The Oriental Woman and Lady Mary Wortley

Montagu's The Turkish Embassy Letters (1764)

Abdulhafeth Ali Khrisat

Department of English and Translation, Faculty of Sciences and Arts/Khulais
King Abdulaziz University P.O. Box 80200 Jeddah 21589 Saudi Arabia
Telephone: + 966-545-827 965 E-mail: drkhrisat@gmail.com
Abstract: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's The Turkish Embassy Letters (1764) is
one of the significant works that has portrayed the Orient. Montagu attempts to
present the Oriental man as hypocrite and ignorant. Moreover, the Oriental man is
inhuman and has no sympathy since he is a holder of slaves. This paper aims to
study how Montagu portrayed the Orient and the Oriental woman, in particular,
differently from other Orientalists. Her portrayal of the Orient can be studied by
an examination of her letters. No one can deny her acknowledgement that the
Oriental women have more liberty than their English counterparts besides
managing of their own financial affairs. However, Montagu contributes to the
Oriental stereotypical image of pleasure, sexuality and lust. Although critics think
that Montagu is a feminist, it seems that she is neither a voice for feminism nor a
hero for feminists.
Key Words: Lady Mary Montagu, Oriental Woman, Turkish Embassy Letters,
English Literature, Eighteenth Century.

1. Montagu and Writing

The Turkish Embassy Letters, composed by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
during her accompaniment of her husband on his mission as ambassador to
Turkey, hasn't been published until 1764, about one year after her death although
she wrote them during her journey and stay in Turkey in 1716-1718. Montagu
believes that writing for publication is beneath her. Telling Lady Bute, her
daughter, in a letter on 1 Oct. 1752: "I hope you have not so ill opinion of me to
think I am turning author in my old age" (Letters, I: 19). Montagu says that
writing for money is considered "one of the most distinguishing prerogatives of
mankind since it turns into a trade and demean it" (Life, 255). As a member of the
aristocracy and as a woman, Halsband (1965) says, Montagu detains herself from
writing. Montague claims that the main objective in writing her letters is that
"nothing seems to me so agreeable as truth" (Letters, I: 34).
Oldfield (2011) remarks that it is Montagu's varied and fascinating life that
makes her write the letters. Carey (1997) points out that English writers
consistently stress "the potential interchangeability of self and other rather than
the racial opposition between the two" (34). Taking her as an example, Montagu
imitates the elite Oriental Turkish dress of private reader. Montagu provides
observations and a picture of the Oriental Turkish life and customs. It is the first
time that the harem life has been described for English readers. In her writing,
Montagu contributes to the portrait of the Orient, particularly the Oriental woman.
Still (2006) credits Montagu as a poet and letter writer, enthusiastic woman
of her time, and well-educated: she translated Epictetus from Latin in 1710 (255).
Montagu herself tries to show that her accounts of the Orient are more truthful
than other writers. However, Montagu's letters are seen by contemporaries as
examples of women's travel writing describing the "Oriental" through the eyes of
a female traveler. The Orient is portrayed as an image of lust and sensuality by the
Orientalists. Montagu's view seems to be different in some aspects from other
writers. Said (1978) studies many works by Orientalists over a period of time and
comes to the conclusion that Orientalism monothically constructs the Orient as the
'Other' of the Occident. In their attempts to prove that Said's view is at suspense,
many critics try to use Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's The Turkish Embassy
Letters (1716-1718) to refute this view.

