Polygamy in the Ottoman City of Bursa

This paper discusses polygamies in an Ottoman city, Bursa. In this research we have used the estates of 361 married men who died in and around the city between the years 1839-1864. According to the judicial records of this period, Anatolian Bursa families appear very different from how they were depicted by stereotypes in terms of women rights and polygamous marriages. Nevertheless, historical sources reveal the existence of polygamous marriages during the first periods of the Ottoman society where it gradually became a rare phenomenon with the transformation of tribal traditions into city culture.