These names were borne by a mix of free, enslaved, and converted women. Because of the data spread, the names couldn’t be conclusively placed in one category or another; there were too many freeborn women bearing them to declare that they were slave names, and too many slave women bearing…
These names were commonly given to slave women upon their conversion. While the occasional freeborn woman bore one of these names, to most people the name would strongly suggest that she was or had been a slave. Âfitâb: Persian, “sun.” Aynülhayât: The fountain of life. Bahtiyar Belagat Benefşe Canfedâ Cansever:…
These names could be borne by any Muslim woman, and did not have any connotation of slavery. Âbide Âdile Alemşah: Ruler of the world. From Arabic ʿālam, “world” + Persian shah Amine Asiye Atike Aynî Ayşe: Aisha, Muhammad’s favorite wife. The names Ayşe and Fâtıma were in stiff competition to be…
I entered the original version of this paper in the novice division in the 2018 St. Eligius Arts & Sciences Competition. In 16th-century Istanbul, names followed religion. Muslims, Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenian Orthodox Christians, and Jews each had their own name pools, with very little crossover even between branches of…
Sources about Period Onomastics ONOMASTICON TURCICUM. (L. Rásonyi’s Collection of Turkic Personal Names and the Method of its Publication). (T) M. Mehdi İlhan, “Some Pointers on the Importance of Personal Names in the Ottoman Detailed Cadastral Registers“ Post-Period and Undated Sources While these sources don’t address period names directly, they…
Turkish names aren’t found only in motherlodes, like court records and city surveys; they’re also found in pockets, little nuggets of data hidden in articles about different topics entirely. When I come across a pocket, I try to record it here. Male Zimmi Names Name Notes Place and Time Source…
Istanbul was one of the great crossroads of the world, and Üsküdar was home to a mixture of Muslims, Jews, and Greek and Armenian Christians. The court records occasionally note that a petitioner is Jewish (yahudiye) or Christian (nasraniyye), but more often they simply note that the person is a…
These titles were borne by commoners. And, because the government and military were staffed almost entirely by Muslims, very few of the titles could be applied to non-Muslims. Female Titles Outside of the court, there were few titles for women. Hatun: A term of respect that could be applied to any…
[Page in progress.] The names come from shari’a court records, one of the richest primary sources available for the lives of ordinary people in the Ottoman empire. This particular batch was transcribed into the modern Turkish alphabet and placed online by ISAM, the Istanbul Kadi Registers Project, which focuses on records…