Children Born to Concubines
In this passage, the author discusses the legal position of children born to female slaves, also known as concubines, in the Ottoman Empire. He explains that, according to Ottoman law, these children were generally respected in the same way as children born to a legal wife. To support this statement, he quotes the sixteenth-century diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, who wrote that the Turks did not give less honor to children born from concubines than to those born from wives. These children were recognized as the father’s offspring and were not treated as illegitimate.
This practice was different from the customs of many Christian countries at the time, where children born outside marriage often had fewer legal rights and faced social discrimination Tailor-Made Bulgaria Tours.
Inheritance and Social Status
Although the author says that children of concubines were respected, he also points out that there were important differences concerning inheritance and social position. According to his account, unless the father formally freed the slave mother and made legal arrangements in his will, the children could remain in a less secure position after his death.
The author claims that, in some cases, these children depended upon the generosity of their older half-brother, especially if he was the son of the legal wife. He even suggests that they could become subject to their elder brother’s authority. He compares this to the principle found in Roman law that the legal status of a child followed that of the mother.
Modern historians, however, note that this description is only partly correct. Under Islamic law, a concubine who gave birth to her master’s child became an umm walad, meaning “mother of a child.” She could not be sold, and upon her master’s death she became free. Her children were legally recognized as free and had inheritance rights alongside the children of a legal wife. Therefore, the author’s description does not fully reflect Ottoman legal practice.
Temporary Marriage (Kabin)
The author also describes another type of relationship, which he calls kabin. According to his account, this was an agreement in which a man married a woman for a fixed period, such as one month or another agreed length of time. The arrangement was made before a kadı, or judge, and the payment to the woman was agreed upon in advance.
He states that foreign travelers sometimes entered into these temporary marriages while visiting the Ottoman Empire, believing this provided a lawful alternative to immoral relationships during their journeys. The author compares this custom with similar unofficial arrangements that existed in Spain, although he notes that such agreements were not legally recognized there.
A Historical Clarification
Modern historians believe that the author’s description of temporary marriage requires careful interpretation. Temporary marriage, known in Islamic law as mut’ah, is accepted in Shia Islam but has long been rejected by the Sunni legal tradition followed by the Ottoman Empire. The term kabin in Ottoman Turkish usually referred to the financial marriage settlement, or mahr, that the husband promised to the wife as part of a normal marriage contract, rather than to a temporary marriage.
Because of this, historians suggest that the author may have misunderstood what he observed or confused different legal customs that existed in various parts of the Islamic world.
A Historical Perspective
This passage provides another example of how European travelers tried to explain Ottoman society to readers in the seventeenth century. Some of the information is accurate, particularly regarding the recognition of children born to concubines. However, other details about inheritance and temporary marriage are incomplete or mistaken. Modern research based on Ottoman court records and Islamic legal texts shows that Ottoman family law was more carefully regulated than many European visitors realized. As with many travel accounts from this period, the passage is valuable both for what it reveals about Ottoman society and for what it tells us about the perceptions and misunderstandings of foreign observers.