Traditional Ottoman Policies towards Slavery before the Tanzimat

Abstract

Sanctioned by the Şriat and approved by custom, slavery was an institution of vital importance in Ottoman society. Well-entrenched in the state apparatus through its military-governmental form and almost synonymous with the harem system through the employment of slave domestics and concubines, slavery influenced areas as varied as politics and the private lives of the Muslim subjects of the Empire. But slavery as an institution was by no means left on its own to function in the Ottoman Empire even before the Western — that is, mainly British — involvement in the Ottoman slave trade and slavery. The aim of this chapter is to look at traditional Ottoman policies before the Western involvement, which coincided with the Tanzimat reform movement (1839–76). This will help us in later chapters to evaluate the changes in the Ottoman attitudes and policies after the proclamation of the Tanzimat and to discern ‘traditional’ elements in the policies of the later Empire in regard to slavery.