Mew 2009 5 2 53

Turkish Men and the History of Ottoman Women: Studying the History of the Ottoman
Dynasty's Private Sphere through Women's Writings

Author(s): Ruth Barzilai-Lumbroso
Source: Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Spring 2009), pp. 53-82
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/MEW.2009.5.2.53 .
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RUTH BARZILAI-LUMBROSO
TURKISH MEN AND THE HISTORY

OF OTTOMAN WOMEN:
Studying the History of the Ottoman
Dynastys Private Sphere
through Womens Writings
Ruth Barzilai-Lumbroso
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the study of Ottoman dynastic history through
womens writings, such as harem womens personal letter correspondence, womens harem memoirs and recollections, and foreign women
travelers accounts, published in popular historical magazines in Turkey during the 1950s and 60s. The paper also considers the popular
nature of the publications that featured these writings and their signicance in the framework of the changing nationalist discourse and
corresponding changes in Turkish historiography during the 1950s.
It shows that articles based on womens writings revealed intimate
aspects of the Ottoman elites relationships in general and of Ottoman
women in particular, and suggests that their publication in popular
magazines played an important role in re-imagining the Turkish
woman in the framework of the post-Kemalist nationalist discourse.
It concludes that womens writings, used as primary sources by Turkish historians, provided an insiders point of view on the secretive life
of the harem and its inhabitants and attracted a popular readership,
thus exposing wider audiences to an Ottoman-centered historical
discourse, and ultimately played an important role in the writing of
Ottoman womens history.
JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EAST WOMENS STUDIES
Vol. 5, No. 2 (Spring 2009) 2009
53

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JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EAST WOMENS STUDIES 5:2
dnan Giz, the author of an article on Hafsa Hatun (the wife and
mother of two of the most powerful sultans in Ottoman history),1
which appeared in the Turkish historical journal Tarih Dnyas (The
world of history) in 1950, was introduced by the journals editor as
[O]ne of our young and valuable historians, whose historical writing... established a new method, [and who] will illuminate a phase of
our history with the letters of Hafsa Hatun which were found in the
archives of Topkap Palace and have not been seen by any historian
until now. (Giz 1950b, 768).2
Similarly, in the introduction to a series of articles in Yeni Tarih

Dergisi (The new history periodical), which published the memoirs of
Leyla Saz3 throughout 1958, the editor argued that,
A great many things have been written regarding the social life of our
recent past. But among those [works] that are most in accord with the
truth come the writings of Leyl Hanm. The things that she wrote
within the framework of her recollections of the Imperial Harem and
the Sultans Palaces... concerning events and details such as old Ottoman customs, traditions and social customs, clothes and material
things, are of a nature whose very existence can be a source of pride
for our national library. (Saz 1958a, 380)
These two passages, quoted from popular historical periodicals

published in Turkey during the 1950s, represent the central themes that
will be dealt with in this paper. First, womens writings, such as personal
letters, memoirs, and travel literature, were an important and valuable
source for the writing of popular Ottoman history in Turkey during the
1950s and for the production of a more domestic and intimate historical narrative of the Ottoman dynasty. Second, during that time Ottoman womens history was presented to the Turkish public through the
mediation of mostly male historians, who were among the rst to study
Ottoman dynastic history from documents found in the newly opened
Ottoman archives, and who published their work in popular historical literature venues in an eort to reach a wider audience of readers.4
Third, for Turkish popular historians, Ottoman womens history became
central in the larger framework of Ottoman history, ultimately setting
in motion the process of reconstructing womens history decades earlier

than in the West. Fourth, the motivation for writing womens history
during the period under study was to introduce representations of Ottoman women in the framework of the changing Turkish nationalist
discourse at the time, which entailed the incorporation of Ottoman history into the larger Turkish historical discourse. As the above quotations
illustrate, Turkish historians took pride in the fact that they were able to
rewrite their history precisely because of their ability to gain rsthand
information by deciphering documents found in the Ottoman archives,
and because of their commitment to familiarize younger Turkish generations, who did not read Ottoman Turkish, with Ottoman history. Finally,
although their motivations were nationalist in nature, the end result was
that Turkish historians gave Ottoman women a voice by writing their
history as early as the 1950s.
In what follows I will begin with a brief description of the historical
context and the nature of the sources that were published in the 1950s.
I will then present examples of historical accounts of Ottoman womens
history, and will analyze the signicance of these writings in the context
of Turkey at mid-twentieth century.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
In the history of modern Turkey, the 1950s stand out as a time of unique
openness, a decade that diers from the preceding and succeeding periods. The period leading up to the 1950s was characterized by increased
state intervention in most aspects of Turkish life. The political and social
climate of the 1950s was more liberal, mostly as a result of the victory
of the Democratic Party at the beginning of the decade. The period
that followed, beginning with the military coup of May 27, 1960, and
usually referred to in the literature as the Second Turkish Republic,
was characterized by developments quite removed from those prevalent
during the 1950s, especially with regard to intellectual currents.5 These
included, for example, a reorientation among intellectuals who now
turned their attention to processes of modernization and change in
their society. Prior to the 1950s, that is, up until the mid-1940s, literary
discourse had revolved mainly around political issues, and most intellectuals identied with the regime (Atatrk himself employed intellectuals to disseminate his nationalist ideology, e.g., by directing historians

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56
to rewrite Turkish history). However, by the mid-1940s, intellectuals in

various literary circles began shifting their focus from political to social
issues. Economic developments, as well as the emergence of new intellectuals from among the peasantry, were among of the reasons for this
shift of focus.6
The modern Turkish state, which emerged from the ruins of the
Ottoman Empire following World War I, was established politically on
the basis of a one-party system, and state intervention in its economic
and social institutions. Ideologically, it rejected many of the Ottoman
Empires social and political institutions and established itself on the
basis of modern Turkish nationalism. The rupture with the Ottoman
past was felt in all aspects of life in the new republic, especially under
the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, who sought to present Turkey as a
modern and secular Western state. For that purpose, Ottoman history
was rejected in favor of a Turkish pre-Islamic historical discourse, while
various measures based on Western models were adopted for the new
republic. These included the separation of church and state, Latinizing
the alphabet, promoting European dress, adopting the Western calendar, introducing civil marriage and divorce, and banning polygyny
(Jayawardena 1986).
Women were an important part of Kemalist ideology, and featured
prominently within the larger scope of the pre-Islamic Turkish history
that Atatrk embraced. Pre-Islamic Turkish women were portrayed
by female scholars, such as Afet Inan (a Turkish historian and one of
Atatrks adopted daughters) as enjoying both higher status and greater
equality than under Muslim rule. Writers like Halide Edip Advar wrote
of Turkish women, in the context of the nationalist discourse, as self-sacricing ghters for their nation (Jayawardena 1986; Kandiyoti 1989).
As in other national ideologies, particularly in the postcolonial
world, Atatrks model of the new Turkish woman became an integral
part of republican nationalist ideology (see for example Chatterjee 1993;
aatay and Nuholu-Soysal 1995). This new woman was to be fully
modernized and at the same time authentically Turkish. Just as Kemalist ideology sought to synthesize Western secular, political, and social
forms with those of the pre-Islamic Turks, so did the image of the new
Turkish woman come to embody characteristics of the modernized
Western woman as well as those of her Anatolian counterpart. For

