Kamil Pasha

Painting by Osman Hamdi Bey

For those wishing to understand — and visualize — late 19th-century Istanbul, the period in which the Kamil Pasha novels are set, I recommend Asli Sancar’s new book, Ottoman Women: Myth and Reality (Light Publications). It has many interesting facts about daily life, the harem as a space and an institution, women’s lives and activities, and women’s rights as seen through court cases. The book also is rich with full-color illustrations, many not widely known to a Western audience (like the paintings by the Ottoman master, Osman Hamdi Bey, who also appears as a character in The Abyssinian Proof). For a review, click here.

Tags: Culture, Fiction, Istanbul, Rights, Women //