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The Transformation of the Middle East, 1566-1914 (HIST 335): Subjects on the Ottoman Empire

A LibGuide for Professor Cuno's HIST 335 course on the Ottoman Empire and Middle East.

Subject/Topic Searches

You can search the Library catalog to find books, CDs, DVDs, journals (print and digital), research databases and more.  You can find resources on campus, but can also search in I-Share and request books and resources from other Illinois libraries through the Inter-Library Loan system.  The following links are Subject searches relating to Ibadi Islam in UIUC's library.

Turkey-- History

Turkey-- History-- Ottoman Empire, 1288-1918

Turkey -- Civilization -- 1288-1918

Turkey--History, Military

Turkey--History--1683-1829

Turkey--History--1878-1909

Turkey--History--19th century

Turkey--History--20th century

Sultans -- Turkey -- History

Turkey--History--Mehmed IV, 1648-1687

Turkey--History--Mehmed V, 1909-1918

Minorities --Turkey --20th century

Women--Turkey--History

Ottoman Women

Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender by Nikki R. Keddie and Beth Baron

  • Introduction: Deciphering Middle Eastern Women's History
  • Islam & Patriarchy: A Comparative Perspective
  • Political Action and Public Example: Aisha and the Battle of the Camel
  • Early Islam and the Position of Women: The Problem of Interpretation
  • Gendering the Ungendered Body: Hermaphrodites in Medieval Islamic Law
  • Manners and Customs of Fourteenth-Century Cairene Women: Female Anarchy versus Male Shar'i Order in Muslim Prescriptive Treatises
  • Class Solidarity versus Gender Gain: Women as Custodians of Property in Later Medieval Egypt
  • Women and Islamic Education in the Mamluk Period
  • Ottoman Women, Households, and Textile Manufacturing, 1800-1914
  • The Impact of Legal and Educational Reforms on Turkish Women
  • The Dynamics of Women's Spheres of Action in Rural Iran
  • Political Roles of Aliabad Women: The Public-Private Dichotomy Transcended
  • Ties That Bound: Women and Family in Eighteeth and Nineteenth Century Nablus
  • The House of Zainab: Female Authority and Saintly Succession in Colonial Algeria
  • The Making and Breaking of Marital Bonds in Modern Egypt
  • Artists and Entrepreneurs: Female Singers in Cairo in the 1920s

Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel, and the Ottoman Harem

The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem

Women in the Ottoman Empire

Harem and the Ottoman Woman

Seraglio: the women's quarters in the household; harem historically refered the women themselves

Valide Sultan: "Mother Sultan: or "Queen Mother;" The valide sultan was perhaps the most important position in the Ottoman Empire after the sultan himself. As the mother to the sultan, by Islamic tradition, the valide sultan would have a significant influence on the affairs of the empire. She had great power in the court and her own rooms (always adjacent to her sons) and state staff. In particular during the 17th century, in a period known as the "Sultanate of Women", a series of incompetent or child sultans raised the role of the valide sultan to new heights.

HasekiSultan: the title of a concubine of the Ottoman Sultan who gave birth to a şehzade (prince); thus meaning Mother of a Prince. Haseki sultan had an important place in the palace, being the second most powerful woman of the harem after the valide sultan, the mother of the sultan.  Haseki sultans usually had chambers close to the sultan's chamber. Also, since they were the women with whom the sultan mostly went to bed, they were generally the mother of the heir apparent. Nonetheless, a haseki sultan was rarely a wife and didn't have a solid position in the palace. She could lose her entire estate in a day. The mother of the sultans eldest son was known as Baş (head) Haseki sultan progressing if her son became Sultan, to Valide Sultan, the most powerful woman in the Ottoman Empire. If the son of a haseki sultan died, she was sent to the Sultan's old palace.

Ottoman Documents / Manuscripts

Documentation of Ottoman Empire in the UIUC Library Archives! Lybyer, Albert Howe, Paper, 1876-1949 (Record Series 15/13/22)

Albert Lybyer holds a place of importance in teh history of the Middle East and the Balkans not only as a scholar but as an observer. After World War I, Lybyer, who was highly regarded for his history of the Ottoman Empire, served as a member of the Inquiry into Peace Terms and the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, conducted by Colonel Edward House (August 1918-May 1919).

Turkish Bibliographies of Manuscripts

Ottoman History Podcast