Turkish names sultana. Women's Sultanate: Strengths and Weaknesses of Power - Sultanas. "Lions of Islam" - Janissaries

THE SULTANS OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THEIR WIVES: A REAL LIGHT OF OCHES ... The country captured by these tribes included Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, but mainly the territory of modern Turkey. During the reign of the Seljuk sultan Melek, who quite successfully ordered to live a long time in 1092, these Turks were the most powerful people for many thousands of kilometers around, but after his untimely death, and according to historians, he did not die of old age, after sitting on the throne only two decades, everything went to hell, and the country began to be torn apart by civil strife and the struggle for power.

It is thanks to this that the first Ottoman sultan appeared, about which they will later make up legends, but let's all in order.

The beginning of the beginning: the Sultanate of the Ottoman Empire - the history of its origin To understand how everything really happened, the best option will present the course of events in the chronology in which it was. So, after the death of the last Seljuk sultan, everything fell into the abyss, and the large, and, moreover, rather strong state fell apart into many small ones, which were called beyliks. Beys ruled there, riots reigned and everyone tried to "revenge" according to their own rules, which was not only stupid, but also very dangerous.

Just where the northern border of modern Afghanistan runs, in the area that bears the name Balkh, the Oghuz tribe Kayy lived from the eleventh to twelfth centuries. Shah Suleiman, the first leader of the tribe, at that time had already transferred the reins of government to his own son Ertogrul-bey. By that time, the Kayy tribes were pushed back from the nomads in Trukmenia, and therefore they decided to move towards sunset, until they stopped in Asia Minor, where they settled. It was then that a turmoil of the Rum sultan Alaeddin Kei-Kubad with the Byzantium that was entering power was outlined, and Ertogrul had no choice but to help his ally. Moreover, for this "disinterested" help, the sultan decided to endow the kayis with land, and gave them Bithynia, that is, the space that lay between Bursa and Angora, without the aforementioned cities, rightly believing that this would be a little too much. It was then that Ertorgul handed over power to his own offspring, Osman I, who became the first ruler Ottoman Empire.

Osman the First, the son of Ertorgul, the first sultan of the Ottoman Empire .... This truly outstanding person should definitely be discussed in more detail, as he undoubtedly deserves close attention and consideration. Osman was born in 1258, in a small town with only twelve thousand inhabitants, called Tebasion, or Segut, which means "willow" in translation. The mother of the young heir to the bey was a Turkish concubine, who was famous for her special beauty and also for her cool temper. In 1281, after Ertorgul successfully gave his soul to God, Osman inherited the territories that were occupied by the nomadic hordes of Turks in Phrygia, and gradually began to unfold.

At that time, the so-called wars of faith were already in full swing, and Muslim fanatics began to flock to the newly formed state with the young Osman at the head, and he took the place of his beloved "daddy" at the age of twenty-four. from all over the area. Moreover, these people firmly believed that they were fighting for Islam, and not for money or rulers, and the most intelligent leaders skillfully used this. However, at that time, Osman hardly understood what he wanted to do, and how to last what he himself had begun. The name of this particular person gave the name to the entire state, since then the entire people of the Kayy began to be called the Ottomans or Ottamans. Moreover, many wanted to walk under the banners of such an outstanding ruler as Osman, and legends, poems and songs that exist today were composed about his exploits for the glory of the beautiful Malhun Khatun. When the last of the descendants of Alaeddin departed into the world, Osman's hands were completely untied, since he no longer owed his formation as a sultan to anyone.

However, there is always someone at hand who wants to snatch a bigger piece of the pie for himself, and Osman also had such a half-enemy-half-friend. The name of the disgraced emir, who constantly intrigued, was Karamanogullar, but Osman decided to leave his pacification for later, since the enemy's army was small, and the fighting spirit was strong. The Sultan decided to turn his gaze to Byzantium, whose borders were not reliably protected, and the troops were weakened by the eternal attacks of the Turkic-Mongols. Absolutely all the sultans of the Ottoman Empire and their wives went down in history of the rather great and powerful Ottoman Empire, skillfully organized by the talented leader and great commander Osman the first. Moreover, a fairly large part of the Turks living there also called themselves Ottomans, before the empire fell.

