WOMEN OF SULTAN SULEYMAN It is not known how many women there were in the life of Sultan Suleiman I, but his relationships with some of them are provable. Suleiman's first woman was the Montenegrin Mukrime (Mukarrem), whom Valide Hafsa introduced to him in Caffa in 1508/09. Mukrime was born in Shokdra in 1496 (or 1494), she was the daughter of Prince Stefan (Staniš) Černoević of the Montenegrin royal family of Crnojević (Černoević) and an Albanian princess; it was given to the Sultan's court in 1507 as a tribute. Stefan Chernoevich converted to Islam after the conquest of Montenegro by the Turks (around 1507) and called himself Iskender. Selim I gave him one of his daughters as a wife and gained control of Montenegro. Thanks to his family connection with the sultan's dynasty, Stefan Cernoević (Iskender) remained governor of Montenegro until his death in 1530. Mukrime gave birth to three children: Neslihan (1510) and Meryem (1511) were born in Kaffa: both girls died during the smallpox epidemic in 1512. Seven years later, Mukrime gave birth to a son, Murad, in Sarukhan - he also died of smallpox in 1521 in the summer palace of Edirne. As a childless sultana, Mukrime remained in the shadows until 1534. After the death of her mother-in-law Hafsa, she was expelled from Istanbul along with two other women of Suleiman - Gulbahar and Mahidevran. Suleiman gave Mukrima a mansion in Edirne and she remained there until his death in 1555. Suleiman's second wife was the Albanian Gülbahar Melekcihan (also called Kadriye), who became the Sultan's concubine around 1511 in Caffa. She is often mistakenly identified with Makhidevran. Gulbahar came from an Albanian noble family and, thanks to family ties with the Ottoman dynasty, became a servant of Hafsa. It is unknown how many children she bore to Suleiman: there must have been at least two. Being a childless concubine, after Roksolana appeared in the harem, she lost her influence, and in 1534 she was expelled from Istanbul along with Mukrime and Makhidevran. She first lived in a mansion in Edirne, then in a manor near Arnavutkoy near the capital, and died there in 1559 at the age of 63. Suleiman's third wife, Makhidevran (one of the Sultan's most famous wives), was the daughter of the Circassian prince Idar. She was born in Taman in 1498; her mother, Princess Nazkan-Begum, was the daughter of the Crimean Tatar ruler Mengli 1st Giray. Mahidevran met Suleiman in the winter of 1511 in Kaffa, where she was visiting her mother. Suleiman married Mahidevran a little later, on January 5, 1512 in Kaffa. At the end of the same year she gave birth to her first child, Sehzade Mahmud, in 1515 - Sehzade Mustafa, in 1518 - Sehzade Ahmed, in 1521 - Fatma Sultan and, finally, in 1525 - Raziy Sultan: at this time Mahidevran already was not Suleiman’s first favorite, since the Slavic slave Hurrem became his favorite concubine. It was assumed that Makhidevran was also named Gulbahar, but the certificate of payment to her was not given a second name. In historical documents Mahidevran is mentioned as Valide-i Şehzade-Sultan Mustafa Mahidevran Hatun. From the documentation of expenses (1521) it is clear that Gülbahar Hatun, mother of the deceased Shehzade Abdullah (orig.: Gülbahar Hatun mader-i mürdü Şehzade Sultan Abdullah), spent 120 akçe on her stables. Another document from 1532 states that 400 akche were granted to the brother of Gulbahar Khatun - Tahir aga from Ohrit. (orig.: padişah-ı mülkü alem Sultan Suleyman Han Hazretlerinin halile-i muhteremeleri Gülbahar Hatunun karındaşı Ohritli Tahir Ağa’nın şahsi hükmüne atayayı seniyyeden 400 Akça ihsan edildi). A letter dated 1554 states: “Gulbahar Kadriye, daughter of Hasan Bey and highly respected wife of Suleiman, Shah of the World, asks from her native state the sum of 90 aspers.” (orig. Gülbahar Kadriye binti Hasan Bey, harem-i muhtereme-i Cıhan-ı Şehinşah-ı Cihan-ı Suleyman Han, hane-i ahalisi içün 90 Asper mercuu eyler). This important document shows that Gulbahar's middle name was Kadriye. This proves that Mahidevran and Gulbahar are two completely different women. In a document from 1531, Gulbahar is referred to as Melekcihan (orig. Padişah-ı mülk Sultan Suleyman Han harem-i Arnavut nesebinden Kadriye Melekcihan Hatun). Around 1517 or 1518, a woman named Kumru Khatun appears in the harem, who is said to have been Suleiman's concubine. In a document from 1518, Kumru Khatun is mentioned among the influential ladies of the harem. But since 1533 her name has not been found in any historical documents, perhaps she died or was exiled. A certain Kumru Memdukha Khatun (died in 1561) was a servant of Mukrime Khatun. Presumably these two Kumru Khatuns are identical. Hurrem, whose real name was Alexandra Lisowska, was the daughter of a peasant from Ruthenia and was born in 1505 in eastern Poland. When she was very young, she was kidnapped by Cossacks and sold to the court of the Crimean Tatars in Bakhchisarai. She remained there for a short time, and then was sent along with other slaves to the Sultan's court. As soon as she arrived in the imperial harem, she became the Sultan's mistress. In the autumn of 1520 she was already pregnant with her first child, and in early 1521 she gave birth to Şehzade Mehmed. Over the next five years, she was constantly pregnant and gave birth every year: at the end of 1521 Mihrimah Sultan was born, in 1523 - Abdullah, in 1524 - Selim, and in 1525 - Bayezid. Six years passed after the birth of Bayezid, and she again gave birth to a son, Cihangir (in December 1530). The boy probably suffered from scoliosis, which progressed throughout his life and caused severe pain. With this group of children, Hurrem strengthened her position at court and replaced her rival Mahidevran, becoming the first favorite of the Sultan. A fight began between the two women over the future of their sons. Mahidevran lost this war because Hurrem, with the help of her daughter Mihrimah and son-in-law Rustem Pasha, convinced the Sultan that Mahidevran's son, Prince Mustafa, was a traitor. Suleiman executed Mustafa. After the assassination of Prince Mustafa on October 6, 1553 in Aktepe near Konya, the path to the throne was clear for Hurrem's sons, but she did not live to see her son Selim II become the 11th Ottoman Sultan. She died after a short illness on April 15, 1558 in Istanbul. Suleiman fell into a deep depression and allegedly mourned his beloved wife until his death. Little is known about Suleiman's last women. They say that while Hurrem was still alive, he took two concubines, with whom he had children. Around 1555, he chose Merziban Khatun, an Albanian, as his concubine, and around 1557, Meleksime Khatun, a Bosnian from Mostar. The power-hungry Venetian wife of the heir Selim, Nurbanu, did not tolerate rivals in the palace, especially since Suleiman had a son with Meleksime Khatun, and the boy could be considered as a contender for the throne. Shortly after the execution of Bayezid and his sons in 1561, the little prince died unexpectedly at the age of about seven, and his mother Meleksime, as well as Merziban, were forced to leave the palace. Apparently, Suleiman did not object, because since 1564 Meleksime lived in Edirne, and Merziban lived in Kizilagac. From 6 women, Suleiman had 22 children: From Mukrime Khatun: 1. Meryem (1510 - 1512) 2. Neslihan (1511 - 1512) 3. Murad (1519 - 1521) Gulbahar Khatun: 1. daughter - name unknown (1511 - 1520) 2. Abdullah (1520 - 1521) died of smallpox 3. Hafiza (1521 - about 1560) died a widow, the name of her husband is unknown. Mahidevran Khatun: 1. Mahmud (1512 – 1521) died of smallpox 2. Mustafa (1515 – 1553) 3. Ahmed (1518 – after 1534) date of death unknown, possibly around 1540 or later. It is unknown whether Prince Ahmed died of natural causes; murder is possible. 4. Fatma (1520 - 1572) was married to Gazi Hoxha Mehmed Pasha (died 1548). Mehmed Pasha was the son of Ghazi Yahya Pasha and Princess Shahzadi (daughter of Sultan Bayezid II). 5. Raziye (1525 – 1556) died a widow, the name of her husband is unknown. Hurrem Haseki Sultan: 1. Mehmed (1521 - 1543) 2. Mihrimah (1522 - 1578) 3. Abdullah (1523 - 1523) died in infancy 4. Selim II (1524 - 1574) 5. Bayazid (1525 - 1561) 6. Cihangir (1531 – 1553) Merziban Khatun: 1. Hatice (c. 1555 – after 1575) died in youth 2. son, whose name is unknown (ca. 1556 – c. 1563) this prince may have been killed. Meleksime Khatun: 1. Orhan? (about 1556 - 1562) in other sources he is called Mehmed. However, Sehzade Bayezid also had a son named Orhan, who was killed in Bursa around 1562. Confusion is quite possible. 2. Shahikhuban (1560 - about 1595) presumably she was married and had children.
