The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem

325 Pages·2008·3.81 MB·English

by  Douglas Scott Brookes

the concubine, the princess, and the teacher
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Kâğıthane
y
f
Beşiktaş c
Eyüp
d b
golden GBaelyaotağ lu b o sp h o r u s
hor Üsküdar
europe n
t asia
Stambul
Haydarpasha
Kadıköy
sea of marmara
5 miles (8.3km)
the palaces of istanbul
B = Beylerbeyi F = Fer’iye
C = Çırağan T = Topkapı
D = Dolmabahçe Y = Yıldız
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Cotnhceubine,
Princess,
the
and the
voices from
the ottoman harem
translated and edited by
douglas scott brookes
University of Texas Press Austin
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Copyright © 2008 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2008
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work
should be sent to:
Permissions
University of Texas Press
P.O. Box 7819
Austin, TX 78713-7819
www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html
∞ Th e paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements
of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
Brookes, Douglas Scott, 1950–
Th e concubine, the princess, and the teacher : voices from the
Ottoman harem / Douglas Scott Brookes. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-292-71842-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Harems—Turkey. 2. Women—Turkey—Biography.
3. Women—Turkey—Social conditions. I. Title.
hq1726.7.b758 2008
306.84'23092249618—dc22
2008022634
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In fond remembrance
of William B. Slottman
Professor of History,
University of California
at Berkeley
Yerden temenna ile
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Contents
acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
part one. Th e Concubine Filizten 12
part two. Th e Princess Ayşe 122
part three. Th e Teacher Safi ye 194
Conclusion 273
glossary of names 277
glossary of terms and places 293
bibliography 301
index 305
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Acknowledgments
My sincere thanks to Hamid Algar and Selim Kuru for their generous assis-
tance with particularly abstruse sections of the texts, to Hakan Karateke for
his incisive comments on the manuscript, and to Hakan Erdem and Ehud
Toledano for their insights into the nature of Ottoman concubinage. Very
cordial thanks to Osman Osmanoğlu for the use of Ottoman family photo-
graphs to illustrate the text.
Th e National Endowment for the Humanities’ Fellowship Award allowed
these translations to reach timely completion, and for that I am especially
grateful.
Typically enough, what began as a limited exercise morphed into a proj-
ect far vaster than anything even remotely imagined at the outset. For this I
am thankful, as the years spent in the world of the late Ottoman palace have
been rich indeed. Nonetheless the long and wandering paths of this under-
taking contained treacherous potholes. In many of them I undoubtedly still
languish without knowing it. If so I take full responsibility for the errors
that occur when attempting to convey the spirit of one culture to inhabitants
of another, later, culture. My goal has been to replicate in English the sense
of life in this era that is relatively recent in time but vastly diff erent in spirit.
If the translation succeeds in that, I shall be content.
And so a tip of the hat—no, surely a fl oor temenna—in heartfelt thanks
to the three ladies who share their lives in these pages. Translating your writ-
ings has been a privilege and a delight. I wish I could have known you all.
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the concubine, the princess, and the teacher
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