According to reports of Baron de Bois le Comte, women in Ottoman during Mahmud II.

Abstract

Women’s place and manner of lives is designated according to Islamic law in Ottoman society. Besides, the manners such as apparel, social rights, getting married and divorced of Ottoman women takes form within the frame of both Islamic law and Turkish culture.

In this article, Ottoman women’s status, rights, place in social life, alteration and evolution that have been formed in a particular framework will be conveyed with the French Diplomat Baron de Bois le Comte’s point of view who occupied in the Ottoman Empire in the reign of II. Mahmud.

Providing a different perspective for this reign, Baron de Bois le Comte is a diplomat who has been sent by French Foreign Affairs to Ottoman Empire with a “special mission” in order to observe, mediate and solve problems in Ottoman Empire within the time period where Egyptian Crisis which had started with the Revolt of Mehmet Ali Pasa. Baron de Bois le Comte had entered Ottoman Empire through Egypt’s Alexandria and been in several Ottoman Empire cities afterwards. Examining Ottoman Empire in detail, French diplomat reported his observations to French Minister of Foreign Affairs of the period, Mösyö Broglie, on a regular basis.

This article will enables us to take a look at the Ottoman women’s status and social life outside home in XIX. Century’s first half which is prepared based on Baron de Bois le Comte’s observations and reports about Ottoman women while he was in the capital city of Ottoman Empire, Istanbul.