Anastasia-Roksolana was glorified not only in operas, ballets, books, portraits, but even in television series. That's why many people have heard about it.
Anastasia.Khurrem
Anastasia Gavrilovna Lisovskaya, or Roksolana, or Khurrem (1506-1558) - first was a concubine, and then became the wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Nobody knows why she was given this name, Khurrem, but in Arabic it can mean “cheerful, bright”, but about Roksolana there are serious disputes, the name goes back to the Rusyns, Russians - that was the name of all the inhabitants of Eastern Europe..
And where she was born, no one knows the exact location. Perhaps the city of Rohatyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region or the city of Chemerivtsi, Khmelnitsky region. When she was little, she was kidnapped by Crimean Tatars and sold to a Turkish harem.
Life in the harem was not easy. She could die or fight. She chose wrestling and is now known throughout the world. Everyone in the harem was ready to do anything just to receive the Sultan's tenderness. Everyone wanted to survive and raise their offspring. The life of Roksolana-Nastya is well known to everyone, but there is little information about other slaves who could also escape from slavery.
Kezem Sultan
The most famous Valide Sultan Közem Sultan (1589-1651), she was the favorite concubine of Sultan Ahmet the First. During her short girlhood, she was a girl named Anastasia, the daughter of a priest from the Greek island of Tinos.
She was officially and single-handedly at the head of the Muslim empire for many years. She was a tough woman, but she also had mercy - she freed all her slaves after 3 years.
She died a violent death, strangled on the orders of the future Valide Sultan by the chief eunuch of the harem.
Handan Sultan
Valide Sultan was also Handan (Handan) Sultan, wife of Sultan Mehmed III and mother of Sultan Ahmed I (1576-1605). Previously, she was Elena, the daughter of a priest, also Greek.
She was kidnapped into a harem, and tried by all means to get to power.
Nurbanu Sultan
Nurbanu Sultan (translated as “princess of light”, 1525-1583) was the beloved wife of Sultan Selim II (the Drunkard) and the mother of Sultan Murad III. She was of noble birth. But this did not stop the slave traders from kidnapping her and taking her to the palace.
When her husband died, she surrounded him with people to wait for her son to arrive and ascend to the throne.
The corpse lay there for 12 days.
Nurbanu was a relative of the most influential and wealthy people in Europe, for example, the senator and poet Giorgio Baffo (1694-1768). In addition, she was a relative of the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Safiye Sultan, who was Venetian by birth.
At that time, many of the Greek islands belonged to Venice. They were relatives both “on the Turkish line” and “on the Italian line”.
Nurbanu corresponded with many ruling dynasties and pursued a pro-Venetian policy, for which the Genoese hated her. (There is also a legend that she was poisoned by a Genoese agent). The Attik Valide Mosque was built in honor of Nurban not far from the capital.
Safiye Sultan
Safiye Sultan was born in 1550. She was the wife of Murad the Third and the mother of Mehmed the Third. In freedom and as a girl, she bore the name Sofia Baffo, was the daughter of the ruler of the Greek island of Corfu and a relative of the Venetian senator and poet Giorgio Baffo.
She was also kidnapped and taken to the harem. She corresponded with European monarchs - even Queen Elizabeth I of Great Britain, who even gave her a real European carriage.
Safiye-Sultan made excursions around the city in a donated carriage; her subjects were shocked by such behavior.
She was the ancestor of all the Turkish sultans who followed her.
There is a mosque in her honor in Cairo. And the Turhan Hatis mosque, which she herself began to build, was completed by another Valide-Sultan Nadya from a small Ukrainian town. She was kidnapped when she was 12 years old.
Sultanas due to circumstances
The stories of such girls cannot be called happy. But they did not die, they did not remain imprisoned in the farthest rooms of the palace, they were not expelled. They began to rule themselves; this seemed impossible to everyone.
They achieved power by cruel means, including orders to kill. Türkiye is their second home.
(1299-1402)
Origin and concept of the term
The term " female sultanate"introduced by a Turkish historian Ahmet Refik Altynay in 1916 in his book of the same name, in which he considered the female sultanate as the cause of the decline of the Ottoman Empire.
Leslie Pearce also views the female sultanate from this perspective, but points out a number of prejudices. The reason for these prejudices was the negative thought that a woman could not lead an Islamic state. Pierce writes that Sheikh-ul-Islam Jafer Mustafa Sunullah Efendi in 1599 complained about women's interference in political affairs. Since then, the period after the end of the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (the period of stagnation and the subsequent period of decline) has been considered a negative consequence of the rule of women. However, Leslie Pearce notes that after the end of the female sultanate in 1656, the decline of the empire did not slow down at all, but on the contrary accelerated. Indeed, Leslie Pierce, Ilber Ortayly and a number of other historians link the defeat at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, which occurred after the end of the women's sultanate, with the decline of the Ottoman Empire. As for the female sultanate itself, it was more a consequence than a cause of decline. Administration of the empire required the sultan to remain in the capital for a long time: the era of Kanuni's conquests was close to ending in the second half of his reign, since the borders of the Ottoman state reached the Holy Roman Empire, the Russian Empire and Persia, equidistant from Istanbul. The army, which set out on a campaign at the beginning of summer, still remained at a distance impossible to carry out a capture. Hiking has become unprofitable financially.
Today the term " female sultanate" is mainly used to refer to a period in which women were much closer to power than in any other period of Ottoman history. One way or another, Ottoman women had disproportionately less power and were further from absolutism than European women of that time (for example, Catherine II or Elizabeth I).
Story
In the Ottoman Empire, unlike other monarchies, women were not allowed to govern the country. In addition, the sultans preferred concubines to official marriage. This was probably done in order to prevent excessive influence on the Sultan.
The end of women's rule in the Ottoman Empire does not mean the end of their influence on governance. As before, the Valides continued to engage in charity work. In addition to influencing politics, they were involved in the construction of mosques, schools, and hospitals; They also had large incomes, which they managed independently. A striking example of this is the last two valides: Bezmialem Sultan and Pertevniyal Sultan. However, compared to the period of the women's sultanate (especially the period of Kösem's reign), their influence on domestic and foreign policy was very insignificant.
