Divine Gifts: Concepts of Childhood and Youth in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

This study examines the concepts of childhood, youth, and aging in the early modernOttoman Empire from 1500-1730. It demonstrates that the early modern Ottomanintelligentsia had multiple conceptions of the period of childhood and youth that shaped their understanding of the self and their larger intellectual world. These findings help to disprove the erroneous belief that the Ottomans had no concept of childhood before the “modern” moment of the 19th century. Across texts, regardless of genre and purpose, and across time there is a firm, logical conception of childhood and youth that shapes the arguments made by Ottoman authors. These ideas on aging and childhood had their roots in classical antiquity and earlier Islamic thought; Ottoman intellectuals, however, transformed these ideas and developed them over the centuries. The Ottomans saw childhood and youth as some of the most significant periods of their lives, and both periods were seen as having a substantial impact upon the adult self. The Ottomans believed in an extended period of development lasting until the age of thirty. As a person matured, he or she proceeded through set developmental stages, with set signs and expectations; failure to reach expectations or certain milestones was seen as disastrous. The Ottomans devoted a great deal of effort to controlling, educating, and guiding children and youths towards the idealized adult self, and cautioning them about the various pitfalls that beset their young lives