Ebook: Prisons in the Late Ottoman Empire: Microcosms of Modernity

Revises Western images of Ottoman prisons as sites of Oriental brutality

Read an interview with Kent F. Schull about the book (pdf)

Listen to Kent Schull explore the lives of Ottoman prisoners on The Ottoman History Podcast

The Western world stereotypically associates Ottoman or 'Turkish' prisons with images of torture, narcotics and brutal sexual behaviour. Now, Kent F. Schull argues that these prisons were actually a site of immense reform and contestation during the 19th century.

Schull shows that prisons were key components for Ottoman nation-state construction and acted as 'microcosms of modernity' for broader imperial transformation. It was within the walls of these prisons that many of the pressing questions of Ottoman modernity were worked out.

By juxtaposing them with the reality of prison life, Schull investigates how state-mandated reforms affected the lives of local prison officials and inmates. He shows how these individuals actively conformed to, contested and manipulated new penal policies and practices for their own benefit.

Key Features

• Shows how prisons were key to resolving questions of administrative centralisation, Islamic criminal law and punishment, gender and childhood, prisoner rehabilitation, bureaucratic professionalisation, identity and social engineering
• Heavily critiques Michel Foucault's approach to punishment, state power, and society by applying it to a non-Western context
• Presents penal institutions in this period as complex social institutions that act as windows to broader cultural, ideological and social issues
• Covers key issues including juvenile delinquents, corruption, prisoner abuse, female prisoners and Islamic criminal law reform