Representatives
Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska
The woman who laid the foundations of the female sultanate is considered to be Hurrem Sultan. For the first time in several centuries, the Sultan married his concubine. Valide Hafsa Sultan died in 1534. Even before this, in 1533, together with her son Mustafa, who had reached adulthood, Khyurrem’s longtime rival, Makhidevran, went to Manisa. In March 1536, the Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha, who had previously relied on the support of Hafsa, was executed by order of Sultan Suleiman, and his property was confiscated. The death of the Valide and the execution of the Grand Vizier opened the way for Hurrem to strengthen her own power.
Sultan Suleiman, who spent most of his time on campaigns, received information about the situation in the palace exclusively from Hurrem. Suleiman, who had previously relied on correspondence with his mother, made Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska his political adviser. In addition, Hurrem Sultan received foreign ambassadors, responded to letters from foreign rulers, influential nobles and artists. On her initiative, several mosques, a bathhouse and a madrasah were built in Istanbul.
One of the consequences of Hurrem's influence on the Sultan is the execution of Mustafa in 1553. Thus, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska achieved power not only for herself, but also for her son Selim.
Nurbanu
Nurbanu was the first valid sultan of the female sultanate period. She began her rise during her husband’s lifetime. In the Ottoman Empire itself, Selim received the nickname “Drunkard” because of his passion for drinking wine, but he was not a drunkard in the literal sense of the word. And yet, government affairs were handled by Mehmed Sokollu, who came under the influence of Nurbanu. Nurbanu's role increased when her son Murad III ascended the throne. He was little involved in government affairs, preferring harem pleasures. Under him, women from the Sultan's harem began to play a large role in politics, in particular Nurbanu herself and his concubine Safiye. The court groups they led intrigued against each other, as well as against many high dignitaries, often seeking their removal and execution. Under Murad III, corruption increased significantly, and bribery and nepotism became the norm.
Safiye
Safiye's influence increased sharply after Nurbanu's death. Safiye's authority was great; in a report for 1590, the Venetian Giovanni Moro wrote: “she has power as the mother of a prince, sometimes she interferes in the internal affairs of the state, she is very respected in this, His Highness listens to her and considers her reasonable and wise” .
By the time of Murad's reign, what two generations ago had been a defiant violation of traditions had become an organic part of the life of the court. During this period, a new dynastic institution emerged, in which the mother of the sultan’s eldest son and heir to the throne played one of the decisive roles in the state. Safiye played a role comparable to that of queens in European states, and was even considered by Europeans as a queen. In 1595, Murad III died and was succeeded by his son Safiye Mehmed III. Safiye, as a valid sultan, had enormous power and enormous influence over her son.
After Safiye, one after another there were three Valides (Handan Sultan, Halime Sultan and Mahfiruz Khadije Sultan), who did not play a big role in history, since they served as regent for a short period of time (2 years each).
Kösem
Kösem was not the first favorite of the Sultan, just as she was not the mother of his eldest son. In 1604, Ahmed had a son, Osman. His mother was a Greek woman, Mahfiruz, who did not have much influence, even while valid under Othman. Kösem had many children from the Sultan, which allowed her to reach such heights at court. Absolutely, her sons were Sultans Murad IV and Ibrahim I, as well as Shehzade Kasim, and her daughters were Aishe, Fatma and Khanzade. Probably her children were also Suleiman and Gevherkhan. Kösem married her daughters to influential government officials who enjoyed her support and actually constituted her party.
Kösem was sent to the old palace. The very next year, Mustafa was deposed, although he was not killed. Ahmed's 14-year-old son Osman became the sultan, whose generally successful reign was interrupted in 1622 when he was captured and killed as a result of a Janissary rebellion. Mustafa became the Sultan again, although he declared his reluctance to rule.
The following year, as a result of another coup d'etat, Murad came to the throne. Since suspicion of organizing a coup and shedding the blood of the Sultan fell on Kösem, she had to justify herself to the judges. As the mother of the new padishah, Kösem rose to the rank of valide and moved from the old palace to Topkapi Palace. Murad IV became Sultan at the age of only eleven years, and therefore, until 1632, virtually all power was in the hands of Kösem and her party. Kösem herself officially bore the title of regent.
After the death of Murad IV, who had no children, in 1640, he was succeeded by the only brother who had survived until that time, Ibrahim. During the first years of his reign, power was again in the hands of Kösem. Subsequently, the relationship between mother and son deteriorated. After another coup organized by the Janissaries and the murder of Ibrahim in 1648, Kösem’s role increased again - Mehmed, Ibrahim’s son from one of his wives, Turhan, was placed on the throne. The first years of Mehmed's reign were marked by endless intrigue against the backdrop of the confrontation between Kösem and Turhan. In 1651, Kösem was killed; Turhan is often blamed for her death.
Turhan
Turhan is the last valid woman of the Sultanate period. Ibrahim died when his eldest son was only 6.5 years old. With the reign of Mehmed, Turhan should have received the title of Valide. However, due to her youth and inexperience, Turhan did not become valid, and Kösem took her place. Along with the restoration of the title, Valide Kösem also received the title of regent under the young Sultan. But Turhan turned out to be too ambitious a woman to lose such a high position without a fight. In 1651, Kösem was killed; Turhan is often blamed for her death. With the death of her competitor, Turhan became valid. As regent, she led the vast Ottoman Empire until her son came of age. It was on her initiative that Mehmed Köprülü became the Grand Vizier.
Turhan was a great “builder” of the empire. Her first project began in 1658. Turhan built two fortresses near the entrance to the Dardanelles. This project put Turhan on the same level as Mehmed the Conqueror and other sultans who built fortresses in the same area. However, Turhan achieved her greatest recognition by completing the New Mosque in Istanbul. The construction of this mosque was started by Safiye Sultan. When completed in 1665, the complex, which included not only a mosque, but also a school, public baths, market and cemetery, gained the distinction of being the first Imperial Mosque built by a woman.
Reasons for the end of the female sultanate
After the overthrow of Mehmed IV, his brother Suleiman II ascended the throne. He and subsequent sultans found themselves on the throne already in adulthood. Thus, the need for a valid regent disappeared by itself. Moreover, by the time their son ascended the throne, the Valides were either dead or at an advanced age, which did not allow them to interfere in the affairs of the state. The influence and importance of the valide have weakened.
Moreover, with the rise of Köprülü, the management of most affairs was transferred to the grand vizier and other dignitaries. The era of the Köprülü family came to replace the female sultanate.
Impact assessment
The reasons for dislike for ruling women were not groundless. Women regents who were once slaves and elevated to the status of valide were often not ready to conduct political affairs. Their duties included appointment to important government positions, such as the position of grand vizier and head of the Janissaries. Relying on their entourage, the sultanas often made mistakes. Nepotism was rampant in the Sultanate. Women based their choice of protégés not on their abilities or loyalty to the dynasty, but on ethnic loyalty. Another reason was the frequent change of grand viziers. Their duration of office at the beginning of the 17th century averaged just over a year. And as a result, political fragmentation and chaos arose in the management of the empire.
On the other hand, female rule also had its positive sides. It made it possible to preserve the existing monarchical order, which was based on all sultans belonging to one dynasty. Personal shortcomings or incompetence of the sultans (such as the mentally ill Mustafa I, the cruel
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Sultan Abdul Hamid I's love for a harem concubine named Rukhshah was so great that he himself became a slave to this girl.
Here is a letter from the Sultan begging Rukhshah for love and forgiveness (the originals of all his letters are kept in the library of the Topkapi Palace Museum).
