The unprecedented political power of the Ottoman imperial harem in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is widely viewed as illegitimate and corrupting. This book examines the sources of royal women's power and assesses the reactions of contemporaries, which ranged from loyal devotion to armed opposition. By examining political action in the context of household networks, Leslie Peirce demonstrates that female power was a logical, indeed an intended, consequence of political structures. Royal women were custodians of sovereign power, training their sons in its use and exercising it directly as regents when necessary. Furthermore, they played central roles in the public culture of sovereignty--royal ceremonial, monumental building, and patronage of artistic production. The Imperial Harem argues that the exercise of political power was tied to definitions of sexuality. Within the dynasty, the hierarchy of female power, like the hierarchy of male power, reflected the broadersociety's control for social control of the sexually active.
Leslie Peirce Livres
Leslie P. Peirce est une historienne dont les travaux explorent l'histoire moderne primitive de l'Empire ottoman, avec un accent particulier sur le genre, le droit et la société. Son érudition se caractérise par une immersion profonde dans les structures sociales et les systèmes juridiques de l'époque. Peirce explore les subtilités de la vie quotidienne et des dynamiques de pouvoir grâce à une analyse méticuleuse des sources historiques. Son approche offre une perspective unique sur la formation de la société et la position des femmes dans le monde ottoman du début de l'ère moderne.
Empress of the East
- 384pages
- 14 heures de lecture
The extraordinary story of a slave-girl who rose from concubine to become the Ottoman Empire's only queen.