2. Montagu and Feminism

Parkes (1850) points out that Montagu has acquainted the Western audience
with information about the Oriental woman: "the perusal of Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu's merit has rendered me very anxious to visit zenana and to become
acquainted with the ladies of the East" (59). Contemporary critics describe
Montagu as feminist. Beach (2006) argues that Montagu's text represents a
feminist departure from the previous male writings that are revealed with
"Oriental tropes and lascivious assertions" (293). Mcllor (1997) thinks that
female writers construct the East as a space of "female libertism" a "feminotopia
of lesbian sexuality and sensual desire" or "positive alternative from British
domestic confinement" (151). In her description of the Turkish bath scene,
Montagu refers to the painter Jervas: "It would have much improved his [Jervas's]
art; to see so many fine women naked, in different postures, some in conversation,
some working, others drinking coffee or sherbet, and many negligently lying on
their cushions . . ." (Letters, I: 248). Montagu is aware of the difference between
the Orient and the West and she believes that there are unjust views that have
been made about the Orient. In these descriptions, says Yegenoglu (1992),
Montagu assumes a masculine role, "attaches a penis to herself," and penetrates a
"feminized Orient." By assuming such role, Montague complements the work of
the male colonist rather than challenges it (45).
Lowenthal (2010) argues that Montagu's works are necessary to the feminist
improvement of women's writing. In fact, Montagu writes about Oriental women,
attempting to shed some light on women's position in England. Lew (1991)
describes her as the "first feminist" and says that her ideas and writings constitute
a subversion of Oriental discourse and particularly "her descriptions of the
Oriental women subverted order anticipated by two hundred fifty year, the most
of feminists such as Mernissi and Abu-Lughad" (435). It seems that Montagu is
neither a voice for feminism nor a hero for feminists.
For Lowe (1991), Montagu is identified with the Turkish female society to
invoke "an emerged feminist discourse" (32). Burton (1994) claims that
"examining the ways in which feminism produced feminist's identity as feminist
depended upon coincidences about cultural, political, and racial superiority of all
Britons" (28). Within the same context, Secor (1965) sees the letters not only do
they have a significant place in Britain's Empire but also contribute to woman's
travel narratives -- a text that is produced "in the context of eighteenth century
gender relations, class constraints and geopolitics" (377). Ferna (1981) says that
Montagu is "remarkably free of ethnocentrism" and she reinforces the
"enlightenment ideals of empiricism, egalitarianism and objectivity" (335).
Critics exaggerate in her role as a feminist because Montagu herself admits that
she doesn't argue for the equality of the sexes; she writes to the Bishop of
Salisbury on 20 July, 1710:
God and nature has thrown us into inferior rank: We are a
lower of the creation; we owe obedience and submission to the
superior sex; and any woman, who suffers her vanity and folly
to deny this, rebels against the law of the Creator, and the
indisputable order of nature (Letters, I: 45, my italics).
Montagu's view reflects the attitude of the society during this time. In a
letter addressed to Lady Bute on 28 Jan. 1753, she says, "The ultimate end of your
education was to make you a good wife (and I have the comfort to hear that you
are one); . . . I will not say it is happier but it is undoubtedly safer than my
marriage" (Letters, III: 24). Montagu's letters provide the reader with an insight
that is exceptional to her time. Montagu seems to be able to study another culture
according to its own values and to see herself in the eyes of the others. These
letters may be taken evidence of what life and how the Oriental women have lived
between 1717 and 1718. Feminists try to view Lady Mary Wortley Montagu as a
pioneer woman in feminism. However, Montagu writes in 1758 that she prefers
liberty to "chains of diamonds." For her, liberty is the most valuable in all
situations.