“My Rukhshah!
Your Abdul Hamid calls to you...
The Lord, the creator of all living things, has mercy and forgives, but you left your faithful servant, me, whose sin is so insignificant.
I'm on my knees, I beg you, forgive me.
Let me see you tonight; kill if you want, I will not resist, but please hear my cry, or I will die.
I fall at your feet, unable to bear it any longer.”
Also love worthy of being preserved for centuries, like the love of Sultan Suleiman and Roksolana
The Bukhara emir Seyid Abd al-Ahad Bahadur Khan (reigned 1885–1910), according to Russian travelers who visited him, had only one wife, and he kept a harem more for show.
There were other examples in history.
Rights of a Muslim wife
According to Sharia law, the Sultan could have four wives, but the number of slaves was not limited. But from the point of view of Islamic law, the status of the kadin-effendi (the wife of the Sultan) differed from the status of married women who had personal freedom. Gerard de Nerval, who traveled in the East in the 1840s, wrote: “A married woman in the Turkish Empire has the same rights as we have and can even prohibit her husband from taking a second wife, making this an indispensable condition of the marriage contract […] Don’t even think that these beauties are ready to sing and dance in order to entertain their master - in their opinion, an honest woman should not have such talents.
The Turkish woman could well have initiated a divorce herself, for which she only had to present to the court evidence of her mistreatment.
The most famous women of the Ottoman Empire
It is safe to say that Hurrem Sultan, who lived during the heyday of the Ottoman Empire, during the era of the famous Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, heads the list of the most famous women of the Ottoman dynasty. Historians continue this list in this order: after the famous Hurrem, or Roksolana, aka La Sultana Rossa, comes Nurban - the wife of Hurrem’s son, Sultan Selim I; followed by the favorite concubines of the Ottoman sultans - Safiye, Mahpeyker, Hatice Turhan, Emetullah Gulnush, Saliha, Mihrishah, Bezmialem, who received the title of mother of the sultan (queen mother). But Hurrem Sultan began to be called the Queen Mother during her husband’s lifetime, before their son ascended the throne. And this is another consistent violation of traditions that followed the first - when Sultan Suleiman made Hurrem his official wife. And only a select few are allowed to break age-old traditions.
Ottoman monarchs from Osman I to Mehmed V
Ottoman Empire. Briefly about the main thing
The Ottoman Empire was founded in 1299, when Osman I Gazi, who went down in history as the first Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, declared the independence of his small country from the Seljuks and took the title of Sultan (although some historians believe that for the first time such a title was officially held only by his grandson - Murad I).
Soon he managed to conquer the entire western part of Asia Minor.
Osman I was born in 1258 in the Byzantine province of Bithynia. He died a natural death in the city of Bursa in 1326.
After this, power passed to his son, known as Orhan I Ghazi. Under him, the small Turkic tribe finally turned into a strong state with a strong army.
Four capitals of the Ottomans
Throughout the long history of its existence, the Ottoman Empire changed four capitals:
Seğüt (first capital of the Ottomans), 1299–1329;
Bursa (former Byzantine fortress of Brusa), 1329–1365;
Edirne (formerly the city of Adrianople), 1365–1453;
Constantinople (now the city of Istanbul), 1453–1922.
Sometimes the first capital of the Ottomans is called the city of Bursa, which is considered erroneous.
Ottoman Turks, descendants of Kaya
Historians say: in 1219, the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan fell on Central Asia, and then, saving their lives, abandoning their belongings and domestic animals, everyone who lived on the territory of the Kara-Khitan state rushed to the southwest. Among them was a small Turkic tribe, the Kays. A year later, it reached the border of the Konya Sultanate, which by that time occupied the center and east of Asia Minor. The Seljuks who inhabited these lands, like the Kays, were Turks and believed in Allah, so their Sultan considered it reasonable to allocate to the refugees a small border fief-beylik in the area of the city of Bursa, 25 km from the coast of the Sea of Marmara. No one could have imagined that this small piece of land would become a springboard from which lands from Poland to Tunisia would be conquered. This is how the Ottoman (Ottoman, Turkish) Empire will arise, populated by the Ottoman Turks, as the descendants of the Kayas are called.
The further the power of the Turkish sultans spread over the next 400 years, the more luxurious their court became, where gold and silver flocked from all over the Mediterranean. They were trendsetters and role models in the eyes of rulers throughout the Islamic world.
The Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 is considered the last major crusade of the Middle Ages, which was never able to stop the advance of the Ottoman Turks in Europe
Seven periods of the empire
Historians divide the existence of the Ottoman Empire into seven main periods:
Formation of the Ottoman Empire (1299–1402) - the period of the reign of the first four sultans of the empire: Osman, Orhan, Murad and Bayezid.
The Ottoman Interregnum (1402–1413) was an eleven-year period that began in 1402 after the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Angora and the tragedy of Sultan Bayezid I and his wife in captivity by Tamerlane. During this period, there was a struggle for power between the sons of Bayezid, from which the youngest son, Mehmed I Celebi, emerged victorious only in 1413.
The rise of the Ottoman Empire (1413–1453) was the reign of Sultan Mehmed I, as well as his son Murad II and grandson Mehmed II, ending with the capture of Constantinople and the destruction of the Byzantine Empire by Mehmed II, who received the nickname "Fatih" (Conqueror).
Rise of the Ottoman Empire (1453–1683) – the period of major expansion of the Ottoman Empire's borders. Continued under the reigns of Mehmed II, Suleiman I and his son Selim II, and ended with the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna during the reign of Mehmed IV (son of Ibrahim I the Crazy).
The Stagnation of the Ottoman Empire (1683–1827) was a 144-year period that began after the Christian victory at the Battle of Vienna forever ended the Ottoman Empire's ambitions of conquest in European lands.
Decline of the Ottoman Empire (1828–1908) – a period characterized by the loss of a large number of territories of the Ottoman state.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922) is the period of reign of the last two sultans of the Ottoman state, the brothers Mehmed V and Mehmed VI, which began after the change in the form of government of the state to a constitutional monarchy, and continued until the complete cessation of the existence of the Ottoman Empire (the period covers the participation of the Ottomans in the First world war).
Historians call the main and most serious reason for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire the defeat in the First World War, caused by the superior human and economic resources of the Entente countries.
The day the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist is called November 1, 1922, when the Grand National Assembly of Turkey adopted a law dividing the sultanate and the caliphate (then the sultanate was abolished). On November 17, Mehmed VI Vahideddin, the last Ottoman monarch and the 36th in succession, left Istanbul on a British warship, the battleship Malaya.
On July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, which recognized the independence of Turkey. On October 29, 1923, Turkey was declared a republic and Mustafa Kemal, later known as Atatürk, was elected its first president.
The last representative of the Turkish Sultanic dynasty of the Ottomans
Ertogrul Osman - grandson of Sultan Abdul Hamid II
“The last representative of the Ottoman dynasty, Ertogrul Osman, has died.
Osman spent most of his life in New York. Ertogrul Osman, who would have become sultan of the Ottoman Empire if Turkey had not become a republic in the 1920s, has died in Istanbul at the age of 97.
He was the last surviving grandson of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and his official title, if he became ruler, would be His Imperial Highness Prince Shahzade Ertogrul Osman Efendi.
He was born in Istanbul in 1912, but lived modestly in New York most of his life.
12-year-old Ertogrul Osman was studying in Vienna when he learned that his family had been expelled from the country by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern Turkish Republic on the ruins of the old empire.
