In a lucidly argued revisionist interpretation of society in Ottoman Egypt in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jane Hathaway challenges the traditional view that Egypt's military elite constituted a revival of the institutions of the Mamluk sultanate. The author contends that the basic framework within which Egypt's elite operated was the household, a conglomerate of patron-client ties that took various forms and included many different recruits. In this respect, she argues, Egypt's elite represented a provincial variation on an empire-wide, household-based political culture. The study focuses on the Qazdagli household. Originally a largely Anatolian contingent within Egypt's Janissary regiment, the Qazdaglis dominated Egypt by the late eighteenth century. Using Turkish and Arabic archival and narrative sources, Jane Hathaway sheds light on the manner in which the Qazdaglis exploited the Janissary rank hierarchy, while forming strategic alliances through marriage, commercial partnership, and the patronage of palace eunuchs.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Introduction; 1. Egypt's place in the Ottoman Empire; Part I. The Household and its Place in Ottoman Egypt's History: 2. The household; 3. Transformations in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Egyptian society; 4. The emergence and partnership of the Qazdagli and Jalfi households; 5. The ascendancy of Ibrahim Kahya al-Qazdagli and the emergence of the Qazdagli Beylicate; Part II. Qazdagli Household-Building Strategies: 6. Marriage alliances and the role of women in the household; 7. Property and commercial partnerships; 8. The Qazdaglis and the Chief Black eunuch; 9. Conclusions.
