writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

RECOVERING WOMEN’S VOICES: THE PRINCESS AND THE
MERCHANT IN THE LATE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Elizabeth SHLALA *
“Reduced to misery”
In November of 1904, Mrs Teresa Kampali Alevrapoula Chryssoni lived in the Mediterranean port
city of Genova, Italy with her adult daughter, Artemisia and her Italian son‐in‐law, Aldo Lucci. Michele
Chryssoni, Teresa’s second former husband and an Italian subject, had adopted Artemisia during
their marriage. Artemisia was thus an Italian subject both by paternal adoption and marriage. The
Chryssoni’s never lived in Italy together. For their married life, they resided in another port city,
Constantinople. They divorced in 1897. However, Teresa and Michele remained on good terms,
probably through the intervention of Artemisia, and despite her failed business and ensuing lawsuits,
which had strained their marriage at the end of the previous century. Having lived all of her life in
Constantinople in relative economic comfort and distinct social status as a member of the ancient
Greek community, she had been “reduced to misery” and exiled in Genova, living as a dependent on
her son‐in‐law. 1
Seeking justice closer to her new home, just the month before Chrysonni had filed a new case in
the matter at the Civil Court of Rome, not against her debtor, but against the Italian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs for its utter neglect of her situation. She firmly believed that the mishandling of her
case by the ministry had made it impossible for her to collect her money and to restart her life. After
filing the case in Rome, her Neapolitan lawyer, Nicola Vetere immediately left for Constantinople to
implore the Italian Embassy to put pressure on the Ottoman authorities in the interest of Chryssoni.
However, he ended up as the plaintiff in the Italian consular court charging the Italian embassy’s
Dragoman 2 , Alfred Cangià with bribery. 3
Using Court Records to Recover Women’s Voices in the Ottoman Empire
The case of Teresa Chryssoni, luxury goods merchant, against Ottoman Princess Seniha illustrates
the link between an individual woman’s identity and imperial sovereignty in Ottoman history.
Imperial history lends itself well to examining how women operated in historical places and times in
which societies were evolving and resolving conflicts and tensions. 4 Oftentimes, the plural legal
regimes at either the heart, or the crossroads, of competing empires provide excellent sources for
women’s histories. This is only one case among many, and builds upon similar work found in the
Mixed Courts and consular courts of Egypt.
As extensive scholarship has shown, women across classes in the Ottoman Empire were active
throughout the economy and, often due to their economic activity, the legal system. 5 Women were
litigants and defendants in the courts as members of the family structure, participants in the work
force, inheritors, debtors, creditors, and in relation to their access to property and power. Women’s
agency in the courts often related to their social roles; economic power through inheritance and
religious endowments; employment in the local economy; and their access to power through
personal status. Many cases involving women were gendered inasmuch as they fell under personal
status law related to motherhood, marriage, inheritance, and divorce. 6
Personal status became an important concept in modern law as conceptualized by the European
communities for whom personal or family law was differentiated from property and commercial law;
Muslim law did not have such divisions. 7 European gender norms imported into the Ottoman Empire
in this period through the Mixed and consular courts, ultimately disadvantaged women’s personal
*
London School of Economics and Political Science, International History Department
495