The second item in my "Europeans talk about lesbianism in the Ottoman Empire" series introduces a topic that I'll come back to repeatedly and discuss in the upcoming podcast. For all that we have this variety of 16-17th century "travelers' tales" that make some reference to lesbian desire in women's spaces in Ottoman society, we should be skeptical about the independence of these reports. That isn't to say that we should be skeptical about the existence of female same-sex desire in Ottoman society, but only that we need to be aware that it is being presented in these accounts at least at third hand, if not more. Further, the attitudes toward lesbian desire embedded in these reports are filtered through European Christian attitudes that are far more sex-negative than those of Islamicate society, and don't take account of the nuances of attitudes toward same-sex activity within that society. So: substantial grains of salt are warranted, as well as an understanding that this mini-series that I'm presenting can be best understood as providing background for why Europeans became fixated on the idea that lesbianism was a "Turkish thing" in subsequent centuries.
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