To browse Academia. Prostitution, although richly documented in Ottoman archival and narrative sources, has been little studied by scholars insofar. The issue is further complicated by the difficult distinction between cases of professional prostitution and simple adultery in the judicial registers.
Four patterns of prostitution have been detected, namely a prostitute procuring herself in her house, poorer girls who hang out in taverns or streets, pimps who use their own homes as brothels, and slave-traders who rent out concubines.
Finally, one cannot neglect male prostitution, which however is much more poorly documented in archival sources. In Ottoman archival sources, female prostitution is richly documented, in contrast to poorly documented male prostitution.
However, academic or scholarly studies referring to both are limited in number. In this study only female prostitutes are examined. Simple adultery cases in judicial registers, as well as male prostitutes, are left aside. The period analyzed is roughly limited to the late 18th century to coincide with the reign of Selim the third.
This period is chosen because, other than the regular practices applied to the prostitutes, like driving them from the towns and cities internal exile or imprisoning them, under his rule the death penalty was imposed on five prostitutes as a warning or deterrent to others.
