Dogs Feared and Dogs Loved: Human-Dog Relations in the Late Ottoman Empire

Abstract

The current study investigates human-animal relations with a specific focus on the case of dogs in the late Ottoman Empire. It contextualizes the new type of animal-human relations against the backdrop of the Ottoman modernization efforts, which took the form of institutional, legal, political and social reforms, and relates the adoption of dogs as pet (companion) animals to the global trends of keeping pets in Western Europe. In so doing, it scrutinizes the various religious, medical and professional perspectives concerning dogs and the human world in the late Ottoman Empire; the purchase and transfer of breed dogs from Europe and the middle classes' responses to this new form of relationship; and finally, the dissemination of pet-keeping culture and practices among Ottoman upper and middle classes.