The City of the Sultan, and Domestic Manners of the Turks, in 1836

This two-volume work, published in 1837, gives a lively and observant account of life in the declining Ottoman empire.

Julia Pardoe (Author)

9781108074421, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 March 2015

526 pages, 11 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 3 cm, 0.66 kg

Julia Pardoe (1804–62) was famous for her historical biographies (some of which are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), but this two-volume work, first published in 1837, arose from a visit to Turkey made by Pardoe and her father in 1836. It was very successful, with new editions appearing over the next twenty years, while Pardoe was considered to be second only to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu among female writers on Turkey. Attempting to give her readers 'a more just and complete insight into Turkish domestic life, than they have hitherto been enabled to obtain', in Volume 2 Pardoe travels in western Turkey, visiting Bursa, the former Ottoman capital, and encountering dervishes, hot springs and tortoises, before returning to Europe via the Black Sea and the Danube. Her lively and observant account of life in the declining but still powerful Ottoman empire remains of great interest.

1. Departure for Broussa
2. Ancient gate
3. Orientalism of Broussa
4. Difficulty of access to the chapel of the howling dervishes
5. Loquacious barber
6. The Armenian quarter of Broussa
7. The cadi's wife
8. Tzèkerghè
9. Death in the revel
10. Yenekeui
11. A chapter on caïques
12. The Bosphorus in summer
13. Facts and fictions
14. Political position of the Turks
15. Death in a princely harem
16. Military festival
17. Turkish ladies 'at home'
18. The Reiss Effendi
19. Imperial gratitude
20. Turkish madhouses
21. The castle of Europe
22. The plague
23. A Greek marriage
24. The fez manufactory
25. Social conditions of the eastern Jews
26. Hospitality of the Armenians
27. Season-changes at Constantinople
28. The Bosporus in mist
29. The Danube
30. Hirsova
31. Orsova
32. The last day of captivity
33. Departure from Orsova
34. Carlowitz.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]