Women in the Ottoman Empire

Women's place in society in the Ottoman Empire is limited for many traditional and religious reasons. This attitude continued until the Tanzimat Period and the understanding of equality brought by the Tanzimat period was also reflected in the inequalities between men and women. Even if equality was achieved on paper during the Tanzimat period, the previous attitude continued in practice. The determination of legal rules by Islamic sources in the Ottoman Empire also had an effect on women's rights. In addition, due to the Central Asian origin of the Turks, the Turkish culture in pre-Islamic periods caused restrictions on the rights of women in the Ottoman period. In the Ottoman Empire with theocratic and monarchic regimes, the effective sharia provisions pushed women into domestic life. Regarding inheritance in the Ottoman Empire, it was observed that women had less share of inheritance than men. In the Ottoman Courts, 2 women were only equal to one man, and in religious education, girls and boys were educated in primary schools. Women in the village, like men, never had equal rights with men, although they managed their homes by working in the fields and weaving carpets and rugs.[4][5]

During the Ottoman Empire, many women's interactions were limited to socializations among fellow women, and members of their family. 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.[11] As with any society, style of dresses played an important role in the social lives of Ottoman women. According to the wife of the British ambassador to Istanbul during the 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the attire of Ottoman women "reflected their dignity and rights".[12] The way an Ottoman woman dressed indicated not only her status in society but also the occasion. There were two categories to dress: the clothing for daily dress and the attire for special occasions.[12] With the spread of Western influence during the 18th century, Ottoman women had increased interactions with European women. These interactions gave way to new changes in the social lives of Ottoman women. To be able to communicate with European women, they learned French.[12] The interactions with Westerners during this period changed the social lives of many Ottoman Women. This advancement created a new connection between Ottoman and European women; it became normal to invite and accept European acquaintances into their homes and their lives.

When studying about the Ottoman empire, the word ‘Harem’ comes up a lot. Harem has many different descriptions, many articles about what activities took place inside the Harem and its relationship with the Sultans of the empire. One of the best ways to have a look inside the Harem is with the help of people who have personal experiences with the Harem. The Sultan’s Harem is described as a very diverse place. The vast majority of women there were Christian women.[13]

Turkish’s popular history of the Harem was based on the memoirs, personal letters, and travel accounts by foreign women. Cavidan was Abbas Hilmi II’s wife and a convert to Islam. She offered some interesting analysis in the history of evolution of Harem because she also once lived in a Harem. She said that the Harem was preserved in a manner that was desired by a false version of the religion of Islam. And it gave rise to a ruling class that was full of jealousies and was not in accordance with the principles and the doctrine of Muhammad. According to her account, over time the household Harems of husbands became the Harems of women that were administered with great jealousy and were denied every right and action. She compared it to the Harem from Muhammad’s time and said that women had every right in Harem during his time and they possessed complete freedom. Through her writing she talks about how Muslims women’s positions have altered over time into something that was not intended by its prophet. Different people with Harem experiences are going to have different point of views. Cavidan expressed criticism of the religion and culture she embraced, whereas Leyla Saz who also had personal experience within the Harem conveyed her childhood and young adulthood memories within the Ottoman Harem in very positive terms. She called her days in Harem as the happy days of that age and as she writes about it, she said she actually finds herself there again.[14]

Cagatay Ulucay, one of the most prominent historians of the Ottoman Harem wrote exclusively about the Ottoman women. He published series that included ‘letters from Harem’. In this series he talked about the private lives of the Sultans, Ottoman officials, and their family members. He called his series of letters written by the wives and daughters of the Sultans as the “small rays of light that leak out from the Harem”.[15] In these letters the private lives of Harem inhabitants are greatly emphasized. He stresses the women’s veiled faces and the heavy curtains that signifies women’s strict seclusion. This also emphasizes how some previous accounts about the Harem inhabitants could be inaccurate because of the privacy of the Harem and that it could not be penetrated by foreign men. One of the Cagatay Ulucay series talks about the relationship between Sultan Suleiman I and Hurrem Sultan, one of the Harem inhabitants. He describes her as not only beautiful also extremely clever. “Uluçay’s description of Hurrem’s “sweet talking” her way into an extremely powerful position and her ability to “conquer” the heart of the king of kings with her soft words and poetic style is a demonstration of the influence women had over the most important men of state and of the vital role they played in the Ottoman elite.”[16]

Love aside, the Sultans were not as easily influenced by the Harem women even if that was Hurrem Sultan especially when it came to ruling the empire. What really influenced Sultan’s performance in the empire was how they were brought up. So, instead of the women of the Harem it was the mothers of Sultans who attempted to socialize their children according to their cultural preferences and loyalties which played a huge role in who they were allies with and who they fought against in their ruling period.[17] The mothers of Sultans were given the title of Valide Sultan during the reign of their sons as Sultans.[18]

