The Imperial Harem Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire

by Peirce, Leslie P.

• ISBN13: 9780195076738
• ISBN10: 0195076737
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-09-02
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The unprecented political power of the Ottoman imperial harem in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is widely viewed as illegitimate and corrupting. This book examines the sources of royal women's power and assesses the reactions of contemporaries, which ranged from loyal devotion to armed opposition. By examining political action in the context of household networks, Peirce demonstrates that female power was a logical, indeed an intended, consequence of political structures. Royal women were custodians of sovereign power, training their sons in its use and exercising it directly as regents when necessary. Furthermore, they played central roles in the public culture of sovereignty--royal ceremonial, monumental building, and patronage of artistic production. The Imperial Harem argues that the exercise of political power was tied to definitions of sexuality. Within the dynasty, the hierarchy of female power, like the hierarchy of male power, reflected the broader society's concern for social control of the sexually active.

Author Biography

Leslie P. Peirce is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction Myths and Realities of the Harem	p. 3
The House of Osman	p. 15
Wives and Concubines: the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries	p. 28
The Age of the Favorite: 1520-1566	p. 57
The Age of the Queen Mother: 1566-1656	p. 91
The Imperial Harem Institution	p. 113
Shifting Images of Ottoman Sovereignty	p. 153
The Display of Sovereign Prerogative	p. 186
The Politics of Diplomacy	p. 219
The Exercise of Political Power	p. 229
Conclusion: Women, Sovereignty, and Society	p. 267
Appendix	p. 287
Notes	p. 289
Bibliography	p. 345
Index	p. 363
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