Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Ottoman Empire is a tale of how women{\textquoteright}s triumphs as well as their failures shaped a global society{\textemdash}not despite, but because of, gender.
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The Ottoman Empire was among the longest-lived polities in history, stretching between the thirteenth and twentieth centuries across three continents, several seas, and scores of cities, deserts, mountain ranges, rivers, and forests. This volume provides a compendium of idiosyncratic life stories and explores how women from these eras and regions understood the shape of the world in which they lived, and how they brought their consciousness of their gender to their efforts to re-shape it.
Among the questions explored in the book are how women have negotiated and constructed the public and private spheres, how to define {\textquotedblleft}women{\textquoteright}s speech{\textquotedblright} in a world mediated by men and male-dominated genres and institutions, and how women experienced their bodies as sites of politically inflected reproduction, death and decay.
The book is thus an accessibly offbeat feminist overview of the field of Ottoman History that provides students, scholars, general readers, and non-specialists with insights into the lives and work of both ordinary Ottoman women and celebrated Ottoman women, women who failed despite their best efforts and women who succeeded against all odds{\textemdash}suicides, spies and murderers as well as queens, scientists and poets.
Table of Contents
Part 1: The Beginning: Prophecy and Poetry
1.\ \ \ \ \ Malhun Hatun (d. 1323): Mother of the Dynasty\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
2.\ \ \ \ \ Mihri Hatun (1460-1515): Distinguished Court Poet\ \ \ \ \
3.\ \ \ \ \ Zeynep Hatun (fifteenth century): Elusive Touchstone of the Poet Biographers\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
4.\ \ \ \ \ A{\textquoteright}isha al-Ba{\textquoteleft}uniyya (d. 1517): Mystic, Mufti, and Spiritual Model\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Part 2: A Global Empire: Networks of Influence, Webs of Power, and {\textquotedblleft}The Sultanate of Women{\textquotedblright}
5.\ \ \ \ \ H{\"u}rrem Sultan (1502-1558): Roxelana, the Queen and the Witch\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
6.\ \ \ \ \ Do{\~n}a Gracia Mendes Nasi (1510-1569): Heroine of the Inquisition\ \ \ \ \ \
7.\ \ \ \ \ Nurbanu Sultan (1525-1583): Architect of an Unprecedented Charitable Foundation
8.\ \ \ \ \ {\c S}akire Hatun (circa the 1570s): Plaintiff and {\textquotedblleft}Warrior{\textquotedblright}
9.\ \ \ \ \ Elizabeth B{\'a}thory (1560-1614): The Bloody Countess\
10.\ G{\"u}lnu{\c s} Sultan (1642-1715): The Huntress Who Ushered in the Tulip Period\ \ \ \ \
Part 3: The Ottoman Baroque: Art, Revolution, and Orientalism in the Long Eighteenth Century
11.\ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762): Errant Embodiment of the European Enlightenment\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
12.\ Dilhayat Kalfa (1710-1780): Celebrated Composer\ \ \ \ \ \
13.\ Laskarina Bouboulina (1771-1825): Champion of the Greek Revolution\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
14.\ Esma {\.I}bret Han{\i}m (b. 1780): Master Calligrapher\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
15.\ Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (1819-1881): Orientalist Painter
Part 4: The Age of National Consciousness: Feminist Witnessing and Feminist Disruption\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
16.\ Maryana Marrash (1848-1919): Muse, Poet, and Essayist\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
17.\ Fatma Aliye (1862-1936): New Woman and Novelist\ \ \
18.\ Zabel Yesayan (1878-1943): Genre-Defining Witness to the Armenian Genocide\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
19.\ Huda Sha{\textquoteright}arawi (1879-1947): Charismatic Founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union\ \ \ \
20.\ Celile Hikmet (1880-1956): Subversive Modernist Painter\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
21.\ Halide Edip (1884-1964): The Turkish Republic{\textquoteright}s Foremost Feminist\ \
Part 5: The End: Making Things Fall Apart\ \ \ \ \ \
22.\ Sarah Aaronsohn (1890-1917): A Spy in the Levant\ \ \ \ \ \ \
23.\ Anastasia Golovina (1850-1933) and Safiye Ali (1894-1952): Medical Practitioners Across Borders\ \ \ \
24.\ Sabiha Sertel (1895-1968): Dissident Publishing Phenomenon\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
25.\ Sabiha G{\"o}k{\c c}en (1913-2001): The World{\textquoteright}s First Female Fighter Pilot\ \ \ \
}, year = {2025}, publisher = {Routledge}, address = {New York}, isbn = {Cloth: 9780367761875; paper: 9780367761882; ebook: 9781003165866}, }