Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Ottoman Empire

Part 1: The Beginning: Prophecy and Poetry

1. Malhun Hatun (d. 1323): Mother of the Dynasty

2. Mihri Hatun (1460-1515): Distinguished Court Poet

3. Zeynep Hatun (fifteenth century): Elusive Touchstone of the Poet Biographers

4. A'isha al-Ba'uniyya (d. 1517): Mystic, Mufti, and Spiritual Model

Part 2: A Global Empire: Networks of Influence, Webs of Power, and "The Sultanate of Women"

5. Huerrem Sultan (1502-1558): Roxelana, the Queen and the Witch

6. Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi (1510-1569): Heroine of the Inquisition

7. Nurbanu Sultan (1525-1583): Architect of an Unprecedented Charitable Foundation

8. Sakire Hatun (circa the 1570s): Plaintiff and "Warrior"

9. Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614): The Bloody Countess

10. Guelnus Sultan (1642-1715): The Huntress Who Ushered in the Tulip Period

Part 3: The Ottoman Baroque: Art, Revolution, and Orientalism in the Long Eighteenth Century

11. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762): Errant Embodiment of the European Enlightenment

12. Dilhayat Kalfa (1710-1780): Celebrated Composer

13. Laskarina Bouboulina (1771-1825): Champion of the Greek Revolution

14. Esma Ibret Hanim (b. 1780): Master Calligrapher

15. Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (1819-1881): Orientalist Painter

Part 4: The Age of National Consciousness: Feminist Witnessing and Feminist Disruption

16. Maryana Marrash (1848-1919): Muse, Poet, and Essayist

17. Fatma Aliye (1862-1936): New Woman and Novelist

18. Zabel Yesayan (1878-1943): Genre-Defining Witness to the Armenian Genocide

19. Huda Sha'arawi (1879-1947): Charismatic Founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union

20. Celile Hikmet (1880-1956): Subversive Modernist Painter

21. Halide Edip (1884-1964): The Turkish Republic's Foremost Feminist

Part 5: The End: Making Things Fall Apart

22. Sarah Aaronsohn (1890-1917): A Spy in the Levant

23. Anastasia Golovina (1850-1933) and Safiye Ali (1894-1952): Medical Practitioners Across Borders

24. Sabiha Sertel (1895-1968): Dissident Publishing Phenomenon

25. Sabiha Goekcen (1913-2001): The World's First Female Fighter Pilot