"Leslie Peirce has produced a meticulously researched and gloriously imagined work of historical scholarship. Her deep familiarity with the city of Aintab (today's Gaziantep) shines through on every
"FROM CHRISTIAN MAIDEN TO MUSLIM QUEEN: Roxelana was born in Ruthenia, possibly the daughter of a priest but more likely into an average family, facing a hardscrabble life. She was captured by slavers
The unprecedented political power of the Ottoman imperial harem in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is widely viewed as illegitimate and corrupting. This book examines the sources of royal wom