Osman eventually settled in New York, where he lived for over 60 years in an apartment above a restaurant.
Osman would have become Sultan if Ataturk had not founded the Turkish Republic. Osman always maintained that he had no political ambitions. He returned to Turkey in the early 1990s at the invitation of the Turkish government.
During a visit to his homeland, he went to the Dolmobahce Palace on the Bosphorus, which was the main residence of the Turkish sultans and in which he played as a child.
According to BBC columnist Roger Hardy, Ertogrul Osman was very modest and, in order not to attract attention to himself, he joined a group of tourists to get to the palace.
Ertogrul Osman’s wife is a relative of the last king of Afghanistan.”
Tughra as a personal sign of the ruler
Tughra (togra) is a personal sign of a ruler (Sultan, Caliph, Khan), containing his name and title. Since the time of Ulubey Orhan I, who applied to documents the impression of a palm immersed in ink, it became a custom to surround the Sultan’s signature with an image of his title and the title of his father, merging all the words in a special calligraphic style - the result is a vague resemblance to a palm. The tughra is designed in the form of an ornamentally decorated Arabic script (the text may not be in Arabic, but also in Persian, Turkic, etc.).
Tughra is placed on all government documents, sometimes on coins and mosque gates.
Forgery of tughra in the Ottoman Empire was punishable by death.
In the chambers of the ruler: pretentious, but tasteful
Traveler Théophile Gautier wrote about the chambers of the ruler of the Ottoman Empire: “The Sultan’s chambers are decorated in the style of Louis XIV, slightly modified in an oriental manner: here one can feel the desire to recreate the splendor of Versailles. Doors, window frames, and frames are made of mahogany, cedar or solid rosewood with elaborate carvings and expensive iron fittings strewn with gold chips. The most wonderful panorama opens from the windows - not a single monarch in the world has an equal to it in front of his palace.”
Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent
So not only were European monarchs keen on the style of their neighbors (say, the oriental style, when they set up boudoirs as pseudo-Turkish alcoves or held oriental balls), but also the Ottoman sultans admired the style of their European neighbors.
"Lions of Islam" - Janissaries
Janissaries (Turkish yeniçeri (yenicheri) - new warrior) - regular infantry of the Ottoman Empire in 1365-1826. The Janissaries, together with the sipahis and akinci (cavalry), formed the basis of the army in the Ottoman Empire. They were part of the kapikuly regiments (the Sultan’s personal guard, consisting of slaves and prisoners). Janissary troops also performed police and punitive functions in the state.
The Janissary infantry was created by Sultan Murad I in 1365 from Christian youths 12–16 years old. Mainly Armenians, Albanians, Bosnians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Georgians, Serbs, who were subsequently brought up in Islamic traditions, were enlisted in the army. Children recruited in Rumelia were sent to be raised by Turkish families in Anatolia and vice versa.
Recruitment of children into the Janissaries ( devshirme- blood tax) was one of the duties of the Christian population of the empire, since it allowed the authorities to create a counterweight to the feudal Turkic army (sipahs).
The Janissaries were considered slaves of the Sultan, lived in monasteries-barracks, they were initially forbidden to marry (until 1566) and engage in housekeeping. The property of a deceased or deceased janissary became the property of the regiment. In addition to the art of war, the Janissaries studied calligraphy, law, theology, literature and languages. Wounded or old Janissaries received a pension. Many of them went on to civilian careers.
In 1683, the Janissaries also began to be recruited from Muslims.
It is known that Poland copied the Turkish army system. In the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, according to the Turkish model, their own Janissary units were formed from volunteers. King Augustus II created his personal Janissary Guard.
The armament and uniform of the Christian Janissaries completely copied Turkish models, including the military drums were of the Turkish type, but differed in color.
The Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire had a number of privileges, from the 16th century. received the right to marry, engage in trade and crafts in their free time from service. The Janissaries received salaries from the sultans, gifts, and their commanders were promoted to the highest military and administrative positions of the empire. Janissary garrisons were located not only in Istanbul, but also in all major cities of the Turkish Empire. From the 16th century their service becomes hereditary, and they turn into a closed military caste. As the Sultan's guard, the Janissaries became a political force and often intervened in political intrigues, overthrowing unnecessary ones and placing the sultans they needed on the throne.
The Janissaries lived in special quarters, often rebelled, started riots and fires, overthrew and even killed sultans. Their influence acquired such dangerous proportions that in 1826 Sultan Mahmud II defeated and completely destroyed the Janissaries.
Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire
The Janissaries were known as courageous warriors who rushed at the enemy without sparing their lives. It was their attack that often decided the fate of the battle. It’s not for nothing that they were figuratively called “lions of Islam.”
Did the Cossacks use profanity in their letter to the Turkish Sultan?
Letter from the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan - an insulting response from the Zaporozhye Cossacks, written to the Ottoman Sultan (probably Mehmed IV) in response to his ultimatum: stop attacking the Sublime Porte and surrender. There is a legend that before sending troops to the Zaporozhye Sich, the Sultan sent the Cossacks a demand to submit to him as the ruler of the whole world and the viceroy of God on earth. The Cossacks allegedly responded to this letter with their own letter, without mincing words, denying any valor of the Sultan and cruelly mocking the arrogance of the “invincible knight.”
According to legend, the letter was written in the 17th century, when the tradition of such letters was developed among the Zaporozhye Cossacks and in Ukraine. The original letter has not survived, but several versions of the text of this letter are known, some of which are replete with swear words.
Historical sources provide the following text from a letter from the Turkish Sultan to the Cossacks.
"Mehmed IV's proposal:
I, Sultan and ruler of the Sublime Porte, son of Ibrahim I, brother of the Sun and Moon, grandson and vicegerent of God on earth, ruler of the kingdoms of Macedon, Babylon, Jerusalem, Great and Lesser Egypt, king over kings, ruler over rulers, incomparable knight, no one conquerable warrior, owner of the tree of life, persistent guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ, guardian of God himself, hope and comforter of Muslims, intimidator and great defender of Christians, I command you, Zaporozhye Cossacks, to surrender to me voluntarily and without any resistance and not to make me worry with your attacks.
Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV."
The most famous version of the Cossacks’ answer to Mohammed IV, translated into Russian, is as follows:
“Zaporozhye Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!
You, Sultan, are the Turkish devil, and the damned devil’s brother and comrade, Lucifer’s own secretary. What kind of damn knight are you when you can’t kill a hedgehog with your bare ass. The devil sucks, and your army devours. You, you son of a bitch, will not have the sons of Christians under you, we are not afraid of your army, we will fight you with land and water, destroy your mother.
You are a Babylonian cook, a Macedonian charioteer, a Jerusalem brewer, an Alexandrian goatman, a swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, an Armenian thief, a Tatar sagaidak, a Kamenets executioner, a fool of all the world and the world, the grandson of the asp himself and our f... hook. You are a pig's muzzle, a mare's ass, a butcher's dog, an unbaptized forehead, motherfucker...
This is how the Cossacks answered you, you little bastard. You won’t even herd pigs for Christians. We end with this, since we don’t know the date and don’t have a calendar, the month is in the sky, the year is in the book, and our day is the same as yours, for that, kiss us on the ass!
Signed: Koshevoy Ataman Ivan Sirko with the entire Zaporozhye camp.”
This letter, replete with profanity, is cited by the popular encyclopedia Wikipedia.
The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan. Artist Ilya Repin
The atmosphere and mood among the Cossacks composing the text of the answer is described in the famous painting by Ilya Repin “Cossacks” (more often called: “Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan”).
