This vividly detailed revisionist history exposes the underworld of the largest metropolis of the early modern Mediterranean and through it the entire fabric of a complex, multicultural society. Fariba Zarinebaf maps the history of crime and punishment in Istanbul over more than one hundred years, considering transgressions such as riots, prostitution, theft, and murder and at the same time tracing how the state controlled and punished its unruly population. Taking us through the city's streets, workshops, and houses, she gives voice to ordinary people―the man accused of stealing, the woman accused of prostitution, and the vagabond expelled from the city. She finds that Istanbul in this period remains mischaracterized―in part by the sensational and exotic accounts of European travelers who portrayed it as the embodiment of Ottoman decline, rife with decadence, sin, and disease. Linking the history of crime and punishment to the dramatic political, economic, and social transformations that occurred in the eighteenth century, Zarinebaf finds in fact that Istanbul had much more in common with other emerging modern cities in Europe, and even in America. “Rarely does a study succeed with equal brilliance on both the large and small scales of analysis.” -- Reqat Kasaba ― Journal Of Interdisciplinary History Published On: 2012-06-01 “A well-crafted, informative narrative. . . . [Zarinebaf offers] fascinating insights into the application of Ottoman law.” -- Virginia H. Aksan, McMaster University ― The Historian Published On: 2012-10-01 “Fariba Zarinebaf puts crime and punishment at the center of this history of the global making of the modern state.” -- Meltem Tokosoz ― Insight Turkey Published On: 2011-10-01 Fariba Zarinebaf is Associate Professor of History at the University of California at Riverside and author, with J.L. Davis and J. Bennett, of An Historical and Economic Geography of Ottoman Greece: Southwest Morea in the Eighteenth Century. Crime and Punishment in Istanbul 1700–1800 By Fariba Zarinebaf UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Copyright © 2010 The Regents of the University of California All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-520-26221-8 Contents List of Illustrations, ix, Acknowledgments, xi, Note on Transliteration and Translation, xiii, Introduction: A Mediterranean Metropolis, 1, PART ONE. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SETTING, 1. Istanbul in the Tulip Age, 11, 2. Migration and Marginalization, 35, 3. Istanbul between Two Rebellions, 51, PART TWO. CATEGORIES OF CRIME, 4. Crimes against Property and Counterfeiting, 73, 5. Prostitution and the Vice Trade, 86, 6. Violence and Homicide, 112, PART THREE. LAW AND ORDER, 7. Policing, Surveillance, and Social Control, 125, 8. Ottoman Justice in Multiple Legal Systems, 141, 9. Ottoman Punishment: From Oars to Prison, 157, Epilogue: The Evolution of Crime and Punishment in a Mediterranean Metropolis, 175, Appendix: A Janissary Ballad from the 1703 Rebellion, 183, Notes, 187, Glossary, 237, Bibliography, 245, Index, 271, CHAPTER 1 Istanbul in the Tulip Age We arrived the next morning at Constantinople, but I can yet tell you very little of it, all my time having been taken up with receiving visits, which are at least a very good entertainment to the eyes, the young women all being beauties and their beauty highly improved by the good taste of their dress. Our Palace is in Pera, which is no more a suburb of Constantinople than Westminster is a suburb of London. All the Ambassadors are lodged very near each other. One part of our house shows us the port, the city and the seraglio and the distant hills of Asia, perhaps altogether the most beautiful prospect in the world. A certain French author says that Constantinople is twice as large as Paris. Mr. Wortley is unwilling to own it is bigger than London, though I confess it appears to me to be so, but I don't believe it is so populous. —LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, THE TURKISH EMBASSY LETTERS Lady Montagu, wife of the English ambassador, wrote these words to her women friends and relatives in England about their trip and her Ottoman friends in Edirne and Istanbul during 1717–18. She was in Istanbul during the Tulip Age (1718–1730), which witnessed a construction boom by Sultan Ahmed III (1703–1730) and his grand vizier and son-in-law, Nevehirli Ibrahim Pasha (1718–1730). The sultan also demonstrated a great interest in all varieties of tulips and had them planted in gardens everywhere to beautify Istanbul. The Tulip Age ( Lale Devri ) is considered Istanbul's first serious cultural opening up to the West that led to the growing establishment in Pera of a Western European colony, particularly with an increasing population of women. Lady Montagu was impressed by the quality of life in the European colony of Pera, finding that part of the city more cosmopolitan and the whole city larger than Paris and London. The Europeans were traditionally confined to Galata and Per