Mahremiyet ve Kazanç Arasında Osmanlı Kadını
Ottoman Women Between Privacy and Profit

Summary/Abstract: This article investigates non-elite Ottoman women and the degree of and reasons for their participation in economic activities before the modern period. It argues that Ottoman women mostly chose to act by deputies or stayed away from the market even if they had financial resources and this limited participation into economic activities can be explained by two main factors: financial necessities and privacy. While the perceptions of necessity and privacy changed from region to region, local customs played an essential role in developing these concepts. In order to check these arguments and collect data, we used the travel book of Evliya Çelebi, and numerous court records in addition to secondary literature. These sources offer ways to comprehensively understand Ottoman women's perception of privacy and pinpoint how they used their money and wealth acquired through various means. Thus, the study establishes that Ottoman women tended to sell their possessions and whenever they had cash, they usually gave it to their spouses or bought houseware or jewelry. Still, some women supported their households by manufacturing or selling products in markets. The fact that most of the working women were primarily employed in household services shows that for Ottoman women privacy outweighed profit.

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