Mustafa Kemal the Turkish woman became the symbol of the nation,
and was to undergo necessary changes that would prepare her for the
new era. Furthermore, the new Kemalist woman became the ultimate
symbol of Turkeys dissociation from its Ottoman past.7 Mustafa Kemal
strove to promote this view through images such as that of his unveiled
wife Latife Hanm who accompanied him on his public excursions,
through his relationships with his adopted daughters, some of whom
became public gures (the historian Afet Inan, and Sabiha Gken,
Turkeys rst female military pilot), as well as by insisting on the visibility of women in Turkeys public space (Kandiyoti 1991).
Implementing his ideology concerning the role of women in modern Turkey, Atatrk took serious steps to change the position of women.
These included the secularization of family law, the abolition of religious
marriages and of polygyny, the introduction of modern secularized education, and equal educational opportunities for boys and girls. During
the rst years of the republic, women began to enter various professions
such as medicine and law, and earned the right to vote and be elected
in 1934.
The post-Kemalist era was characterized by a gradual process of
departure from Kemalist ideology, beginning around the end of World
War II and reaching fruition in the early 1950s. This decade ushered
in a new democratic phase in Turkish history that encompassed all aspects of life. The political change and the expectations that came with it
spread an atmosphere of relaxation that also entailed the broadening of
discussion on issues that had previously been restricted, such as public
religious observance, social criticism, the eects of modernization on
Turkish society, the Ottoman heritage, and the reincorporation of the
Ottoman past into Turkish historiography. The ideological, political,
and social changes that occurred at the time were followed by a revision
of the nationalist discourse. The new discourse advanced an Ottomancentered golden age, enabling Ottoman history to be reincorporated into
Turkish history.
The 1950s witnessed a renewed interest in Ottoman history in
general, and an expanding discourse on Ottoman women in particular.
What is striking in this period is the extensive coverage of the everyday
lives of women, especially those in the imperial harem, in contemporary popular historical journals. For example, in explaining the focus

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of his research in Fatihin Drt Kars (The four wives of Mehmet the
Conqueror), Adnan Giz displays a surprising approach in both historiographic and feminist terms:
I would like to discuss four ladies whose names I was able to establish
from among the wives of Mehmet the Conqueror. The female part
of our history is very much in the dark. No satisfactory information
was found concerning the wives of our great ones, their mothers and
daughters, with the exception of ve or ten women who were dragged
onto the historical scene by the inuence of events. The identity of
hundreds of women who had a place in our history remains hidden in
documents that are sitting in warehouses. (Giz 1950a, 7)
Gizs methodology suggests a feminist understanding of the neglect of

womens experience in historical accounts, and of the importance of
studying the female relatives of sultans for the purpose of reaching a
better understanding of Ottoman history. Many other articles concerned
with Ottoman womens history appeared in popular historical literature
in Turkey at the time. The nature and signicance of this literature will
be discussed in the following section.
POPULAR HISTORICAL JOURNALS
The popular Turkish historical journals that constitute the primary

sources for this paper, Hayat Tarih Mecmuas (Life history magazine),
Resimli Tarih Mecmuas (The illustrated history magazine), Tarih
Dnyas (The world of history), Yeni Tarih Dnyas (The new world of
history), Tarihin Sesi (The voice of history), and Yeni Tarih Dergisi (The
new history periodical), were published throughout the 1950s and early
60s.8 They numbered among some two dozen historical publications,
both academic and popular, that were published during those decades.
Popular history journals had been part of a widespread genre in
Turkey whose growing population of readers was committed to historical knowledge rooted in nationalist Kemalist ideology and its advancement of a particular version of historical discourse. Such journals were
published from the beginning of the twentieth century both by political
parties and by private owners. However, they began to proliferate in the
1950s, partly as a result of the relaxation of the political system that had

an eect on intellectual life in Turkey. The journals were purchased and

collected by teachers, students, and families, and their (hi)stories read
by adults as well as young children. Most of the journals that constituted the popular genre were published by individuals who also wrote
for them, and some of whom published several journals. These were not
subsidized by the government or by academic institutions but relied
on the purchasing power of the readers who in essence supported their
publication. Some of the journals were short-lived, often closing and
reopening under a new name and often encountering many technical
and cost-related problems (Gnaydn 1999, 14).
The genre of popular history is signicant for the understanding
of the discursive transformation in the image of women, especially
because of its availability to relatively large audiences. In nationalist
contexts the popular historical source has always played a major role in
the homogenization of the people and, to borrow Benedict Andersons
term, in the imagining of the national community. Unlike strictly
academic historical research, reaching a much more limited readership,
popular historical texts can serve the purpose of spreading nationalist
ideology to wider populations, and ful ll the need for a history for the
people. In Turkey during the 1950s and 60s, popular historical literature was produced in the framework of the new Ottoman-centered historical discourse, and managed to reach populations of Turkish readers
less exposed to academic historical discourse and less inuenced by
Kemalist reforms, i.e. non-elite classes. In her article on Changing
Perceptions of the Ottoman Empire, Leslie Peirce refers to the greater
appetite for history among the reading public of Turkey, where publications on the Ottoman past and on Islam have simply exploded in
number in recent years, and quasi-popular journals and encyclopedias...
have ourished (Peirce 2004, 89). She adds that popular works on the
Ottoman Empire oer the general public accessible and readable narratives (9).
The term popular or popular culture derives from the eld of
cultural studies which focuses its attention on everyday life (During
1993). It refers to popular cultural forms produced through the medium
of mass technology and communications, as well as those forms produced on a smaller, localized scale (Freccero 1999, 14). It also signies
various beliefs, customs, and artifacts that social groups share and that

