*Living in the Ottoman Realm,* eds. Christine Isom-Verhaaren and Kent F. Schull (Indiana University Press, 2016), 225-38

Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association 6,1 (2019): 21-37

In *Celibate and Childless Men in Power: Ruling Eunuchs and Bishops in the Pre-Modern World,* eds. Almut Hofert, Matthew M. Mesley, and Serena Tolino (London: Routledge, 2017), 211-25

The subject of this paper is the Harem of the Sultan during the Ottoman Empire, especially after the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, which was followed by important changes in the dynastic politics. The purpose of the paper is to examine to what extent, for what reason and in what ways the inhabitants of the imperial harem would acquire power and influence the politics of the empire. The main thesis is that different members and categories of the harem would manage to gain leverage beyond the harem walls and become important players in the Ottoman political scene. The physical proximity to the Sultan and the center of power would not let the harem unaffected, but, by contrast, some of the power would be passed to it. Such conclusions not only challenge the common portrayal of the harem as a symbol of despotism and submission but they have a lot to say about the Ottoman society and culture, primarily about the nature of the harem, the role of women and the function of slavery.

This is the first study to explore the lives of female slaves of the Ottoman imperial court, including the period following their manumission and transfer from the imperial palace. Through an analysis of a wide range of hitherto unexplored primary sources, Betül İpşirli Argıt demonstrates that the manumission of female palace slaves and their departure from the palace did not mean the severing of their ties with the imperial court; rather, it signaled the beginning of a new kind of relationship that would continue until their death. Demonstrating the diversity of experiences in non-dynastic femaleagency in the early-modern Ottoman world, Life after the Harem shows how these evolving relationships had widespread implications for multiple parties, from the manumitted female palace slaves, to the imperial court, and broader urban society. In so doing, İpşirli Argıt offers not just a new way of understanding the internal politics and dynamics of the Ottoman imperial court, but also a new way of understanding the lives of the actors within it.

The present study mainly focuses on the emergence of the chief eunuchs (hadım aghalar) as prevailing actors in the imperial household and as confidants of women of the imperial family, by exploring the manner in which they assumed imperial grandeur at the end of the sixteenth century and early seventeenth century. Like the viziers and other military milieu in the court, the chief eunuchs’ patronage activity in art and architecture was a conscious and strategically planned effort in legitimizing their status. The charitable architectural endowments of the chief eunuchs conveyed their ascent in the political ladder as they became increasingly visible as patrons in the late-sixteenth century. While observing that this period was the first time that the eunuch aghas had obtained such great political substance due to their close personal relationship with the rulers, I furthermore speculate whether the structures that they built expressed a unique architectural idiom that resonated with the identity of their patrons. In the late sixteenth century the patronage of the chief eunuchs expanded beyond the conventional realm, as they systematically became engaged in literary quests. Hence, through a symbolic network of patronage of the arts, the eunuchs found a channel through which they could leave a legacy through the art of the letter. The benefaction of such secular urban monuments as fountains and sebils was paralleled by a deep interest in literary arts for this new group of patrons. If one were to compare the patronage activity of Gazanfer Agha to that of Mehmed Agha in both arts and architecture, one would quickly notice that Gazanfer Agha’s deeds were not solely motivated by political aspirations. He was indeed an intellectual of his time, supporting poets and scholars with vigorous curiosity. In this period, the sebil was not a commonly commissioned architectural monument. However, it was the beginnings of a new interpretation, a more temporal and intimate type of pious endowment. The essence of the eunuch being a patron of a structure that gave life through water might in fact be an allusion to his godlike existence. Thus, symbolically, the fountain and the sebil become objects through which the eunuch was able to achieve procreation. The eunuch’s lastingness in the mundane world is depicted through his endowment of the sebil, which was neither an entirely religious nor secular structure. The fountain/sebil endowments atoned for the eunuch’s ineffectuality in giving life.