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The Kizlar Agha (, , ), formally the Agha of the House of Felicity (, ), was the head of the who guarded the Ottoman Imperial Harem in Constantinople.
Established in 1574, the post ranked among the most important in the Ottoman Empire until the early 19th century, especially after the stewardship of the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the supervision of all (charitable foundations) in the Empire came under his purview. The wealth thus amassed, the proximity to the sultan, and the role the harem ladies played in court intrigues ("Sultanate of Women") meant that its occupant had considerable political influence; several kızlar aghas were responsible for the downfall of and the accession of sultans. Soon after its creation and until its abolition, close to the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate, the post came to be occupied by Black African eunuch slaves, and hence is also referred to as the Chief Black Eunuch.
The 16th century, however, saw a rapid rise of the population of the Topkapı Palace, including among eunuchs, whose numbers rose from 40 under Selim I () to over a thousand under Murad III. While black eunuchs had served alongside white eunuchs in the palace, by 1592, for unclear reasons, both a separation of roles as well as the ascendancy of the black eunuchs over the white ones had become established: white eunuchs were restricted to the supervision of the male pages ( iç oğlan (" Enderûn (Inner Palace) Boy]]"), while black eunuchs took over the far more prestigious supervision of the private apartments of the sultan and the palace women). Consequently, the "chief black eunuch" quickly eclipsed the "chief white eunuch" or kapı ağası "agha of the gate", who had hitherto been the head of the palace personnel, and rose to become, in the words of the Orientalist scholar Clifford Edmund Bosworth, "in practice the principal officer of the whole palace".
At the height of the post's power in the 17th and 18th centuries, the kızlar ağası was a vizier of the first rank ("with three tuğs") and came third in the state hierarchy, next only to the Empire's chief minister, the grand vizier, and the chief religious authority, the Shaykh al-Islām.
Another reason for the use of black eunuchs is believed to be the cultural and geographical differences between the Kizlar agha and the harem he guarded. The rationale being that it would help to mitigate sexual contact between guardians and the harem. Jane Hathaway, a researcher specializing in Ottoman history, also posits that these displaced elite slaves were preferred over free subjects due to concerns about free subject's loyalty - the East African slave's dependence on their new rulers and lack of familial ties would ensure that no regional bias was present.
Most Kizlar Agha did not remain in service of the harem up to their deaths. They would be dismissed and exiled to Cairo, removed from central political influence. Although removed from the harem of the Ottoman capitol, an exiled Kizlar Agha would still maintain influence as they joined a network of other previously exiled Kizlar agha whom the new acting Kizlar agha would be aware of.
The often pernicious involvement of the chief black eunuchs in politics led to at least one attempt, by Grand Vizier Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha in 1715, to curb their influence by prohibiting the recruitment and castration of black slaves, but this was never carried out due to his death soon after. Indeed, the long tenure of Hacı Beshir Agha that followed in 1717–1746 is recognized as perhaps the apogee of the post's power and influence. Beshir Agha was a notable patron of the "Tulip Era" culture then flourishing in the empire, being was engaged in "intellectual and religious pursuits" that according to historian Jateen Lad "contributed to the Ottoman brand of Hanafi Islam and Sunni orthodoxy in general". After the downfall of Sultan Ahmed III in 1730, his influence was such that he was responsible for the elevation of grand viziers and the direction of foreign affairs. In 1731, Grand Vizier Kabakulak Ibrahim Pasha tried to force Beshir's retirement to stop him from interfering in state affairs, but through the influence of the valide sultan, Beshir secured Ibrahim's dismissal instead. Beshir died in 1747 at an advanced age. His successor, also called Beshir, was executed in 1752.
After that, the grand viziers curtailed the kizlar aghas' power. The 1830s Tanzimat of Sultan Mahmud II () finally ended the political power of the kizlar aghas, and those who held the role were confined to their palace and ceremonial role, which continued until the abolition of the office following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908.
Control of the waqfs was, in the words of Bernard Lewis, a major "source of power and profit" for the kizlar agha, and the foundation of the office's political influence: its conferment by Murad III marked the start of the office's ascendancy, and its eventual removal by Mahmud II marked its end. As part of the grand viziers' attempts to lessen the power of the kizlar aghas, unsuccessful attempts were made in the reigns of Mustafa III () and Abdul Hamid I () to remove the waqfs from his jurisdiction. Finally, in 1834, Mahmud II deprived the post of the supervision of the waqfs and granted it to a new Ministry of Waqfs.
