Book excerpt: Reconstructing the role of women in Ottoman high society and power politics, Godfrey Goodwin brings to life the women who made their marks in a male domain.? He examines the laws which governed women's lives from the harem to the humblest tasks, and contrasts the lives of rural women with those of women in the towns, discussing pivotal events such as courtship, marriage, divorce, and motherhood.? This perceptive study culminates in the nineteenth century, exploring the advent of modernity and its impact at a time of imperial decline.