Part 1 of this two part article on ‘Women and their Economic Rights’ under the Uthmani Khilafah gave an insight into the economic environment enjoyed by women during the Ottoman era, as well as the basic economic rights afforded to them by the Shariah and how these were implemented and protected by the institution of the Shariah courts of the state. Part 2 of this article aims to detail the kind of economic activities conducted by the women of the time, as evidenced from the contents of court registers from the Uthmani Khilafah. This is to provide a more accurate view of the economic status of women under Islamic rule from that often promoted by particular Western orientalists, femininsts, and writers.
The general picture derived from various Ottoman records is that women within the Uthmani Khilafah were active throughout various economic fields, including in agricultural work, and in all kinds of handcraft, like spinning, knitting, and weaving. They would sell their products in the market places, as well as manage other financial issues, lend money, form contracts, run businesses, organizations and foundations, be an employer or employee and engage in various other economic activities.
The Anatolian city Karahisar (in the 16th century) had four big market places where women participated in the trade of their goods. The ability of women to freely take part in such trading, proves that they were not excluded from social life, rather their participation was accepted and respected as well as eased. One fact proving the ease of women’s trading opportunities is the special women’s market places, the so-called ‘Avrat Pazarı’. Here the women could sell their own products and trading goods, and only women were allowed to enter. The well-known ones were in Karahisar, Bartın, and Konya. The most famous ‘Avrat Pazarı’ was that in Istanbul, which was established by Hurrem Sultan, the wife of Khalifah Sulayman the Magnificant. This market place continued to be in use until 1912.
While the economic activities of women in rural areas were mostly based on agricultural production for the family in addition to the sale of surplusses in market places, the activities of women in urban areas were more varied and mainly entailed owning and managing production facilities.
Traditional production in Ottoman society was conducted in the form of a ‘putting-out system’, which is also known as the ‘workshop/domestic system’. Work was contracted by an agent, who also supplied necessary raw materials to the families who completed the work in their own homes.
Estate records show that women in urban areas owned houses, household items, and money in cash form, while women in rural areas owned land, gardens, yards, houses and agricultural equipment, alongside home and kitchen utensils and animals. Women therefore had their own property, which they gave as gifts, traded, exchanged, or sold, sometimes investing the money they received or using it to purchase other goods.
One example is that of a woman who sold the vineyard she inherited from her late husband Malkoç Bey to Huseyin Çelebi for 8000 akçe. The sale was recorded at court. (Koca, page 88)I) Another case is cited below:
“Saliha bint Suleyman sold her garden in Uskudar to Fatma bint Sefer for 30 kuruş.” (*)
In particular, women were engaged in spinning, weaving and coloring of textiles. Haim Gerber, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Islamic Studies of the Hebrew University, who investigated court records of Bursa in the 17th century, observed that women in Bursa owned almost half of the textile shops in the city. In cities like Ankara and Manisa during the 17th century, the textile industry was mainly in the hands of women and most of them were also enrolled in guilds. II)
In 1550 a European traveller, Ogier Busbecq1) wrote about the women of Ankara who spun, coloured and sold the famous mohair yarn from their own animals. Women in Ankara also frequently traded shops, houses, and land and operated hammams (Turkish baths) and mills, like in many other cities. (Koca, page 102) Here are some examples from Ankara court records between 1588-1590 of women’s property ownership and economic activities at the time III):
1) Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (1522-1592): Flemish writer and diplomat in the employ of Austrian monarchs and ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople from 1555-1562. He published a book about his time there, under the title of “Turkish Letters”.
“…that after Abdurrahman Dede died, his daughters Ayni, Hatice and Kadınbula inherited the fields at Gülhatun Zawiyah. Their husbands will cultivate these fields in deputation for them…”
“…Hatice bint Hacı Bekir, makes Halil bn Mehmed to her vekil for the sale of her house in İğneciler mahalle and her share of a shop in Uzunçarşı…”
“…Efendibula bint Hacı Dede sells her mill and her vineyard and orchards at Samiye Kadun bridge to her daughter Shahkadun for 50 thousand akçe and buys the half of the share of the vineyard at Kayash for 35 thousand akçe…”
Women would also lend out money to family or outsiders – both women and men. Sometimes a woman, would be guarantor (or ‘kefil bil-mal) for a loan between other parties.
Gulli bint Suleyman: I am kefil bil-mal (guarantor) for the debt of my son Ali Pasha bn Abbas to Musa, Iskender, Cafer, and Haci Mehmed. (*)
Haci Shaban bn Sinan, mutevelli of the vakf of the late Haci Omer bn Haci Mahmud, sets forth a claim in the presence of Mihribanbint Emir Ali: Her son Ebu Bekr bn Haci Yusuf has 30 kuruş from the vakf and she is kefil bil-mal. I want the money. Confirmed by two witnesses. So she sells him a vineyard at Hisar to pay the debt. (*)
Fatma bint Abdul-Kerim of Cami’-i Kebir mahalle acknowledges in the presence of her son Abdul-Kerim bn Mahmud: My son Abdul-Kerim owes 60 kuruş to the vakf for the people of the mahalle. I am kefil bil-mal. […] I place a house in the mahalle and a garden at Gederis nahiye as security (rein). (*)
Kirkor: Bahar becomes kefil for the 30 kuruş loan that her husband owes me. (*)
Similar examples were observed from other parts of the Uthmani Khilafah.