3. Montagu and the Orient

Konuk (2004) says that Montagu enjoys "the esthetic pleasure of
ethnomasquerade and even has herself painted in Turkish dress" (394). Konuk
refers to Montagu of having a short-lived fantasy and embodying the 'Other' as a
narrative strategy in her writing. Despite her idealization of the Oriental woman,
Montagu contributes to the making of the image of the Orient in the European
Western culture. By dressing like the 'Other', Konuk confirms, Montagu tries to
understand the 'Other' but rather it is a "strategy to demonstrate control over the
perceived seductive allure of the Orient" (400). Despite her attraction to and
wearing of Oriental Turkish dress, Montagu believes in the 'Self' and the "Other'.
Undoubtedly, Montague displays her interest in the esthetic pleasure of the
Oriental world.
Regarding her experience in the Orient, Montagu admits that the British
have imperfect relations of manners and religion of the Orient. She makes an
excuse by saying that Turkey is rarely visited by merchants who care about
money and profit and their own affairs. Talking about Oriental women in a letter
to Abbot Conti on 1 April, 1717, Montagu says:
It is very easy to see they [Oriental Turkish women] have more
liberty than we have, no woman of what rank so ever being
permitted to go in the streets without two Muslims. One that
loves her face all but her eyes and another that finds the whole
dress of her head and hangs herself down on her back . . .
You may guess how effectually this disguises them, there is no
distinguishing the great lady from her slave, and it is
impossible for most jealous husband to know his wife when he
meets her, and no man dare either touch or follow. Divay pays
a respect to 'em, and the Grand Seginior himself, when Pasha is
executed, never violates the privileges of the harem (or
women's) apartment which remains unsearched entire to the
widow (Letters, I: 251).
Montagu is perhaps obsessed with the idea of liberty. In a letter on 23 Jan. 1755
to her daughter, Lady Bute, she writes: ". . . but I ought to give you another
information which can only be learned by experience, that liberty is an idea
equally as chemical, and has real existence in this life" (80). Pardoe (1854),
another English female traveler, who spends more than a year in Constantinople,
shares Montague's view on liberty and believes that the Oriental Turkish women
are the happiest since they are "certainly the freest individuals in the Empire"
(242).
Hulme (2002) remarks that travel for women offers them a "means of
redefining themselves, assuming a different persona" and becoming someone who
doesn’t exist at home (234). Montagu's view is a little different from other
Orientalists. Montagu believes that the Orients have a better idea of life: they
seem to enjoy life and entertain themselves. She defends the Oriental way of life:
"I am almost of opinion they have a right notion of life; which they consume it in
music, gardens, wine and delude eating" (Letters, I: 272).
Montagu thinks that the Orientals are represented of being unpolished but
they have different taste from the Westerners. Montagu reports that a wealthy
Oriental Turkish Muslim informed her about the prohibition of wine and all other
alcoholic drinks. She says that she's been told that the prohibition in Islam is
meant for the common people: "being the source of all disorders amongst them;
but that the Prophet never designed to confine those that knew how to use it with
moderation." Montagu adds that drinking should be avoided in public and few of
the Orientals can afford it (I: 401). In fact, prohibition of alcoholic drinks applies
to all Muslims: rich and poor, women and men, young and old, and rulers and the
commons. There are no exceptions regarding this matter. Montagu's view
contributes to the stereotypical image of the Orient as associated with pleasure,
lust and sensuality.
Montagu's letters portray the Orient and in particular the Oriental woman by
an Orientalist woman. Montagu prefers the Oriental way of life to the Western
one: she declares in a letter from Constantinople to Abbot Conti on 19 May, 1719
that she has "rather be a rich effendi with all his ignorance, than Sir Isaac Newton
with all his knowledge" (Letters, I: 414-15, my italics). In this statement,
Montagu's preference shows the pretended colonial cultural superiority.
Montagu, like other Orientalists, holds this view of the Orient as being ignorant or
having minimal or no knowledge. Moreover, Montagu dreams of a life of
pleasure and happiness. Her feeling of superiority and class aristocracy is very
obvious in her description of what she claims to be "the market of slaves".
In a letter to Lady Bristol on 1 April, 1718, Montagu says: "I cannot forbear
applauding the humanity of the Turks to these creatures [slaves]" (Letters, I: 325).
In this statement, it is ludicrous to talk about humanity in an inhuman action.
Slavery is forbidden and it is considered against the Islamic teachings. It is also a
practice against the humanity and the dignity of the individuals. In spite of this
immoral and inhuman practice of slavery, Montagu perhaps plays the role of the
hypocrite preacher to applaud the "humanity of the Turks to these creatures."
This means that the Orients aren’t violent but they practice the worst violence
toward their fellows. Montagu informs the Western audience very mistakenly
about the Oriental Islamic doctrine.