It is interesting that in Krasnodar, at the intersection of Gorky and Krasnaya streets, a monument “Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan” (sculptor Valery Pchelin) was erected in 2008.
Roksolana is the Queen of the East. All the secrets and mysteries of the biography
Information about the origins of Roksolana, or Khyur-rem, as her beloved Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent called her, is contradictory. Because there are no documentary sources and written evidence telling about the life of Hurrem before her appearance in the harem.
We know about the origin of this great woman from legends, literary works and reports of diplomats at the court of Sultan Suleiman. Moreover, almost all literary sources mention its Slavic (Rusyn) origin.
“Roksolana, aka Khyurrem (according to historical and literary tradition, birth name - Anastasia or Alexandra Gavrilovna Lisovskaya; the exact year of birth is unknown, died on April 18, 1558) - concubine and then wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, mother of Sultan Selim II" , says Wikipedia.
The first details about the early years of Roksolana-Hurrem’s life before entering the harem appear in literature in the 19th century, while this amazing woman lived in the 16th century.
Captive. Artist Jan Baptist Huysmans
Therefore, you can believe such “historical” sources that arose centuries later only by virtue of your imagination.
Kidnapping by Tatars
According to some authors, the prototype of Roxolana was the Ukrainian girl Nastya Lisovskaya, who was born in 1505 into the family of the priest Gavrila Lisovsky in Rohatyn, a small town in Western Ukraine. In the XVI century. this town was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which at that time was suffering from the devastating raids of the Crimean Tatars. In the summer of 1520, on the night of the attack on the settlement, the young daughter of a priest caught the eye of the Tatar invaders. Moreover, in some authors, say, N. Lazorsky, the girl is kidnapped on her wedding day. Whereas for others, she had not yet reached the age of the bride, but was a teenager. The series “Magnificent Century” also shows Roksolana’s fiancé, the artist Luka.
After the abduction, the girl ended up in the Istanbul slave market, where she was sold and then donated to the harem of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman. Suleiman was then crown prince and held a government post in Manisa. Historians do not rule out that the girl was given to 25-year-old Suleiman as a gift on the occasion of his accession to the throne (after the death of his father Selim I on September 22, 1520). Once in the harem, Roksolana received the name Khyurrem, which translated from Persian means “cheerful, laughing, giving joy.”
How the name came about: Roksolana
According to Polish literary tradition, the heroine's real name was Alexandra, she was the daughter of the priest Gavrila Lisovsky from Rohatyn (Ivano-Frankivsk region). In Ukrainian literature of the 19th century she is called Anastasia of Rohatyn. This version is colorfully presented in Pavlo Zagrebelny’s novel “Roksolana”. Whereas, according to the version of another writer - Mikhail Orlovsky, set out in the historical story “Roksolana or Anastasia Lisovskaya”, the girl was from Chemerovets (Khmelnitsky region). In those ancient times, when the future Hurrem Sultan could have been born there, both cities were located on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland.
In Europe, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska became known as Roksolana. Moreover, this name was literally invented by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbeck, the Hamburg ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and the author of the Latin-language “Turkish Notes”. In his literary work, based on the fact that Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska came from the territory of the Roxolans or Alans tribe, he called her Roxolana.
Wedding of Sultan Suleiman and Hurrem
From the stories of the author of the “Turkish Letters”, the Austrian Ambassador Busbeck, we learned many details from the life of Roksolana. We can say that thanks to him we learned about her very existence, for the woman’s name could easily have been lost over the centuries.
In one of the letters, Busbeck reports the following: “The Sultan loved Hurrem so much that, in violation of all palace and dynastic rules, he entered into a marriage according to Turkish tradition and prepared a dowry.”
One of the portraits of Roksolana-Hurrem
This significant event in all respects took place around 1530. The Englishman George Young described it as a miracle: “This week an event occurred here that is unknown in the entire history of the local sultans. The Great Lord Suleiman took a slave from Russia named Roksolana as empress, which was celebrated with a great celebration. The wedding ceremony took place in the palace, which was dedicated to feasts on an unprecedented scale. The streets of the city are flooded with light at night and people are having fun everywhere. The houses are hung with garlands of flowers, swings are installed everywhere, and people swing on them for hours. At the old hippodrome, large stands were built with seats and a gilded grille for the Empress and her courtiers. Roksolana with her close ladies watched from there the tournament in which Christian and Muslim knights participated; musicians performed in front of the podium, wild animals were seen off, including strange giraffes with such long necks that they reached to the sky... There are a lot of different rumors about this wedding, but no one can explain what all this could mean.”
It should be pointed out that some sources say that this wedding took place only after the death of Valide Sultan, the mother of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Valide Sultan Hafsa Khatun died in 1534.
In 1555, Hans Dernshvam visited Istanbul; in his travel notes he wrote the following: “Suleiman fell in love with this girl with Russian roots, from an unknown family, more than other concubines. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was able to receive a document of freedom and become his legal wife in the palace. Apart from Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, there is no padishah in history who listened so much to the opinion of his wife. Whatever she wished, he immediately fulfilled.”
Roksolana-Hurrem was the only woman in the Sultan's harem with an official title - Sultana Haseki, and Sultan Suleiman shared his power with her. She made the Sultan forget about the harem forever. All of Europe wanted to know the details about the woman who, at one of the receptions in the palace in a dress of gold brocade, rose with the Sultan to the throne with her face open!
Children of Hurrem, born in love
Hurrem gave birth to 6 children to the Sultan.
Sons:
Mehmed (1521–1543)
Abdullah (1523–1526)
Daughter:
Of all the sons of Suleiman I, only Selim survived the Magnificent Father Sultan. The rest died earlier during the struggle for the throne (except Mehmed, who died in 1543 from smallpox).
Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska and Suleiman wrote letters to each other full of passionate declarations of love
Selim became heir to the throne. After the death of his mother in 1558, another son of Suleiman and Roksolana, Bayazid, rebelled (1559). He was defeated by his father’s troops in the battle of Konya in May 1559 and tried to take refuge in Safavid Iran, but Shah Tahmasp I handed him over to his father for 400 thousand gold, and Bayezid was executed (1561). Bayezid's five sons were also killed (the youngest of them was only three years old).
Letter from Hurrem to his master
Hurrem's letter to Sultan Suleiman was written when he was on a campaign against Hungary. But there were many such touching letters between them.
“Soul of my soul, my lord! Hail to him who raises the morning breeze; prayer to the one who gives sweetness to the lips of lovers; Praise be to him who fills the voice of his beloved with fervor; respect to the one who burns, like words of passion; boundless devotion to the one who is shone with the most pure light, like the faces and heads of the ascended; to one who is a hyacinth in the form of a tulip, perfumed with the scent of fidelity; glory to the one who holds the banner of victory in front of the army; to the one whose cry is: “Allah! Allah!" - heard in heaven; to his majesty my padishah. May God help him! – we convey the wonder of the Highest Lord and the conversations of Eternity. Enlightened conscience, which adorns my consciousness and remains the treasure of the light of my happiness and my saddened eyes; to the one who knows my deepest secrets; the peace of my aching heart and the pacification of my wounded chest; to him who is the sultan on the throne of my heart and in the light of the eyes of my happiness - the eternal slave, devoted, with a hundred thousand burns on her soul, worships him. If you, my lord, my highest tree of paradise, at least for a moment deign to think or ask about this orphan of yours, know that everyone except her is under the tent of mercy of the All-Merciful. For on that day, when the unfaithful sky, with all-encompassing pain, inflicted violence on me and, despite these poor tears, plunged numerous swords of separation into my soul, on that day of judgment, when the eternal fragrance of the flowers of paradise was taken away from me, my world turned into nothingness , my health is in ill health, and my life is in ruin. From my continuous sighs, sobs and painful screams, which did not subside day or night, human souls were filled with fire. Maybe the creator will have mercy and, responding to my longing, will return you to me again, the treasure of my life, in order to save me from the current alienation and oblivion. May this come true, O my lord! Day has turned into night for me, oh melancholy moon! My lord, the light of my eyes, there is no night that would not be incinerated by my hot sighs, there is no evening when my loud sobs and my longing for your sunny face would not reach the heavens. Day has turned into night for me, oh melancholy moon!”