Additionally, women were land-owners, ran their own businesses, and held managerial positions in businesses owned by others. Records show that 40% of the land and property transfers in Kayseri in 1602 involved at least 1 woman. A study in 17th century records of Bursa estates, revealed that a third of the women studied owned houses. And in another study on 18th century Aleppo court records, 63% of property sales involved women. Similar results have been found in Haifa and Jerusalem.
“Ayse bint Ahmed buys 9 ½ shares of the 12 shares of 8 shops at Boyari Kapu for 40 gurus.” (Kayseri record 1018 AH) (*)
“Ahmed bin Ramazan acknowledges a 200 dirhem share of the 2400 dirhems of Dib mill of Ahi mill of Kara Su village is sold to Gulli bint Haci Kasim for 20 altun.” (Kayseri record) (*)
No husband, father, nor any other relative could sell, rent, or make use of any part of a woman’s property without her consent. Any property a daughter might inherit was exclusively hers to use, to cultivate, or to rent as she saw fit, and all the revenues from this were accrued to her. A wife’s property — whether acquired before marriage or afterwards — was also exclusively hers to manage. And any income it brought was entirely hers by law.
If a woman’s property was sold without her consent, the court rendered the sale null and void as soon as proof of her ownership was made. The property was ordered restored to her immediately, and no sympathy was wasted on the buyer, who was considered somewhat derelict in not having secured adequate proof of ownership from the seller. If force was used to gain her consent, or if the sale was made unjustifiably by a guardian while she was a minor, a woman might appeal to the court and have her full property rights restored.
Meryem (Zimmi) sets forth a claim in the presence of Tatar (Zimmi): When my mother Cevher died, I inherited a house at Kusakcilar Harmani mahalle from her. My brother Sirvan sold it without my permission to Tatar. I will not accept this. So Tatar is restrained from possession of the house.” (*)
Emine bint Haci Musa has for vekil (legal representative) Huseyn bin Huseyn: When my muvekkile (charge) was under age, her nazir Seydi Ahmed sold houses belonging to her at Sultan Hamami mahalle to Haci Hasan. Now she is of age and wants them back. The court orders them given to her. (*)
Gul Ana bint Ugurlu (zimmia) of Bektaş Mahalle sets forth a claim in the presence of Isa bn Mehmed: My husband Kutluşeh v. Iskender sold one of my vineyards without my permission. I want it. Kutluşeh admits having given Gul Ana the vineyard as mehr (dowry) and then having sold it unlawfully (fuzulen) for 17 guruş. Mehmed asks that Kutluşeh and Gul Ana take oaths that she was not consulted in the sale, and they do. Then the vineyard is ordered restored to Gul Ana. (*)
Studies also show that women in the Uthmani Khilafah were able to accumulate large amounts of wealth. This is also reflected in the high numbers of waqfs (foundations) established by women for the benefit of the community. Those waqfs financed the activities and the maintenance of mosques, schools and soup kitchens for the poor. According to registrations in Istanbul in 1546, 35% of the waqfs were established by women. According to Professor Gabriel Baer, historian of the Middle East, 6.1% of the waqfs were founded by men and 25.4% of the waqfs were founded by women were managed by women and also 75% of the trustees were women. (Koca)
These are just a few examples of the economic status of women under Islamic rule, giving a glimpse of the financial rights and activities that they were able to truly enjoy under the implementation of the Shariah laws. It was a time when European women looked with envy to the lives of Muslim women. After the loss of the protecting shield of the Muslims and Islam – the Islamic Khilafah system – women in the Muslim lands came to live lives of financial insecurity and severe economic hardship; a life where they were deprived of their God-given financial rights. The capitalist system that replaced the System of Allah (swt) in the Muslim world failed spectacularly to provide even an iota of the tranquility and justice that women enjoyed under Islamic rule.
“As to women, as many, if not more than men, are to be seen in the streets [i.e. going about their daily activities, etc] […] I think I never saw a country where women may enjoy so much liberty, and free from all reproach, as in Turkey […] and I repeat it, sir, I think no women have so much liberty, safe from apprehension, as the Turkish – and I think them in their manner of living, capable of being the happiest creatures breathing.”
From ‘A Journey Through the Crimea to Constantinople’ (1789) by Lady Elizabeth Craven, British Traveller and Writer
Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Notes
(*) Examples from Ronald C. Jennings, “Women in Early 17th Century Ottoman Judicial Records The Sharia Court of Anatolian Kayseri”, “Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 18” (1975) and other articles of the author.
I) Kadriye Yılmaz Koca, Osmanlı’da Kadın ve İktisat, Beyan Yayınları, 1998
II) Gerber Haim, Social and Economic Position of Women in an Ottoman City, Bursa, 1600-1700, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Nov., 1980)
III) All examples from Koca, Kadriye Yılmaz, Osmanlı’da Kadın ve İktisat, Beyan Yayınları, İstanbul, 1998; Page 35