Madeline C. Zilfi is Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland. Her previous publications include The Politics of Piety: The Ottoman Ulema in the Post-Classical Age (1988), and she was also the co-editor of Women in the Ottoman Empire: Middle Eastern Women in the Early Modern Middle East (1997).

Review of the hardback: 'Madeline Zilfi's book examines gender politics through slavery and social regulation in the Ottoman Empire. Her research shows that, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, female slavery was not only central to Ottoman practice but also a critical component of imperial governance and elite social reproduction.' The Middle East

• List of illustrations; 1. Empire and imperium; 2. Currents of change; 3. Women and the regulated society; 4. Telling the Ottoman slave story; 5. Meaning and practice; 6. Feminizing slavery; 7. Men are kanun, women are shari'ah.

Madeline C. Zilfi is Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland. Her previous publications include The Politics of Piety: The Ottoman Ulema in the Post-Classical Age (1988), and she was also the co-editor of Women in the Ottoman Empire: Middle Eastern Women in the Early Modern Middle East (1997).

Review of the hardback: 'Madeline Zilfi's book examines gender politics through slavery and social regulation in the Ottoman Empire. Her research shows that, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, female slavery was not only central to Ottoman practice but also a critical component of imperial governance and elite social reproduction.' The Middle East

• List of illustrations; 1. Empire and imperium; 2. Currents of change; 3. Women and the regulated society; 4. Telling the Ottoman slave story; 5. Meaning and practice; 6. Feminizing slavery; 7. Men are kanun, women are shari'ah.

Madeline C. Zilfi is Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland. Her previous publications include The Politics of Piety: The Ottoman Ulema in the Post-Classical Age (1988), and she was also the co-editor of Women in the Ottoman Empire: Middle Eastern Women in the Early Modern Middle East (1997).

Review of the hardback: 'Madeline Zilfi's book examines gender politics through slavery and social regulation in the Ottoman Empire. Her research shows that, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, female slavery was not only central to Ottoman practice but also a critical component of imperial governance and elite social reproduction.' The Middle East

• List of illustrations; 1. Empire and imperium; 2. Currents of change; 3. Women and the regulated society; 4. Telling the Ottoman slave story; 5. Meaning and practice; 6. Feminizing slavery; 7. Men are kanun, women are shari'ah.