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60
have been generated by traditions and folk beliefs as well as by political

and economic institutions. The idea of popular culture that emerged in
the course of the twentieth century implied both the classes that produced itthe working and lower-middle classesand its contents and
the media used for its dispersalmass communication media such as
television, lms, newspapers, and magazines (Jenks 1998).
One of the primary intentions of the promoters of popular culture
is to reach as large an audience as possible. Accordingly, they strive to
produce content in an attractive package. This objective was manifestly
achieved in the Turkish historical magazines I examined. They presented
images of Ottoman women in colorful illustrated issues with titles
that hinted at the gossipy, often sensationalist nature of their content
concerning the Ottoman dynasty. These magazines, available on street
corners and at kiosks, thus worked to attract large audiences and expose
them to Ottoman history. Being intended for a popular readership, this
literature did not necessarily follow scientic historical methodologies,
and although largely concerned with imperial Ottoman women (as opposed to ordinary women),9 it treated them from a popular point of
view, in the sense that it exposed their private, everyday lives.
These journals contained mostly articles concerning Ottoman and
Turkish history and were especially preoccupied with Ottoman society
and its imperial dynasty. Articles on similar topics often appeared in the
same journal, and similar articles appeared in various journals, probably
because authors published their work in several magazines. Each of the
issues contained several articles about Ottoman women, some of which
relied on womens writings. These will be discussed in the following
section.
WOMENS WRITINGS, WOMENS HISTORY
Many of the articles that relied on womens writings as their primary

sources presented women-centered histories that can be termed historical gossip stories. For example, in the introduction to an article
on a visit of the French Empress Eugenie to the Ottoman Empire in
1869, the editor of Resimli Tarih Mecmuas (The illustrated history
magazine) described the circumstances of her arrival in Istanbul as
one of historys great gossip stories (zdemir 1950, 172). The article

described Sultan Abdlazizs excitement and his anticipation of what

seems to have been a repeat visit of the empress to the Ottoman capital
in October 1869: Abdlaziz did not want to leave the windows of Dolmabahe Palace overlooking the sea for even a moment.... In his excitement that day, Abdlaziz even forgot to dine (172). The article further
recounts that,
All of Istanbul was decorated with pompous magnicence for the
happy day. As to the reason for this, it was a return visit of Empress
Eugenie, the wife of the French King [sic] Napoleon III, to Sultan Aziz.
As if she had fallen in love with the padishahs world, Eugenie passed
over terrible, rough and stormy seas and came to Abdlaziz. (zdemir
1950, 1723)
What is the signicance of this great gossip story, and others

like it, in the framework of popular history on Ottoman women written in the 1950s? And how is gossip associated with popular writings
and women? According to cultural theory, Gossip has two meanings.
It can be used to signify talk about everyday matters, or it can refer
to voyeuristic prying... into other peoples lives. In both senses, it is
seen as a trait of female rather than male discourse (Macdonald 1995,
54). Popular historical literature in Turkey during the 1950s, mostly
written by men, studied Ottoman sultans and high ocials from the
perspective of the private sphere, and was ultimately interested in
everyday matters of Ottoman women, as well as in prying into the
private lives of members of the Ottoman elite. These historical writings
were part of the process of popularizing Ottoman history and making it available to larger audiences; thus they dealt with such issues as
the love stories of various Ottoman sultans and their female relatives,
marital relationships (particularly those of sultans and their wives),
and womens inuence over their male relatives. Adnan Giz addressed
the signicance of revealing information about the personal lives of
sultans for the broader understanding of Ottoman history as follows:
Those who are engaged with Turkish and especially Ottoman history, share a common anguish. It is dicult to know and be acquainted with the characters, the opinions, the private lives, and
in short the inside story of these bygone people, even the most

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famous of these people. For example, lets take Sultan Sleyman

the Lawgiver, who was the most remarkable [ruler] of the Ottoman era. We know only the military and ocial life of this sultan
whose sultanate lasted 46 years.... [Other sultans] characters, opinions, lofty thoughts or faults, their private lives, loves, the words
they considered valuable, are unknown to us. (Giz 1950b, 768)
Understanding the historical void produced by concentration on

the public, visible, political, military history of the sultans and neglect
of the inuence of personal relationships, Giz lamented the fact that
there was as yet no knowledge of the more private spheres, particularly
with respect to matters of the heart, concerning the rulers of the empire.
He, on the other hand, was interested precisely in the domestic, i.e. the
private and concealed, aspects of the lives of Ottoman sultans, an interest partially related to the emergence of social history at the time and
to the exposure of historical sources related to women, which led to an
increase in the study of the family, and necessarily of the more private
aspects of the lives of various sultans.
The various articles on women in these journals reveal the signicant part that Ottoman imperial women played in the Turkish nationalist discursive transformation, in the framework of which Ottoman
history, in all its grandeur, was integrated into the larger Turkish historical discourse. Turkish historians exposure to and exploration of the
newly opened Ottoman archives undoubtedly inuenced their desire to
integrate the Ottoman era into Turkish history, and eventually led them
to reveal the domestic history of the sultans and their womenfolk. Thus,
quite a few of these articles based on harem documents found in the
archives were devoted to detailed and lengthy descriptions of the harem
quarters of various sultans in dierent periods. For example, an article
titled Osmanl Haremi Ne Zaman Kuruldu? (When was the Ottoman
harem established?) sought to enlighten the scientic world with new
documents concerning the tradition of the harem in history. It also
provided detailed descriptions of the harems of various sultans (Ergins
1950). Another article presented a detailed and illustrated description
of the harem hammam (bath) in Sleyman Kanuns time which also
included a portrayal of the physical surroundings of the sultans washing
and dressing area (Kou 1950). In introducing these and other articles,

editors gave special emphasis to the fact that much of the information
was based on newly revealed documents, heretofore unavailable, especially to Western historians.
In what follows I will illustrate some of the themes recurrent in
the literature with respect to the more private history of the Ottoman
ruling elite. These will be demonstrated through examples drawn from
three principal types of womens writings on which Turkish popular
history was based: memoirs, personal letters, and travel accounts by
foreign women.
Womens Memoirs
Interesting accounts of the harem were often provided by women who

wrote various types of memoirs concerning their lives within its walls.
These were presented in the popular journals through the mediation of
mostly male historians and editors of the magazines. For example, the
author H. Uar published an article in Tarihin Sesi (The voice of history)
which introduced selections from a history of the harem throughout
Islamic history written by Cavidan who married Abbas Hilmi II [r.
18921914], the Khedive [viceroy] of Egypt, and became a Muslim
(Uar 1956, 17).10 Uar emphasized the fact that Cavidans authority on
the subject was based on her personal experience:
Most likely, my readers will rst have to learn who Princess Cavidan
was so that they can better understand these memoirs... because due
to [her own experience in] the harem, Princess Cavidan has certainly
produced a very good study of the religion of Islam from the Period
of Muhammad, the Esteemed [Founder] of the religion of Islam, until
now, and has presented us with a brief history [of the harem] that
is both [based upon] rsthand experience and authoritative. (Uar
1956, 17)
Uar explains that as a convert to Islam, Cavidan undertook to

study this religion in a scientic manner, from its inception up to the
present. In her memoirs... she wrote a foundational history of the harem
in Islam (18). Having provided the reader with a brief account of Cavidans personal history, Uar then argues that the lines you are about to
read will show just how great were her knowledge of [her] religion and
her attachment to this religion (17), and indeed, Cavidan oers some

