When I tell people that I research Ottoman prisons, or better yet, ‘Turkish prisons’, their horrified response is normally along the lines of, ‘Have you seen the movie Midnight Express?’ and often, ‘Have you ever spent time in a Turkish prison?’ The truthful answer to both queries is, ‘Yes.’ It was my first-hand experience in an Ottoman prison that led me to this book. In 2002, I spent a few days in Istanbul in the company of a Turkish friend. He suggested that we sit and drink tea in one of the poshest hotels in the world, the Four Seasons. As we sat, drank, and chatted in the hotel's courtyard, my friend informed me that the hotel was nothing other than a former Ottoman imperial prison. I was flabbergasted. As I looked around the courtyard, I noticed the still discernible prison architecture, such as its high walls, turrets, and enclosed courtyard. I wondered what the reaction of the guests would be if they found out the history of this edifice. Incidentally, the Four Seasons Hotel stands on Tevkifhane Sokak or ‘Jail Road’ in the former imperial centre of Ottoman Istanbul, right between the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia), and the Topkapı Sarayı.

Upon learning the former life of this hotel my interest was immediately peaked. I had recently finished Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish and I knew that the historiography for prisons in North America and Europe was robust, but I had no idea what the current state of the scholarship was for the Ottoman Empire. I quickly found out that it was sorely underdeveloped and included only a few short articles on related topics and a couple of MA theses, all in Turkish.