Female slave dealers in 19th century Ottoman Empire: Ayşe Sıdıka and collaboration networks

This study focuses on female slave dealers who were key actors in the slave trade of the 19th-century Ottoman Empire. Throughout the thesis, the identities of these female slave dealers and a network of collaboration among a group of women in 19th-century Istanbul are examined within the context of the Ottoman slave trade. The research is based on court records from the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives. It reveals that a group of female slave traders, including Ayşe Sıdıka, Zeynep, and Şirin, were interrogated following a complaint, exposing their involvement in selling free-born girls through a collaborative network. The case becomes even more complex with the involvement of The Imperial Palace (Saray-ı Hümayun). This thesis provides an in-depth analysis of slavery in the Ottoman Empire and the socio-economic relationships of women, shedding light on the roles and significance of women in the slave trade through the lens of these three female dealers. In conclusion this thesis demonstrates that, in order to earn and sustain their livelihoods and even provide for their families, female slave traders were able to exploit gaps in the period's slave trade creating spaces of agency. They did this particularly by leveraging their ability, as women, to move in and out of households with ease, and by building a network of cooperation through assuming various roles in the process of finding and selling young girls.