4. Montagu vs. Other Orientalists

However, Montagu has a major characteristic that distinguishes her from
other Orientalists; she has direct contacts with the Oriental Turkish women.
Montagu's descriptions during her travel in the Orient seem to be very interesting
to an audience who don’t know about the Oriental women. Montagu admits that
the English writers have little knowledge about the people of the Orient, their
religion and manners. In fact, her descriptions and narrating of events rely
heavily on her own observations, first hand information that enables her to
criticize other writers such as Jean Dumont, George Sandys, John Covel, and
others by saying that their reports are inaccurate and ignorant.1 Montagu declares
that she finds pleasure in the reading of the voyages to the Levant, since they are
far removed from truth and "full of absurdities." These writers, she says, lack
objectivity and impartiality and they never give the reader "an account of the
women they never saw. . . The Turks are very proud and will not converse with
a stranger they are not assured is considerable in his country" (Letters, I: 368).
Montagu criticizes these travel writers particularly their accounts of women: "I
cannot forbear admiring either the exemplary discretion or extreme stupidity of all
the writers that have given accounts of [Turkish] women" (327). Montagu rejects
the idea of superiority of the Christian or Western ways by emphasizing that the
Orientalists themselves and the people whom they write about are of lower class;
therefore, they are unable to represent or be representative of the Oriental culture
(368).
Montagu is very critical of the English social system. During the eighteenth
century, the English upper class considers marriage to be a property transaction
where the father of the potential pride "sells" his daughter "for gain." Montagu
says: "People in my way are sold like slaves. I cannot tell what price my father
will put on me" (Life, 16). She thinks it is unjust because she finds out that her
husband has been chosen by her father without her consent or knowledge.
Regarding this matter and by comparing the English with the Oriental Turkish
Muslim society, Montagu believes that upon their marriage, the English women
are deprived of all property right.
According to Still (2009), Montagu "is explicitly concerned not to fall into
the Orientalizing clichés of early modern man's travel writing, which typically
represents Muslim women as imprisoned, harem, enslaved, starved of sex and
sexually veracious" (87). Montagu's predecessors believe that other cultures are
less civilized than the English. These writers portray the foreign and colonial
cultures as different because they are less civilized in customs, religion and
practices than those European societies. The portrait of the Oriental Muslim
culture including Arabs and Turks is "violent and barbaric, slovenly and
lascivious" (Lowe 37). Ahmed (1992) states:
The Western narrative from Montagu's time onwards maintains
that Islam was innately and immutably oppressive to women;
that the veil and segregation epitomized that oppression and
that their customs were the fundamental reasons for the general
and comprehensive backwardness of Islamic action (149).
The Orientalists' distorted view of the Orient, particularly women, is presented
with Oriental stereotypes: Oriental woman is viewed as an object of pleasure and
a means of entertainment. The Orient, as it is presented by these Orientalists, is a
patriarchal society. In fact, those who defend women's rights reduce the woman's
liberty to sexual license. Montagu cites George Sandys (1652), an Orientalist who
began his travels in the Ottoman Empire in 1610, and she includes his views on
the hammams, public baths: "Much unnatural and filthy lust is said to be
committed daily in the remote closets of these dark Bannias. Yea, women with
women; a thing incredible, if former thinks had not given these unto both
detection and punishment" (137). This reflects the Orientalists' fascination with
the Oriental women special places, like baths, and portraits an image of lust and
sensuality. However, Montague views these women's baths as "coffee houses" in
England. Besides, it also hints to a claim of the spread of lesbianism amongst
them. The Orientalists employ their male imagination to narrate Oriental
sensuality and sexualization.2
Montagu has been exposed to the Oriental culture. This exposure enriches
her experience and motivates her to raise provocative issues regarding the concept
of right and wrong and value judgments. In a letter to Lady Rich from Vienna,
which is included in her Turkish letters, she describes the habits of the people
whom she has observed. Montagu notes that "gallantry and good breeding are as
different in different climates as morality and religion. Who have the rightist
notions of both we shall never know till the Day of Judgment" (Letters, I: 272).

