publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers|isbn=1-55876-275-2|page=100|access-date=11 January 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ilIKAQAAMAAJ|quote=the Coptic priests castrate Nubian and Abyssinian slave boys at about 8 years of age and afterward sell them to the Turkish market. Turks in Asia Minor are also partly supplied by Circassian eunuchs. The Coptic priests before.|title=The Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 30, Issues 1–13|author=American Medical Association|year=1898|publisher=American Medical Association|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ilIKAQAAMAAJ/page/n181 176]|access-date=11 January 2011}}</ref>