The Concubine The Princess And The Teacher

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The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher

Author : Douglas Scott Brookes
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 0292783353
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (927 download)

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Book Synopsis The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher by : Douglas Scott Brookes

Download or read book The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher written by Douglas Scott Brookes and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Western imagination, the Middle Eastern harem was a place of sex, debauchery, slavery, miscegenation, power, riches, and sheer abandon. But for the women and children who actually inhabited this realm of the imperial palace, the reality was vastly different. In this collection of translated memoirs, three women who lived in the Ottoman imperial harem in Istanbul between 1876 and 1924 offer a fascinating glimpse "behind the veil" into the lives of Muslim palace women of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The memoirists are Filizten, concubine to Sultan Murad V; Princess Ayse, daughter of Sultan Abdulhamid II; and Safiye, a schoolteacher who instructed the grandchildren and harem ladies of Sultan Mehmed V. Their recollections of the Ottoman harem reveal the rigid protocol and hierarchy that governed the lives of the imperial family and concubines, as well as the hundreds of slave women and black eunuchs in service to them. The memoirists show that, far from being a place of debauchery, the harem was a family home in which polite and refined behavior prevailed. Douglas Brookes explains the social structure of the nineteenth-century Ottoman palace harem in his introduction. These three memoirs, written across a half century and by women of differing social classes, offer a fuller and richer portrait of the Ottoman imperial harem than has ever before been available in English.

My Fair Concubine

Author : Jeannie Lin
Publisher : Harlequin
ISBN 13 : 1459230566
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (592 download)

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Book Synopsis My Fair Concubine by : Jeannie Lin

Download or read book My Fair Concubine written by Jeannie Lin and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The USA Today–bestselling author of The Dragon and the Pearl “combines wit, seduction, skill, and intelligence in a tantalizing take on ‘My Fair Lady’” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Yan Ling tries hard to be servile—it’s what’s expected of a girl of her class. Being intelligent and strong-minded, she finds it a constant battle. Proud Fei Long is unimpressed by her spirit—until he realizes she’s the answer to his problems. He has to deliver the emperor a “princess.” In two months can he train a tea girl to pass as a noblewoman? Yet it’s hard to teach good etiquette when all Fei Long wants to do is break it, by taking this tea girl for his own . . . “Lin has a gift for bringing the wondrous and colorful world of ancient China to readers. The history and culture of the era are beautifully bound together with a classic romance theme. Those yearning for new worlds and age-old adventures will savor Lin’s novel.” —Romantic Times

The King's Concubine

Author : Anne O'Brien
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101586672
Total Pages : 565 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis The King's Concubine by : Anne O'Brien

Download or read book The King's Concubine written by Anne O'Brien and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-06-05 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A child born in the plague year of 1348, abandoned and raised within the oppressive walls of a convent, Alice Perrers refused to take the veil, convinced that a greater destiny awaited her. Ambitious and quick witted, she rose above her obscure beginnings to become the infamous mistress of Edward III. But always, essentially, she was alone... Early in Alice’s life, a chance meeting with royalty changes everything: Kindly Queen Philippa, deeply in love with her husband but gravely ill, chooses Alice as a lady-in-waiting. Under the queen’s watchful eye, Alice dares to speak her mind. She demands to be taken seriously. She even flirts with the dynamic, much older king. But she is torn when her vibrant spirit captures his interest...and leads her to a betrayal she never intended. In Edward’s private chambers, Alice discovers the pleasures and paradoxes of her position. She is the queen’s confidante and the king’s lover, yet she can rely only on herself. It is a divided role she was destined to play, and she vows to play it until the bitter end. Even as she is swept up in Edward’s lavish and magnificent court, amassing wealth and influence for herself, becoming an enemy of his power-hungry son John of Gaunt, and a sparring partner to resourceful diplomat William de Windsor, she anticipates the day when the political winds will turn against her. For when her detractors voice their hatred,and accusations of treason swirl around her,threatening to destroy everything she has achieved, who will stand by Alice then? Includes a readers guide

On the Sultan's Service

Author : Douglas S. Brookes
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253045533
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis On the Sultan's Service by : Douglas S. Brookes

