Introduction | 11and expanding notions of Ottoman identity both within and outside the empire.
Some Ottoman subjects fled the empire to improve their situations, and others
wanted to strengthen their ties to the imperial center. Still others complained
about the passing of better days and their loss of influence and stature.
In chapter 12 Linda T. Darling analyzes advice literature from sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century Ottoman bureaucrats and historians. These writers, such as
Mustafa Ali and Katip Çelebi, all complained about who received official posi-
tions and on what basis they were promoted. During the period 1580–1653, how-
ever, their complaints altered, revealing ongoing changes in the concept of who
was qualified to be an Ottoman official. Ottoman institutions were having to
adapt to drastic technological and economic changes in the world at large; the old
practice of cavalrymen holding timars (military fiefs) was replaced at the center
of the Ottoman army by that of gun-bearing infantry paid in cash, the sons of
cava lr y men were replaced as recruits by forces from the provinces, the state’s ta x-
ation and procurement systems were being revised to reflect changing locations
of wealth, and households other than the sultan’s gained importance in Ottoman
administration. Darling argues that the advice literature reveals important in-
sights into the characteristics of an ideal Ottoman bureaucrat from the perspec-
tive of these disgruntled elites—characteristics that reflect the upheavals of their
times, the changing nature of the Ottoman state, and official elite identity.
In chapter 13 Eric Dursteler investigates the issues of conversion, agency,
gender, marriage, and Ottoman subjecthood from a Venetian and an Ottoman
perspective during the seventeenth century through the story of an Ottoman
Christian widow and her three Muslim daughters. These four women sought
asylum in the Venetian stronghold of Corfu in the eastern Mediterranean and
renounced their Ottoman identities. The daughters converted to Christianity so
the eldest daughter could escape her unhappy marriage to a local Ottoman Mus-
lim official on the Aegean island of Milos. Not surprisingly, a major political
confrontation ensued between the Venetian and Ottoman states over the scan-
dal of the women’s flight and conversion and the dishonor that their conversion
brought to the eldest daughter’s husband. This story provides a unique window
into the experience of Ottoman women on the periphery of the empire and into
the common situation of mixed marriages. It also provides insights into the na-
ture of Ottoman women’s religious identity and into their motivations and ex-
periences in converting from their birth faith to another. Finally, the case also
suggests ways women were able to use religious and political boundaries to exert
agency over their lives in quite unexpected ways.
In chapter 14 Fariba Zarinebaf investigates the issue of gender and Ottoman
identity, particularly within the Ottoman dynasty. The chapter insightfully links
the murders of two very different women, a valide sultan and a poor Muslim
woman, that happened thirty years apart. These murders resulted from attempts