Entertainment Among the Ottomans

Approaching Ottoman social history through the lens of entertainment, this volume considers the multi-faceted roles of entertainment within society. At its most basic level entertainment could be all about pleasure, leisure and fun. But it also played a role in socialisation, gender divisions, social stratification and the establishment of moral norms, political loyalties and social, ethnic or religious identities. By addressing the ways in which entertainment was employed and enjoyed in Ottoman society, Entertainment Among the Ottomans introduces the reader to a new way of understanding the Ottoman world.

Contributors are: Antonis Anastasopoulos, Tülay Artan, Ebru Boyar, Palmira Brummett, Kate Fleet, James Grehan, Svetla Ianeva, Yavuz Köse, William Kynan-Wilson, Milena Methodieva and Yücel Yanıkdağ.

Ebru Boyar, Ph.D. Cambridge University, is Professor at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara. Her publications include Ottomans, Turks and the Balkans: Empire Lost, Relations Altered (London, 2007) and A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul (Cambridge, 2010).

Kate Fleet, Ph.D. SOAS, London University, is Director of the Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies, University of Cambridge. Her publications include European and Islamic Trade in the Early Ottoman State (Cambridge, 1999) and A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul (Cambridge, 2010).