The Women in the Ottoman Empire 18th 20th century

1
The Women in the Ottoman Empire (18th 20th
century)

• Presented by
• Alexander Burmov
• and
• Ivan Ivanov

2
Overview

• The status and the positioning of the women of
  the Ottoman Empire in the late 18th and the
  beginning of the 20th centuries, can best be
  described by considering several stages and
  factors that reveal their responsibilities as
  well as their rights rearing of girls opposed to
  that of boys marriage family polygamy and
  divorce. To narrow the topic, only the Muslim
  women from the countryside in particular will be
  discussed.

3
Rearing Children

• The separation of the sexes, boys and girls,
  was present at a very early age in the Ottoman
  family. Virtually, boys and girls were treated
  quite differently almost prior to their birth.
  Male superiority was taught to both sexes by
  adult behavior and common cultural assumptions
  implied by the parents (to whom these assumptions
  were implied by their parents). Although boys
  were the future superior sex in the family and in
  the society, ill treatment of the daughters was
  not present at all. In fact, fathers treated
  harshly their sons, and showed more affection to
  their daughters and vice versa relationship
  existed between the mother and the son.

4
Rearing Children

• Both sexes were taught respect to the elder
  and as the eldest brother was given the title
  head of the family when the father died, the
  oldest daughter was given the right to govern the
  household. Especially in the villages, if a form
  of schooling was provided, it was for males only.
  This does not mean that young girls were not
  given the needed education.

5
Rearing Children

• Education of females was more in the form of
  apprenticeship. Cooking, sewing, care for
  animals, babysitting. Important issue included in
  females education was also the sex issue. Girls
  were taught to sexual abstinence before marriage
  and chastity after marriage.

6
Marriage

•   Almost without any exception marriage was
  arranged by the parents or through close
  relatives of the bride to be uncles or first
  cousins for example. Parents were seeking for a
  male that had higher or at least similar social
  and economic status. There was a certain
  procedure to be followed when a marriage bargain
  was to be stricken. In the negotiations a
  significant amount of sum was to be paid as the
  bride settlement called mehr. Factors such as
  physical beauty, abilities of the future bride,
  the familys status had an effect on the mehr.
  Practically, there was no difference between the
  way a western European parents and that of
  Ottomans were arranging the son/daughters
  marriage to their best interest. Still, in the OE
  a marriage meant not only a union between a male
  and a female but also a contract and union
  between two families. Here comes the important
  role of the woman in the family.

7
The Family

• The relationship between the bride and her
  prospective mother-in-law was crucial to the
  further development of the newly created family
  under the roof of the groom of course. The bride
  was seeking her mother-in-law approval constantly
  and the mother-in-law guided the bride in order
  for her to meet her new husbands needs at his
  best interest. That relationship bounded the two
  families together.

8
The Family

• After marriage, women were bound to their
  home and responsibilities and the only persons
  they could have a more intimate relationship with
  (except their husbands, children, and
  mothers-in-law) were their siblings and
  especially their brothers the only male
  companions they were allowed to. Talking about
  relationships to the opposite sex an important
  issue is that of polygamy and divorce.

9
Polygamy and Divorce

• Islamic law gave the right to men to have
  four brides. Man was forbidden though to favor
  one woman over another. The polygamy had social
  utility and welfare. One of the main
  responsibilities of the man was to fight and many
  males were dying on the battlefields. Then if
  polygamy did not existed, female population would
  have been at a greater percent. This can mean
  only one thing drastic decrease of the
  population. With polygamy such a problem was
  avoided. Mostly, polygamous unions were entered
  when the bride proved to be sterile (European and
  American men analogously had adopted the practice
  of taking mistresses). Thus, another problem
  -that of divorce was avoided too. But with or
  without polygamy divorces did exist. In this
  respect, women were given significantly less
  rights than men. If a female wished to get a
  divorce, she was supposed to leave the husbands
  house but could not return to her parents house.
  Especially in the closed society of the village,
  it was extremely hard for a divorced woman to
  live or remarry. Though, remarriage was a common
  practice by both males and females, if divorce
  was present and not the other case getting into
  a polygamous union.

10
Authority and Women

• Contrary to the universal theory (not present
  only in the Ottoman Empire) of women physically
  and intellectually weaker than man, the facts
  indicate a balance between the sexes. Both sexes
  had different spheres of authority both males
  and males made decisions in these spheres and had
  control over them. What is more, men could not
  exist without women and vice versa. They both
  accepted the world as they found it because they
  did not expect it to last long due the Muslim
  religious beliefs. It is true that some practices
  were virtually impossible to be entered by Muslim
  women without their men or some male
  intermediaries (e.g. women engaging in business
  trade) but women had their ways

11
The Harem of the Sultan

• What is a harem?
• The sultan lives in a palace, in which some
  premises and rooms are reserved for the wives of
  the sultan. This part of the palace is called the
  harem and is usually up to ¾ of the whole palace.
  Of course, other notables and rich Turks had
  harems, too.

12
Who lives in the harem

• There are rules and principles in the Ottoman
  Empire, which deprive the direct relationship or
  connection of any kind between the sultan and his
  female subjects. These characteristics of the
  Ottoman society made it possible for the sultan
  to get women for his harem from outside the
  empire, i.e. female slaves were the only eligible
  women to fill the harem. The practice is that the
  old palace women buy female slaves and teach them
  to the rules of the harem, how they should behave
  and so on. And this cycle repeats again and
  again. When there are so many women under one
  roof it is of substantial importance that some
  rules and hierarchy be established in order to
  keep the peace in the harem.

13
Hierarchy of the Harem

• 1.valide-sultan (the mother of the sultan),
• 2. haznedar-usta (the great housekeeper),
• 3. bah-kadana(the first woman of the sultan), the
  second, third and forth woman.
• 4. bah-ibral (the first favourite), the second,
  third,
• 5. hiezde ( girls noticed from the sultan)
• 6. kadani-efendi (mothers of princes or
  princesses)
• 7. sultanki ( unmarried blood princesses)

14
The Daire of valide-sultan

• Each of these women has her own retinue called
  daire. The daires of all harem women are more
  or less the same. It consists of about ten women
  called kalfi. The first or main housekeeper,
  secretary, seal keeper, wardrobe keeper, water
  pourer, coffee server, sherbet maker are all
  kalfi and each kalfa has her own students
  aliabr (meaning slave). The aliabrs are young
  girls between 15-20 years of age and are at the
  bottom of the harem hierarchy. So each kalfa has
  5 or 6 aliabrs. After doing the math it turns out
  that the harem of the sultan in one palace
  consists of approximately 400 women.