ABSTRACT
Since the time I published a book on Egyptian guilds, three articles on Turkish guilds and two studies on guilds in Middle Eastern history in general,l a number of new studies on Ottoman guilds have been written. Among those, one should mention in particular Professor Inalcik's writings based on the study of fifteenth century Bursa, the dissertation of my student, Haim Gerber on Bursa in the seventeenth century, Andre Raymond's monumental work on the merchants and artisans of Cairo in the eighteenth century, and an article by Abdul Karim Rafeq on the Damascus guilds in the early eighteenth century. In addition, I have had regard to material published in two recent Turkish studies, by Ne§et <;ag"'atay and Ozer Ergenc;. 2 In the following, I shall try to examine the results of a comparison of all these writings and to reassess the characteristic traits of Turkish guilds and my own conclusions in view of subsequent research.
