“The Love for Young Men Shifted to Girls”: Cevdet Pasha’s Account of Istanbul’s Sexual Culture in the Mid-19th Century

In his notes for Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the Ottoman historian and statesman Ahmed Cevdet Pasha left a striking description of Istanbul during the Tanzimat era. According to him, men who had previously openly admired beautiful young men were becoming fewer in number. Romantic attention was shifting to girls, and one of the influential high officials was hiding his affection for young men due to “the objections of foreigners.”

The Origin of the Quote

Ahmed Cevdet Pasha was one of the preeminent Ottoman intellectuals of the nineteenth century. He was a historian, legal scholar, and high-ranking official during the Tanzimat—a period of massive state reforms in the Ottoman Empire. Cevdet Pasha participated in imperial administration, worked on legislation, and chronicled its history.

He prepared his later historical and memoiristic notes, Ma‘rûzât, specifically for Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The work described events from the proclamation of the Tanzimat reforms until the political upheavals of 1876.

The famous passage about the change in romantic customs is located at the beginning of the text. A few paragraphs earlier, Cevdet Pasha describes the growth of luxury, the new habits of palace women, the financial boom during the Crimean War (1853–56), and the British and French soldiers who found themselves in Istanbul. After this, the narrative shifts to the city’s sexual culture.

What Did Cevdet Pasha Write?

The translation of the entire fragment reads:

“Lovers of women increased, and beloved youths decreased. The people of Lot seemingly vanished underground. The love and affection that had long been well-known and customary toward young men in Istanbul naturally shifted to girls. Promenading in Kağıthane, a custom since the time of Sultan Ahmed III, gained even more popularity. Both there and at Beyazıt Square, the practice of flirting through gestures from carriages became quite widespread. Among the high officials, people like Kâmil and Âli Pashas and their circles, who were famous for their love of young men, were no more. Even Âli Pasha tried to hide his love for youths to avoid the objections of foreigners.”

Several phenomena are visible at once in a single quote. First is the decline of a visible male homoerotic culture. Second is the growing interest of men in women as objects of romantic courtship. Third is the emergence of new methods of flirting in the urban environment. Fourth is the pressure of the foreign gaze on the behavior of the Ottoman elite.

Historian Ezgi Sarıtaş views such texts as part of the long process of the Ottoman Empire’s heteronormalization—the formation of a modern norm where the separation of the sexes in social life significantly decreases, and the partner’s sex becomes the primary criterion for describing sexuality.

The quote in the original language:

“Zen-dostlar çoğalup mahbûblar azaldı. Kavm-i Lût sanki yere batdı. İstanbul’da öteden berü delikanlılar için ma’ruf u mu’tâd olan aşk u alâka, hâl-i tabî’îsi üzre kızlara müntakil oldu. Sultan Ahmed-i Sâlis zamanından berü mu’tâd olan Kâğıdhâne seyri ziyâde rağbet buldu. Gerek orada, gerek Bâyezid meydânında arabalara işâretlerle mu’âşaka usulü hayli meydân aldı. Küberâ içinde gulâmpârelikle meşhur Kâmil ve Âlî Paşalar ile anlara mensûb olanlar kalmadı. Halbuki Âlî Paşa da ecânibin i’tirâzâtından ihtirâz ile gulâmpâreliğini ihfâya çalışurdu.”

The word mahbûb means “beloved.” In Ottoman poetry, it denoted a beautiful beardless youth. Cevdet Pasha clarifies the meaning by speaking of delikanlılar—young men toward whom “love and affection” had long been directed in Istanbul.

The term zen-dost means a man drawn to women. The word gulâmpâre characterized a man through his sexual attraction to young men. The phrase Kavm-i Lût (“the people of Lot”) comes from religious language and is a reference to men engaging in same-sex relations, since, according to the Quran, the Prophet Lot (the biblical Lot) was sent to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were punished for their depraved relations.

During the described time in the Ottoman Empire, influential adult men could marry women, have children, and simultaneously write poetry to young men, admire male beauty, seek sexual partners among youths, and maintain their social reputation. The transition to modern sexual classification in Turkey became a historical process that accelerated at that time under the pressure of new social norms and European influence.

The Crimean War and the Foreign Gaze

The quote’s connection to the Crimean War is directly present in the primary source. Cevdet Pasha writes that during the war, French and English soldiers arrived in Istanbul en masse and spent gold like water. This led to changes in the way of life: people acquired new habits, sought to live in luxury, and participated in a new world of entertainment.

Cevdet Pasha links this pressure to changes in sexual respectability:

“Even Âli Pasha tried to hide his love for youths to avoid the objections of foreigners.”

Behavior that was previously known to those around him and had become part of a high-ranking man’s reputation now required secrecy. The foreign gaze became a factor of self-restraint for the Ottoman elite.

In his book Producing Desire, historian Dror Ze’evi describes this gradual disappearance of open sexual discourse in the Middle East during the nineteenth century. European notions of civilization contributed to the marginalization of forms of male sexuality that had previously been freely present in literature and in urban life. The Crimean War became a powerful catalyst in this process.

Girls, Carriages, and New Urban Romance

Cevdet Pasha does not merely state the fact of shifting preferences; he also describes exactly what the new capital romance began to look like.

Following the phrase about girls, the historian mentions Beyazıt Square and the Kağıthane promenade. In the mid-nineteenth century, women from wealthy families began to leave their homes and go into the city more often. The fashion for carriages allowed them to be in plain sight while maintaining a respectable distance.

Thus, a new courtship ritual for Istanbul was born—open flirting and the exchange of gestures right on the streets. The former attention toward young men gave way to a new public romance. In the eyes of the Ottoman official, the appearance of girls on promenades, carriage rides, and the shifting sexual interests of the nobility became equivalent examples of how irreversibly the traditional way of life in the empire was changing.