The rulers of the Ottoman Empire in chronological order: in the beginning there were kayyas It is imperative to tell everyone that during the reign of the famous first sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the country simply flourished and shone with all colors and wealth. Thinking not only about personal welfare, fame or love, Osman the First turned out to be a really kind and just ruler, ready to take tough and even inhuman deeds if it was necessary for the common good. The beginning of the empire is attributed to 1300, when Osman became the first Ottoman sultan. Other sultans of the Ottoman Empire that appeared later, the list of which can be seen in the picture, numbered only thirty-six names, but they also went down in history. Moreover, the table clearly shows not only the sultans of the Ottoman Empire themselves and the years of their reign, but also the order and sequence are strictly observed.

When the time came, in 1326 Osman the First left this world, leaving on the throne his own son, named Orhan of Turkey, since his mother was a Turkish concubine. The guy was very lucky that he had no rivals at that time, because they always kill all peoples for power, but the boy was on a horse. The "young" khan was forty-five already then, which did not at all become an obstacle for daring feats and campaigns. It was thanks to his reckless courage that the sultans of the Ottoman Empire, the list of which is just above, were able to gain possession of part of the European territories near the Bosphorus, thereby gaining access to the Aegean Sea.

How the government of the Ottoman Empire advanced: slowly but surely Brilliant, isn't it? Meanwhile, the Ottoman sultans, the list is provided to you absolutely reliable, we should be grateful to Orhan for one more "gift" - the creation of a real, regular army, professional and trained, at least, cavalry units, which were called yayas.

*** After Orhan died, his son Murad I of Turkey ascended the throne, who became a worthy successor of his work, going deeper and deeper into the West and annexing more and more lands to his state. *** It was this man who brought Byzantium to its knees, as well as into vasal dependence on the Ottoman Empire, and even invented a new type of troops - the Janissaries, where young men from Christians were recruited, aged 11-14, who were later brought up and given the opportunity to accept Islam. These warriors were strong, trained, enduring and brave, they did not know their own kind-tribe, therefore they killed mercilessly and easily. *** In 1389, Murad died, and his place was taken by the son of Bayazid I Lightning-fast, who became famous throughout the world for his exorbitant appetites for conquest. He decided not to follow the footsteps of his ancestors, and went to conquer Asia, which he successfully succeeded in. Moreover, he did not forget about the West at all, for a good eight years besieging Constantinople. Among other things, it was against Bayezid that the King of Bohemia Sigismund, with the direct participation and help of Pope Boniface IX, organized a real crusade, which was simply doomed to defeat: only fifty thousand crusaders went out against the two hundred thousand Ottoman army.

It is interesting! It was Sultan Bayezid I of Lightning, in spite of all his military exploits and achievements, who went down in history as the man who stood at the helm when the Ottoman army suffered the most crushing defeat in the Battle of Ankara. The Sultan's opponent was Tamerlane (Timur) himself and Bayazid simply did not have a choice, they were brought together by fate itself. The ruler himself was taken prisoner, where he was treated respectfully and politely, his janissaries were completely destroyed, and the army was scattered throughout the area.

Even before Bayezid died, a real squabble for the Sultan throne broke out in the Ottoman sidelines, there were many heirs, since the guy was excessively prolific, and eventually, after ten years of constant strife and squabbles, Mehmed I Knight was seated on the throne. This guy was fundamentally different from his eccentric father, he was extremely judicious, picky in connections and strict with himself and those around him. He managed to reunite the shattered country, eliminating the possibility of rebellion or revolt.

Then there were several more sultans, whose names can be found on the list, but they did not leave a special mark in the history of the Ottoman Empire, although they successfully maintained its glory and reputation, regularly performing real feats and aggressive campaigns, as well as repelling the attacks of enemies. It is worth dwelling in more detail only on the tenth sultan - it was Suleiman I Qanuni, nicknamed the Lawgiver for his intelligence.

The famous history of the Ottoman Empire: Sultan Suleiman and the novel about his life By that time, the wars in the West with the Tatar-Mongols stopped, the states enslaved by them were weakened and broken, and during the reign of Sultan Suleiman from 1520 to 1566, they succeeded very much significantly expand the borders of their own state, both in one direction and in the other direction. Moreover, this progressive and advanced person dreamed of a close connection between East and West, about an increase in education and the prosperity of sciences, but this was not at all famous.

In fact, glory to the whole world came to Suleiman not at all because of his brilliant decisions, military campaigns and other things, but because of an ordinary Ternopil girl named Alexandra, according to other sources Anastasia) Lisovskaya. In the Ottoman Empire, she bore the name Khyurrem Sultan, but she became more famous under the name that was given to her in Europe, and this name is Roksolana. Everyone in every corner of the world knows the story of their love. It is very sad that after the death of Suleiman, who, among other things, was also a great reformer, his children and Roksolana clashed among themselves for power, because of which their descendants (children and grandchildren) were ruthlessly destroyed. It remains only to find out who rules the Ottoman Empire after Sultan Suleiman and how it all ended.

