Sexuality, Anxiety, And Uses Of Space In The Early Modern Ottoman World: Cinânî’s Bedâyiü’l-Âsâr

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b3199993

The studies on early modern Ottoman prose fiction are relatively limited compared to comprehensive research conducted on Ottoman poetry. However, by placing these texts in their historical context, we can illuminate the ways in which public and private spaces were utilized, as well as the roles of sex and sexuality. Through the examination of Cinânî’s (d. 1004/1595) Bedâyiü’l-‘asâr (“The Original Stories”), this study seeks to enhance our understanding of early modern Ottoman prose fiction. Relying on the stories set in hamâm (public bathhouse), pâzâr (marketplace), and ev (home), I firstly argue that even when an individual’s sexual privacy becomes exposed to the public, it does not necessarily constitute an infringement of privacy as long as the sexual encounters remain within the “licit” (or alternatively, “marital”) sexual intercourse. Secondly, I suggest that “illicit” (though not necessarily samesex) sexual relationships between partners, even if conducted within the confines of the home, are consistently vulnerable to the risk of being publicly disclosed. Based on the insights gained from my research, I argue that any categorization framework that prioritizes the public/private divide falls short in fully understanding the complexities of the Ottoman urban spaces as represented in Cinânî’s Bedâyiü’l-‘asâr. Instead, I propose that interpreting early modern Ottoman spaces through the lens of licit/illicit sexual encounters could offer a more nuanced understanding of the socio-cultural context during the period in which the Bedâyiü’l-‘asâr stories were narrated and circulated.