Ottoman Women Builders

Lucienne Thys-Senocak is Assistant Professor in the History Department at Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey. She also teaches in the graduate program of Anatolian Civilizations and Cultural Heritage Management at the university and is currently directing the restoration project of Hadice Turhan Sultan's Ottoman fortress at Seddülbahir, located on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.

• Contents: Introduction; From concubine to Valide: Turhan Sultan's rise through the harem hierarchy; Ottoman women/other women; Defending the Dardanelles: the fortress of Seddülbahir and Kumkale and the legacy of Turhan Sultan; Building the capital: the Yeni Valide mosque complex of Istanbul; The pillar of the state: architecture, agency and self representation; Glossary; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.

'Painstakingly and exhaustively researched ... the archival work and architectural analysis are first-rate; and the fieldwork on the two military installations must have been a heroic achievement. The arguments are wholly persuasive and are presented in clear, elegant prose that manages to avoid trendy jargon... The author is clearly comfortable with the intricate world of Ottoman court culture and still poorly known architectural history. I believe the book will provoke a lively debate ... This study is novel, original, timely, and important-a superb achievement.' Heghnar Watenpaugh, University of California, and author of The Image of an Ottoman City 'Lucienne Thys-Senocak has given us a fascinating study of architectural patronage by Hadice Turhan Sultan, mother of Sultan Mehmed IV. Through her fortifications on the Dardanelles and her mosque and market in the commercial heart of Istanbul, this remarkable woman advanced the strength and piety of the empire. Hidden from public view, she proclaimed to the world her own presence and power. An eye-opening comparison with patronage in western Europe, Ottoman Women Builders reveals unexpected possibilities in the lives of elite women in the seventeenth century.' Natalie Zemon Davis, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University and author of Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds 'Ottoman Women Builders was written with a broad audience of early modern scholars and students in mind. Its clear prose and helpful translations, together with a clearly organized text, makes an otherwise specialized topic accessible to various disciplines... [It] is an important contribution to the growing field of Ottoman studies, although nonspecialists will find it equally valuable in its myriad uses as an important tool for comparative studies. Thys-Senocak's work will be a valuable text for students and specialists of European history, art and architecture, women's studies, military history, and Islamic history, art, and architectural history at large.' Renaissance Quarterly 'This book represents a major contribution to the study of imperial female patronage and to architectural history as a whole.' Journal of The Society of Architectural Historians