Bread from the Lion’s Mouth: Artisans Struggling for a Livelihood in Ottoman Cities

Description

The newly awakened interest in the lives of craftspeople in Turkey is highlighted in this collection, which uses archival documents to follow Ottoman artisans from the late 15th century to the beginning of the 20th. The authors examine historical changes in the lives of artisans, focusing on the craft organizations (or guilds) that underwent substantial changes over the centuries. The guilds transformed and eventually dissolved as they were increasingly co-opted by modernization and state-building projects, and by the movement of manufacturing to the countryside. In consequence by the 20th century, many artisans had to confront the forces of capitalism and world trade without significant protection, just as the Ottoman Empire was itself in the process of dissolution. “This book is an exciting and valuable contribution to the field of Ottoman history in general, and guild studies in particular. The editor’s sweeping introductory synthesis alone is an unparalleled round-up of the latest research…this introduction, and the following chapters, broach most if not all the “big questions” relating to the study of guilds and their history.” · Pascale Ghazaleh, The American University in Cairo Suraiya Faroqhi is Professor in the Department of History at Istanbul Bilgi University. She has taught at Middle East Technical University, Ankara (1972-87) and served as a professor of Ottoman Studies at the Ludwig Maximilians Universität in Munich, Germany (1988-2007). Bread from the Lion’s Mouth......Page 3 Contents......Page 7 List of Figures/Maps/Tables......Page 9 Preface......Page 11 Introduction: Once Again, Ottoman Artisans......Page 17 Part I: Artisans over the Course of Time......Page 65 1 Tracing Esnaf in Late Fifteenth-Century Bursa Court Records......Page 67 2 History, Meet Archaeology: The Potter's Craft in Ottoman Hungary......Page 86 3 Damascene Artisans around 1700......Page 104 4 Mapping Istanbul’s Hammams of 1752 and their Employees......Page 124 5 Surviving in Difficult Times: The Cotton and Silk Trades in Bursa around 1800......Page 152 6 The Shoe Guilds of Istanbul in the Early Nineteenth Century: A Case Study......Page 173 Part II: Intra-guild Problems......Page 189 7 Blurred Boundaries between Soldiers and Civilians: Artisan Janissaries in Seventeenth-Century Istanbul......Page 191 8 Rich Artisans and Poor Merchants? A Critical Look at the Supposed Egalitarianism in Ottoman Guilds......Page 210 9 Gedik: What’s in a Name?......Page 233 10 Punishment, Repression and Violence in the Marketplace: Istanbul, 1730-1840......Page 253 Part III: Artisans Confronting the Modernizing State......Page 273 11 Some Observations on Istanbul’s Artisans during the Reign of Selim III (1789-1808)......Page 275 12 Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire: Protest, the State, and the End of the Guilds in Egypt......Page 294 Glossary......Page 309 Bibliography......Page 322 Contributors......Page 351 Index......Page 356