Jus primae noctis or droit du seigneur
is actually the right to sleep with a nubile (young and sexually attractive) servant before turning her over to her servant husband (the right by which a landlord may sleep first night with the bride of a newly married serf), although the custom maybe avoided by the payment of a fine.
The plot of the opera Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is mainly based on the Jus primae noctis. Figaro and Susanna are to be married but Count Almaviva the lord of the castle near Seville in Spain will take advantage of the Jus primae noctis and spend a night with the bride.
The right held itself to the end of the 19th century in Russia. In America this right (unofficial) existed up to the civil war with the slave holding of the American Southern States.......
The picture, painted by Paja Jovanovic, shows a bride preparing for the wedding night. The first night he is going to spend with her landlord. Landlords (beg, aga) were usually from Turkey but there were many local noble birth converted to Islam to save their privileges when the region was controlled by the Ottoman Empire.
* The right was used on a braid of a feudal dependant or servant. They were Christians and the right wasn't used on Muslim brides.
On the day before her wedding the
young Serb bride will be visited by a representative of the landlord (beg, aga). The representative is usually accompanied by a file of soldiers. The representative takes the bride to the house of the landlord for a day and a night, and returns her to her home at dawn on the wedding day.
An interesting detail on the picture is that all women on the picture are dressed in traditional oriental (Turkish style) clothing.
Under the Ottomans textile styles has influenced by Islamic tradition.
Even present-day words for textiles are often derived from the Islamic world, such as damask from Damascus.
Women wore "
dimije" (it looks like baggy trousers) of thin, often gold-woven, silk brocade, emphasizing the female figure.
In Islamic countries, both men and women continue to follow tradition, concealing their hair in public under headcloths, turbans, fezzes, or veils. Women on the picture except the one on the right have their hair covered with a
shawl (also called shamija or mahram) according to the Islamic custom.
1998 Yugoslav postal authorities issued 4 stamps dedicated to national customs. The motif on the stamp of 6,00 din. value is the painting
"Dressing/Adornmnet of the Bride" by Paja Jovanovic
..прекудринските православни Турци како израз на понос на своите предци..
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