Entangled Dependencies: The Case of the Runaway Domestic Worker Emine in Late Ottoman Istanbul (1910)

The documents contained in this file are inevitably marked by omissions, erasures, fabrications, and possibly also lies. Still, they document the sequence of events that defined the course of Emine’s life as a domestic worker: her entry into domestic work; her stay in İshak Cevdet Paşa’s household in Istanbul as a live-in domestic worker for twelve years; her attempts to escape her work; and finally, the likely remand of custody back to her father. In these documents, it is also possible to discern the elements of coercion that define Emine’s experience as a young female domestic worker.

Emine’s entry into domestic work

Emine moved from her hometown Ereğli to Istanbul to be employed as a domestic worker in İshak Cevdet Paşa’s house in 1899, when she was twelve years old. Her recruitment was conducted on the grounds of a hiring-out contract authorized by the Sharia court in Ereğli.

In the petition she submitted to the Police, Emine recounts her entry into domestic work: “12 years ago, I was given out to the house of the retired (mütekaidden) İshak Cevdet Paşa in Akarçeşme in the Gedikpaşa neighbourhood by my father to serve.” In the court record, her father, Hasan Ağa, employs the phrase “I order the renting-out and dispatching and submission of my twelve-year-old daughter Emine, as her father and custodian, because I am not able to provide for her, as is the custom to serve, starting from the date of the document for an indefinite period in Istanbul in the house of esteemed İshak Cevdet Paşa.” İshak Cevdet Paşa, on the other hand, states that ““Hasan Ağa from Ereğli left the above-mentioned Emine, his twelve-year-old daughter, in our service.” The choice of words in these three different accounts indicates that Emine’s move to Istanbul and her employment were not the result of her own will, but of her father’s—although “will” is a complicated concept in this case. In fact, the account by Emine’s father illustrates both his economic desperation and his patriarchal power over his daughter’s life, mobility, and labour.

Emine’s father, Hasan Ağa, was a porter in the Port of Ereğli, a midsized town on the Black Sea coast. In the course of the nineteenth century, port cities on the Black Sea coast flourished due to the commercialization and commodification processes related to the further integration of the Ottoman Empire into global capitalist networks. This general trend brought about rapid impoverishment among port workers and an increase in labour struggles in various regions, including in the Black Sea ports (Nacar 2016). Given this context, we might infer that Emine came from a poverty-stricken, working-class background characteristic of a midsize port city on the Black Sea coast. Emine’s employer İshak Cevdet Paşa was a retired soldier. During his career, he was among the most senior military advisors to Sultan Abdulhamid II, as well as a member of the High Committee of Military Inspection, which was involved in strategic military planning and policymaking at that time. His military title was ferik in Ottoman Turkish, equivalent to a major-general in today’s terms. This makes clear that İshak Cevdet Paşa was among the military elite of the time, with access to Sultan Abdulhamid II’s inner circle of power. Clearly, the socio-economic inequality between the two families, the poverty which compelled Emine’s father to send his daughter to serve, and the wealth and power of Ishak Cevdet Paşa’s urban household, were the basis of their agreement.

From the available documents, we cannot know for sure whether Emine was willing or not to move to Istanbul as a live-in domestic worker. For her, accepting this arrangement might have been the obvious choice given her family’s poverty and inability to provide for her. She may or may not have had the power to object to her father’s decision. What we know for certain is that her father’s decision to rent her out was customarily accepted, and so her consent was not required to establish the legal authority of the contract.

Emine’s stay in İshak Cevdet Paşa’s house

We understand that Emine lived in İshak Cevdet Paşa’s house for about twelve years. However, we cannot learn much about the circumstances of her life in her employer’s house.

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Emine’s attempts to leave İshak Cevdet Paşa’s house

Emine made three consecutive attempts to escape İshak Cevdet Paşa’s household but was forced to return after her first two attempts. In the petition that she submitted to the police, Emine states: “Recently, I had to leave because my comfort was spoiled.” This wording implies mistreatment, or at least discomfort of some kind, but details are lacking. What Emine may be trying to do here is to justify why she abandoned the service in her employers’ home, thereby preventing a third enforced return, without making outright accusations against her employer. It is also highly likely that the phrasing of her petition was mediated and distorted by the scribe she would have had to employ.

Upon submission of Emine’s petition, İshak Cevdet Paşa was invited to the local police station in his neighborhood and asked about the situation. While responding to Emine’s implication of mistreatment and/or discomfort in her petition, İshak Cevdet Paşa states that “she escaped from the house without any reason.” He claims she was “undutiful,” “not subservient at all,” and also “of slightly lower intelligence.” He also states that Emine's father, who was called to take back her daughter after Emine's earlier attempts to escape, “pleaded for Emine to stay with them” and consequently “out of pity we agreed to reluctantly employ her until now.” In his statement, İshak Cevdet Paşa not only refutes Emine’s implication of mistreatment, but also accuses her of being an undutiful woman, and portrays his recruitment of Emine as a form of charity. Secondary literature frequently emphasizes that the exploitation of girls and young women from poor or impoverished backgrounds in wealthier households was often disguised as charity (Ferhunde Özbay 1999; Maksudyan 2008). İshak Cevdet Paşa’s explanations reflect such a mindset.

Emine’s submission to her father

In his statement, İshak Cevdet Paşa also declares that he was no longer willing to employ Emine, and that her father had already been notified to come and take back his daughter. We do not know what happened to Emine after this point. It is most probable that she was remanded to her father. Then, she might have been placed in another well-off household as a domestic worker or taken back to her hometown by her father.

The involvement of the police

In the late Ottoman context, if a female domestic worker abandoned service this was not defined as a crime in and of itself. However, her act was perceived as an indication of deviance, moral laxity, or aversion to work, and was often associated with an inclination towards prostitution. Even without the official definition of crime, this could be grounds for arrest and confinement for the worker who escaped service. When a female domestic worker left the house where she worked, the word used to define her act was “escape.” In most cases, following the complaint of the employer the police started an investigation to find the runaway domestic worker. If she was found, she was kept in police custody until she was returned either to her employer or to her family (Balsoy 2015; Özbek 2019). It is most probable that Emine was arrested by the police after each of her three attempts to abandon her work and that she submitted her petition while in police custody. Although the involvement of the police is not explicit in the documents, it was most probably not hidden deliberately. Rather, it was not accounted for because it was common practice, understood as such by all parties involved.

Emine’s payments

In the original employment contract between İshak Cevdet Paşa and Emine’s father, the monthly pay for Emine’s work was defined as “a 20 kuruş monthly salary—15 kuruş of the above-mentioned amount will be charged and used for the subsistence, clothing, and basic needs of the aforementioned minor, whereas the remaining 5 kuruş will be kept on her behalf.” In 1897, a few years before Emine was hired, the daily wage for an unqualified male worker was 8.5 kuruş and the wage for a qualified worker was 18 kuruş. Compared to these wages, the monthly salary agreed for Emine is abysmally low. The documents also indicate that she did not receive these payments herself. In her petition, Emine stated that “they refrain from giving me my belongings and paying my allowances that accumulated during this period. I request that you order to establish justice on this matter.” On the other hand, İshak Cevdet Paşa states that Emine’s father, who came to Istanbul occasionally during Emine’s period of employment, “collected the accumulated earnings of his daughter.” İshak Cevdet Paşa also highlights that if there wass any remaining money that he had to pay he would pay it to her father, Hasan Ağa, when he arrived İstanbul to receive his daughter. This means that Emine’s control over the money paid for her work was clearly restricted.