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Manumitted Female Slaves\' Relationship with Residents of Their Neighborhood
Abstract
Following their manumission, female palace slaves who belonged to the various ranks of the harem hierarchy, left the Imperial Palaces and settled in various neighborhoods of Istanbul either as married or as single. Even though these women continued their relation with the Imperial Court, they were readily integrated to the society, mainly to the neighborhood in which they lived. An examination of court registers reveals several different ways the women interacted with residents of the neighborhood. This paper will explore the extent of relationship between manumitted female place slaves and their neighbors in the eighteenth century Ottoman Empire by considering the dynamics of the era. It demonstrates how manumitted female palace slaves established relationships with the surrounding neighborhood residents through various ways such as buying and selling, as witnesses or as guardian (vasi). This paper also argues that the establishment of relationship between manumitted female palace slaves and neighborhood residents led to the introduction of the dynamics of the imperial court to the residents of the neighborhood. In the eighteenth century a wide range of social classes, ranks, and ages appeared to share the same spaces of sociability and intimate relationship existed between elite and urban cultural spaces. In such a historical context, female palace slaves who had acquaintance with the imperial court life style and possessed rich and varied material wealth compared to contemporary women played an important role in transmitting the courtly way of life to both residents of their neighborhood and to urban society in general. Furthermore, the appearances of neighborhood residents as witnesses and as guardian to the case of female palace slaves in the law court held in the Imperial Palaces made them be aware of court life and culture.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Ottoman Empire
Sub Area
13th-18th Centuries