An Iranian tanker caught in a stand-off between Tehran and the West has raised an Iranian flag and has had a new name painted on its side, Reuters images of the stationary vessel filmed off Gibraltar showed on Aug. Prostitution in the Ottoman Empire Niki Gamm Prostitution, they claim, is the oldest profession in the world, but when it comes to Ottoman times very little is known - not just because little research has been done on it.
While marriage, divorce, slavery and adultery are extensively regulated in Ottoman customary law and Muslim law, the sharia, prostitution is not. The complaint was that these women were openly engaged in prostitution. Of the five women, only Arap Fati refused to appear before the judge when summoned.
It was decided that the houses of these women would be sold and the women expelled from the city. Her anger arose over the fact that she had had the same situation occur to her in a different area of Istanbul and, as her husband was a Janissary and therefore out on one of the many military campaigns, she had turned to prostitution to survive.
Needless to say, her house was sold and she was remanded to prison until her husband returned. Just two years after the anecdote cited above, Sultan Selim II r.
Obviously, the call to stamp out prostitution was not very successful because it was too easy to bribe the related officials into looking the other way. The author also cites the instance of the governor of Damascus in the 18th century who gave up on decrees and punishments and instead demanded a monthly payment from each prostitute.
