Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire

Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire offers a new contribution to slavery studies relating to the Ottoman Empire. Given the fact that the classical binary of ‘slavery’ and ‘freedom’ derives from the transatlantic experience, this volume presents an alternative approach, by examining the strongly asymmetric relationships of dependency documented in the Ottoman Empire. A closer look at the Ottoman social order discloses manifold and ambiguous conditions involving enslavement practices, rather than a single universal pattern. The authors of this volume examine various forms of enslavement and dependency with a particular focus on agency, i.e., the room for maneuver, which the enslaved could secure for themselves, or else the available options for action in situations of extreme individual or group dependencies. Case studies reveal a very wide spectrum of agency, especially with regard to domestic slaves. The authors discuss a multitude of questions, including the uses of legal documents. Others explore the particular situations of eunuchs, galley slaves, slave traders, enslaved populations, manumitted slaves at the palace and in ordinary households, war captives returned home, and domestic servants after the abolition of slavery. This volume presents a clearer and more nuanced picture of the practices of slavery and asymmetric dependency that evolved across the duration of the Ottoman Empire.