An evaluation on the life of prostitutes in the late Ottoman İstanbul through the novels of Ahmed Midhat Efendi and Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2058027 (Table of Contents)

This thesis aims to evaluate prostitutes in the late Ottoman Istanbul through the novels of Ahmed Midhat Efendi and Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar who were popular novelists in their time and aim to educate people through their novels. First, prostitution in Istanbul during this time and the state’s regulation attempts are illustrated, then how Hüseyin Rahmi and Ahmed Midhat Efendi described prostitutes in their novels and their approaches toward them are assessed. The main objective of the study is to compare these two approaches and evaluate how these approaches were shaped by their world view and contemporary intellectual issues such as modernization, marriage, the place of women in the society and education of women.