Eunuchs and the City: Residences and Real Estate Owned by Court Eunuchs in Late Sixteenth-Century Istanbul

Abstract

This article explores how the Ottoman court eunuchs engaged with the topography and population of Istanbul by examining the urban residences and other real estate endowed in the 1590s by four aghas representing different backgrounds and career tracks across the court eunuch spectrum. Using evidence gleaned from their endowment deeds and other documents, it attempts to reconstruct their immediate living environments and map their property ownership across the cityscape, reflecting on the spatial distribution and concentration areas of their real estate, the continuities and changes in their residential patterns, as well as how their career tracks, family members