Friday, January 7, 2011: 10:10 AM
Room 104 (Hynes Convention Center)
New research has unearthed a wealth information on the central role of slavery and captivity to early modern Ottoman society, particularly in the imperial capital, Istanbul. However, recent groundbreaking studies of Ottoman scholars on conversion have yet to be applied to the new findings on slaves and ex-slaves at the grassroots level of Ottoman urban society in the early modern period.
My paper will examine this phenomenon, namely, the crossroads of slavery and religious conversion in mid-to late Ottoman Istanbul, by analysing statistical data on conversion and manumission among the Istanbul slave population, gathered from the numerous slave-related legal cases in the Ottoman court registers. The conversion and manumission rates of the slaves will be assessed according to the slaves' origins and gender, to ascertain how these factors affected the slave's religious identity and subsequent emancipation, and hence, the trajectory of his or her life.
In addition to identifying patterns of conversion among a large sample of early modern slaves, this paper will also provide individual case studies of religious conversion (from Christianity to Islam) among the slave population of Istanbul. Through a reading of contemporary travel accounts and historical chronicles, in addition to the Ottoman court records, the ways in which a desire for belonging and communal worship affected the slave's process of conversion and manumission will be explored. Furthermore, the role that local religious and convert communities, as well as politically or socially prominent converts to Islam, would have played in the assimilation of ex-slaves into Ottoman society will be elucidated.
The ways in which slavery, manumission, and conversion affected each other, and the methods by which slaves of different origins manipulated these legal and social constructs to their advantage will also be examined, as well the possible ambiguities and complexities of slave and ex-slave religious identities.
My paper will examine this phenomenon, namely, the crossroads of slavery and religious conversion in mid-to late Ottoman Istanbul, by analysing statistical data on conversion and manumission among the Istanbul slave population, gathered from the numerous slave-related legal cases in the Ottoman court registers. The conversion and manumission rates of the slaves will be assessed according to the slaves' origins and gender, to ascertain how these factors affected the slave's religious identity and subsequent emancipation, and hence, the trajectory of his or her life.
In addition to identifying patterns of conversion among a large sample of early modern slaves, this paper will also provide individual case studies of religious conversion (from Christianity to Islam) among the slave population of Istanbul. Through a reading of contemporary travel accounts and historical chronicles, in addition to the Ottoman court records, the ways in which a desire for belonging and communal worship affected the slave's process of conversion and manumission will be explored. Furthermore, the role that local religious and convert communities, as well as politically or socially prominent converts to Islam, would have played in the assimilation of ex-slaves into Ottoman society will be elucidated.
The ways in which slavery, manumission, and conversion affected each other, and the methods by which slaves of different origins manipulated these legal and social constructs to their advantage will also be examined, as well the possible ambiguities and complexities of slave and ex-slave religious identities.
See more of: Captivity, Conversion, and Islamic Law in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
See more of: AHA Sessions
See more of: AHA Sessions