Betul Ipsirli Argit. Life after the Harem: Female Palace Slaves, Patronage, and the Imperial Ottoman Court.

Abstract

Ottoman-era women and issues of gender have enjoyed growing prominence in the scholarly literature over the last several decades. Women’s place in society, the workings of gender in the operations of the law, and the intricacies of family formation and breakdown are only a few of the research avenues that have sharpened the profile of at least some Ottoman women. In Life after the Harem, Betül İpşirli Argıt has opened a window into the lives of some of the rarest yet most imagined of Ottoman women: former slave denizens of the imperial harem. We know little enough about such women, property of the dynasty, during their years in the palace, but even less about their postpalace lives after release from imperial ownership. Given the limitations of the sources, and despite Argıt’s remarkable research efforts, it is not surprising that for the most part the subjective experience of emancipated palace...