Harem was also a place of learning for the young girls. The girl’s education in the Ottoman Empire was a product of the Harem system and the new technical schools. The education programs initiated by the Ottoman state had their roots in the Harem.[19]

Prior to the nineteenth century, there did not exist formal public education for Ottoman women. Education for women began at a young age and in the privacy of their homes: girls were taught household duties. Young Ottoman girls were taught through the Harem education; they learned skills such as "sewing, embroidery, playing the harp, singing, and memorizing the customs and ceremonies".[20]

Tanzimat reforms of the nineteenth century brought additional rights to women, particularly in education. Some of the first schools for girls, called "Rüştiyes", opened in 1858, followed by a boom in 1869 when elementary education was rendered mandatory.[20] During the 1860s, many new educational opportunities existed for Ottoman women. This decade saw the first middle-level schools, a teacher training college and industrial schools, called "İnas Sanayi Mektepleri", which were created concurrently with industrial schools for boys.[20] 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.^[26] Women that began their education during their adolescence started by focusing on the formal skills that they lacked, for example, their manner to speak, reading and writing. The schools taught a variety of subjects and as mentioned before, incorporated harem education into the new public education.[20]

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.[21] Examples include: patterns for home sewing based on European fashions and advertisements for Singer sewing machines.

Prior to the sixteenth century, women did not hold a great deal of political power. This shift occurred when Süleyman the Magnificent ascended the throne in 1520. Under Süleyman's rule, the imperial harem was moved to the palace Early Years. Women of the Sultan's Imperial Harem achieved more power during the sixteenth century because the closer proximity allowed for more influence. This period during Süleyman's reign until the mid-seventeenth century, was referred to as the “Sultanate of Women”. 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. The Queen Mother and leading concubines aided in the creation of domestic political factions, in negotiation with foreign ambassadors and as advisers to the sultan. The importance of the Imperial Harem grew as women became more politically involved; with this growth, more opportunities for women were opened as well. During this era, high-ranking women were politically empowered and were granted public importance. Two important figures that modeled the public importance of the queen regent were Kösem Sultan and Turhan Sultan: with their roles, they transitioned the relationship of the queen mother and her son from a strictly private one to one that incorporated the empire.[22] Despite the new prominence of the Imperial Harem, most of the women remained constricted to its wall. Only the queen mother exercised mobility outside the Imperial Harem: even this mobility was limited. The queen mother would attend public ceremonies and even meetings with high ranking government officials, all the while remaining heavily veiled.[22] Due to their confinement, the women of the Imperial Harem had many networks that aided in their political power. But their power was great within the Imperial Harem itself as well. The queen mother and leading concubines had the capability to shape the careers of the harem's officials by arranging marriages of princesses or of manumitted slaves. These unions boded well for those who arranged them because they would create relationships. The women in the Imperial Harem would then have agents that would aid them which allotted them more power.

Turkish women smoking hookah around 1910

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.[23][24]

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 Muhammad and his companions.[25] 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.[26][27]

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). These waqfs (also spelled wakfs) are charitable allotments of property for public use. These areas are given up by the owner’s free will for use by their own community. Waqfs during the Ottoman period were commonly used as institutions for public improvement and included establishments such as schools, libraries, mosques, and public kitchens.[28] These kitchens typically served the poor and other underprivileged demographics, such as orphans and the widowed. Many Ottoman women were among the selfless founders of waqfs, with the existence of their allotments being pivotal in their communities’ economic life. Out of 30,000 waqf certificates documented by the GDPFA (General Directorate of Pious Foundation in Ankara), over 2,300 of them were registered to institutions that belonged to women. Of the 491 public fountains in Istanbul that were constructed during the Ottoman period and survived until the 1930s, nearly 30% of them were registered under waqfs that belonged to women.[29] Women 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.[30] 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.[31] In cities, such as Bursa, women freely appeared in court during the seventeenth century. One example documents a court record from 1683 (1095) in which a woman sued someone who allegedly seized a shop that she technically inherited after her husband died. In a separate case, a woman sued someone who allegedly broke into her home and robbed her of various items. While these two examples demonstrate the extremely active role that women held in Ottoman courts, many other instances are documented in the sources that are cited.[32]

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 truly equal by the court, and were subject to separate codes of law and procedures.[33] 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.[33] But while Ottoman women may have had a slightly unequal balance of power in contrast to the males, this did not mean that court cases in which women sued men did not occur; even if the men were members of their own family. Sales of property between the sexes within the same family were also very common; this included agricultural property, real estate, and orchards.[34] Women also openly sued male members of their family in Ottoman courts. One instance includes when a woman sued her own husband due to the fact that he built an addition on their house, with this addition being on a portion of the house that she states belonged to her. Her request for demolition of the new portion of the house was granted.[35]

