Jane Hathaway is Professor of History at Ohio State University and one of the world's leading authorities on the Ottoman Empire and on eunuchs in Islamic societies. She is the author of five books, including The Arab Lands under Ottoman Rule (2008), which won the Turkish Studies Association's M. Fuat Köprülü Book Prize. She also authored the article 'Eunuchs' for the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, a seminal reference work. Her research has been funded by prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Institute for Advanced Study.

• 1. Introduction to the Chief Harem Eunuch; 2. The African Connection; 3. Arrangement in black and white: eunuchs in the Ottoman Palace; 4. The creation of the office of Chief Harem Eunuch and the career of Habeshi Mehmed Agha; 5. The crisis years of the seventeenth century; 6. Yusuf Agha and the Köprülü reforms; 7. A new paradigm: El-Hajj Beshir Agha and his successors; 8. Exile and the Kingdom: the Chief Harem Eunuch and Egypt; 9. The Chief Harem Eunuch and Ottoman religious and intellectual life; 10. Reformed out of existence: the dénouement of the Chief Harem Eunuch; 11. Memorializing the Chief Harem Eunuch; 12. Conclusion.

'Building on an impressive body of work on Ottoman Egypt and the Arab lands, and on the formidable early eighteenth-century Chief Harem Eunuch el-Hajj Beşir Agha, Jane Hathaway focuses here on the careers of these eunuchs and how the office evolved over time. She deftly brings her subjects out of the shadows to reveal the geographic and functional reach of their interests, which oscillated between the poles of Istanbul and Cairo, but also extended from guardianship of the Prophet's tomb to protection of the grain trade on the Danube. Hathaway has written a work with a strong narrative thread that is at once scholarly and accessible. Her careful research allows the Chief Harem Eunuchs to take their place in the constellation of Ottoman power and demonstrates that, as she writes,'the imperial household could not function without eunuchs, and vice versa'.' Caroline Finkel, author of Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire

Jane Hathaway is Professor of History at Ohio State University and one of the world's leading authorities on the Ottoman Empire and on eunuchs in Islamic societies. She is the author of five books, including The Arab Lands under Ottoman Rule (2008), which won the Turkish Studies Association's M. Fuat Köprülü Book Prize. She also authored the article 'Eunuchs' for the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, a seminal reference work. Her research has been funded by prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Institute for Advanced Study.

• 1. Introduction to the Chief Harem Eunuch; 2. The African Connection; 3. Arrangement in black and white: eunuchs in the Ottoman Palace; 4. The creation of the office of Chief Harem Eunuch and the career of Habeshi Mehmed Agha; 5. The crisis years of the seventeenth century; 6. Yusuf Agha and the Köprülü reforms; 7. A new paradigm: El-Hajj Beshir Agha and his successors; 8. Exile and the Kingdom: the Chief Harem Eunuch and Egypt; 9. The Chief Harem Eunuch and Ottoman religious and intellectual life; 10. Reformed out of existence: the dénouement of the Chief Harem Eunuch; 11. Memorializing the Chief Harem Eunuch; 12. Conclusion.

'Building on an impressive body of work on Ottoman Egypt and the Arab lands, and on the formidable early eighteenth-century Chief Harem Eunuch el-Hajj Beşir Agha, Jane Hathaway focuses here on the careers of these eunuchs and how the office evolved over time. She deftly brings her subjects out of the shadows to reveal the geographic and functional reach of their interests, which oscillated between the poles of Istanbul and Cairo, but also extended from guardianship of the Prophet's tomb to protection of the grain trade on the Danube. Hathaway has written a work with a strong narrative thread that is at once scholarly and accessible. Her careful research allows the Chief Harem Eunuchs to take their place in the constellation of Ottoman power and demonstrates that, as she writes,'the imperial household could not function without eunuchs, and vice versa'.' Caroline Finkel, author of Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire

Jane Hathaway is Professor of History at Ohio State University and one of the world's leading authorities on the Ottoman Empire and on eunuchs in Islamic societies. She is the author of five books, including The Arab Lands under Ottoman Rule (2008), which won the Turkish Studies Association's M. Fuat Köprülü Book Prize. She also authored the article 'Eunuchs' for the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, a seminal reference work. Her research has been funded by prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Institute for Advanced Study.

• 1. Introduction to the Chief Harem Eunuch; 2. The African Connection; 3. Arrangement in black and white: eunuchs in the Ottoman Palace; 4. The creation of the office of Chief Harem Eunuch and the career of Habeshi Mehmed Agha; 5. The crisis years of the seventeenth century; 6. Yusuf Agha and the Köprülü reforms; 7. A new paradigm: El-Hajj Beshir Agha and his successors; 8. Exile and the Kingdom: the Chief Harem Eunuch and Egypt; 9. The Chief Harem Eunuch and Ottoman religious and intellectual life; 10. Reformed out of existence: the dénouement of the Chief Harem Eunuch; 11. Memorializing the Chief Harem Eunuch; 12. Conclusion.

'Building on an impressive body of work on Ottoman Egypt and the Arab lands, and on the formidable early eighteenth-century Chief Harem Eunuch el-Hajj Beşir Agha, Jane Hathaway focuses here on the careers of these eunuchs and how the office evolved over time. She deftly brings her subjects out of the shadows to reveal the geographic and functional reach of their interests, which oscillated between the poles of Istanbul and Cairo, but also extended from guardianship of the Prophet's tomb to protection of the grain trade on the Danube. Hathaway has written a work with a strong narrative thread that is at once scholarly and accessible. Her careful research allows the Chief Harem Eunuchs to take their place in the constellation of Ottoman power and demonstrates that, as she writes,'the imperial household could not function without eunuchs, and vice versa'.' Caroline Finkel, author of Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire