, the trader could not find a customer for him because he looked too thin and weak, so the trader fed him with oil, but to little avail. Eventually, he was purchased by an upper class lady who named him after her former slave whom she had sent off to the Ottoman palace before his arrival. Toledano informs us that 'Women of the upper-class were also involved privately in the lucrative and highly selective trade in eunuchs' (1982, p. 59), and she was probably one of them. During the next three years, Nadir was taught Arabic in the house of this woman.