Women in the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Turkish women "Enjoying coffee" in a Harem. The Harem was a space for Muslim women of all classes, but the Imperial Harem wielded immense political power.

Women in the Ottoman Empire had different rights and positions depending on their religion and class. Ottoman women were permitted to participate in the legal system, purchase and sell property, inherit and bequeath wealth, and participate in other financial activities.The Tanzimat reforms of the nineteenth century created additional rights for women, particularly in the field of education. Some of the first schools for girls were started in 1858, though the curriculum was focused mainly on teaching Muslim wives and mothers.

The Sultanate of Women, an era that dates back to the 1520s and lasted through the mid-seventeenth century, was a period during which high-ranking women wielded political power and public importance through their engagement in domestic politics, foreign negotiations, and regency. Queen Mothers and Chief Concubines gained considerable influence through Harem politics. Some of the most influential valide sultan were Nurbanu Sultan, Safiye Sultan, Handan Sultan, Halime Sultan, Kösem Sultan and Turhan Hatice Sultan.[1][2][3]

Women in Ottoman Law

During the reign of the Ottoman Empire, women possessed a degree of freedom under Islamic law that was regarded as being exceptional in the era. These rights included, but were not limited to, the ability to own property, to approach the judicial system on their own without consulting a male (including bringing divorce claims to court), to acquire education in religious and scholarly fields, and to be financially independent.[4][5]

Muslim women in the Ottoman Empire were governed by the Sharia, which deals with many topics addressed by the secular law including crime, politics, economics, and personal matters such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer, everyday etiquette and fasting.

There are two primary sources of sharia laws: the precepts set forth in the Quranic verses (ayahs) and the Hadith, which is the application of Islam practiced by the prophet Muhammad and his companions.[6] Human attempts to apply sharia is known as fiqh, also known as the collection of Islamic Jurisprudence. The fiqh is expressed in four major Sunni schools of law, of which the Ottomans favored the Hanafi school which is regarded as being the most flexible and liberal application of sharia.[7][8]

Islamic judges (qadis) presided over the interpretation of sharia in Islamic courts during the Ottoman Empire. The Qadi could offer binding decisions in sharia courts, resting his interpretation on the prescribed school of law. The muftis provided opinions (fatwas) on questions regarding the pursuit of sharia.

Some women possessed a great deal of influence during this era. Muslim women in particular “bought and sold property, inherited and bequeathed wealth, established waqfs [endowments], borrowed and lent money, and at times served as holders of Timars (a sort of fiefdom given to Ottoman Cavalry and the lower nobility). They also held usufruct rights on Miri [state] land, as tax farmers and in business partnerships.” Owing to their leverage in sharia courts and the importance of these courts in the empire, non-Muslim women often viewed conversion as a way to attain greater autonomy.[9] They also had access to the justice system and could access a judge, as well as be taken to court themselves. In comparison, many married European women did not enjoy these privileges, nor could they own property until the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. Because women had access to the legal system, much of the information about their role in Ottoman society is sourced from court records.[10]

The status of women in regional courts can be adjudged through preserved court records dating back to 1541 in the Aintab court. Although women were permitted to bring cases in front of the court, men and women were not considered equal by the court, and were subject to separate codes of law and procedures.[11] Maximum proceedings of Ottoman courts were based on the morality of an oath, or testimony, provided by a witness. Crimes required a minimum number of witnesses to be presented before the court. Yet, women were largely unable to take this oath to testify to the court, and since they spent much of their time in the presence of other women, it was often impossible to find male witnesses to testify on their behalf.[11]

Divorces were frequent and could be initiated by either party. However, men did not have to provide a reason and could expect to be compensated and to compensate their wives, whereas women had to provide a reason, such as “there is a lack of good understanding between us.” Upon divorce, women would lose any financial benefit received courtesy of the marriage and would sometimes have to pay the husband.[12]

An Egyptian fellah woman, a peasant or farmer, distinguished from the effendi land-owning class, painted by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann in 1878. Jerichau-Baumann based this and similar works on her experiences travelling the Ottoman Empire in 1869–1870 and 1874–1875. Unlike many of her contemporaries, she had access to the region's harems and could base her paintings on personal observation. Many of her subjects insisted on being painted in the latest Paris fashions.

Jewish women during the Ottoman Empire

During the Ottoman Empire, Jewish women mostly remained confined to their private family lives and had little involvement beyond their homes. This continued until the 19th century. Women faced seclusion in religious life as well; while attending synagogue a laced veil would be placed in the area of worship to render women symbolically invisible to the opposite sex. Ottoman homes of Jewish families often had a protected garden and a main courtyard, which was known as the kortijo. Life of Ottoman Jewish women was focused on their extended families as well as these kortijo. Jewish women utilized this space to complete chores and finish embroideries, and well off women would brief their servants at the same time.

