Old Persia

HAREM
Women played an important role in the life of the Qajar monarchs. Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah and Nāṣer-al-Din Shah, in particular, kept a large harem.
Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah’s harem. Though the number of his wives and concubines can not accurately be determined, it was probably over a thousand, with an inevitable huge offspring (for a partial biographical list of Fatḥ-ʿAli Shah’s wives, daughters, and sons prepared by Navāʾi, see Solṭān-Aḥmad Mirzā, pp. 336-64). 
Women had the most disparate origins (daughters of Qajar notables, of tribal chiefs, of members of the Afsharid and the Zand dynasties, etc.) and belonged to different religious groups (Jewish, Zoroastrian, Armenian, and Muslim). Every woman had white and black servants and eunuchs, whose number varied according to her status. Some wives had a house apart with personnel and stables of their own, whose expenses were supported by the crown (Solṭān-Aḥmad Mirzā, p. 24).
Though the harem consisted of several thousand people, its internal administration was precise and based on the women’s rank. At the top of the hierarchy was the shah’s mother, who was referred to as Mahd-e ʿOlyā (Sublime Cradle), and had, amongst other duties and prerogatives, the responsibility of safeguarding the harem wealth, especially the jewels, which she administered with the help of female secretaries (mirzās; Solṭān-Aḥmad Mirzā,