Magnificent Century | Muhteşem Yüzyıl

HÜRREM SULTAN

The Turkish television series Magnificent Century was watched by over 40 countries and 200 million people while it was on the air. The show inevitably shaped the memory of the 10th Ottoman Sultan Suleiman The Magnificent and the Christian slave that broke centuries of Ottoman dynastic tradition by becoming his legal wife. But what does the historical record actually say about her? What do we really know? Actually it’s Not much… In this video im going to give you a brief overview of her life based on sources we have which are mostly ambassador accounts.

Overview- Context/why the should we care?

A problem with most representations of Roxolana’s life is that little factual information is known about her in the first place, as the sultan’s harem was inaccessible to both the Ottomans and foreign visitors. the reports of the Venetian ambassadors (baili) at Suleiman’s court, the most extensive and objective first-hand Western source on Roxolana to date, were often filled with the authors’ own interpretations of the harem rumors. AND Most other sixteenth-century Western sources on Roxolana, which are considered highly authoritative today —  — were derived from hearsay. For the most part, they demonize Roxolana as a ruthless schemer who constantly poisoned Suleiman’s mind with her tactics. Unfortunately the poor sources we do have are was used when her character was developed for Magnificent Century which furthered the propagation of the old-age image of Roxolana keeping it alive today as fact, when the simple truth is all we have are love letters and gossip really.

1. Timeline of her life with what we actually “know” from ambassador sources etc.

Hürrem Sultan is portrayed by Turkish-German actress Meryem Uzerli from season one to season three and at the series last season she is portrayed by Turkish actress Vahide Perçin.

According to some historians, Roxelana was born as Aleksandra Ruslana Lisowska, or Anastazja Lisowska. Among the Ottomans, she was known mainly as Haseki Hürrem Sultan or Hürrem Haseki Sultan; also known as Roxolena, Roxolana, Roxelane, Rossa, Ružica; in Turkish as Hürrem (from Persian: خرم‎‎ Khurram, “the cheerful one”). Thus her nickname would literally mean “The Ruthenian One”.[8]

EARLY LIFE

Modern sources do not contain information on Roxelana’s childhood, limiting themselves to information about her Polish, Rusyn, or Ukrainian ethnic origin, and mentioning the Kingdom of Poland as her birthplace. In the middle of the 16th century, the ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Crimean khanateMikhalon Lytvyn in the composition of 1548–1551 “About customs of Tatars, Lithuanians and Moscow” (Latin: De moribus tartarorum, lituanorum et moscorum) at the description of trade specifies that “[…] the most beloved wife of the present Turkish emperor – mother of his primogenital [son] who will govern after him, was kidnapped from our land”.[9]

According to late 16th-century and early 17th-century sources, such as the Polish poet Samuel Twardowski (died 1661), who researched the subject in Turkey, Hürrem was seemingly born to a father who was a Ukrainian Orthodox priest.[10][11][12] She was born in the town of Rohatyń, 68 km southeast of Lwów, a major city of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (today in Western Ukraine).[12] In the 1520s Crimean Tatars captured her during one of their frequent raids into this region, took her as a slave (probably first to the Crimean city of Kaffa, a major centre of the slave trade, then to Constantinople) and selected her for Suleiman’s harem.[10][12]

Overall, between the fifteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century, about 2.5 million Ukrainians were kidnapped and sold into slavery