Download or read book On the Sultan's Service written by Douglas S. Brookes and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When at last we were approaching the Harem, the Sultan, surely quite alarmed, said to me in a low voice (was that so the eunuch walking in front of us wouldn't hear, or because in this lonely and dark passageway he was frightened of his own voice?), Ne olacak? 'What is to become of things?'" Translated into English for the first time, this memoir provides fascinating first-hand insight into the personalities, intrigues, and inner workings of the Ottoman palace in its final decades. Written by Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil, who was First Secretary to Sultan Mehmed V and would go on to be one of Turkey's most famous novelists, On the Sultan's Service makes available to English readers the remarkable account of life and work in the Ottoman palace chancery—the public, "business" side of the palace—in its final incarnation. We learn of the court's new role under this second-to-last Sultan in post-Revolution Turkey. No longer exercising political power, the palace negotiated the minefields between political factions, sought ways to unite the empire in the face of sharpening nationalist aspirations, and faced with a kind of shocked despondency the opening salvos of the wars that were to overwhelm the country. Uşaklıgil includes interviews with the Imperial family and descriptions of royal nuptials, the palaces and its visitors, and the crises that shook the court. He delivers an insightful and moving portrait of Mehmed V, the elderly gentleman who reigned over the Ottoman Empire through both Balkan Wars and World War I.

Empress Dowager Cixi

Author : Jung Chang
Publisher : Random House Canada
ISBN 13 : 0307363120
Total Pages : 431 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Empress Dowager Cixi by : Jung Chang

Download or read book Empress Dowager Cixi written by Jung Chang and published by Random House Canada. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beloved, internationally bestselling author of Wild Swans, and co-author of the bestselling Mao: The Unknown Story, the dramatic, epic biography of the unusual woman who ruled China for 50 years, from concubine to Empress, overturning centuries of traditions and formalities to bring China into the modern world. A woman, an Empress of immense wealth who was largely a prisoner within the compound walls of her palaces, a mother, a ruthless enemy, and a brilliant strategist: Chang makes a compelling case that Cixi was one of the most formidable and enlightened rulers of any nation. Cixi led an intense and singular life. Chosen at the age of 12 to be a concubine by the Emperor Xianfeng, she gave birth to his only male heir who at four was designated Emperor when his father died in 1861. In a brilliant move, the young woman enlisted the help of the Emperor's widow and the two women orchestrated a coup that ousted the regents and made Cixi sole Regent. Untrained and untaught, the two studied history and politics together, ruling the huge nation from behind a curtain. When her boy died, Cixi designated a young nephew as Emperor, continuing her reign till her death in 1908. Chang gives us a complex, riveting portrait of Cixi through a reign as long as that of her fellow Empress, Victoria, whom she longed to meet: her ruthlessness in fighting off rivals; her curiosity to learn; her reliance on Westerners who she placed in key positions; and her sensitivity and desire to preserve the distinctiveness of China's past while overturning traditions (she, as Chang reveals--not Mao, as he claimed--banned footbinding) and exposing its culture to western ideas and technology.

The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Harem

Author : Jane Hathaway
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107108292
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Harem by : Jane Hathaway

Download or read book The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Harem written by Jane Hathaway and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-30 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the chief of the African eunuchs who guarded the sultan's harem in Istanbul under the Ottoman Empire.

Harem Ghosts

Author : Douglas Scott Brookes
Publisher : Markus Wiener Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9781558766112
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (661 download)

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Book Synopsis Harem Ghosts by : Douglas Scott Brookes

Download or read book Harem Ghosts written by Douglas Scott Brookes and published by Markus Wiener Publishers. This book was released on 2015-09 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Empress Orchid

Author : Anchee Min
Publisher : HMH
ISBN 13 : 0547347200
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (473 download)

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Book Synopsis Empress Orchid by : Anchee Min

Download or read book Empress Orchid written by Anchee Min and published by HMH. This book was released on 2005-04-11 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A fascinating novel, similar to Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha . . . A revisionist portrait of a beautiful and strong-willed woman” (Houston Chronicle). A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year From Anchee Min, a master of the historical novel, Empress Orchid sweeps readers into the heart of the Forbidden City to tell the fascinating story of a young concubine who becomes China’s last empress. Min introduces the beautiful Tzu Hsi, known as Orchid, and weaves an epic of the country girl who seized power through seduction, murder, and endless intrigue. When China is threatened by enemies, she alone seems capable of holding the country together. In this “absorbing companion piece to her novel Becoming Madame Mao,” readers and reading groups will once again be transported by Min’s lavish evocation of the Forbidden City in its last days of imperial glory and by her brilliant portrait of a flawed yet utterly compelling woman who survived, and ultimately dominated, a male world (The New York Times). “Superb . . . [An] unforgettable heroine.” —People “A sexually charged, eye-opening portrayal of the Chinese empire . . . with heart-wrenching scenes of desperate failure and a sensuality that rises off its heated pages.” —Elle