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interesting analyses in her history of the evolution of the harem:

The harem, which was preserved in the manner desired by a false
[version of the] religion of Islam and according to arbitrary interpretation, and which gave rise to a ruling class that harbored jealousies and
unsound views and beliefs, was not in keeping with the principles set
down by Muhammad, either in the number [of women in the harem]
or in the dress [of its inhabitants], and was in open contradiction of
his doctrine.
Over time, the individual household harems of husbands became
harems of women, which were places administered with great jealousy
[and favoritism] behind high walls, and in this way [their inhabitants] were denied every right and action. During Muhammads time
there were no veiled, locked in, or captive women in the harem. They
possessed complete freedom and the same rights as men. They participated in the assemblies of the men and they worshipped together with
them. (Uar 1956, 20)
Cavidans account is noteworthy for its criticism of the evolution

of womens treatment in Muslim lands after the death of the Prophet,
and the gradual veiling and seclusion of Muslim women, far removed, as
she argues, from Muhammads intentions. In showing Muslim womens
seclusion and veiling as an upper-class development that took place
long after the death of the Prophet, Cavidan oers an approach that
sees in the original version of the Prophets Islam the source of Muslim
womens emancipation from the bonds of custom and tradition. The
motivation for her criticism of the evolution of the status of women in
Islam may be related to her being a devout Muslim or to her Western
origins as a convert to Islam. Whatever the case may be, her analysis
foreshadows much later work by Muslim feminists who have also argued that womens position in Muslim societies was altered throughout
the history of Islam, transforming it into a misogynist religion never
intended by its prophet.
Ziya Hunerman, editor of Yeni Tarih Dergisi (The new history
periodical), voiced a similar criticism of Ottoman treatment of women.
When introducing Leyla Saz, who recounted the history of her generation, her social class, and her gender, and who was acknowledged by
Hunerman as uniquely capable of doing so because of her personal

experience within the harem, he argued that,

By educating herself in an age in which no value was given to Turkish women in our public life and in which they were subjected to the
intense oppression of fanaticism, Leyl Hanm (18501936) is herself
a [national] treasure, who in both [her] prose and verse found fame in
the literature of the time. (Saz 1958a, 380)
Leyla Saz herself, however, does not share the editors critique of
Ottoman society and emphasizes her personal motivation for writing
her memoirs, i.e. her recollections of the happy days she spent in the Ottoman harem and her desire to share these memories with her children
and grandchildren:
As I write these words I feel as if I am once again back in those happy
days of that age; [and] its not just a feeling, I really do nd myself there
again. The pure, tender glances at me, my own glances at those gently
smiling faces like bright spring mornings, those beautiful words in my
ears, [spoken] with those delicate voices, at such moments they bring
me happiness. Yes, even the memory of their breath lls me with joy.
If not for my children and grandchildren who are before my eyes, I
would be likely to deny the last ft y years of my life, that half-century
that has fallen and disappeared into the holes in the earth opened up
by the earthquakes of the time. (Saz 1958a, 382)
The editors agenda, as seen above, does not necessarily coincide with
that of the author, and he shares with the readers his own motivations for
publishing her recollections, as well as pointing out the quality of the elements in her work that made him decide it was worth publishing:
The things that she wrote within the framework of her recollections of
the Imperial Harem and the Sultans Palaces (where she herself lived)
concerning events and details such as old Ottoman customs, traditions
and social customs, clothes and material things, are of a nature whose
very existence can be a source of pride for our national library. Because
these memoirs were recently [re]discovered in the [Ottoman] newspapers Vakit and leri, where they were published between the years 1920
and 1922, without any particular order and in the dicult [to read] old
[Arabic] script, they are impossible for the younger generation to use.

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As a result, we have collected, edited, and organized these memoirs

and arranged them in a manner that in no way distorts their meaning,
and we now present them for [the readers] benet. (Saz 1958a, 380)
The editors nationalist agenda is apparent in his introduction to Sazs

writings. He voices a concern for rendering Ottoman sources accessible
to younger Turks, many if not most of whom were unable to read Ottoman Turkish.
The editor also emphasizes Sazs insider point of view in relation
to revealing the authentic history of the private Ottoman household,
unknown until then because mostly written by foreigners who could
not have shared her personal experience. In his introduction to each segment of her memoirs that he published in Yeni Tarih Dergisi throughout
1958, Hunerman stresses her recollections of the harem as she herself
personally lived and wrote them (Saz 1958b, 394), and her unique perspective as an eyewitness to the inside reality of harem life throughout
a signicant part of her own life and during a signicant time in the
history of the empire:
Between the ages of 11 and 26, Leyl Hanm... saw and experienced
the reign of [Sultan] Abdlaziz, that of Murad V at age 27, that of
Abdlhamid II between the ages of 27 and 59, that of [Mehmet] Reat
between the ages of 59 and 69, and that of Vahidettin between the ages
of 69 and 73. (Saz 1958a, 381)
From the point of view of the history of women, Sazs recollections of life
in the Ottoman harem oer a wonderful source for the study of the everyday lives of women in the domestic sphere during the closing decades
of Ottoman rule. The editor himself attests to the wealth of information
concerning Ottoman domestic history that she provides:
In the parts of her recollections concerning the palace, she discusses a
great many interesting subjects, such as the private lives of the sultans,
their tendencies and inclinations, the imperial princes... the servants,
the concubines, the harem eunuchs, the weddings of the sultans and
palace ladies, as well as many interesting events that took place in the
palace and the harem. (Saz 1958a, 381)
Indeed, Leyla Sazs writings shed light on previously hidden aspects of

harem life, such as the hierarchy of female slavery, harem musical entertainment, various religious holidays and rituals as they were celebrated
by women in the harem, and even womens dress patterns.11
Cavidan and Saz seem to have had very dierent motivations for
writing their memoirs. Whereas Cavidan expressed criticism of the
religion and culture she embraced, Saz conveyed her childhood and
young adulthood memories within the Ottoman harem in very positive
terms. What is important from my point of view, however, is that both
womens writings were used by male historians and editors to advance
their agenda with regard to incorporating Ottoman history into the
larger context of Turkish history.
Womens Letters
aatay Uluay, one of the most prominent historians of the Ottoman

