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The issue raised in this thesis is the importance of dealing with the security of Ottoman women--from the 16th century to the Tanzimat (Reform) Era (1839--1876)--and the significance of this subject in understanding the Ottoman society in general. The thesis raises the point that if sources such as court records, fetvas (religious verdicts), and travelers' reports draw a somewhat different picture of the Ottoman woman from the popular image of the "oppressed woman," then it is important to know how this picture differs. Examination of these sources shows that they actually confirm one another from different perspectives. The thesis also explores how the metaphysical underpinnings of Ottoman society provided an atmosphere conducive to women's security. It attempts to find an answer to the underlying question, 'What motivated these women to take action?' by examining their physical, financial, and marital related security.

Conventionally, the era that begins after the death of celebrated Ottoman sultan Suleyman I in 1566 is seen as the beginning of Ottoman decline. In line with the decline paradigm, late sixteenth century is also accepted as a time of political turmoil. This period is characterized by constant power struggles among Ottoman ruling elite and the deterioration of the classical Ottoman political order. Concerning the rise of new power elite (favourites) in the court and bureaucracy vis-a-vis the decreasing power of the sultans and grand vezirs, "evil counsellors" and the inaccessibility of the Ottoman sultan were chronic themes in the Ottoman Empire. Yet, at the same time, in most of the Ottoman political treatises access to and privacy with the sultan is restricted to a very limited number of the servants of the court and bureaucracy. Especially the communication between the sultan and the grand vezir is advised to be a secret. In view of this important political dictum, in the present study it is argued that the power also came from and built by the monopoly on information about the matters of state by the least number of people. In accordance with this view, the power politics of the late sixteenth century Ottoman political arena is analyzed as struggles over controlling the flow of information about the matters of state.

The Ottoman Empire, an imperial power that existed from 1299 to 1923, was one of the largest empires to rule the borders of the Mediterranean Sea. Ottoman Turkish was used especially between the 16th and 19th centuries during the Ottoman Empire. This ornamented, artificial language separated the general population from intellectual and palace elite and a communication problem followed. Although the minorities of the Ottoman Empire were free to use their language amongst themselves, if they needed to communicate with the government they had to use Ottoman Turkish. This thesis explains these language differences and the resulting problems they created during the Empire. Examples of original correspondence are used to highlight the communication differences and the difficulties that ensured. From this study, the author concludes that Ottoman Turkish was not a separate language from Turkish; instead, it was a variation of Turkish in inexistence for approximately 600 years. / Prof. B. Hendrickx Dr. A. Dockrat

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The main premise of this thesis is to demonstrate how the Gypsies, (Roma)---both Muslim and Christian, both settled and nomadic---were marginalized by the Ottoman State and society in Rumelia (Rumili) and Istanbul during the "Classical Age" of this tri-continental Islamic Empire. / The Ottoman state and the society's attitudes towards this marginal group are analyzed through the examination of the Muhimme Registers of the second half the sixteenth century and four major Kanunnames concerning the Gypsies issued in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Travelers' accounts and Turkish oral traditions have also been used to explore the social status of the Gypsies in Ottoman society, as well as their image in Ottoman popular culture. / The history of people who were marginal and voiceless in their societies is not just important for its own sake but for what it reveals about the nature of the societies in which they lived. Thus, this present work not only sheds light upon the history of the Gypsies but also attempts to open new grounds for further discussions on the functioning of the "Plural Society" of the Ottoman Empire.

Idris Bidlisi's Heşt Behişt is a history of the Ottoman empire written in Persian at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Although considered one of the most important historical works of its time, the work remains to date unedited and scarcely studied. The present work aims to make at least a part of Heşt Behişt available to modern scholarship, with particular focus on the times of the author's patron, the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II (1481-1512). The summarised translation (chapter Vll) of the eighth 'Book' of Heşt Behişt, devoted to Bayezid II's reign, provides the basis for further discussions on several issues relating to the period, including an investigation of the author's personal approach to his subject. The thesis begins with an outline of the historical background of the reign of Bayezid II (chapter I), followed by a brief account of the development of Ottoman historiography up to the appearance of Heşt Behişt (chapter II). The author, Idris Bidlisi, and Heşt Behişt itself are then introduced (chapters Ill and IV). The focus is subsequently turned to the reign of Bayezid II, with particular attention to two major issues of the period. The first relates to the civil strife between the new sultan and his brother Cem over succession to the throne, a series of events which marked the first two years of Bayezid II's reign and had a significant effect on the Ottoman empire's domestic and international politics for the next thirteen years until Cem's death in 1495 (chapter V). The second analytical chapter investigates the phenomenon of the Ottoman navy in the times of Bayezid II, under whose care the empire's naval forces were significantly expanded and upgraded, for the first time in Ottoman history achieving predominance in sea over their Christian counterparts (chapter VI). In the study of both these themes information and the results of modern scholarship are juxtaposed to the material found in Heşt Behişt, in an attempt to look into the historical knowledge of the period and disclose the chronicle's usefulness and contribution to modem research.