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status in society by circumscribing women’s rights based on sex and constructed norms based on
sexual difference.
In the Ottoman Empire, women of all religious and socioeconomic backgrounds used the various
courts at their disposal for a wide array of litigation. Literate and illiterate women came directly, or
were represented by agents in courts, with court officials transcribing their testimony thus leaving it
to future historians to heed‐ or to ignore‐ their voices.
The Case of Teresa Chryssoni against Princess Seniha
The case between Teresa Chryssoni and Ottoman Princess Seniha combined a mixture of
burgeoning business and good will gone bad. For neither the first nor the last time in history, unpaid
debt lay at the heart of the matter. A Greek subject by birth, Chryssoni sold fine French furniture,
tapestries and dresses to the ladies of the Ottoman imperial court. 8 It was a traditional role for her to
play as a Greek woman. At the time of the Chryssoni affair, female Greek merchants and female
Parisian dressmakers would visit the women of the royal family directly to sell their luxury goods and
services as the royal women were secluded and could not venture into the public market places such
as cosmopolitan Pera. 9 French fashions were favored in elite circles in Constantinople at the turn of
the century and Chryssoni made a good living dealing in fine leathers, clothes and furnishings. It was
a mark of high status to have the women of the royal harem as clients. Chryssoni valued the
association and surely used it to promote her business’s reputation.
Chryssoni’s clients in the harem included Princess Seniha, the reigning Sultan Abdülmecid II’s half
sister. 10 The princess became a valued client when Chryssoni sold hundreds of thousands of lira’s
worth of luxury goods to the princess after her royal palace caught fire, and all of its furniture was
destroyed. Believing in the value of courtly patronage and access to royal coffers, Chryssoni extended
the princess a large line of credit when the princess experienced some financial difficulties.
Furthermore, Chryssoni acted as a guarantor to redeem jewelry and silverware that the princess
pawned when she was once again in need of money. It would seem on the surface that relations
quickly broke down when, being unable to collect the debt from the princess, and possibly realizing
that there were a number of other unpaid debts yet to be collected by others that the princess had
incurred, Chryssoni decided to sue for her money in the Mixed Courts of Commerce (tidjaret) of
Constantinople. 11
In order to be allowed to take legal action against a member of the imperial family, she needed to
obtain the Sultan’s express permission. Although allowed trade with the elites, and even to lend
money to a princess, her status as a woman and a non‐Ottoman, disallowed her direct access to the
Sultan. Italian embassy officials mediated on her behalf with the Sublime Porte to gain the needed
permission to allow the case to move forward. Interestingly, she chose the Italian, and not the Greek,
embassy to represent her interests, especially as by all accounts she did not speak Italian. However,
her husband was an Italian subject and her daughter, Artimesia, had married Aldo and resided in Italy
so perhaps this informed her choice of the foreign authority to which to appeal for help in the case.
Furthermore, relations between the Greek community and Abdülmecid were complicated so she
turned to the Italian embassy for aid in the matter. 12
The Sultan did not allow the case to move forward against his sister for at least six months.
Chryssoni encountered “obstacles” at every turn. When the first ambassador, Catalani died, she
successfully convinced the embassy’s Chargé d’ Affaires, Mr Bolati, to go personally to the Sultan to
plead her case; he did so with success. With pure determination, Chryssoni’s case reached the Mixed
Court of Constantinople, and she won. In 1895 Princess Seniha was ordered to pay 700,000 Italian lira
for the luxury goods she had bought on credit, and for the pawned items that Chryssoni had
redeemed in the name of the Princess in good faith. However, the sentence could not be executed
without the consent of the Sultan. 13