5. Montagu and Islam

Montagu seems to compare what she has already found in the Turkish
society with her prior knowledge from these Orientalists. Montagu has some
knowledge about the Oriental religion of Islam through her contact with a Muslim
scholar named Ahmed Bey. She mentions that the translations of the Qur'an are
all copies that "would not fail to falsify it with the extremity of malice." In the
same letter, she compares Islam with Christianity: "Mohametism is divided into as
many sects as Christianity and the first institution as much neglected and obscured
by interpretations" (Letters, I: 321).
The Orient attracts Montage for some reasons. Through her discussions
with Ahmed Bey in Belgrade, Montagu has developed one of the favorite themes:
freedom enjoyed by the Oriental women in comparison with their counterparts in
England. Writing to Lady Mar on 1 April, 1717, Montague says: "'Tis very easy
to see they [Oriental women] have more liberty than we have" (Letters, I: 328). In
her comparison between the British women and the Oriental ones, Montagu
envies the Orientals because they have their own freedom. Montagu finds that the
Oriental Muslim woman preserves her financial independence: when she is
married, she retains control of her money. She has devoted some of her time to
the position of the Oriental woman in her society.
Like other Orientalists, Montagu asserts that "in effect,, there's nothing so
like the Fables of the Greeks and the Muhammadans" (109). Montagu looks at
Islam and compares it to the pantheistic Greek religion. However, she tries to find
similarities between Christianity and Islam. In a letter to her Catholic friend,
Abbot Conti, telling her about the conversations she has with Ahmed Bey, who
has informed her about Islam.
Upon comparing our creeds together, I am convinced that if our
friend Dr. Clarke had free liberty of preaching here, it would be
very easy to persuade the generality to Christianity whose
notions are very little different from his. Mr. Whiston could
make a very good apostle here. I don't doubt his zeal will be
much tried, if you communicate this account to him (Letters, I:
112).
In this letter, Montagu takes pleasure in suggesting to her friend that the Oriental
Muslim Turks might be converted into a Protestant form of Christianity, and in
commanding the morality of the teachings of the Qur'an: Ahmed Bey, a Muslim
scholar, assures her that she "should be very well pleased with reading the
Alcoran which. . . is the purest morality, delivered in the very best language, I
have since heard is impartial Christians speak of it in the same manner" (Letters,
I:166).
Undoubtedly Montagu praises the Qur'an because of its emphatic verses
which prove paradise is open to men and women. But the translations to other
European languages make people understand the distorted image by political and
doctrinal prejudices: "it's certainly false, though commonly believed in our arts of
the world, that Muhammed excludes women from anywhere in a future happy
state" (Life, 109). However, Montagu considers Christianity as the basis for
judgment and as the ground against which she balances what she reports. When
she refers to her fellow countrymen, she identifies them as Christians on more
than one occasion. In a letter to the Princess of Wales, Montagu says: "I have
now, madam, finished a journey that has not been undertaken by any Christian
since the time of the Greek emperors" (Letters, I: 100). In another letter to Mrs.
Thistlethwayle, her friend, she tells her that she has access to the Turkish society
because of her rank: "It must be under a very particular character or on some
extraordinary occasions, that, Christian is admitted into the house of a man of
quality; and their harems are always forbidden grounds" (54). Writing to her
sister, Countess of Mar, she says: "I was invited to dine with the grand vizier's
lady, and it was with "great ideal pleasure I prepared myself for an entertainment
which was never before given to any Christian" (156). Like other Orientalists,
Montagu believes that she is a superior Christian who is granted access to the
Oriental society.