harem, was among the rst to discover personal letters written by Ottoman imperial women. These he gradually uncovered in his series titled
Letters from the Harem, portions of which appeared in various popular journals throughout the period under study, and which the editor
of Yeni Tarih Dnyas (The new world of history) described as follows:
This series opens up brand new horizons in our history, because with
this series we will learn many historical facts that were unknown until
today. This article also shows the results and inventions of the imagination in writings on the Ottoman harem up to today (Uluay 1953a, 27).
Uluay himself expressed a sense of national pride in the Ottoman past
too: The fact that the Ottomans established one of the most powerful
empires in modern times and ruled over countries in three continents
is well known to everyone. The ruler who governed this empire dwelt
in a palace worthy of his name and fame (27). The author described
the wonderful palaces built by Sultans Mehmet the Conqueror (r.
14441446, 14511481) and Sleyman the Lawgiver (r. 15201566), and
detailed the beauties of the harem, referring both to the women who
inhabited it and to its decor.
The above quotations from both the editor and the author highlight
the motivation behind the publication of articles based on womens
personal epistolary correspondence: popular historians took part in
the Turkish nationalist discourse by rewriting and reclaiming their history both from the previous Turkish discourse, which disregarded the

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Ottoman past, and from awed Western accounts. Historians, such as

Uluay, were among the rst to use Ottoman archives and were hailed
for this by their editors: Letters of Sultans that were unknown until
today clarify many obscure points of Ottoman history. aatay Uluay
presents these letters to the scientic eld for the rst time (Uluay
1953b, 130). Uluay became one of the most important historians of
the Ottoman harem. He wrote extensively on Ottoman women, and his
work has been widely relied upon in later research. His published works
on Ottoman women include Haremden Mektuplar (Letters from the
harem, 1956), Harem (1971), Padiahlarn Kadnlar ve Kzlar (The
wives and daughters of the sultans, 1992), and Osmanl Sultanlarna
Ak Mektuplar (Love letters to Ottoman sultans, 2001). In addition to
his academic work, Uluay published extensively in the popular press
throughout the period I examined. His articles almost always referred the
reader to the Ottoman documents from which he drew his material. In
his Letters from the Harem series, he published complete letters written by various dynasty members, with very little editing other than an
introduction to each letter that provided some contextual information.
In these articles in popular historical journals, Uluay often pointed
out the signicance of studying the private lives of the sultans and of Ottoman ocials and their family members. For example, discussing the
sources available for the study of the harem in an article titled Haremin
Srr Nedir? (What is the secret of the harem?), he introduced a series of
letters written by wives and daughters of sultans, arguing that,
We believe these letters hold great historical importance. These are
small rays of light that leak out from the harem... these letters will expose the thoughts and passions of those who lived in the harem [and]
their inuence on the sultan and other men of state; the private lives of
women, and sultans and their characters.... (Uluay 1953e, 74)
Uluay emphasizes the importance of the private letters of harem inhabitants for revealing the domestic dimensions of Ottoman elite history and for understanding their inuence on Ottoman rulers and their
decision-making processes. He paints a vivid picture of the physical
surroundings of the harem, stresses womens veiled faces as they strolled
in the gardens, as well as the heavy curtains that symbolized the harem
and signied womens strict seclusion. This physical description of ha-

rem women secluded by veils and heavy curtains illustrates the secrecy
and impermeability of harem life and the diculty of knowing about
the private lives of harem inhabitants. This depiction further demonstrates the improbability of accuracy in previous accounts of the harem,
especially those by foreign men who could not have penetrated its privacy, and emphasizes the novelty of Turkish historians writings. The
choice of Turkish historians, such as Uluay, to publish in the popular
press, especially on such topics as the harem and its inhabitants, in an
eort to attract and increase readership through sensationalizing their
subject matters, ts in the framework of advancing the post-Kemalist
model of women, one based and rooted in Ottoman history, to as wide
a population as possible.
The historical literature that originated in womens letters touched
especially on aspects related to the domestic demeanor and organization
of the female section of the Ottoman palace and on the most intimate
dimensions of womens lives, such as their love stories, marital relations,
and relationships between sultans and their wives, mothers, sisters,
and children. One relationship repeatedly dealt with was that between
Sultan Sleyman Kanun and Hurrem, a Russian captive presented to
the sultans palace. Hurrems intelligence was often mentioned in connection with her success in gradually catching Sleymans attention.
The sultans growing infatuation with her, to the point of disregarding
all other women of his harem, was constantly noted:
At first glance, it seems strange that a personality such as that of
Kanun Sultan should be under the inuence of Hurrem. But Hurrem
had not achieved her purpose overnight. For this purpose she had
struggled for years. We know that Sultan Sleyman was interested in no
woman other than Hurrem. Hurrem was not excessively beautiful, but
she was exceedingly charming and clever. She acted with great deliberation and would not take a step without laying the ground work well.12
Various articles presented dierent sides of the relationship between

Hurrem and Sleyman, such as their rst meeting and his immediate
fascination with her, or Hurrems apparent inuence over and jealousy
for the man considered the greatest of Ottoman sultans:
Hurrem, who caused the Great World Conqueror to yield to her

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beauty, gradually realized her desire to be the ruler of all of the empire and made the sultan fulll all her desires with her schemes and
coquettishness. She could not endure other inuences over the sultan
and was even jealous of men of state. (ehsuvarolu 1950, 177)
Hurrems inuence over Sleyman through her sweet words and

her messages of anguish and longing while he was away in battle is
revealed in her love letters. Referring to her unique style of writing,
Uluay, who found eight of Hurrems letters, argues that,
Hurrem Sultan, who was at least as sensitive as her husband, decorated
the letters she wrote with sweet language and attractive expressions
and with poems that she sprinkled throughout, gradually gaining
stature in the eyes of her husband; in this way she simply became a
second Ottoman emperor. (Uluay 1954b, 768)
Uluays description of Hurrems 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 inuence women had over the most important men of state and of
the vital role they played in the Ottoman elite:
In the letters that she wrote to Kanun Sultan Sleyman, Hurrem Sultan discusses especially their separation and the pain that she suered
because of it. Hurrem Sultan knew very well that her husband, who
was surrounded by blood, death, and the smell of war, and whose ears
and mind were buzzing with the ringing of swords and the beating
of drums, was in need of love, poetry, tenderness. Because of this she
strove to adorn her letters with expressions that would soften his soldiers and emperors heart which was as hard as steel. (Uluay 1954b)
Ultimately, Uluay describes Hurrem as a clever woman who knew

how to play the role of the perfect wife in order to attract the sultans
attention and gain political inuence. Through her letters to her husband, he demonstrates her hold over Sleyman and her inuence over
his decision-making process. Her letters thus enabled historians to gaze
into the intimate relationship between her and the most powerful of
Ottoman sultans, and to understand the power of domestic politics and
its inuence on the politics of the empire.

