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A seraglio is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish Muslim household, from an Italian variant of Turkish sarayı, meaning 'palace, enclosed courts'. Topkapi Palace (Topkapı Sarayı) is the main Ottoman palace in Istanbul, now a museum. A caravanserai, an alternate westernization of sarayı, is an inn or rest stop for caravans. The word has a Persian origin and comes from Persian سرای sarây.
It is related to harem, and therefore in the heated European Orientalism imagination a place of dalliance, debauchery and odalisques. The term can also refer to any traditional Turkish palaces and grand houses built around courtyards.
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