This began a long process whereby the kizlar agha gradually acquired a sweeping jurisdiction over the various waqfs of the Empire: already in May 1598, he acquired control of the foundations allocated to the upkeep of the imperial mosques in the capital, followed soon after by vakifs in both Constantinople and other parts of the Empire, often entrusted to his care by the ladies of the palace. Among the possessions that fell to the kizlar agha in this way was the city of Athens. According to a—possibly semi-fictional—17th-century account, the administration of the city was originally granted to Basilica, one of Sultan Ahmed I's () favourite concubines, who hailed from the city and who, having received many complaints of its maladministration, obtained its possession as a gift from the sultan. After her death, Athens came under the purview of the kizlar agha.
The administration of the waqfs was exercised through two subordinates, the chief secretary ( yazici) and the inspector of waqfs ( müfettiş), and was divided into two fiscal departments: the Bureau of Accounts of the Holy Cities ( muhasebe-i haremeyn kalemi), which by the late 18th century supervised the imperial mosques and the waqfs of Istanbul and European provinces, and the Bureau of the Leases of the Holy Cities ( mukataa-i haremeyn kalemi), which supervised the vakifs of the Asian and African provinces. A special treasury, the haremeyn dolabi, contained the revenue from the vakifs, and the kizlar agha held a weekly divan or council to examine the accounts.
Due to Islamic prohibitions on castration, slaves were preferably castrated Copts or Sudanese Jews or Egyptian Jews. Also, the people who were castrated due to their crimes were accepted in this job as well. The eunuchs usually received flower names, and after a period of training in the palace school, they entered service in the harem. The eunuchs began at the post of ordinary recruit ( en aşağı, literally "the lowest", and acemi ağa, "the untrained"), and gradually advanced through the ranks, from nevbet kalfa ("watch substitute") to senior posts in the guard of the harem. Having completed their training and after a period of service, some were detached from guard duties and transferred to the attendance of the inhabitants of the harem: the sultan's attendants ( müsahip ağaları), the seven eunuch servants plus a head eunuch ( baş ağa) attached to each valide, principal wife ( kadın), or prince ( şehzade), the eunuch who led harem prayers, the harem's treasurer ( hazinedar ağası), or the müsendereci, who supervised the work of the other eunuchs. The senior-most eunuchs were known as hasıllı, from an Arabic word meaning "product".
From these senior posts, a eunuch could be selected and appointed to the post of kizlar agha by imperial decree ( hatt-ı hümayun) and the ceremonial receipt of a robe of office ( hil'at) from the sultan. Alongside the lands belonging to the office, the kizlar agha usually received a personal fief ( hass). In the Topkapi Palace, the kizlar agha had his own spacious apartment near the Aviary Gate, while the other eunuchs under his supervision lived together in cramped and rather squalid conditions in a three-storey barracks. When they were dismissed, the chief black eunuchs received a pension ( asatlık, literally "document of liberty") and from 1644 on were exiled to Egypt Eyalet or the Habesh Eyalet. Starting in the late 17th century, many former holders were appointed to head the eunuchs who guarded the Tomb of Muhammad in Medina. As a result, serving kizlar aghas often took care to prepare for a comfortable retirement in Egypt by buying property and establishing vakifs of their own there. Thus they became local grandees and were involved in patronizing trade and agriculture. Thus, given the vital role Egypt played in the provisioning of the two holy cities, for which the kizlar aghas were particularly responsible while in office, the aghas and their agents ( vakils) came to play a very important role in the economy of Ottoman Egypt.
The careers of a significant number of kizlar aghas are known from the Hamiletü’l-kübera of the late 18th-century Ottoman statesman and historian Ahmed Resmî Efendi, listing the occupants of the office from Mehmed Agha (1574–90) until Moralı Beshir Agha (1746–52). The work is complemented by select biographies in the Sicill-i Osmani by the late 19th-century scholar Mehmed Süreyya Bey, while information on the history and evolution of the office in the institutional framework of the Ottoman palace is contained in Tayyarzade Ahmed Ata's Tarih-i Ata (1876).
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