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The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher
In the Western imagination, the Middle Eastern harem was a place of sex, debauchery, slavery, miscegenation, power, riches, and sheer abandon. But for the women and children who actually inhabited this realm of the imperial palace, the reality was vastly different. In this collection of translated memoirs, three women who lived in the Ottoman imperial harem in Istanbul between 1876 and 1924 offer a fascinating glimpse "behind the veil" into the lives of Muslim palace women of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The memoirists are Filizten, concubine to Sultan Murad V; Princess Ayse, daughter of Sultan Abdulhamid II; and Safiye, a schoolteacher who instructed the grandchildren ...
On the Sultan's Service
The renowned Turkish author’s memoir of serving Sultan Mehmed V provides a rare look inside the palace politics of the late Ottoman Empire. Before he became one of Turkey’s most famous novelists, Halid Ziya Usakligil served as First Secretary to Sultan Mehmed V. His memoir of that time, between 1909 and 1912, provides first-hand insight into the personalities, intrigues, and inner workings of the Ottoman palace in its final decades. In post-Revolution Turkey, the palace no longer exercised political power. Instead, it negotiated the minefields between political factions, sought ways to unite the empire in the face of nationalist aspirations, and faced the opening salvos of the wars that would eventually overwhelm the country. Usakligil includes interviews with the Imperial family as well as descriptions of royal nuptials, the palaces and its visitors, and the crises that shook the court. He also delivers an insightful and moving portrait of Mehmed V, the man who reigned over the Ottoman Empire through both Balkan Wars and World War I.
Harem Ghosts
None
Empress of the East
Abducted by slave traders from her home in Ruthenia - modern-day Ukraine - around 1515, Roxelana was brought to Istanbul and trained in the palace harem as a concubine for Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire and one of the world's most powerful men. Suleyman became besotted with Roxelana and foreswore all other concubines, freeing and marrying her. The bold and canny Roxelana became a shrewd diplomat and philanthropist, helping Suleyman keep pace with a changing world in which women - Isabella of Hungary, Catherine de Medici - were increasingly close to power. Until now Roxelana has been seen by historians as a seductress who brought ruin to the empire, but in Empress of the East, acclaimed historian Leslie Peirce reveals with panache the compelling story of an elusive woman who transformed the Ottoman harem into an institution of imperial rule.
The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Harem
A study of the chief of the African eunuchs who guarded the sultan's harem in Istanbul under the Ottoman Empire.
Ruler Visibility and Popular Belonging in the Ottoman Empire, 1808-1908
This book argues that the periodic ceremonial intrusion into the everyday lives of people across the Ottoman Empire, which the annual royal birthday and accession-day celebrations constituted, had multiple, far-reaching and largely unexplored consequences. On the one hand, it brought ordinary subjects into symbolic contact with the monarch and forged lasting vertical ties of loyalty to him, irrespective of language, location, creed or class. On the other hand, the rounds of royal celebration played a key role in the creation of new types of horizontal ties and ethnic group consciousness that crystallized into national movements and, after the empire's demise, national monarchies.
Drumlanrig
With its picturesque domes, walls of pale pink sandstone and splendid Dumfriesshire setting, Drumlanrig is one of Scotland's most romantic castles, its story entwined with that of the country itself. Today's castle was superimposed on a medieval Douglas stronghold by the 1st Duke of Queensberry and took a decade to build. Finished in 1689, its North Front is a stunning stage set of dressed stone, classical pilasters and carvings of swags, scrolls and spooky faces. The 2nd Duke, known as 'The Union Duke' for his role in the 1707 Act of Union, added the great oak staircase, while his son created the vast gardens. The 4th Duke, a rakish cousin known as 'Old Q', left it to future Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensberry to rescue the castle and fill it with treasures, including Rembrandt's luminous Old Woman Reading.
Life after the Harem
The first study exploring the lives of female slaves of the Ottoman imperial court, drawing from hitherto unexplored primary sources
Restless
It is 1939. Eva Delectorskaya is a beautiful 28-year-old Russian émigrée living in Paris. As war breaks out she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a mysterious Englishman, and under his tutelage she learns to become the perfect spy, to mask her emotions and trust no one, including those she loves most. Since the war, Eva has carefully rebuilt her life as a typically English wife and mother. But once a spy, always a spy. Now she must complete one final assignment, and this time Eva can't do it alone: she needs her daughter's help.
Mediterraneans
In the nineteenth century thousands of Europeans and others moved south to North Africa, Egypt, and the Levant. This study of a dynamic borderland, the Tunis region, offers a picture of the Mediterranean before, and during, French colonialism. It tells the story of migrants, travelers, and adventurers who traversed the Mediterranean, changing it forever. It also looks at how an Arab-Muslim state and society made room for the newcomers.