The article titled Letters from the Harem: The Letters of Hafsa
Sultan introduced the love story between Hafsa Hatun and Sultan
Selim the Grim (r. 15121520), and described how imperial obligations
and customs, especially with regard to the princes and subsequently
the rulers responsibilities, inuenced and transformed their relationship. Through Hafsas letters, Uluay traces her blissful days with
Selim in the province of Trabzon, where he was stationed while still a
prince,13 her distress and longing for him after he became sultan and
was often away in battle, her realization that she would have to accept
and endure their separation upon accompanying her own son to the
province and establishing his harem as Ottoman custom required, her
decision to devote herself to her son (later Sultan Sleyman Kanun),
and eventually her happiest days as Sleymans valide sultan (queen
mother). The article demonstrates Ottoman womens empowerment
through advanced age and motherhood of sons, as opposed to their
relative weakness as wives. As Selims wife, Hafsa Hatun was merely
one among many, even if she was the favorite. But as the mother of the
sultan, she climbed to the very top of the harem hierarchy, and became
incredibly powerful. Uluay chose to focus on the spousal relationship
rather than the maternal one, and to emphasize Hafsas love for Selim
and her longing for him when he was away. He explained her emotional
state upon being sent to the province of Manisa as the head of her son
Sleymans harem, as follows:
Yavuz (Selim the Grim), when he became sultan, appointed his son...
to Manisa [and] sent Hafsa Sultan together [with him].... Now years of
pain and longing [for her husband] took the place of the happy years
passed in Trabzon.
It is true that she was very pleased that her husband emerged victorious from the struggle of the princes. She knew very well that if
her husband had lost to Ahmed she would have lost her beloved son
Sleyman too....14 From that time on she wrote letters to Sultan Selim
the Grim explaining her love, her great suering, and her inability to
endure the separation. (Uluay 1954a, 7323)
Hafsa vividly expressed her distress in the letters she wrote to her
husband, often depicting herself as the ever miserable or the weak
and fragile Hafsa Sultan (7334). However, as Uluay points out,

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72
With the death of Sultan Selim the Grim in 1520, Sleyman attained
the throne without rivalry.... He brought his beloved mother to Istanbul
too and made her the head of his harem. Hafsa Sultan nally became
Valide Sultan and passed into a position of success which she had not
known during her husbands time.... Now she commanded the palace
of an empire [that] ruled regions and countries.... (7334)
Uluay emphasizes that from then on Hafsa Hatuns letters were signed
Sultan Sleymans Valide Sultan, signifying her elevated position and
demonstrating Ottoman womens dependency on their sons for social
mobility and change in their life circumstances. By introducing Hafsa
Hatuns letters, the historian enables readers to glance into her inner
world, calls attention to Ottoman womens love for and attachment to
their husbands, and demonstrates the personal price they often paid
upon ful llment of imperial obligations. Indeed, through personal letters he uncovers spousal relationships inuencing men of state, and
presents an entirely new image of Ottoman women, who were politically
powerful and inuential. This image stood in stark contrast to earlier
images and especially to the Orientalist image of the idle and passive
Ottoman women depicted by Western writers.
Unlike those that focused on love stories, several articles described the unhappiness of Ottoman women with their husbands
and within their marriages. One such article discussed the unhappy
marriage of Fatma Sultan, daughter of Bayezit II (r. 14811512). Fatma
was married to
Mustafa Pasha... [a] man who rose and fell with rascals and boys. For
years Fatma Sultan shut her eyes to her husbands neglect of her, to the
drinking parties he arranged with boys.... But when he became Sancak
Bey (ruler of the province) of Antalya and began to hunt young men...
the situation changed.... Drawing courage from gossip and shameful
rumors, she decided to inform her father of the situation. She sent her father Bayezit II this sad and worried letter... [which] expresses in the most
original way the suerings of her bruised spirit. (Uluay 1953d, 418)
The article sheds light on the life of an Ottoman princess, married to

a man of the sultans choice, and the hardships she encountered due to
her husbands homosexuality.15 It also emphasizes the pains Fatma Sul-

tan went through before she nally admitted the truth to her father. At
the same time, it illustrates Ottoman womens powers, decision-making
process, and ability to take control of their lives. Despite having had
to comply with Ottoman elite customs with regard to marriage and
imperial obligations, Fatma Sultan agreed only for a time to play the
role of the obedient daughter and to endure a shameful marriage, at the
end of which she revealed her feelings to her father. Indeed, womens
unhappiness in often politically motivated arranged marriages was a
recurrent theme in the literature. Other articles that were based on letter
correspondence described imperial womens requests for their fathers
assistance and support in other practical matters. For example, another
daughter of Bayezit II, Aye Sultan, wrote to her father complaining of
her husbands change of position and location and the nancial distress
that ensued (Uluay 1953c).16
As these letters indicate, Ottoman imperial women had close relationships with their powerful male relatives, shared with them their
positive as well as their negative family and marital experiences, and
often sought their help in changing their personal circumstances. At
the same time, the letters show the sultans devotion to their womenfolk
and the sense of responsibility they felt for their nancial well-being and
health.17 Letters written by dynastic women also illuminated the various
roles they played in the politics of the dynasty, and their inuence over
the ruling elite.18
As seen in the previous section that analyzed the popular historical use of womens memoirs, mostly written at the beginning of the
twentieth century, Turkish historians also utilized Ottoman womens
letters, written in various periods throughout Ottoman history, for
their own agenda. Just as womens memoirs enabled Turkish historians to present Ottoman women as both powerful and often critical of
their society, so they used womens letters to show Ottoman womens
agency and control of their own as well as their male relatives lives.
In both cases, the nal result, in terms of the newly emerging nationalist discourse of the 1950s, was the portrayal of an image of strong
and inuential Ottoman women. In terms of womens history, the use
of sources found in the harem archives, mostly written by imperial
women themselves, added an entirely new dimension to the study of
Ottoman imperial history.