Fashionista Roksolana on artists' canvases
Roksolana, aka Hurrem Sultan, was a pioneer in many areas of palace life. For example, this woman became the trendsetter of the new palace fashion, forcing tailors to sew loose-fitting clothes and unusual capes for herself and her loved ones. She also adored all kinds of exquisite jewelry, some of which were made by Sultan Suleiman himself, while the other part of the jewelry were purchases or gifts from ambassadors.
We can judge Hurrem’s outfits and preferences from the paintings of famous artists who tried to both restore her portrait and recreate the outfits of that era. For example, in a painting by Jacopo Tintoretto (1518 or 1519–1594), a painter of the Venetian school of the late Renaissance, Hurrem is depicted in a long-sleeved dress with a turn-down collar and a cape.
Portrait of Hürrem, kept in the Topkapi Palace Museum
The life and rise of Roxolana so excited the creative contemporaries that even the great painter Titian (1490–1576), whose student, by the way, was Tintoretto, painted a portrait of the famous sultana. A painting by Titian, painted in the 1550s, is called La Sultana Rossa, that is, the Russian sultana. Now this Titian masterpiece is kept in the Ringling Brothers Museum of Art and Circus Arts in Sarasota (USA, Florida); The museum contains unique works of painting and sculpture from the Middle Ages in Western Europe.
Another artist who lived at that time and was related to Turkey was the major German artist from Flemburg, Melchior Loris. He arrived in Istanbul as part of Busbeck's Austrian embassy to Sultan Suleiman Kanuni, and stayed in the capital of the Ottoman Empire for four and a half years. The artist made many portraits and everyday sketches, but, in all likelihood, his portrait of Roksolana could not have been made from life. Melchior Loris depicted the Slavic heroine as a little plump, with a rose in her hand, with a cape on her head decorated with precious stones and with her hair styled in a braid.
Not only paintings, but also books colorfully described the unprecedented outfits of the Ottoman queen. Vivid descriptions of the wardrobe of the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent can be found in the famous book by P. Zagrebelny “Roksolana”.
It is known that Suleiman composed a short poem that is directly related to his beloved’s wardrobe. In the mind of a lover, his beloved’s dress looks like this:
I repeated many times:
Sew my beloved dress.
Make a top out of the sun, put the moon as a lining,
Pinch the fluff from the white clouds, twist the threads
from the blue sea,
Sew buttons out of stars, and make buttonholes out of me!
Enlightened ruler
Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska managed to show her intelligence not only in love affairs, but also in communicating with people of equal status. She patronized artists and corresponded with the rulers of Poland, Venice, and Persia. It is known that she corresponded with the queens and the sister of the Persian Shah. And for the Persian prince Elkas Mirza, who was hiding in the Ottoman Empire from his enemies, she sewed a silk shirt and vest with her own hands, thereby demonstrating generous maternal love, which was supposed to evoke both the gratitude and trust of the prince.
Hurrem Haseki Sultan even received foreign envoys and corresponded with influential nobles of that time.
Historical information has been preserved that a number of Hurrem’s contemporaries, in particular Sehname-i Al-i Osman, Sehname-i Humayun and Taliki-zade el-Fenari, presented a very flattering portrait of Suleiman’s wife, as a woman revered “for her numerous charitable donations, for her patronage of students and respect for learned men, experts in religion, as well as for her acquisition of rare and beautiful things.”
Contemporaries believed that Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska bewitched Suleiman
She implemented large-scale charitable projects. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska received the right to build religious and charitable buildings in Istanbul and other major cities of the Ottoman Empire. She created a charitable foundation in her name (Turkish: Külliye Hasseki Hurrem). With donations from this fund, the Aksaray district or women's bazaar, later also named after Haseki (Turkish: Avret Pazari), was built in Istanbul, the buildings of which included a mosque, a madrasah, an imaret, a primary school, hospitals and a fountain. It was the first complex built in Istanbul by the architect Sinan in his new position as chief architect of the ruling house, and also the third largest building in the capital, after the Mehmet II (Turkish: Fatih Camii) and Süleymaniye (Turkish: Süleymanie) complexes.
In the article we will describe in detail the Women's Sultanate. We will talk about its representatives and their rule, about assessments of this period in history.
Before examining the Women's Sultanate in detail, let's say a few words about the state itself in which it was observed. This is necessary to fit the period of interest to us into the context of history.
The Ottoman Empire is otherwise called the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299. It was then that Osman I Ghazi, who became the first Sultan, declared the territory of a small state independent from the Seljuks. However, some sources report that the title of Sultan was first officially accepted only by Murad I, his grandson.
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
The reign of Suleiman I the Magnificent (from 1521 to 1566) is considered the heyday of the Ottoman Empire. A portrait of this sultan is presented above. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman state was one of the most powerful in the world. The territory of the empire by 1566 included lands located from the Persian city of Baghdad in the east and Hungarian Budapest in the north to Mecca in the south and Algeria in the west. The influence of this state in the region began to gradually increase from the 17th century. The empire finally collapsed after losing the First World War.
The role of women in government
For 623 years, the Ottoman dynasty ruled the country's lands, from 1299 to 1922, when the monarchy ceased to exist. Women in the empire we are interested in, unlike the monarchies of Europe, were not allowed to govern the state. However, this situation existed in all Islamic countries.
However, in the history of the Ottoman Empire there is a period called the Women's Sultanate. At this time, representatives of the fair sex actively participated in government. Many famous historians have tried to understand what the Sultanate of Women is and to comprehend its role. We invite you to take a closer look at this interesting period in history.
The term "Female Sultanate"
This term was first proposed to be used in 1916 by Ahmet Refik Altynay, a Turkish historian. It appears in the book of this scientist. His work is called “Women’s Sultanate”. And in our time, debates continue about the impact this period had on the development of the Ottoman Empire. There is disagreement as to what is the main reason for this phenomenon, which is so unusual in the Islamic world. Scientists also argue about who should be considered the first representative of the Women's Sultanate.
Causes
Some historians believe that this period was generated by the end of the campaigns. It is known that the system of conquering lands and obtaining military spoils was based precisely on them. Other scholars believe that the Sultanate of Women in the Ottoman Empire arose due to the struggle to repeal the Law of Succession issued by Fatih. According to this law, all the Sultan's brothers must be executed after ascending to the throne. It didn't matter what their intentions were. Historians who adhere to this opinion consider Hurrem Sultan to be the first representative of the Women's Sultanate.
Khurem Sultan
This woman (her portrait is presented above) was the wife of Suleiman I. It was she who in 1521, for the first time in the history of the state, began to bear the title “Haseki Sultan”. Translated, this phrase means “most beloved wife.”
