Introduction: Historiography of Late Ottoman Women

Abstract

This is the introductory chapter of A Social History of Late Ottoman Women , which aspires to bring together new and developing outlooks in Ottoman women's studies as part of a new generation of scholarship on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book contribute to debates connecting work on women in Ottoman history to that on women in other places and times. The chapter attempts unearthing new sources, and extending the realm of discussion in research on late Ottoman and early Republican women. Nationalism and the nation state continue to serve as significant domains for women's historiography in the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire. Work and education are the demands most frequently made by Ottoman feminists. The chapter addresses the depiction of stereotypes of women in the erotic literature and popular novels of early Republican Istanbul. Keywords:education; Istanbul; late Ottoman women; Middle East; Ottoman Empire