The Ottoman Empire used a Secret Sign Language

In the 1600s, the court of the Ottoman Empire employed some 40 deaf servants.

Sultan Selim III in front of the Gate of Felicity (1789) via Wikimedia Commons

They were chosen not in spite of their deafness, but because of it. The deaf servants were favored companions of the sultan, and their facility in nonverbal communication made them indispensable to the court, where decorum restricted speech in the sultan’s presence. Read the fascinating story of the deaf servants here.

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