Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and its Demise 1800-1909

Hamit Erdem

• Acknowledgements - List of Abbreviations - Introduction - Employment of Slaves in the Classical Ottoman Empire - Traditional Ottoman Policies towards Slavery before the Tanzimat - Means of Enslavement and Slave Acquisition in the Late Ottoman Empire: Continuation of Ottoman Slavery after 1839 - British Policy and Ottoman Slavery - Ottoman Policy during the Tanzimat Period, 1846-1876 - Ottoman Policy during the Reign of Abdulhamid II and the Advent of the Young Turks, 1876-1909 - The Emancipation and Care of Slaves in the Late Ottoman Empire -Conclusion - Notes - Bibliography - Index

'A masterful survey based on Ottoman and European sources, this book is a major contribution to the comparative study of slavery. Erdem explores the distinguishing feature of the Ottoman institution of slavery, most interestingly from the perspective of the slaves themselves. One of the book's chief contribution lies in its treatment of the community of freed slaves in Istanbul. Organized in lodges, presided over by a matriarch who also served as spiritual head of cult whose practices, disparaged by the Muslim orthodoxy, might well be traced back to the Yoruba in West Africa. By this discovery, Erdem links one of the sub-cultures of Ottoman slavery to the broader study of African slavery.' - Dr Eugene Rogan, St Antony's College, Oxford