On special occasions, such as weddings and engagements, women would be allowed to socialize. Women among the families and friends of the bride would engage in the henna night and soup day. Besides, women were allowed to visit their relatives and neighbors. Such opportunities were utilized for socialization and dressing up. Furthermore, women could visit public baths and cemeteries. [36] Young women had no right to meet men or choose their marriage partners. The choice of the bride was made by the man's mother. If the family of the girl agreed, the parents would settle the matter among themselves. Once the matter had been settled, a marriage contract would be made. Both the bridegroom and the bride were expected to show the consent concerning the contract. [37] The agreement would have witnesses, but the bride and groom would consent separately.

Regarding divorce, the ottomans believed that a troubled and unhappy family relationship would harm the union and society at large. Women would be allowed to divorce under certain conditions. To divorce, the husband would tell his wife she was free three times. 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.[38]

Inheritance issues were also resolved in Ottoman courts, with the defendants often being family members of the women that were suing them. Women in Ottoman cities, such as Bursa, freely used the abilities granted to them by the Islamic Law of inheritance and were actually treated quite justly in many court cases during the 17th century.[35]

When a Muslim die there are four duties which need to be performed. They are:

1. Pay funeral and burial expenses.
2. Paying debts of the deceased.
3. Determine the will of the deceased (which can only be a maximum of one  third of the property).
4. Distribute the remainder of estate and property to the relatives of the deceased according to Shariah Law.

In Ayah XI of Surah An-Nisa, Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) asserted that the share of males equals twice that of the share of females. And if there is only one daughter, for her it is half of one's estate.

The Qur'an introduced a number of different rights and restrictions on matters of inheritance, including what were at that time general improvements to the treatment of women and family life.[39] The Qur'an also presented efforts to fix the laws of inheritance, and thus forming a complete legal system. This development was in contrast to pre-Islamic societies where rules of inheritance varied considerably. Furthermore, the Qur'an introduced additional heirs that were not entitled to inheritance in pre-Islamic times, mentioning nine relatives specifically of which six were female and three were male.[40] The laws of inheritance in the Qur'an also included other male relatives, such as the husband and half-brothers from the mother's side, who were excluded from inheritance in old customs. The heirs mentioned in the Qur'an are the mother, father, husband, wife, daughter, brother who shares the same mother, full sister, sister who shares the same mother, and consanguine sister.[41]

The Qur'an improved the status of women by identifying their share of inheritance in clear terms. It also completely forbade the practice of inheriting widows. This is not meant as a regular legal ordinance but is part of the Qur'anic endeavor to improve the position of women.[40] The Qur'an does not explicitly mention the shares of male relatives, such as the decedent's son, but provides the rule that the son's share must be twice that of the daughter's. Muslim theologians explain this aspect of inheritance by looking at Islamic law in its entirety, which bestows the responsibility and accountability on men to provide safety, protection and sustenance to women.[41] One explanation of why a daughter is entitled to only half that of the son is that Islam decrees that women, upon marriage are entitled to a "dowry" from the husband (in addition to any provision by her parents). It is thereafter the husband's obligation to care for and maintain his wife and the "dowry" is, therefore, essentially an advance of inheritance rights from her husband's estate which returns to his possession after the formalities over.[39]

Women in the Ottoman Empire could inherit property from their deceased parents or husbands. The estates make it quite clear that at least in as far as the court was concerned, the Islamic law of inheritance was applied exactly in accordance with the letter of the law.[42] This means that wherever a woman is mentioned as an heir of the deceased, be she a wife or a daughter, she is also on the list of those getting shares, and her share is indicated. The legal court divide the estate among the legal heirs according to the orthodox (sharia) law. Succession documents drawn up by the kadi, an official in Ottoman Empire, are sufficient proof that the property actually passed into the hands of the women.[43] The kadi records of seventeenth-century Bursa contain a large number of documents which, in effect, describe legal disputes involving women over estates and inheritances and they show that in many cases women did actually inherit the property.

Women in the Ottoman Empire owned agricultural land - the one type of property which expressed more than anything the integrity of the traditional Muslim family. The divergence between the law and practice in disputes involving agricultural property has been viewed as the most flagrant.[44] But before we can check the relation between the theoretical and the actual in this respect, it must be emphasized that in matters of agricultural land the relevant "law of the book" was not the ordinary Islamic law of inheritance, but rather an Ottoman state law. By this law there was "direct succession" only from a deceased male land possessor to his male sons. If the deceased had only daughters and a wife (or wives), those successors had to pay a tapu tax (a sort of entry fine) to the landowner in order to get the land.[42] In most cases the landowner was sipahi, holder of a fief. This shows that women were able to inherit property from their deceased parents and husbands due to the Ottoman State Law.