Empress of the East

Author : Leslie Peirce
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465093094
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Empress of the East by : Leslie Peirce

Download or read book Empress of the East written by Leslie Peirce and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "fascinating . . . lively" story of the Russian slave girl Roxelana, who rose from concubine to become the only queen of the Ottoman empire (New York Times). In Empress of the East, historian Leslie Peirce tells the remarkable story of a Christian slave girl, Roxelana, who was abducted by slave traders from her Ruthenian homeland and brought to the harem of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent in Istanbul. Suleyman became besotted with her and foreswore all other concubines. Then, in an unprecedented step, he freed her and married her. The bold and canny Roxelana soon became a shrewd diplomat and philanthropist, who helped Suleyman keep pace with a changing world in which women, from Isabella of Hungary to Catherine de Medici, increasingly held the reins of power. Until now Roxelana has been seen as a seductress who brought ruin to the empire, but in Empress of the East, Peirce reveals the true history of an elusive figure who transformed the Ottoman harem into an institution of imperial rule.

A History of the Ottoman Empire

Author : Douglas A. Howard
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108107478
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (81 download)

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Book Synopsis A History of the Ottoman Empire by : Douglas A. Howard

Download or read book A History of the Ottoman Empire written by Douglas A. Howard and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-09 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering the full history of the Ottoman Empire, from its genesis in post-Mongol Eurasia to its dissolution after the Great War in Europe, this textbook takes a holistic approach, considering the Ottoman worldview - what it was, how it came together, and how it fell apart. Douglas A. Howard stresses the crucial role of the Ottoman sultans and their extended household, discusses the evolution of the empire's fiscal model, and analyzes favorite works of Ottoman literature, emphasizing spirituality, the awareness of space and time, and emotions, migration, violence, disease, and disaster. Following how people spent their time, their attitudes towards authority, how they made their money, and their sense of humor and sense of beauty, this illustrated textbook is an essential resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate, courses on the history of the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East, Islamic history, and the history of Eastern Europe. The book includes over eighty illustrations, maps and textboxes.

The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire

Author : George H. Junne
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0857728938
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (577 download)

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Book Synopsis The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire by : George H. Junne

Download or read book The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire written by George H. Junne and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-06-22 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chief Black Eunuch, appointed personally by the Sultan, had both the ear of the leader of a vast Islamic Empire and held power over a network of spies and informers, including eunuchs and slaves throughout Constantinople and beyond. The story of these remarkable individuals, who rose from difficult beginnings to become amongst the most powerful people in the Ottoman Empire, is rarely told. George Junne places their stories in the context of the wider history of African slavery, and places them at the centre of Ottoman history. The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire marks a new direction in the study of courtly politics and power in Constantinople.

Only Ever Yours

Author : Louise O'Neill
Publisher : Quercus
ISBN 13 : 1623654556
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (236 download)

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Book Synopsis Only Ever Yours by : Louise O'Neill

Download or read book Only Ever Yours written by Louise O'Neill and published by Quercus. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where women are created for the pleasure of men, beauty is the first duty of every girl. In Louise O'Neill's world of Only Every Yours women are no longer born naturally, girls (called "eves") are raised in Schools and trained in the arts of pleasing men until they come of age. Freida and Isabel are best friends. Now, aged sixteen and in their final year, they expect to be selected as companions--wives to powerful men. All they have to do is ensure they stay in the top ten beautiful girls in their year. The alternatives--life as a concubine, or a chastity (teaching endless generations of girls)--are too horrible to contemplate. But as the intensity of final year takes hold, the pressure to be perfect mounts. Isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty--her only asset--in peril. And then into this sealed female environment, the boys arrive, eager to choose a bride. Freida must fight for her future--even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known.

Science Among the Ottomans

Author : Miri Shefer-Mossensohn
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477303596
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

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Book Synopsis Science Among the Ottomans by : Miri Shefer-Mossensohn

Download or read book Science Among the Ottomans written by Miri Shefer-Mossensohn and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars have long thought that, following the Muslim Golden Age of the medieval era, the Ottoman Empire grew culturally and technologically isolated, losing interest in innovation and placing the empire on a path toward stagnation and decline. Science among the Ottomans challenges this widely accepted Western image of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ottomans as backward and impoverished. In the first book on this topic in English in over sixty years, Miri Shefer-Mossensohn contends that Ottoman society and culture created a fertile environment that fostered diverse scientific activity. She demonstrates that the Ottomans excelled in adapting the inventions of others to their own needs and improving them. For example, in 1877, the Ottoman Empire boasted the seventh-longest electric telegraph system in the world; indeed, the Ottomans were among the era’s most advanced nations with regard to modern communication infrastructure. To substantiate her claims about science in the empire, Shefer-Mossensohn studies patterns of learning; state involvement in technological activities; and Turkish- and Arabic-speaking Ottomans who produced, consumed, and altered scientific practices. The results reveal Ottoman participation in science to have been a dynamic force that helped sustain the six-hundred-year empire.

