Introduction: Ottoman Children and Childhood in Perspective

In the last three decades, child-centred history has attracted increased research attention and has become a separate field of inquiry in which children are perceived as active agents in the historical narrative. For decades, historians of childhood have focused predominantly on Europe and North America; however, in recent years a growing number of scholars has begun to explore histories of childhood in a range of non-Western societies. 1 This work has brought to light parallel and overlapping, but at times radically different, histories/narratives. Importantly, this literature clearly indicates that no general definition of childhood can cover early modern to modern...