Wrapped in citrus and wood barks, the orange blossom weaves a painter’s dream from which escapes the pale curl of smoke from a narghile. Like an orientalist painting, furiously romantic, the vigorous scent of the wild juniper and the solar splinter of citrus fruits spring out like a thin steel blade in silky shadow of vanilla. In the Ottoman empire, odalisques were slaves who served the wives of the sultan, often depicted nude, prone and languid. They could improve their social status until they became a “favourite concubine” or wife of the sultan.
