Reassessing Women’s Economic Agency Through the Lens of the Shariʿa Court Records: The Case of Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Tripoli

In recent years, historians of the Middle East have begun reassessing earlier scholarship on the social and economic dimensions of women’s lives in the early modern period. As this body of research developed, historians have increasingly recognized that the portrayals of oppressed and secluded females were largely an Orientalist construct. Nevertheless, the intricate ways in which women’s experiences were shaped remain underexplored, a gap this paper seeks to address. Drawing on court records from Tripoli (in modern-day Lebanon) from the late 18th century, this paper argues that women’s extensive use of the shariʿa court was not only to settle disputes and pursue legal matters but also for notarial purposes, including registering ownership of properties, lease agreements, and marital business contracts. Women mobilized assets acquired through purchase, inheritance, or dowry to generate steady sources of income through rent, and capital flows, which supplemented their cash or in-kind dowries (which were mainly gold). These sources enabled women to invest in the agricultural sector, urban real estate, highly desired silk weaving, and money lending services. Moreover, women often resorted to takhāruj, a mechanism for trading shares, to secure more independence and greater autonomy over their financial investments.