LIFE WITH THE SULTAN

Ottoman Harem was Sultan’s family chambers, and a girls school. It was aimed at educating girls as competent future wives for sultans, princes, viziers, generals and like that. Roxelana quickly came to the attention of the Sultan soon after he assumed the throne so it is not clear whether she entered the harem before or after this. She soon became Suleiman’s favorite consort and the first to be given the title of  Haseki. She was to bear the majority of Suleiman’s children, and – in an astonishing break with tradition – she was eventually freed. Breaking with two centuries of Ottoman tradition,[13] a former concubine thus became the legal wife of the Sultan, much to the astonishment of observers in the palace and in the city.[14] It made Suleiman the first Ottoman emperor to have a wed wife since Orhan Gazi (bey from 1326 to 1362), and it strengthened Hürrem’s position in the palace.As Pierce persuasively argues, the roots of the Ottoman public’s dislike of Hurrem lay in Suleiman’s breaking three important harem traditions for Hurrem: the concubine status of royal mothers, the reproductive principle of “one concubine mother — one son,” and the presence of a prince’s mother at her son’s provincial post.37 Traditionally, the two roles of the sultan’s concubines — the sultan’s favorite (a sexual role) and that of mother of the prince (a post-sexual role) — were separated in the imperial harem, the separation made at the moment when the woman left the harem to follow her adult son to a province. In Hurrem, however, “these two functions were collapsed for the first time in the career of one woman,” as she was “caught between two conflicting loyalties: mother to the prince, and wife to the sultan.”38 As a result, the Ottomans could not come to terms with Hurrem’s ambiguous status in the harem. When critics accuse Roxolana

In the Istanbul harem Hürrem Sultan (it is presumed) became a very influential rival to Mahidevran Sultan. Hürrem gave birth to her first son Mehmed in 1521 (he died in 1543) and then to four more sons, destroying Mahidevran’s status as the mother of the sultan’s only son.[15] Suleiman’s mother, Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, partially suppressed the rivalry between the two women,[16] but after her death in 1534, a fight broke out, with Mahidevran severely scratching Hürrem’s face.  The source for this is another foreign ambassador who was writing home and describes the incident as Mahidevran beating Hurrem and calling her spoiled meat. When the envoy came to summon Hurrem to Suleiman’s quarters for the night, she refused to go on the grounds that she did not dare offend the Sultan’s eyesight with her disfigured looks then basically tells him Mahidevran said that. Soon after, Mahidevran went to live with her son, Şehzade Mustafa, in the provincial capital of Manisa.

Hürrem and Mahidevran had borne Suleiman six sons, four of whom survived past the 1550s: Mustafa, Selim, Bayezid, and Cihangir. Of these, Mustafa was the eldest and preceded Hürrem’s children in the order of succession. Hürrem knew that should Mustafa become Sultan, her own children would be strangled.

Yet Mustafa was recognized by many of the people as the most talented of all the brothers and was supported by Pargalı İbrahim Pasha, who became Suleiman’s Grand Vizier in 1523. A number of sources have suggested that Ibrahim Pasha had been a victim of Hürrem Sultan’s intrigues and rising influence on the sovereign, especially in view of Ibrahim’s past support for the cause of Şehzade Mustafa. Hürrem is usually held at least partly responsible for the intrigues in nominating a successor. Although she was Suleiman’s wife, she exercised no official public role. This did not, however, prevent Hürrem from wielding powerful political influence. Since the Empire lacked, until the reign of Ahmed I, any formal means of nominating a successor, successions usually involved the death of competing princes in order to avert civil unrest and rebellions. In attempting to avoid the execution of her sons, Hürrem used her influence to eliminate those who supported Mustafa’s accession to the throne.[17]

Thus in power struggles apparently instigated by Hürrem,[18] Suleiman had Ibrahim murdered in 1536 and replaced with her sympathetic son-in-law, Rüstem Pasha (Grand Vizier 1544-1553 and 1555-1561), the husband of her daughter by Suleiman, Mihrimah Sultan. Many years later, towards the end of Suleiman’s long reign, the rivalry between his sons became evident.

Furthermore, both Hürrem Sultan and the grand vizier Rüstem Pasha helped turn Suleiman against Mustafa and Mustafa was accused of causing unrest. During the campaign against Safavid Persia in 1553, because of a fear of rebellion, Sultan Suleiman ordered the execution of Mustafa.[19] According to a source he was executed that very year on charges of planning to dethrone his father; his guilt for the treason of which he was accused remains neither proven nor disproven.[20] After the death of Mustafa, Mahidevran lost her status in the palace (as the mother of the heir apparent) and moved to Bursa and lived a troubled life.[15] She did not spend her last years in poverty, however, for her stepson Selim II, the new sultan after 1566, put her on a salary.[20] Her rehabilitation may have been possible only after the death of Hürrem in 1558.[20]Cihangir, Hürrem’s youngest child, allegedly died of grief a few months after the news of his half-brother’s murder.[21]

After Suleiman executed Mustafa in October 1553 a degree of dissatisfaction and unrest arose among soldiers who blamed Rüstem Pasha for Mustafa’s death. Then Suleiman dimissed Rüstem Pasha and appointed Kara Ahmed Pasha as his grand vizier in October 1553. But almost two years later, Kara Ahmed Pasha became the victim of vicious calumnies brought against him by Hürrem Sultan, who wanted her son-in-law, Rüstem Pasha, to become the grand vizier again. Kara Ahmed Pasha was strangled in September 1555, and Rüstem Pasha became the grand vizier (1555-1561) once more.

