The University of Texas at Austin

Graduate Student, Department of History

Thesis Title: Women and Property in Early-Modern Istanbul

About

I am currently doing my archival research on the intergenerational transfer of property in seventeenth-century Istanbul. I concentrate on how law, gender, and state authority influenced the devolution of property from one generation to the next. I argue that Islamic law of intestate succession does not depict the entire picture of the period. There were other methods, such as waqf-i ahli, wasiyat, gifts, and amicable settlements bypassing the law of intestate succession. Among my research questions are the following: What were the motivation behind such a bypass? Was gender the main factor in determining the rules of intergenerational property transfer? And what was the role of the state regarding the property rights?

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