From the beginning of the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent in 1520 until the mid-17th century, high-ranking women of the Ottoman dynasty enjoyed a degree of political power. This text examines the sources of their power and assesses the reactions of their male contemporaries. It is a well-informed, scholarly study which owes little to the contemporary Ottoman political theory which normally dominates the historiography of this period, and a good deal to sociological insight. Although much of Peirce's material and many of her individual points are not in themselves new, her overall approach is. The book is striking and refreshing for its consistent and detailed re-interpretation of a very large subject, examining the nature of Ottoman sovereignty in terms of the dynastic family as a whole rather than merely of the sultan who was its figurehead.