>>5706030Slavery has long been connected to Islamic countries. The newly minted USA had to build a navy just to sail to north Africa to stop Algerian pirates ("Halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli...") intercepting American ships and enslaving sailors.
That painting is of one black slave (odalisques) washing the white harem woman (concubine). Odalisques are servants of the sultan's wives and concubines. If the odalisque is exceptional in beauty or talent (either singing, dancing or sexual), then they can be promoted to concubine. There can be thousands of women in a harem.
It was considered a privilege to serve in a harem. It provided a stable, safe and pleasant world that attracted thousands of women from Georgia to Morocco.
The very idea of such a huge sexual/sensual institution titillated Europe, particularly the French as shown by the painting "The Bath" by Jean-Leon Gerome (1824–1904).