Roxolana became the first woman to remain in the Sultan’s court for the duration of her life. In the Ottoman royal family tradition, a sultan’s concubine was to remain in the harem only until her son came of age (around 16 or 17), after which he would be sent away from the capital to govern a faraway province, and his mother would follow him.34 She would return to Istanbul only in the capacity of valide sultan (mother of the reigning sultan). In defiance of this age-old custom, Hurrem stayed behind in the harem with her hunchback son Jihangir, even after her three other sons went to govern the empire’s remote provinces.35 Moreover, she moved out of the harem located in the Old Palace (Eskiserai) to Suleiman’s quarters located in the New Palace (Topkapi)

Hürrem also acted as Suleiman’s advisor on matters of state, and seems to have had an influence upon foreign policy and on international politics.[7]

Two of her letters to King Sigismundus II Augustus of Poland (reigned 1548-1572) have survived, and during her lifetime the Ottoman Empire generally had peaceful relations with the Polish state within a Polish–Ottoman alliance.

Under his pen name, Muhibbi, Sultan Suleiman composed this poem for Hürrem Sultan:

“Throne of my lonely niche, my wealth, my love, my moonlight.

My most sincere friend, my confidant, my very existence, my Sultan, my one and only love.

The most beautiful among the beautiful…

My springtime, my merry faced love, my daytime, my sweetheart, laughing leaf…

My plants, my sweet, my rose, the one only who does not distress me in this world…

My Istanbul, my Caraman, the earth of my Anatolia

My Badakhshan, my Baghdad and Khorasan

My woman of the beautiful hair, my love of the slanted brow, my love of eyes full of mischief…

I’ll sing your praises always

I, lover of the tormented heart, Muhibbi of the eyes full of tears, I am happy.”[23]

COSTUMES

This show was probably so much fun to design for. Very Turkish-Tudors when it comes to the costumes. So many colors and jewels and flattering silhouettes. Overall very visually beautiful. However, In general, what the women wear in The Magnificent Century are western attires, exposing their hair and chest to other men, something unimaginable in that era is too tight and shows too much cleavage and bare shoulders for 16th century Turkey. The fabric choices range from just OK to screamingly modern polyester satin & Polyester Georgette . Too much machine embroidery and multicolored fabrics, pre-crinkled fabrics. The women’s long, flowing hair and pink lip gloss are 100% modern, and the men’s hair is kind of modern too. But overall the headdresses and jewelry and kalfas costumes were probably quite close to accurate.

DEATH

Hürrem Sultan died on 15 April 1558 and was buried in a domed mausoleum (türbe) decorated in exquisite Iznik tiles depicting the garden of paradise, perhaps in homage to her smiling and joyful nature.[24] Her mausoleum is adjacent to Suleiman’s, a separate and more somber domed structure, at the courtyard of the Süleymaniye Mosque.

1. Her legacy: it’s clear she knew public opinion was important not only during her time but generations after.

LEGACY

Unlike other harem concubines before her, who had never risen above the level of harem rivalry, Roxolana had political ambition and was, it seemed, determined to achieve as much power and independence as a woman possibly could within the Ottoman slave system. She dared to have a voice in the government. She played an important role in Suleiman’s diplomatic dealings and correspondence, often acting on the Sultan’s behalf, when an assurance of his peaceful intentions and an exchange of gifts were necessary.43 She also influenced the Sultan’s diplomatic relations with other sovereigns and foreign embassies

