Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire

Stephan Conermann, Gül Şen, Stephan Conermann, Gül Şen

• Publisher: V&R Unipress
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783847110378
• eBook ISBN: 9783847010371
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: History Reference
• Index: History

Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire offers a new contribution to slavery studies relating to the Ottoman Empire. Given the fact that the classical binary of 'slavery' and 'freedom' derives from the transatlantic experience, this volume presents an alternative approach by examining the strong asymmetric relationships of dependency documented in the Ottoman Empire. A closer look at the Ottoman social order discloses manifold and ambiguous conditions involving enslavement practices, rather than a single universal pattern. The authors examine various forms of enslavement and dependency with a particular focus on agency, i. e. the room for maneuver, which the enslaved could secure for themselves, or else the available options for action in situations of extreme individual or group dependencies.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Body
• Abbreviations
• List of Illustrations
• Stephan Conermann / Gül Şen: Slavery is Not Slavery: On Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire, Introduction
• General Considerations
• Ehud R. Toledano: Models of Global Enslavement
• Comparative Perspectives
• Suraiya Faroqhi: Slave Agencies Compared: The Ottoman and Mughal Empires
• Christoph Witzenrath: Agency in Muscovite Archives: Trans-Ottoman Slaves Negotiating the Moscow Administration
• Gül Şen: Galley Slaves and Agency: The Driving Force of the Ottoman Fleet
• Palace Slaves
• Jane Hathaway: The Ottoman Chief Harem Eunuch (Darüssaade Ağası) as Commissioner of Illuminated Manuscripts: The Slave as Pat on, Subject, and Artist?
• Betül İpşirli Argıt: Manumitted Female Palace Slaves and Their Material World
• Slaves in Legal Texts
• Veruschka Wagner: “Speaking Property” with the Capacity to Act: Slave Interagency in the 16th- and 17th-Century Istanbul Court Registers
• Yehoshua Frenkel: Slavery in 17th-Century Ottoman Jerusalem in light of Several Sharia Court Records
• Joshua M. White: Slavery, Manumission, and Freedom Suits in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
• Trading Slaves
• Zübeyde Güneş Yaǧcı: Slave Traders (Esirciler) in the Ottoman Istanbul
• Slaves on the Periphery
• Natalia Królikowska-Jedlińska: The Role of Circassian Slaves in the Foreign and Domestic Policy of the Crimean Khanate in the Early Modern Period
• After Abolition
• Sarah Buessow / Johann Buessow: Domestic Workers and Slaves in Late Ottoman Palestine at the Moment of the Abolition of Slavery: Considerations on Semantics and Agency
• Notes on Contributors
• Index