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Travel and Artisans in the Ottoman Empire

Employment and Mobility in the Early Modern Era

Suraiya Faroqhi author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:8th Jul '16

Should be back in stock very soon

Travel and Artisans in the Ottoman Empire cover

Revisionist historiography of the Ottoman Empire using previously unpublished sources by a leading specialist.

It has often been assumed that the subjects of the Ottoman sultans were unable to travel beyond their localities - since peasants needed the permission of their local administrators before they could legitimately leave their villages. According to this view, only soldiers and members of the governing elite would have been free to travel. However Suraiya Faroqhi's extensive archival research shows that this was not the case. Pious men from all walks of life went on pilgrimage to Mecca, slaves fled from their masters and craftspeople travelled in search of work. Faroqhi shows that even those craftsmen who did not travel extensively had some level of mobility and that the Ottoman sultans and viziers, who spent so much effort in attempting to control the movements of their subjects, could do so only within often very narrow limits. Challenging existing historiography and providing an important new perspective, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of Ottoman history.

ISBN: 9781784536367

Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 25mm

Weight: 433g

320 pages