PROSTITUTION AND LOCAL ACTORS IN THE LATE OTTOMAN EMPIRE (1876-1909)

Abstract

The 19th century was a century when the windows of a new world were opened for the Ottoman Empire. Many developments marked this century, one of them was the legitimization of prostitution, which took place in the last quarter of the century in the Ottoman lands. With the two regulations published in 1879 and 1884, the Ottoman Empire started to discuss the legitimatization of prostitution for the first time. Therefore, new subjects and actors suddenly appeared on the agenda of the Ottoman Empire. Some of these subjects were prostitutes and local leaders off course. The state that gave the power to several agencies in the 16th century wanted to take it back in the 19th century, and the Ottoman government had lots of trouble in this regard. This article evaluates the invisible and silent power conflict between the Ottoman Empire and local leaders at the end of the 19th century through prostitution. This study benefits from a large number of second-hand sources with different focus points and themes created in various disciplines, as well as many primary sources in the Ottoman State Archive.