Foster-Daughter or Servant, Charity or Abuse

Beslemes in the Late Ottoman Empire

Bibliographic Data

ID4301504
AuthorsNazan Maksudyan (0000-0002-0918-7807)
Year2008
Volume21
Issue4
Pages488-512
Publication date2008-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Historical Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-1909 • E-ISSN: 1467-6443
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-6443.2008.00347.x
OpenAlexW1975851537
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited16

This paper addresses the complex and contradictory framing of youthful female sexuality, personified in the figure of foster-daughters (beslemes), in the nineteenth century Ottoman Empire. Beslemes were both sexually exploited and attempted to be disciplined under the critical gaze of the upper classes and the state, since they disturbed the accepted rules and limits of sexual agency as sexually active unwed adolescent girls. They were marginalized as indecent and fallen girls, since sexual agency and chastity were considered to be incompatible. Though acknowledging the subordination of foster-daughters, this paper suggests that these young women were not completely subjected, silenced and helpless and that they were able to find ways of taking the initiative in resistive strategies

Agency (philosophy · Criminology · Daughter · Empire · Human sexuality · Political science · Servant · Sociology · State (computer science · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Psychology · Turkey's Politics and Society · Gender Studies · Law

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