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Womens Travel Literature
Yet another genre of writings used by popular historians in the 1950s

was foreign womens travel literature. The postcolonial critique of travel
literature has deconstructed its major texts and exposed their colonialist
orientation. The feminist postcolonial critique has focused on images
of Oriental women produced by travelers, and subsequently developed
critical scholarly literature that focused on women travelers, analyzing their writings from a gendered point of view. Th is literature has
increasingly shown that women travelers, albeit rooted in Orientalist
culture, produced texts that shed a dierent light on Middle Eastern
women primarily by virtue of their rsthand encounters with them
(Mills 1991; Melman 1995, 7; Lewis 1996). Billie Melman, for example,
who studied writings of mostly British women, demonstrated that during the eighteenth century an alternative view of the Orient developed,
inuenced by Western female travelers and residents in the Middle East.
This alternative view substituted, according to Melman, a sense of solidarity of gender for sexual and racial superiority. She further argues
that womens experience in the Middle East was dierent from mens in
the sense that it was private rather than civic or public and that the
privacy of womens experience was most manifest in what she terms
harem literature (Melman 1995, 8, 12).19 Interestingly, Turkish historians seem to have identied the potential of European womens travel
writing for the study of the domestic dimensions of Ottoman women as
early as the 1950s.
The popular historical journals I examined introduced translations
of European travelers accounts that were said to reveal the true history of women of the Ottoman Empire. The letters of Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to the Empire during the reign
of Sultan Ahmed III (r. 17031730), for example, were referred to in the
Turkish literature quite often, and portions of her letters were translated
in various articles and magazines throughout the period. According to
one article,
[T]he wife of Montagu, the great English Ambassador to Turkey, who
achieved a masterpiece in the world of literature with her Letters from
the East, went around and examined every corner of Istanbul, going
from the palaces of the sultan to the humblest of Turkish homes.... This

beautiful English woman, who established friendships with sultans

and entered the palace harem, left very valuable documents concerning Istanbul at that time, in the famous letters she wrote to her friends
in England during the year she lived in Istanbul (17171718). (Erksan
1950, 506)
Lady Marys letters were seen as providing important rsthand historical data on Ottoman women because of her depiction of those Ottoman
women whom she befriended. Her general positive impression with
regard to Ottoman glory in general and Ottoman women and their relative freedom in particular must have also inuenced the publication in
Turkey of parts of her letters in the 1950s and since.
An article titled Through Foreign Eyes, published in Yeni Tarih
Dnyas (The new world of history), provided yet another explanation
for the appeal of translated foreign texts. The editors introduction explained his intentions as follows:
This piece [is] borrowed from the magazine titled Lecture pour tous
(Reading for everyone) in order to convey the very honest observations
regarding the life of our women in the days before the Second Constitutional Revolution [1908] by a Polish woman who most likely lived in
Istanbul and perhaps was even born here. It is valuable for determining
how the Westerners saw us. (Szumlarska 1953, 290)
The article described a day in the life of an upper-class Turkish woman.

It portrayed her relations with her servants and criticized various customs with regard to Ottoman womens lives, such as their inability to
choose their man in marriage, their lack of education, and their petty
daily activities. It is an excellent example of an Orientalist depiction of
Ottoman women, presented to Turkish readers as the image of Ottoman womens life in the eyes of foreigners. In this case, then, a foreign
womans portrayal of her Ottoman counterparts was used by Turkish
historians not only to illustrate Western images of Ottoman women, but
also to convey Western criticism of Ottoman customs, especially with
regard to women.
Accounts of those able to penetrate the harem and engage in
direct contact with Ottoman women were considered both trustworthy
and appropriate for the process of re-writing their history. The motiva-

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tion for presenting Western womens travel literature to popular history

readers in Turkey during the 1950s was again related to Turkish popular
historians attempt to reclaim their history from Western Orientalist historiography. In most cases, Orientalist images of women depicted them
as submissive and lacking any measure of freedom. By translating the
works of women who had observed the lives of Ottoman women from
the inside, popular Turkish historians illustrated Ottoman womens
independence and agency within the harem, which they portrayed as an
all-female institution in which women engaged in various activities, not
necessarily involving only sexual encounters with sultans.
CONCLUSION
Popular historical magazines played an important part in the reconstruction of Turkeys Ottoman past during the 1950s. Nationalist history often bases its premise on what is referred to as popular culture.
Turkish popular historical journals that for the most part followed no
academic historical methods, and the popular nature of their content
and style appealed to the historical curiosity of the general public. Thus,
popular literature on Ottoman history, completely overlooked in the
Kemalist era, facilitated the gradual integration of the Ottoman phase
into Turkish history during the post-Kemalist period. This integration
might have been less eective had it been carried out by professional
historians solely via scholarly historical channels, given their limited
exposure to the public. The popular historical form, then, served the
purpose of spreading the new Ottoman-oriented national discourse to
a wide readership.
The infatuation of Turkish popular historians with the private,
everyday lives of Ottoman sultans and their female relatives produced
histories of Ottoman women that appeared in the literature throughout
the 1950s and played an important role in the framing of the revisionist Turkish nationalist discourse. Within the new discourse, Ottoman
women became key participants because there was much to be learned
from their lives in both the public and the private spheres. Stories centered on the everyday lives of Ottoman women enabled historians to
reconstruct representations of Ottoman women not only as subjected
and submissive but also as possessing control over their lives; not only

as passive bystanders, but as powerful and active participants in their

society. The newly constructed image of women was rooted in Ottoman
history, dierent from Western representations of women, and overall
quite removed from the Anatolian model of women most favored in the
Kemalist period.
Partha Chatterjees analysis of womens role in Indian nationalist discourse, and especially the signicance of womens private roles
within nationalism, can help us understand the value of the literature
on Ottoman women in the Turkish context. Chatterjee demonstrates
that womens role in Indian nationalism was to symbolize the inner
spiritual world, a world to which the colonial power had no access. The
sphere occupied by women was to remain uninuenced by the West,
the realm in which Western ways should not be emulated. The world
associated with women thus became the authentic part of the colonized
nation and everything associated with it could not have been known or
understood by Westerners, especially men (Chatterjee 1993). As I have
demonstrated, Turkish popular historians often argued that Western
accounts of the private lives of Ottoman women were mostly based on
myth and imagination because they were inaccessible to Westerners
(especially men), and saw their role as historians in terms of correcting
the historical record. To borrow Chatterjees terms, in their postcolonial
reclaiming of history from mostly foreign historians, Turkish historians
made use of new, more authentic sources written by both Ottoman and
foreign women which enabled them to present an insiders point of
view, and ultimately a much altered image of Ottoman women.
In her analysis of gender, nation, and nationalism, Sylvia Walby
suggests that it is more appropriate to talk of rounds of restructuring
of the nation state.... It is useful in carrying the notion of change built
upon foundations which remain, and that layer upon layer of change
can take place, each of which leaves its sediment which signicantly affects future practices (Walby 1997, 190). In the Turkish case, popular
historical accounts of Ottoman women, widespread in the 1950s and
onward, were yet another phase in the re-imagining of Turkish women
within Turkish nationalist ideology. The round of restructuring that
took place during the 1950s employed images of Ottoman women in lieu
of the images of pre-Islamic Anatolian women used earlier during the
Kemalist nationalist phase.