Tears of Pearl

Author : Tasha Alexander
Publisher : Minotaur Books
ISBN 13 : 1429928263
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis Tears of Pearl by : Tasha Alexander

Download or read book Tears of Pearl written by Tasha Alexander and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set amid the beauty and decadence of the Ottoman Empire, Lady Emily's latest adventure is full of intrigue, treachery, and romance. Looking forward to the joys of connubial bliss, newlyweds Lady Emily and Colin Hargreaves, diplomats of the British Empire, set out toward Turkey for an exotic honeymoon. But on their first night in the city, a harem girl is found murdered, strangled in the courtyard of the Sultan's lavish Topkapi Palace. Sir Richard St. Clare, an Englishman who works at the embassy in Constantinople, is present and recognizes the girl as his own daughter who was kidnapped twenty years earlier. Emily and Colin promise the heartbroken father that they'll find her killer, but as the investigation gains speed, they find that appearance can be deceiving—especially within the confines of the seraglio As a woman, Emily is given access to the forbidden world of the harem and quickly discovers that its mysterious, sheltered walls offer no protection from a ruthless murderer. As the number of victims grows, Emily must rely on her own sharp wis in a heart-stopping finale if she is to stop a killer bend on exacting vengeance no matter how many innocent lives he leaves in his wake.

River of Stars

Author : Guy Gavriel Kay
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101608935
Total Pages : 690 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis River of Stars by : Guy Gavriel Kay

Download or read book River of Stars written by Guy Gavriel Kay and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “River of Stars is a major accomplishment, the work of a master novelist in full command of his subject.”—Michael Dirda, in The Washington Post “Game of Thrones in China.”—Salon.com Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate. That moment on a lonely road changed his life in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later—and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles toward the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai from the north. Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor—and alienates women at the court. But when her father’s life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has. In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading to events no one could have foretold, under the river of stars.

Women and Slavery in the Late Ottoman Empire

Author : Madeline Zilfi
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521515831
Total Pages : 301 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (215 download)

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Book Synopsis Women and Slavery in the Late Ottoman Empire by : Madeline Zilfi

Download or read book Women and Slavery in the Late Ottoman Empire written by Madeline Zilfi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-22 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines gender politics through slavery and social regulation in the Ottoman Empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

An Evil Eye

Author : Jason Goodwin
Publisher : Sarah Crichton Books
ISBN 13 : 9781429958875
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (588 download)

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Book Synopsis An Evil Eye by : Jason Goodwin

Download or read book An Evil Eye written by Jason Goodwin and published by Sarah Crichton Books. This book was released on 2011-03-29 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Edgar® Award–winning author of The Janissary Tree comes the fourth and most captivating Investigator Yashim mystery yet! It takes a writer of prodigious talents to conjure the Istanbul of the Ottoman Empire in all its majesty. In three previous novels, Jason Goodwin has taken us on stylish, suspenseful, and vibrant excursions into its exotic territory. Now, in An Evil Eye, the mystery of Istanbul runs deeper than ever before. It's 1839, and the admiral of the Ottoman fleet has defected to the Egyptians. It's up to the intrepid Investigator Yashim to uncover the man's motives. Of course, Fevzi Ahmet is no stranger to Yashim—it was Fevzi who taught the investigator his craft years ago. He's the only man whom Yashim has ever truly feared: ruthless, cruel, and unswervingly loyal to the sultan. So what could have led Yashim's former mentor to betray the Ottoman Empire? Yashim's search draws him into the sultan's seraglio, a well-appointed world with an undercurrent of fear, ambition, and deep-seated superstition. When the women of the sultan's orchestra begin inexplicably to grow ill and die, Yashim discovers that the admiral's defection may be rooted somewhere in the torturous strictures of the sultan's harem. No one knows more about the Ottoman Empire and Istanbul than Jason Goodwin, of whom Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times: "Mr. Goodwin uses rich historical detail to elevate the books in this series . . . far above the realm of everyday sleuthing."