Most women of the Jewish community were not educated, which is in contrast to men who were formally educated. Jewish women were restricted to speaking Judeo-Spanish, with the exception of elite women, who were generally given greater access to education and could possibly speak more than one language. Jewish women's lives, as mentioned earlier, were based on family and focused on conducting the domestic scene. Mothers, grandmothers, and other elder Jews would pass on strong traditions to young women. Their husbands did not learn the Jewish traditions from their wives. Instead, they had close ties with the rabbis and would learn about the Judaic culture through religious leaders, which gave them a more in-depth understanding. Prior to the 19th-century, Jewish women were only educated in certain aspects of Judaic culture; they were only taught the "domestic" activities which included the subjects of keeping kosher, maintaining holiday traditions, and observing life cycle events.

Besides being educated in the domestic aspect of Judaic culture, Jewish women also had to follow a moral code. They took pride in respecting this code due to the fact that one who respected the code also had a good reputation within the community. Such a reputation was not just for the woman herself but for her entire family, which is why following this code of conduct was important. Women of Jewish descent were able to sell goods, and some even participated in real estate, but the most common line of work for Jewish women was to participate in their family business. Most family businesses were textile-related and/or embroidery related; others worked in the silk making industry. However, everything that was made in these homes or workshops was for the elite families in the Ottoman Empire. Jewish women were also placed in a certain class and it was predetermined by one's family roots as well as the family roots of the husband.[13]

Slavery of women

An 18th-century painting of the harem of Sultan Ahmed III, by Jean Baptiste Vanmour.

Circassians, Syrians, and Nubians were the three primary races of females who were sold as sex slaves in the Ottoman Empire. Circassian girls were described as fair and light-skinned and were frequently enslaved by Crimean Tatars then sold to Ottomans. They were the most expensive, reaching up to 500 pounds sterling and the most popular with the Turks. Second in popularity were Syrian girls, with their dark eyes, dark hair, and light brown skin, and came largely from coastal regions in Anatolia. Their price could reach up to 30 pounds sterling. They were described as having "good figures when young". Nubian girls were the cheapest and least popular, fetching up to 20 pounds sterling.[14]

The concubines of the Ottoman Sultan consisted chiefly of purchased slaves. The Sultan's concubines were generally of Christian origin. The mother of a Sultan, though technically a slave, received the extremely powerful title of Valide Sultan which raised her to the status of a ruler of the Empire (see Sultanate of Women). One notable example was Kösem Sultan, daughter of a Greek Christian priest, who dominated the Ottoman Empire during the early decades of the 17th century.[15] Roxelana (also known as Hürrem Sultan), another notable example, was the favorite wife of Suleiman the Magnificent.[16]

Giulio Rosati, Inspection of New Arrivals, 1858–1917, Circassian beauties.

The concubines were guarded by enslaved eunuchs, themselves often from pagan Africa. The eunuchs were headed by the Kizlar Agha ("agha of the [slave] girls"). While Islamic law forbade the emasculation of a man, Ethiopian Christians had no such compunctions; thus, they enslaved and emasculated members of territories to the south and sold the resulting eunuchs to the Ottoman Porte.[17][18] The Coptic Orthodox Church participated extensively in the slave trade of eunuchs. Coptic priests sliced the penis and testicles off boys around the age of eight in a castration operation.[19]

The eunuch boys were then sold in the Ottoman Empire. The majority of Ottoman eunuchs endured castration at the hands of the Copts at Abou Gerbe monastery on Mount Ghebel Eter.[19] Slave boys were captured from the African Great Lakes region and other areas in Sudan like Darfur and Kordofan, then sold to customers in Egypt.[20][17] During the operation, the Coptic clergyman chained the boys to tables and after slicing their sexual organs off, stuck bamboo catheters into the genital area, then submerged them in sand up to their necks. The recovery rate was 10 percent. The resulting eunuchs fetched large profits in contrast to eunuchs from other areas.[21][22][23]

Social Life

Women socialized with each other at their homes and also at bathhouses. High society women, particularly those who did not live in the palace, visited one another at each other’s homes. Those who lived in the palace were subject to strict etiquette that prevented ease of socializing. Townswomen visited each other at home and also at the bath-house, which was an important social ritual. Women would bring their finest bathing accessories, such as embroidered towels and high, wooden sandals.[24]

Education

Tanzimat reforms of the nineteenth century brought additional rights to women, particularly in education. Some of the first schools for girls opened in 1858, followed by a boom in 1869 when elementary education was rendered mandatory. In 1863, the first middle-level schools and a teacher training college opened. Whereas men’s education focused on job training, women’s education focused on shaping girls to evolve into better Muslim wives and mothers with refined social graces.[25]

Movement for women’s education was sparked in large part by women’s magazines, the most recognized among them being Hanimlara Mahsus Gazette (The Ladies’ Own Gazette), which ran for fourteen years and was successful enough to have established its own press. With managing editors and staff writers primarily being women, the magazine aimed to enable women to evolve into better mothers, wives, and Muslims. Its topics varied between discussions of feminism, fashion, economic imperialism and autonomy, comparisons of Ottoman modernization with Japanese modernization, and technology. The magazine also included the usual content of a middle class women's magazine of the nineteenth century: royal gossip, the science of being a housewife, health, improving fiction, and child rearing.”[26] Examples include: patterns for home sewing based on European fashions and advertisements for Singer sewing machines.