6. Montagu and the Oriental Woman

Regarding her view of the Prophet, Montagu says that it is false to claim
that Mohammed excludes women from any share in a future happy state: "He was
too much gentleman and loved the fair sex too well." She adds, "Women are to
have a separate place in Paradise, but I fancy the most part of them won't like it
the worse for that" (Letters, II: 27). In a letter to Lady Mary, Montagu
emphasizes that the Prophet has designated for the women a significant role on
earth as they are to live and be useful: They shall occupy themselves as far as
possible "a faire des petit Musluman" (I: 407). The Oriental Muslim woman takes
the role and the status of motherhood. Montagu seems to learn Arabic to be able
to make friendship with the Muslim women and she could "boast to be of being
the first foreigner ever to have that pleasure" (2).
Moreover, Montagu has been attracted to the beauty of the Oriental woman.
Comparing the Orientals with their British counterparts, she says in a letter on 1
April, 1717: ". . . it must be conveyed that every beauty is more common here
with us . . . They [Oriental women] have the most beautiful complexions in the
world and generally large black eyes" (Letters, I: 327). Montagu has been
fascinated by the dress of the Oriental Muslim woman. In a letter to her sister,
Lady Mar, she describes her resolve to dress in native attire, to publicly display
herself as an appropriately dressed Muslim woman: "My caftan of the same stuff
with, with my Draves is a robe exactly fitted to my shape and reaching to my foot
with the very long strait falling sleeves" (326). This description is similar to the
one Montagu narrates about the dress of her acquaintance, Fatima, an Oriental
Muslim woman: "She was dressed in a caftan of golden brocade flowered with
silver, very well fitted to her shape and showing to advantage the beauty of her
bosom, only shaded by the thin gauze of her shift" (350).
Regarding the Oriental women's morals, Montagu tells the Countess of Mar,
"As to their morality or good conduct, I can say like Harlequin, it is just with you,
and the Turkish ladies don't commit one sin the less for not being Christians"
(327). Moreover, Montagu reports that there are a number of European Christian
women who are married to Turkish Muslims and they have stayed in Turkey as
they see that the women are respected and the Oriental men are generous.
Montagu believes that the Oriental women are free. She insists that the
veiled women are the freest women: "The perpetual masquerade gives them the
entire liberty of following their own inclinations without danger of discovering"
(328). Montagu begins to feel that "the Turkish women are the only free people in
the Empire" (329). Montagu seems to differ from other Orientalists in this matter
with her reference to the veil: she sees the veil as an advantage and it is for the
beauty of the woman whereas others equate it with oppression.
Moreover, Montagu assures that Oriental Muslim women have souls and
that "Any woman that dies unmarried as looked upon to die in a state of
reprobation . . . Many of them . . . will not remain widows ten days, for fear
of dying in the reprobate state of useless, creative" (Letters, II: 205). Montagu
exaggerates and uses her imagination in this matter because her view is absolutely
wrong. Matrimony doesn't influence the spiritual fate of a Muslim woman. In
Islam, the widow is forbidden to marry until a period of four months and ten days
has elapsed after the death of her husband.
In a number of instances, Montagu her imagination sweep her away.
Montagu's descriptions have been taken in suspicion by other women travelers of
the Orient. Julia Pardoe, an English traveler to the Orient in 1854, doubts
Montagu's story, particularly her visit to the baths: "I witnessed none of the
unnecessary wanton exposure described by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Either
the fair ambassadress was present at a peculiar ceremony, or the Turkish ladies
have become more delicate and fastidious in their ideas of propriety" (48). Pardoe
sees that Montagu takes pleasure in telling a good story than giving respect for the
naked truth. Undoubtedly, Montagu's narration raises some questions regarding its
authenticity.

7. Conclusion
In conclusion, Montagu contributes to the mainstream eighteenth century
Orietnalists' ideas. Although she thinks differently from some of these
Orientalists and tries to clear some ideas about the Orient, Montagu is still one of
those who have attempted to portray the Orient as a place of sensuality, sexuality,
and exoticism. In her letters, she attempts to prove that she is the only Western
traveler who is allowed to get involved with the Oriental woman and give
descriptions from within the harem. Montagu uses her fantasies in some of her
narration in order to entertain her Western audience as she tells Lady Mary: "Now
I fancy that you imagine I have entertained you all this while with a reaction that
has (at least received many embellishments from my hand . . . This is but too
like (says you) the Arabian Nights tales" (Letters, I: 385, my italics).
Undoubtedly, Montagu has been influenced by the Arabian Nights. Montague
reveals the differences between the Oriental women and their English
counterparts. Her Turkish Embassy Letters is a contribution to the early
eighteenth century Turkish court life and the status of women from an Orientalist's
point of view. Montagu thinks that the Oriental Muslim woman is the freest of all
women. In her description of the Oriental women in their baths, she portrays
them as objects of sensuality and lust.

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9. Footnotes
1) Montagu believes that fallacies compromise Western dialogue; see Jean
Dumnot, Nouveau Voyage au Levant (1694), translated into English in 1696; Paul
Rycant, The Present State of the Ottoman Empire (1667), The History of the
Turkish Empire from 1623-1677; and George Sandys, A Relation of Journey
Began 1610 Containing Descriptions of the Turkish Empire in Egypt, of the Holy
Land, of the Remote Parts of Italy (1615).
2) For more information on the English writers' portrayal of the Orient
between 1580-1720, see Mclean (2008); Mclean focuses just on four books;
Thomas Dallam's Voyage-1599 to Istanbul; William Biddlap (1609) Travels;
Henry Blouht, Travels (1636); and The Adventures of Mr. T.S: An English
Merchant Taken Prisoner by Turks in Algeria (1670).