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78
Nevertheless, reading these articles on Ottoman women shows

that, whatever their motivations, Turkish popular historians who found
womens writings in the Ottoman archives and used foreign womens
literature concerning their Ottoman contemporaries, contributed to the
uncovering of the private/domestic dimensions of the Ottoman imperial
elite, and ultimately to the history of Ottoman women, several decades
earlier than Western scholarship began to do so.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Professor Nikki Keddie for reading and providing
valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper, and Dr. Orna Sasson-Levy who read and commented on endless earlier versions.
NOTES
1. Hafsa Hatun (Lady Hafsa) was the wife of Sultan Selim I (r. 15121520) and
the mother of Sultan Sleyman Kanun (the Lawgiver) (r. 15201566), known in the
West as Suleiman the Magnicent.
2. In this paper, all translations from the Turkish are my own (with occasional
help from Paul Bessemer).
3. Leyla Saz was the daughter of an Ottoman ocial in the administration of
Abdlmecid I (r. 18391861) and a famous poet in her own right.
4. Some of these sources, as well as many others found in Ottoman archives,
were used by Leslie Peirce in her pioneering work, The Imperial Harem (1993).
Peirces study was the rst comprehensive research conducted by a Western scholar
on the private quarters of the Ottoman dynasty, i.e. the harem and its female inhabitants, and the rst to introduce the signicant roles that imperial women played in
the politics of the Ottoman Empire and its dynasty.
5. For a broader discussion of this period, see Zrcher 1993, 25391.
6. For more on changes aecting intellectual currents in Turkey during the
1950s, see Barzilai-Lumbroso 2000, 1718.
7. Mustafa Kemal adopted Ziya Gk Alps pre-Islamic Turkish nationalist
ideology. Hence, the framework for discussing the woman question in Kemalist
Turkey was that of the pre-Islamic Turkish past, and Gk Alps notions of womens
equality in that period (Kandiyoti 1989).
8. This paper is based on some of the sources used in my doctoral dissertation
(Barzilai-Lumbroso 2007).
9. Judith Tucker and Margaret Meriwether use the term women worthies
which refers to the history of notable women, women who played a role that is visible, although often neglected in history writing, in public activities (Meriwether
and Tucker 1999, 3).
10. Princess Cavidan, originally Marianne von Trk-Szendr of Hungar-

ian origin, was born in Philadelphia in 1877. She married Abbas Hilmi Pasha on
February 2, 1910.
11. Another series that featured womens memories was written by one of
Sultan Abdlhamids daughters and titled Aye Osmanolu, Babam [My Father]
Sultan Hamit. The series was published in Hayat (Life) on a weekly basis from
April 6, 1956, to June 15, 1956, and gave detailed descriptions of various aspects of
the sultans life, such as his family, government, administration, ocials, illnesses,
and also the furniture and bathhouses in his palace.
12. Hurrem Sultan, author unknown, Hayat Tarih Mecmuas 16 (July): 71.
13. Young Ottoman princes were sent away to various provinces of the empire
to acquire military and administrative experience before ascending to the throne.
Once stationed in the province, the prince would be joined by his harem, including his mother and his wives. See Peirce 1993, chapter on The Imperial Harem
Institution (11349).
14. During much of Ottoman history (through the beginning of the seventeenth century), a new sultan, once proclaimed, would proceed to murder all of his
male siblings and their male ospring in order to avoid any further competition.
Hafsa Hatun knew, therefore, that had it not been her husband who ascended to the
throne, she would have lost both him and their son.
15. On homosexuality in the Ottoman Empire, see Andrews and Kalpakl
2005, and Zeevi 2006.
16. On the role of the Ottoman son-in-law, see Peirce 1993, 6577.
17. Uluay mentions that Seluk, the daughter of Sultan Mehmet I (r. 14121420),
was able to live comfortably in her old age because of the revenues that were bestowed
upon her and the mosque and bridge built in her name (Uluay 1953b, 1301).
18. For example, on Seluk Sultans unique role in preventing bloodshed between her nephews Bayezit and Cem when the latter contested the formers right of
succession to the Ottoman throne, see Uluay 1953b, 1312.
19. Similarly, Teresa Heffernan (2000) offers various readings of Lady
Mary Wortley Montagus Letters in relation to feminism and Orientalism
and suggests that her text carries both Orientalist and feminist connotations.
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Turkish Men and the History of Ottoman Women: Studying the History of the Ottoman

Dynasty's Private Sphere through Women's Writings

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TURKISH MEN AND THE HISTORY

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JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EAST WOMENS STUDIES 5:2

Similarly, in the introduction to a series of articles in Yeni Tarih

These two passages, quoted from popular historical periodicals

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to rewrite Turkish history). However, by the mid-1940s, intellectuals in

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Gizs methodology suggests a feminist understanding of the neglect of

The popular Turkish historical journals that constitute the primary

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an eect on intellectual life in Turkey. The journals were purchased and

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have been generated by traditions and folk beliefs as well as by political

Many of the articles that relied on womens writings as their primary

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described Sultan Abdlazizs excitement and his anticipation of what

What is the signicance of this great gossip story, and others

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famous of these people. For example, lets take Sultan Sleyman

Understanding the historical void produced by concentration on

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Interesting accounts of the harem were often provided by women who

Uar explains that as a convert to Islam, Cavidan undertook to

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interesting analyses in her history of the evolution of the harem:

Cavidans account is noteworthy for its criticism of the evolution

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experience within the harem, he argued that,

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As a result, we have collected, edited, and organized these memoirs

The editors nationalist agenda is apparent in his introduction to Sazs

Indeed, Leyla Sazs writings shed light on previously hidden aspects of

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aatay Uluay, one of the most prominent historians of the Ottoman

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JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EAST WOMENS STUDIES 5:2

Ottoman past, and from awed Western accounts. Historians, such as

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Various articles presented dierent sides of the relationship between

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Hurrems inuence over Sleyman through her sweet words and

Ultimately, Uluay describes Hurrem as a clever woman who knew

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JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EAST WOMENS STUDIES 5:2

The article sheds light on the life of an Ottoman princess, married to

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Womens Travel Literature