As a public figure, Hurrem became known for her grand-scale building projects, which manifested her high status in the Ottoman dynastic family. Traditionally, “the endowments of royal concubine mothers were confined to provincial cities, while the sultan alone was responsible for the most splendid projects in the capital of Istanbul.”44 However, Hurrem earned the privilege to build religious and charitable buildings in Istanbul and other important cities of the empire. Hurrem’s endowment (Külliye of hasseki Hurrem) in Istanbul, built in the Aksaray district called Avret Pazari (or Women’s Bazaar; later named Hasseki), contained a mosque, medrese, imaret, elementary school, hospital, and fountain. It was the first complex constructed in Istanbul by Sinan in his new position as the chief royal architect. The fact that it was the third largest building in the capital, after the complexes of Mehmed II (Fatih) and Suleyman (Süleymanie mosque), testifies to Hurrem’s great status.45 She also built mosque complexes in Adrianopol and Ankara.46 Her other charitable building projects included the Jerusalem foundation (called Hasseki Sultan), with a hospice and a soup kitchen for pilgrims and the homeless; a soup T M W • V 95 • A 2005 238 kitchen in Mekka (imaret Hasseki Hurrem); a public kitchen in Istanbul (in Avret Pazari); and two large public baths in Istanbul (in the Jewish and Aya Sôfya quarters, respectively).47

Hurrems legacy most importantly began “The Sultanate of Women” which was a period of extraordinary political influence exerted by wives and mothers of the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Her immediate successors Nurbanu and Safiye Sultan went on to correspond directly with historical figures we may be more familiar with such as Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici. Which i think is just absolutely incredible considering a few short years before harem women were hardly influential in anything on a global scale.

CLOSING

THANK YOU IF YOU’RE STILL HERE WITH ME, YOU’VE MADE IT TO THE END OF THE VIDEO. MY INTENT ON MAKING THIS WAS NOT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THE SHOW IN ANY WAY, AGAIN I THINK THE SHOW REALLY GOT SOME THINGS RIGHT AND I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED WATCHING IT. MY GOAL WAS TO HELP YOU REMAIN INFORMED WHILE ALSO GIVING YOU THE ABILITY TO THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT HOW HISTORICAL FICTION/ PERIOD DRAMAS CAN HAVE ON AN EFFECT ON HOW WE REMEMBER THE PAST. AND I ALSO HOPE YOU ARE NOW ABLE TO APPRECIATE THE CREATIVITY OF THE FILMMAKERS AND THE NARRATIVE THEY CREATED OF HURREMS LIFE.

LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW WHAT YOUR OPINIONS ARE ABOUT THE SHOW. IVE MADE A SOURCE LIST FOR YOUR REFERENCE IF YOURE INTERESTED IN ANY FURTHER READING. LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY FURTHER READING SUGGESTIONS OR DIFFERNT INTERPRETATIONS FOR ME TO CHECK OUT. IM ALWAYS LEARING AND WOULD APPRECIATE IT.

JUST ONE MORE QUICK THING BEFORE I GO– THIS MEDIUM OF VIDEO AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATING DIRECTLY WITH YOU WHETHER IT BE FOR ENTERTAINMENT OR EDUCATION IS INCREASING SO RAPIDLY IN POPULARITY. ITS SO IMPORTANT TO ME TO BRING THE FIELD OF HISTORY INTO IT AND I TRULY BELIEVE VIDEO IS THE FUTURE AND I WANT TO CONTINUE TO BRING HISTORY TO YOU THROUGH THIS METHOD OF COMMUNICATION.  

SOURCES

Dziedzic, Andrzej. “Jean Desmares, Roxelana (1643).” Roxolana in European Literature, History and Culture (2016).

Norwich, John Julius. Four princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the obsessions that forged modern Europe. Open Road+ Grove/Atlantic, 2017. (Not a good source IMHO but gives interesting perspective on the four of them and Europe as a whole.)

Peirce, Leslie. Empress of the East: how a European slave girl became Queen of the Ottoman Empire. Hachette UK, 2017.

Peirce, Leslie P. The imperial harem: women and sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press, USA, 1993.

Yermolenko, Galina I., ed. Roxolana in European Literature, History and Culture. Routledge, 2016.

Yermolenko, Galina. “Roxolana:“The Greatest Empresse of the East”.” The Muslim World 95.2 (2005): 231-248.