Note on Transliteration and Diacritics; List of Abbreviations; 1 Introducing the Chief Harem Eunuch; Introducing This Book; Why Eunuchs?; The Harem, Gender, and Sexuality; Distinctive Features of Ottoman Eunuchs; 2 The African Connection; African Eunuch and Non-Eunuch Slaves in Pre-Ottoman Muslim Empires; African Eunuchs in Africa; The Funj Sultanate and the Ottoman Province of Habesh; Enslavement and Castration; Race and Sexuality Stereotypes; Conclusion

3 Arrangement in Black and White: Eunuchs in the Ottoman PalaceEarly Ottoman Eunuchs; After the Conquest of Constantinople (1453); Hürrem Moves into Topkapi (ca. 1530); Black Harem Eunuchs and White Threshold Eunuchs; Murad III Moves into the Harem; 4 The Creation of the Office of Chief Harem Eunuch and the Career of Habeshi Mehmed Agha; Habeshi Mehmed Agha's Early Career; The Evkafü'l-Haremeyn; Habeshi Mehmed Agha's Clients: Ferhad and Nasuh Pashas; Competition with Gazanfer: The Evidence of Mustafa Ali; Architectural Monuments; Conclusion; 5 The Crisis Years of the Seventeenth Century

The Dynastic Crisis and the HaremPalace Factionalism during the Crisis Years; Osman Agha, or the Gazanfer Interlude; El-Hajj Mustafa Agha; Sünbül Agha; Lala Süleyman Agha; Conclusion; 6 Yusuf Agha and the Köprülü Reforms; Behram Agha and the Çinar Vak'asi; Köprülü Mehmed Pasha; After Köprülü Mehmed; Yusuf Agha; The Șeyhü'l-Harem; Conclusion; 7 A New Paradigm: El-Hajj Beshir Agha and His Successors; Solak Nezir Agha (1701-1703) and the Edirne Vak'asi; Uzun Süleyman Agha; El-Hajj Beshir Agha; Morali Beshir Agha; Damascus and the Hajj Caravan; Conclusion

8 Exile and the Kingdom: The Chief Harem Eunuch and EgyptEgypt's Political Situation; Early Connections to Egypt; Egypt and the Evkafü'l-Haremeyn; The Vekil-i Darüssaade; Exile; Yusuf Agha and the Valide Sultan Vakif: An Exiled Chief Harem Eunuch as an Honorary Provincial Grandee; Economic Infrastructure and Enterprises; Exiled Harem Eunuch Solidarity; Conclusion; 9 The Chief Harem Eunuch and Ottoman Religious and Intellectual Life; Qur'an Schools/Sebil-Mektebs; Madrasas; Libraries and Book Endowments; Sufi Lodges (Zaviyes); The Kadizadeli Movement

Confessionalization and the Struggle for Orthodoxy10 Reformed Out of Existence: The Dénouement of the Chief Harem Eunuch; The Late Eighteenth-Century Reform Trajectory; New Harem Eunuch Career Trajectories; Reform and the Evkafü'l-Haremeyn; Selim III's Deposition and Execution; Mehmed Ali and the Holy Cities; The Tanzimat; The British and Mehmed Ali; Decreasing Visibility; Nadir Agha; Conclusion; 11 Memorializing the Chief Harem Eunuch; Chief Harem Eunuchs in Miniature Paintings; Tombs and Graves; Graves outside Istanbul; Conclusion; 12 Conclusion; The Imperial Trajectory.