Đojleni (also adžuvani) was a term used during the first half of the 19th century for young Serbian men who maintained romantic and sexual relationships with Ottoman officials and other wealthy Ottoman men in Belgrade. These relationships could involve payment or financial support, making it “prostitution”. The phenomenon was documented during the period when the Principality of Serbia was gradually gaining political autonomy from the Ottoman Empire.
Historian, sociologist, and lawyer Ivan Janković,[1][2][3] who has researched prostitution and sexuality in Belgrade during the first half of the 19th century using archival sources, states that wealthy and prominent Ottoman men kept young Serbian men known as adžuvani or đojleni. These young men received money and other forms of support in return for their services.[4]
Name and meaning
The word adžuvan is recorded in Abdulah Škaljić’s 1966 work Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku (“Turkisms in the Serbo-Croatian Language”), where it is defined as meaning “young man” and “lover”.[5]
Janković interprets đojle as meaning “favorite”, referring to someone who was particularly dear to another person. In the archival documents he examined, several terms were used for expenses connected with their maintenance, including “djeci”, “đojlenima”, “daire djeci”, and “đojle-egbi”.[4]
The Vizier of Belgrade and the đojleni
According to Janković, the Vizier of Belgrade maintained several đojleni. They were looked after by a special official whose position was comparable to that of other senior members of the vizier’s household. Their maintenance was included among the expenses of the vizier and his entourage.[4]
In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Janković described this group as the vizier’s “male harem”. He also stated that such relationships existed openly enough in Belgrade that they were not necessarily kept secret, although homosexual relations among the Christian population were socially and legally stigmatized.[1]
One document cited by Janković states that Prince Miloš Obrenović reproached the then Vizier of Belgrade, Husein Pasha, for spending his nights drinking and entertaining himself with his adžuvani. The term also appears in an insulting letter addressed to Vuk Karadžić, in which a man named Kosta is accused of having been an adžuvan of the Belgrade pasha’s son.[4]
Documented cases
Janković cites several archival documents describing suspected or documented sexual relationships between young men and Ottoman residents of Belgrade.
In 1829, a widow from Zemun appealed to the authorities to have her son Jovan returned. She had previously sent him to Belgrade to learn a trade. According to her complaint, Jovan was spending both days and nights with Turks and had acquired a considerable amount of money that had not come from his family. She therefore suspected that he was involved in a sexual relationship.[4]
In 1842, Đorđe Lazarević from Smederevo was accused of entering Belgrade without a passport and associating with Turks. The contemporary document accused him of engaging in “sodomitic fornication” (sodomsko bludosmešenije).[4]
The weekly magazine Vreme also discussed the subject in a 2014 review of Janković’s book. It described an adžuvan or đojlen as a “male favorite” and noted that the role could involve an element of prostitution.[6]
Distinction from other terms
Đojleni and adžuvani should not be confused with adumi or adumci, terms referring to eunuchs. Eunuchs were also employed in Ottoman households and harems, but Janković notes that their expenses were recorded separately in contemporary accounts.[4]
The đojleni were also different from köçeks (Turkish: köçek), young male dancers who performed in women’s clothing in Ottoman taverns and at celebrations. Köçek performances could have a homoerotic character, but they represented a separate social and professional phenomenon from the đojleni.[4]
References
Dušan Komarčević, “Janković: Život prostitutki na beogradskoj kaldrmi u 19. veku”, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 12 August 2017.
Janković & Mihajlović 2017.
Janković, Ivan (2015). “Obšte bludnice: prostitucija u Beogradu u prvoj polovini 19. veka”. Godišnjak za društvenu istoriju. XXII/2. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. ISSN 0354-5318.
Ivan Janković, “LGBT+ u 19. veku u Srbiji”, Peščanik, 9 May 2017.
Škaljić 1966, p. 71.
Vasić, Miloš: “Prostitucija u Srba – studija slučaja”, Vreme, 19 February 2014.
Further reading
Janković, Ivan; Mihajlović, Veljko (2017). Kata Nesiba i komentari. Belgrade: Fabrika knjiga. ISBN 978-86-7718-167-3.
Škaljić, Abdulah (1966). Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku. Sarajevo: Svjetlost.
