Vol. 14 No. 2 (2026): Business & Management Studies: An International Journal
Articles

An examination of entrepreneurial activities in the Ottoman Empire: The case of Hürrem Sultan

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  • Muhammet Fatih Şengüllendi
Muhammet Fatih Şengüllendi
Assist. Prof. Dr., Istanbul Beykent University, Istanbul, Türkiye

Published 2026-06-25

Keywords

  • İşletme Tarihi, Osmanlı Devleti, Girişimcilik Tarihi, Hürrem Sultan
  • Business History, Ottoman Empire, Entrepreneurship History, Hürrem Sultan

How to Cite

An examination of entrepreneurial activities in the Ottoman Empire: The case of Hürrem Sultan. (2026). Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, 14(2), 663-675. https://doi.org/10.15295/bmij.v14i2.2775

Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammet Fatih Şengüllendi

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

An examination of entrepreneurial activities in the Ottoman Empire: The case of Hürrem Sultan. (2026). Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, 14(2), 663-675. https://doi.org/10.15295/bmij.v14i2.2775

Abstract

This study takes a historical and contextual look at entrepreneurship, focusing on how economic activities were organised in the Ottoman Empire through the example of Hürrem Sultan. The dominance of Western-centric assumptions in the entrepreneurship literature has limited the understanding of entrepreneurial forms emerging in different historical and institutional contexts. In this regard, the study focuses on the role of institutional structures, such as the waqf system, property relations, and state-centred economic organisation, in shaping entrepreneurial activities within the Ottoman context. A qualitative method was adopted, and document analysis was employed. The findings reveal that Hürrem Sultan was not only a political figure but also a multifaceted economic actor operating across sectors such as trade, industrial production, agriculture, real estate, and financial investments. These findings indicate that entrepreneurship cannot be reduced solely to a process of individual profit maximisation; rather, it emerges as a multi-layered phenomenon embedded in institutional structures, state relations, and the production of social benefit. In this respect, the study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by offering a historically grounded, context-sensitive perspective on entrepreneurial activity in the Ottoman Empire.

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