خواجه

thumb|upright=1.2|The Ottoman Court positions|Harem Ağası, head of the black eunuchs of the [[Ottoman Imperial Harem]] A eunuch ( , ) is a boy or man who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium BC. Over the millennia since, they performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures: courtiers or equivalent domestics, for espionage or clandestine operations, castrato singers, concubines or sexual partner