Nancy Penrod - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Nancy Penrod

Harem in Topkapi Serail. A contemporary reproduction of the harem of the sultans, with wax figure... more Harem in Topkapi Serail. A contemporary reproduction of the harem of the sultans, with wax figures in traditional costumes, Istanbul, Turkey, 1994. akg-images The category of Ottoman women masks a complex and varied history. It spans the long history of the Ottoman Empire, from the fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries, and includes a diverse geographical and cultural spectrum, including women of Anatolia, Greece, the Balkan Peninsula, North Africa, and West Asia proper, as well as Christian, Jewish, and Muslim women. The study of Ottoman women is relatively new; before the late 1970s little had been written. During the last twentyfive years, however, perhaps no topic in Middle Eastern studies has attracted more scholarly attention. Much of this work has challenged the traditional view of Ottoman and Muslim women, based on normative theological and political literature, as marginalized and powerless. Drawing on an array of diverse sources-including court records, political documents, and financial records-scholars have shown that Ottoman women had available to them what Madeline Zilfi has termed "a wide field of action … despite an inherited gender system that prescribed women's subordination to men."

Harem in Topkapi Serail. A contemporary reproduction of the harem of the sultans, with wax figure... more Harem in Topkapi Serail. A contemporary reproduction of the harem of the sultans, with wax figures in traditional costumes, Istanbul, Turkey, 1994. akg-images The category of Ottoman women masks a complex and varied history. It spans the long history of the Ottoman Empire, from the fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries, and includes a diverse geographical and cultural spectrum, including women of Anatolia, Greece, the Balkan Peninsula, North Africa, and West Asia proper, as well as Christian, Jewish, and Muslim women. The study of Ottoman women is relatively new; before the late 1970s little had been written. During the last twentyfive years, however, perhaps no topic in Middle Eastern studies has attracted more scholarly attention. Much of this work has challenged the traditional view of Ottoman and Muslim women, based on normative theological and political literature, as marginalized and powerless. Drawing on an array of diverse sources-including court records, political documents, and financial records-scholars have shown that Ottoman women had available to them what Madeline Zilfi has termed "a wide field of action … despite an inherited gender system that prescribed women's subordination to men."