Women played many roles in the Ottoman Empire, as per their designated social position. First, in the wealthy families, they were the in-charge of the household. Wealth families possessed huge properties, such as many houses, animals, vast lands, and colossal numbers of servants. The women would control activities in these farms. Besides, they took care of the children. Usually, the mother of the household would have numerous children to increase the chances of survival in early childhood. At the hands of patriarchy, women had very few rights to expand their roles. Women from less affluent families would take care of all the housework. [45] On economics, women played a vital role in the economy of the Ottoman Empire. In Bursa, there is evidence from the records concerning estates that women not only had property rights but also engaged in litigation. They would solve disputes concerning properties in courts. Defendants would be men in their families or their husbands. They were also allowed to sell and buy property from anyone, regardless of the relationship.

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.

Women in the Ottoman Empire were involved throughout the economy. The most prominent example of women’s economic activity is in the ability of noble and other upper class women to establish waqfs in order to create and maintain institutions like a bimaristan or madrasa in their own name. This was especially common for royals like Nurbanu, the mother of Murat III, who established the Atik Valide Mosque which included a hospital in Istanbul.[46] Scholarly analysis of waqfs in Ottoman cities have found that a considerable number of waqfs are under the name of  women, and in some places, close to 50 percent of waqfs.[46] A waqf is comparable to modern day trusts or foundations; it is established by a living person and financed through the revenue-bearing assets of that person, typically to fund some form of social service.[47] Records of waqfs serve as a major indicator for the financial assets and lasting economic impact of women in the Ottoman empire.

Another way in which women held economic power was through property ownership. A review of kadi records in the Ottoman city of Bursa found that one-third of women with estates also owned their own home.[42] Besides for owning homes in their own names, women also commonly sold or leased their property. In urban areas, women owned or rented shops, sometimes even owning artisanal workshops; urban women often owned plots just outside the city like vineyards and mills, as well.[42] Women also regularly bought and sold agricultural land, despite an Ottoman state law that prevented women from inheriting agricultural land unless a state tax was paid. Stemming from this ownership is the fact that women were an active part of agricultural life, usually taking over the cultivation of fields and orchards in the absence of their husbands, and records indicate that some women maintained agricultural property separate from that of their husband’s.[42]

Women were actively involved in credit transactions, both giving and receiving money loans. Reviews of some estates in the city of Bursa reveal that many men received loans from their wives, although the circumstances under which these loans were created are ambiguous.[42] There is also evidence of women lending money to multiple different people at a time, indicating that they could serve as semi-professional moneylenders. Women were involved in investment, as well, although their level of participation in this area is partially obscured by the practice by some women of appointing male relatives to carry out their business and investments on their behalf.[44] Even so, there are records of women investing directly in businesses, merchants, and other commercial ventures. While women could participate in trade indirectly through investing in merchants and trade ventures, there is little evidence of women working in trade themselves.[42]

One aspect of economic life in which women had limited involvement was artisanship; there is little archival evidence showing that women were themselves members of craft guilds of various cities.[44] However, in some areas it has been observed that women had a complementary relationship with artisans by providing capital and tools, as well as by renting out buildings to be used by artisans in everything from baking to textile work.[44] In other contexts, women often had an adversarial relationship with guilds, with most archival evidence of women’s involvement in guilds found in lawsuits. Some women inherited a hisse from their relatives which would allow them to participate in guilds, but there are certain cases of guilds suing women with hisses for trying to participate in guild life. In one such case, litigation was brought forth against Fatma Hatun by Bursa's candlemakers guild; their claim was that there had never been a woman in this guild before so her participation in the guild must have been illegal. In response, Fatma Hatun answered that it was within her right as she inherited a hisse of candlemaking from her father.[42] There is also evidence of women eventually choosing to sell these hisses.[42] Despite their limited participation in the dominant guild system, it is likely that women established their own organizations, particularly for primarily women-led services like singing, dancing, washing, and nursing.[44] A subset of women artisans in the Ottoman empire worked entirely on their own, producing goods in their homes and selling them in the streets, eschewing the support of labor organizations, middlemen, and traditional shops.[42]

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.[48]

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.[49]

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.[50] Roxelana (also known as Hürrem Sultan), another notable example, was the favorite wife of Suleiman the Magnificent.[51]

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.[52][53] 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.[54]

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.[54] 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.[55][52] 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.[56][57][58]

• Women in Islam
• Slavery in the Ottoman Empire

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