Avret Pazarları

Avret Pazarları  or female slave bazaar, was a market of female slaves located in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey). It was in use fromthe mid-15th century to the early 20th century. Many households owned female slaves. They mostly used them as domestic servants. The Ottoman state regulated the slave market and imposed taxes on every slave transaction.

The women that were sold there came from many diffeent regions, in Africa, Asia and Europe. They were traded in Istanbul markets. In contrast to male slaves, women were often subject to sexual exploitation. Their sexuality was considered the personal property of their owners. Female slaves were frequently valued based on physical attributes like beauty and entertaining skills, especially when chosen by elite men as slaves or concubines.

Slaves were sold to both commoners and the elite, including members of the Imperial Palace. Turkish media often overlooks non-elite or commoner women in slavery, instead focusing more on relatively privileged slaves in the Ottoman Imperial Harem. However, descriptions of Ottoman times do mention slaves owned by commoners in contemporary slave narratives, travelers' accounts, folk songs, late Ottoman Turkish novels, and 20th-century poems.[<span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (December 2023)">citation needed</span>]

The Avret Pazarları slave market was officially closed during the Disestablishment of the Istanbul Slave Market in 1846-1847, though in practice the slave trade in Instanbul continued clandestinely until the early 20th-century.

References

Notes

Category:Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
Category:Violence against women
Category:CS1 Greek-language sources (el)
Category:CS1 Hungarian-language sources (hu)
Category:Articles with incomplete citations from January 2024
Category:All articles with incomplete citations