The role of women in the Ottoman period covered a wider legal and economic field than is often assumed. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, women managed their own property, went to court and founded endowments (waqfs). In this article we look at the position of women in the family, in law, in the economy and in education on the basis of data drawn from court records.
Quick Summary
- Under the principle of separate property, a husband had no authority over his wife’s property.
- At the beginning of the 17th century, a woman was one of the parties in 40% of property sales in Kayseri.
- In 1546, 913 of the 2,517 endowments in Istanbul had been founded by women.
- According to probate records, the rate of polygamy was around 5–9%.
- Girls’ secondary schools (rüşdiye) opened in 1858, and a teacher-training school for women in 1870.
Contents
- Legal capacity
- Marriage and family
- Property and trade
- Endowments
- Courts and inheritance
- The palace circle
- Education and modernization
- Frequently asked questions
The Role of Women in Law
According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, in terms of carrying out legal transactions a woman was essentially in the same position as a man. Whatever transaction a man could carry out, and on whatever conditions, a woman with full legal capacity could carry out on the same conditions. She could also freely carry out transactions that reduced her own assets, such as gifts and endowments.
The encyclopedia stresses that the belief that a woman’s property was usually managed by her father or husband is not correct. The principle of separate property in Islamic law left the husband without authority over his wife’s property. For this reason the situation seen in Western law, where a married woman lacked the capacity to dispose of her own property, did not apply to Muslim women. This principle was one of the basic elements defining the role of women in law. On the other hand, according to the encyclopedia, women were generally kept away from public office, as in other societies of the time.
The Role of Women in the Family
Consent in Marriage
The Hanafi school recognized an adult woman’s capacity to marry. According to the encyclopedia, from the 16th century onward the Ottomans applied the view of Imam Muhammad al-Shaybani, under which the consent of both the woman and her guardian was required. The Ottoman Law of Family Rights (Hukuk-ı Aile Kararnamesi, 1917), however, returned to the view that recognized a woman of age as having the capacity to marry. We described this law in our article on the first law regulating marriage and divorce.
The decree was prepared by a commission headed by Mahmud Esad Efendi and set out separate provisions for the members of three religions. According to the encyclopedia, until then non-Muslims had enjoyed both legal and judicial autonomy in family law. The cultural change after the Tanzimat was also among the reasons the decree came into being. The text was repealed by a provisional law dated 19 June 1919.
How Common Was Polygamy?
Islamic law allowed polygamy on condition that the wives were treated justly. According to the encyclopedia, however, the practice was not widespread in Muslim societies. Research on probate registers shows that the rate was around 5–9%, depending on whether the setting was a town or a village. In Edirne between 1545 and 1659 the rate of second marriages was 7.18%, and in Bursa 3.48%.
Late Ottoman population records give a clearer picture: in Istanbul the rate was 2.52% in 1885 and 2.16% in 1907. A woman who did not want her husband to take a second wife could, relying on the Hanbali school, make this a condition of the marriage contract. The Law of Family Rights also accepted that such a condition was valid and binding.
Divorce and the Care of Children
In the Hanafi school a husband could divorce by unilateral declaration or by agreement, while a woman’s options were very limited. According to the encyclopedia, women who had no other way out applied to the Imperial Council (Divan-ı Hümayun) and were able, to some extent, to obtain a divorce through official pressure. The problem was only solved when the Law of Family Rights widened the grounds for divorce.
The husband’s easy right of divorce was not reflected to the same degree in practice; especially in regions where Turks lived, the divorce rate always remained low. In some regions the deferred dower (mehr-i müeccel) was set high to prevent arbitrary divorce. The care of a child up to a certain age, known as hidane, belonged to the mother. According to the encyclopedia, when there was no father, the courts can be seen appointing the mother as guardian in preference to other relatives.
The Role of Women in the Economy
The sharia court registers show that women managed their own property themselves. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, in the first quarter of the 17th century at least one of the parties was a woman in 40% of the sales of goods and real estate recorded at the court of Kayseri. In two-thirds of these transactions women were sellers, and in one-third buyers. In the same period the rate was higher in Amasya and somewhat lower in Trabzon and Karaman.
The records also show that a woman could have transactions made on her property without her consent annulled. Whether she was married or single, and whether the person who laid hands on her property was her father or her husband, made no difference to the outcome. The encyclopedia also stresses that the fact that women were less active than men in commercial life did not mean they were deprived of their property.
