SERVANTS, SLAVES, AND THE DOMESTIC ORDER IN THE OTTOMAN MIDDLE EAST

To an appreciable degree, female domestic work in the Ottoman Middle East was shaped by organizational and valuative premises that were also common to women outside the Ottoman and Islamic worlds. Ambiguity such as between women's duties and socially recognized "work", or between kin and servant—was a keynote of women's condition regardless of cultural setting. However, in the Middle East, the persistence of slavery into the late nineteenth century as a predominantly female and domestic-labor institution added a distinctive element to the nature of domestic labor and women's role within it.