Politics

Women of the Sultan's Imperial Harem achieved more power during the sixteenth century. The period from 1520 (when Süleyman the Magnificent ascended the throne) until the mid-seventeenth century, was referred to as the “Sultanate of women”. During this era, high-ranking women were politically empowered and were granted public importance. Aiding in domestic politics, foreign negotiations, and even serving as regents, the queen mothers and lead concubines, in particular, assumed a great deal of political power and aided in imperial legitimization at that time.[27]

Notably, most women of the Imperial Harem were slaves. Slavery was common in the Ottoman Empire, and the Sultan's wives and concubines would often be slaves themselves. However, the mother of the Sultan, who would herself have likely been a slave in the Harem, would garner the special status of Valide Sultan. This Queen Mother enjoyed enormous political power.

Turkish women smoking hookah around 1910

See also

References

  1. ↑ Yermolenk, Galina (2005). "Roxolana: The Greatest Empress of the East". Muslim World. 95.
  2. ↑ Klimczak, Natalia (2016). "The Strength of Kosem Sultan the Last Influential Female Rule of the Ottoman Empire".
  3. ↑ Sancar, Asli (1993). Ottoman Women. Somersot New Jersey: The Light, Inc.
  4. ↑ Lewis, Reina (2004). Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel, and the Ottoman Harrem. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
  5. ↑ Faroqhi, Suraiya (1994). An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1914. Cambridge University Press.
  6. ↑ Esposito, John (2001), Women in Muslim family law, Syracuse University Press, ISBN 978-0815629085
  7. ↑ "Islam in the Ottoman Empire - Islamic Studies - Oxford Bibliographies - obo". Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  8. ↑ "The Hanafi School - Islamic Studies - Oxford Bibliographies - obo". Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  9. ↑ Marc Baer, “Islamic Conversion Narratives of Women: Social Change and Gendered Religious Hierarchy in Early Modern Ottoman Istanbul.” Gender & History, Vol.16 No.2 August 2004, 426.
  10. ↑ Suraiya Faroqhi, Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire. London: I.B. Tauris, November 29, 2005, 101.
  11. 1 2 Peirce, Leslie. Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab, University of California Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/berkeley-ebooks/detail.action?docID=223551. Created from Berkeley-ebooks on 2018-03-06 15:49:06.
  12. ↑ Faroqhi, 103.
  13. ↑ Paméla Dorn Sezgin, “Jewish Women in the Ottoman Empire,” in Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry from the Golden Age of Spain to Modern Times, ed. Zion Zohar (New York: New York University Press, 2005), 216–217
  14. ↑ Wolf Von Schierbrand (March 28, 1886). "Slaves sold to the Turk; How the vile traffic is still carried on in the East. Sights our correspondent saw for twenty dollars--in the house of a grand old Turk of a dealer" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  15. ↑ See generally Jay Winik (2007), The Great Upheaval.
  16. ↑ Ayşe Özakbaş, Hürrem Sultan, Tarih Dergisi, Sayı 36, 2000 Archived 2012-01-13 at the Wayback Machine.
  17. 1 2 Gwyn Campbell, The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, 1 edition, (Routledge: 2003), p.ix
  18. ↑ See Winik, supra.
  19. 1 2 Henry G. Spooner (1919). The American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Volume 15. The Grafton Press. p. 522. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  20. ↑ Tinker, Keith L. (2012). The African Diaspora to the Bahamas: The Story of the Migration of People of African Descent to the Bahamas. FriesenPress. p. 9. ISBN 978-1460205549.
  21. ↑ Northwestern lancet, Volume 17. s.n. 1897. p. 467. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  22. ↑ John O. Hunwick, Eve Troutt Powell (2002). The African diaspora in the Mediterranean lands of Islam. Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-55876-275-6. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  23. ↑ American Medical Association (1898). The Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 30, Issues 1-13. American Medical Association. p. 176. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  24. ↑ Faroqhi, 106.
  25. ↑ Reina Lewis, Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel and the Ottoman Harem. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004, 56.
  26. ↑ Frierson, 76.
  27. ↑ Leslie P. Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, vii.
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