This collection of articles by 14 Middle East historians is a pathbreaking work in the history of Middle Eastern women prior to the contemporary era. The collection seeks to begin the task of reconstructing the history of (Muslim) women's experience in the middle centuries of the Ottoman era, between the mid-seventeenth century and the early nineteenth, prior to hegemonic European involvement in the region and prior to the "modernizing reforms' inaugurated by the Ottoman regime.

Contributions by: Suraiya Faroqhi, Margaret Lee Meriwether, Colin Imber, Nancy Micklewright, Fatma Müge Göçek, Mary Ann Fay, Mervat Hatem, Dina Rizk Khoury, Leslie Peirce, Kemal Silay, Amira Sonbol, Judith Tucker, Fariba Zarinebaf-Shahr