The Role of Women in Endowments
Founding an endowment was a transaction that reduced one’s assets and therefore required full legal capacity. According to the encyclopedia, 913 of the 2,517 endowments, that is 36%, in the Istanbul Endowments Survey Register of 1546 had been founded by women. In the registers of Aleppo the share of women’s endowments was 6.5% in the 16th century and rose to 44% in the first half of the 19th century. In 18th-century Egypt, too, 126 of 496 newly founded endowments had been established by women. According to the encyclopedia, these rates are quite high considering women’s limited activity in commercial life.
Besides charitable endowments, women also founded family endowments and often managed them themselves. Some endowments provided shelter for widowed and divorced women. Among the women of the palace, Hatice Turhan, Gülnuş, Mihrişah, Nakşidil and Bezmialem stand out for their great endowments. We explained how these institutions worked in our article on the waqf system.
The Role of Women in the Courts
Islamic law granted women the right of inheritance and set the shares they would receive as mother, wife, daughter and sister. According to the encyclopedia, in rural areas daughters who left their father’s house with a trousseau were sometimes in practice deprived of their inheritance later. In such cases, however, they always had the right to go to court.
With some exceptions, a woman’s share of inheritance was half that of a man in the same position. According to the encyclopedia, this rule should be assessed together with the fact that the whole burden of supporting the family fell on the husband. When the dower paid to the woman on marriage is also taken into account, the net shares of the two sexes are in a sense equalized.
This right was used frequently: of the sixty-two cases brought by women and entered in the Istanbul complaint registers in 1675, twenty-four (39%) concerned inheritance disputes. There are also many complaints that reached the court from women mistreated by their husbands. We discussed how the qadi courts worked in our article on the Ottoman qadi.
The Palace Circle and the Valide Sultans
The world of women in the palace had its own rules. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, a kadınefendi whose son came to the throne returned to Topkapı Palace in a ceremony called the valide procession and became the most powerful person in the quarters. Kösem Sultan is among those who gained great influence in this way. The kadınefendis received allowances such as fabric, fur, candles, sugar and coffee according to their rank, and from the end of Mahmud II’s reign they were also paid salaries. We described the order in the palace in detail in our article on harem life.
Education and Modernization
Girls received their basic education in the neighborhood primary schools (sıbyan mektebi), where elderly women who knew the Quran taught. According to the encyclopedia, the first great step in women’s education was the opening of girls’ secondary schools (rüşdiye) in 1858. This was followed by a teacher-training school for women, opened in 1870. During the Second Constitutional period a separate section for women was opened at the university.
The role of women in education thus expanded rapidly in the second half of the 19th century. We described the development of schools in our article on the education system. You can also watch the video below on the subject.
Wars also changed social life. Associations such as the Red Crescent Women’s Society, the Ladies’ Branch of the Navy Society and the Ottoman Society for the Defense of Women’s Rights were founded. Women filled the places in factories left empty by men who had gone to the front. Westernists, Islamists and Turkists, meanwhile, debated the legal and social position of women intensely; we examined these currents in our article on intellectual currents.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the role of women in the Ottoman period?
According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, a woman was in the same position as a man in legal transactions; she acquired and sold property, founded endowments and went to court.
Did women have a place in the courts?
Yes. Women brought cases over matters such as inheritance, property and mistreatment and sought their rights in court.
Could women found endowments?
Yes. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, in 1546 women had founded 36% of the endowments in Istanbul.
Was polygamy common in the Ottoman Empire?
No. According to probate records the rate was around 5–9%; in Istanbul it had fallen to 2.16% by 1907.
Could women divorce in the Ottoman Empire?
Their options were limited in the Hanafi school. The Law of Family Rights (1917) widened the grounds for divorce.
When were the first schools for girls opened?
Girls’ secondary schools opened in 1858, and a teacher-training school for women in 1870.
Conclusion
The role of women in the Ottoman period matches neither the closed picture of the novels nor today’s standards exactly. The principle of separate property, the right to go to court and the possibility of founding endowments opened an important field for women. Restrictions in matters such as divorce, however, were eased only by the 1917 decree. In the 19th century schools and associations widened this field further. Court records allow us today to see this picture in detail.
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