Let's tell you more about Hurrem Sultan, with whose name the Women's Sultanate in Turkey is often associated. Her real name is Lisovskaya Alexandra (Anastasia). In Europe, this woman is known as Roksolana. She was born in 1505 in Western Ukraine (Rohatina). In 1520, Hurrem Sultan came to the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Here Suleiman I, the Turkish Sultan, gave Alexandra a new name - Hurrem. This word from Arabic can be translated as “bringing joy.” Suleiman I, as we have already said, bestowed on this woman the title “Haseki Sultan”. Alexandra Lisovskaya received great power. It became even stronger in 1534, when the Sultan's mother died. From that time on, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska began to manage the harem.
It should be noted that this woman was very educated for her time. She spoke several foreign languages, so she answered letters from influential nobles, foreign rulers and artists. In addition, Hurrem Haseki Sultan received foreign ambassadors. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was actually a political adviser to Suleiman I. Her husband spent a significant part of his time on campaigns, so she often had to take on his responsibilities.
Ambiguity in assessing the role of Hurrem Sultan
Not all scholars agree that this woman should be considered a representative of the Women's Sultanate. One of the main arguments they present is that each of the representatives of this period in history was characterized by the following two points: the short reign of the sultans and the presence of the title “valide” (mother of the sultan). None of them relate to Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska. She did not live eight years to receive the title "valide". Moreover, it would be simply absurd to believe that the reign of Sultan Suleiman I was short, because he ruled for 46 years. However, it would be wrong to call his reign a “decline.” But the period we are interested in is considered to be a consequence of precisely the “decline” of the empire. It was the poor state of affairs in the state that gave birth to the Women's Sultanate in the Ottoman Empire.
Mihrimah replaced the deceased Hurrem (her grave is pictured above), becoming the leader of the Topkapi harem. It is also believed that this woman influenced her brother. However, she cannot be called a representative of the Women's Sultanate.
And who can rightfully be included among them? We present to your attention a list of rulers.
Women's Sultanate of the Ottoman Empire: list of representatives
For the reasons mentioned above, the majority of historians believe that there were only four representatives.
- The first of them is Nurbanu Sultan (years of life - 1525-1583). She was Venetian by origin, the name of this woman was Cecilia Venier-Baffo.
- The second representative is Safiye Sultan (about 1550 - 1603). She is also a Venetian whose real name is Sofia Baffo.
- The third representative is Kesem Sultan (years of life - 1589 - 1651). Her origins are not known for sure, but she was presumably a Greek woman, Anastasia.
- And the last, fourth representative is Turkhan Sultan (years of life - 1627-1683). This woman is a Ukrainian named Nadezhda.
Turhan Sultan and Kesem Sultan
When the Ukrainian Nadezhda turned 12 years old, the Crimean Tatars captured her. They sold it to Ker Suleiman Pasha. He, in turn, resold the woman to Valide Kesem, the mother of Ibrahim I, a mentally disabled ruler. There is a film called "Mahpaker", which tells about the life of this sultan and his mother, who was actually at the head of the empire. She had to manage all the affairs as Ibrahim I was mentally retarded and therefore could not perform his duties properly.
This ruler ascended the throne in 1640, at the age of 25. Such an important event for the state occurred after the death of Murad IV, his elder brother (for whom Kesem Sultan also ruled the country in the early years). Murad IV was the last sultan of the Ottoman dynasty. Therefore, Kesem was forced to solve the problems of further rule.
Question of succession to the throne
It would seem that getting an heir if you have a large harem is not at all difficult. However, there was one catch. It was that the weak-minded Sultan had an unusual taste and his own ideas about female beauty. Ibrahim I (his portrait is presented above) preferred very fat women. Chronicle records of those years have been preserved, which mention one concubine he liked. Her weight was about 150 kg. From this we can assume that Turhan, which his mother gave to her son, also had considerable weight. Perhaps that's why Kesem bought it.
Fight of two Valides
It is unknown how many children were born to Ukrainian Nadezhda. But it is known that it was she who was the first of the other concubines to give him a son, Mehmed. This happened in January 1642. Mehmed was recognized as the heir to the throne. After the death of Ibrahim I, who died as a result of the coup, he became the new sultan. However, by this time he was only 6 years old. Turhan, his mother, was legally required to receive the title "valide", which would have elevated her to the pinnacle of power. However, everything did not turn out in her favor. Her mother-in-law, Kesem Sultan, did not want to give in to her. She achieved what no other woman could do. She became Valide Sultan for the third time. This woman was the only one in history who had this title under the reigning grandson.
But the fact of her reign haunted Turkhan. In the palace for three years (from 1648 to 1651), scandals flared up and intrigues were woven. In September 1651, 62-year-old Kesem was found strangled. She gave her place to Turhan.
End of the Women's Sultanate
So, according to most historians, the start date of the Women's Sultanate is 1574. It was then that Nurban Sultan was given the title of Valida. The period of interest to us ended in 1687, after the accession to the throne of Sultan Suleiman II. Already in adulthood, he received supreme power, 4 years after Turhan Sultan, who became the last influential Valide, died.
This woman died in 1683, at the age of 55-56 years. Her remains were buried in a tomb in a mosque that she had completed. However, not 1683, but 1687 is considered the official end date of the period of the Women's Sultanate. It was then that at the age of 45 he was overthrown from the throne. This happened as a result of a conspiracy that was organized by Koprulu, the son of the Grand Vizier. Thus ended the sultanate of women. Mehmed spent another 5 years in prison and died in 1693.
Why has the role of women in governing the country increased?
Among the main reasons why the role of women in government has increased, several can be identified. One of them is the love of the sultans for the fair sex. Another is the influence that their mother had on the sons. Another reason is that the sultans were incapacitated at the time of their accession to the throne. One can also note the deceit and intrigue of women and the usual coincidence of circumstances. Another important factor is that the grand viziers changed frequently. Their duration of office in the early 17th century averaged just over a year. This naturally contributed to chaos and political fragmentation in the empire.
Beginning in the 18th century, sultans began to ascend the throne at a fairly mature age. The mothers of many of them died before their children became rulers. Others were so old that they were no longer able to fight for power and participate in solving important state issues. It can be said that by the middle of the 18th century, valides no longer played a special role at court. They did not participate in government.
Estimates of the Women's Sultanate period
The female sultanate in the Ottoman Empire is assessed very ambiguously. Representatives of the fair sex, who were once slaves and were able to rise to the status of valide, were often not prepared to conduct political affairs. In their selection of candidates and their appointment to important positions, they relied mainly on the advice of those close to them. The choice was often based not on the abilities of certain individuals or their loyalty to the ruling dynasty, but on their ethnic loyalty.
On the other hand, the Women's Sultanate in the Ottoman Empire had its positive sides. Thanks to him, it was possible to maintain the monarchical order characteristic of this state. It was based on the fact that all sultans should be from the same dynasty. The incompetence or personal shortcomings of rulers (such as the cruel Sultan Murad IV, whose portrait is shown above, or the mentally ill Ibrahim I) were compensated by the influence and power of their mothers or women. However, one cannot fail to take into account that the actions of women carried out during this period contributed to the stagnation of the empire. This applies to a greater extent to Turhan Sultan. Mehmed IV, her son, lost the Battle of Vienna on September 11, 1683.
Finally
In general, we can say that in our time there is no unambiguous and generally accepted historical assessment of the influence that the Women's Sultanate had on the development of the empire. Some scholars believe that the rule of the fair sex pushed the state to its death. Others believe that it was more a consequence than a cause of the country's decline. However, one thing is clear: the women of the Ottoman Empire had much less influence and were much further from absolutism than their modern rulers in Europe (for example, Elizabeth I and Catherine II).
