Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Suraiya Faroqhi is Professor Emerita at Ibn Haldun University, Turkey. She has previously held positions at Istanbul Bilgi, Turkey, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Germany and the Middle East Technical University. A leading expert on the social history of the Ottoman Empire, her books include Subjects of the Sultan (I.B.Tauris, 2000), The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It (I.B.Tauris, 2003), Artisans of Empire (I.B.Tauris, 2009) and The Ottoman and Mughal Empires (I.B.Tauris, 2019).A remarkable book that masterfully traces the changes in the <i>condition féminine</i> during the early modern and modern periods. With a tremendous command of primary sources and the secondary literature, Faroqhi covers all the themes in the field by providing a fascinating panorama of the history of Ottoman women through the perspective of women’s agency.
Betül Ipsirli Argit, Marmara University, Turkey
<i>Women in the Ottoman Empire</i> is a unique product of Suraiya Faroqhi’s decades of experience. On the one hand, it provides a striking overview of the body of Ottoman/Middle Eastern women’s studies, and on the other, it enriches the field with a touch that embraces the cultural, religious, social, and ethnic diversity of the empire. The book is an ideal introduction for newcomers to the field and a source of pride for experienced researchers, reflecting the existing scholarship.
Yahya Araz, Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey
[<i>Women of the Ottoman Empire</i>] constitutes a seminal contribution to the field not only of the history of women, but to Ottoman history in general. Based on an immense knowledge of the historiography and on precise, first-hand research in a series of archives, it proposes innovative interpretations and opens new research perspectives … [T]he book remains a fundamental basis for understanding not only the place of women, but also the nature of the Ottoman Empire.
CEU Review of Books
A highly insightful, well-informed and far-reaching study that has definitely pioneer status … Faroqhi masterfully evokes voices that have long been denied their linguistic space.
WZKM
Each chapter presents a series of compelling case studies, drawing upon both primary and secondary sources, and is articulated in a manner that is both captivating and engaging.
International Review of Social History
Faroqhi’s book is a significant and timely contribution to Ottoman women’s history. Its broad chronological, geographical, and thematic scope makes it an essential resource for students and scholars in the field. By focusing on women’s agency and survival strategies, the book not only expands our understanding of Ottoman women’s lives but also invites further discussion on the intersections of gender, power, and historical change.
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
<i>Women in the Ottoman Empire </i>is a masterful exploration that not only unveils the diversity and agency of Ottoman women but also challenges established historical narratives. Suraiya Faroqhi’s ability to navigate the complex web of women’s experiences, her inclusion of rich case studies with specific examples, and her rigorous scholarly approach makes this book an essential resource for Ottoman historians, gender scholars, and anyone intrigued by the profound intricacies of women’s lives in historical contexts.
Diyâr, Journal of Ottoman, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies
<i>Women in the Ottoman Empire</i> provides an informative and comprehensive survey of Ottoman women’s strategies of empowerment and survival. It does this by tracing how family relations, social aid and paid work occasionally opened spaces for women from the 16th to the early 20th centuries, as well as the structural constraints that limited those occasions. It would be particularly helpful for those looking for a guide to the sources available to students of women and gender in the Ottoman Empire and the most prominent topics of inquiry and debates in the scholarly literature. The book’s discussion of the limitations of the existing historical data and the questions that remain due to those limitations would be especially useful for newcomers to the field who would like to learn about the gaps in the scholarship.
Turkish Area Studies Review
[<i>Women of the Ottoman Empire</i>] is as thorough and comprehensive a study of women in the Ottoman Empire as the subject, in its present state of development, permits. It provides us with a masterly conspectus of what we know, while at the same time pointing researchers to fields yet to be explored.
Colin Imber, Journal of Islamic Studies
It is an often ignored but fundamental fact that in the Ottoman world, as in most empires, there were ‘first-class’ and ‘second class’ subjects. Among the townspeople, peasants and nomads subject to the sultans, who might be Muslims or non-Muslims, adult Muslim males were first-class subjects and all others, including Muslim boys and women, were of the second class. As for the female members of the elite, while less privileged than the males, in some respects their life chances might be better than those of ordinary women. Even so, they shared the risks of pregnancy, childbirth and epidemic diseases with townswomen of the subject class and to a certain extent, with village women as well. Thus, the study of Ottoman women is indispensable for understanding Ottoman society in general.
In this book, the agency of women from a diverse range of class, religious, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds is, for the first time, woven into the social and political history of the Ottoman Empire, from the early-modern period to its dissolution in 1918. Suraiya Faroqhi charts the history of elite and non-elite women in thematic chapters concentrating on urban women, family life, work, slavery, education and survival in times of war. In the process the book introduces readers to the key sources, primary and secondary, necessary to reconstruct and understand the ways that females navigated social, legal and economic constraints, through the central prisms of family relations, work and charity. The first introductory social history of women in the Ottoman Empire, and including a timeline and extended further reading section, this book will be essential reading for scholars and students of Ottoman history and the history of women in the Middle East.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
A note on spelling and transliteration
Introduction
Prologue: A conspectus of Ottoman history
1. Ottoman women, Ottoman history: Coping with a changing world
Part I (1500s to about 1700)
2. The legal framework of family life
3. Dependent on work, investments and charity
4. Exceptionally talented, exceptionally active: women of distinction
Part II (about 1700-1870s)
5. Ottoman diversity: Female agency and survival in Ottoman Syria and Egypt
6. Ottoman diversity: Coping with relatives, the state and dependent capitalism
Part III (1870-1918)
7. Female teachers, journalists and actors: education as a source of survival skills
8. Before 1912: Making a living through family relations, work and charity – and occasionally turning to crime
9. In profound distress:Struggling to survive the disintegration of the empire (1912-18)
Conclusion
Suggestions for further reading: A bibliographical essay
Notes
Timeline
Glossary