The AHD

seraglio
 
SYLLABICATION: se·ra·glio
PRONUNCIATION:   s-rly, -räl-
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. se·ra·glios
1. A large harem. 2. A sultan’s palace. Also called serai.  
ETYMOLOGY: Italian serraglio, enclosure, seraglio, probably partly from Vulgar Latin *serraculum, enclosure (from *serrre, to lace up, from Latin serre, from sera, door-bar) and partly from Turkish saray, palace (from Persian sary, inn; see ter-2 in Appendix I).

And in Russian, ‘sarai’ is just a shack, a hut. :o

-norio

Interesting.

Seraglio itself, though, must have had another route into Russian (as a borrowing from Italian?) since Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail is Pokhishcheniye iz seralya in Russian.

Coemgenus

The word "seral’ " is not frequently used in Russian, rather "garem" (harem) is used.

Was it carried on Italian wings to Russia? I don’t know.
Unfortunately, I have no access here to any etymological dictionary.

norio