Interesting facts: the sultanate of women in the Ottoman Empire .... It is worth mentioning the period when the female sultanate of the Ottoman Empire arose, which seemed simply impossible. The thing is that, according to the laws of that time, a woman could not be admitted to governing the country. However, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska turned everything upside down, and the sultans of the Ottoman Empire were also able to say their word in world history. Moreover, she became the first concubine who became a real, legal spouse, and, therefore, was able to become the valid-sultan of the Ottoman Empire, that is, give birth to a child entitled to the throne, in fact, just the mother of the sultan.

After the skillful reign of a brave and courageous woman-sultana, who so unexpectedly took root among the Turks, the Ottoman sultans and their wives began to continue the new tradition, but not for very long. The last Valide Sultan was Turhan, who was also called a foreigner. They say her name was Nadezhda, and she was also captured at the age of twelve, after which she was brought up and trained like a real Ottoman woman. She died at the age of fifty-five, in 1683, there were no more similar precedents in the history of the Ottoman Empire.

Ottoman Empire, which once existed, was the birthplace of 36 Turkish sultans. In fact, everywhere Turkish sultans are called Ottoman, but since the Ottomans were none other than Turks, immigrants from Turkic tribes, I will allow myself to call the sultans of the Ottoman Empire Turkish rulers until 1922.

The Ottoman Turks are natives of the Central Asian Oguz tribe called the kayı, who, fleeing the conquests of Tamerlane's ancestors, first fled west from their habitat (the city of Balkh is now an Afghan province), and then settled in Anatolia under the borders of the Byzantine Empire.

The ancestors of the Turkish sultans are Shah Suleiman, whose son Ertogul gave birth in 1258 to the first ruler of the entire Ottoman Empire - Osman the First.

Sultans of Turkey: list

In this table, you can see all 36 sultans of Ottoman Turkey and their years of reign.

Interregnum- the period of inter-rule in the Ottoman Empire, when the three sons of Lightning Bayezid could not share the throne, lasted about 11 years (1402-1413). These were the first difficulties in a ruling dynasty of this type, after which they solved this problem by killing their brothers by the ascending sultan to the throne.

Determination of titles of Turkish sultans

Ulubey or ujbey (ulubey) is the title of the Ottoman ruler, the leader of the border Turkic tribe with other foreign tribes.

Sultan- the title of the ruler of the Islamic state. If a country is ruled by a sultan, then the country is called a sultanate.

Padishah- a monarchical title from Iran, which began to be used in other Asian countries. The Europeans perceived the title of padishah as the title of the emperor.

Caliph- the highest Muslim title, which has been interpreted in different ways at different times. In general and in general, it is a set of concepts such as: the spiritual head of all Muslims, the state and political leader of all Muslims, the supreme judge and the supreme commander in chief.

Now let's see how each Turkish sultan distinguished himself during his years of ruling the Ottoman Empire.

Sultans of Turkey: personality structure on the 717 year line

Osman I Gazi... The son of the leader of a small Turkic tribe located on the strategic borders with Byzantium and the Balkans. He bore the title of Ulubey, and began his reign at the age of 24. Osman 1 in history is characterized as a brave warrior with a noble nomadic spirit, but at the same time a complete barbarian who organized military campaigns on the way to the creation of the great Ottoman Empire. Having declared his possessions free from the Seljuks, Osman 1 was able to conquer a new part of Asia Minor, Byzantine Ephesus, the Black Sea cities of Anatolia and draw up a plan of conquest, in which Osman I was buried. The Turkish Sultan died of old age in 1324.

OrhanI Gazi... This sultan of ancient Turkey is the youngest son of Osman 1, whose dates of death and the end of his reign are described in different ways by different sources. To be honest, I don't know which date is correct (1359 or 1362), but, nevertheless, it was under Orhan the First that the territory of the Ottoman Empire expanded quite noticeably. The Turkish Sultan made every effort to create the right conditions for the growth of a great power.

During his reign, the first Ottoman coins began to be minted, it was Orhan 1 who established the famous detachments of the Janissaries, and the first, after the end of the capture of all of Asia Minor, went to conquer Europe. Under Orhan, the population of the state increased to 500,000 people, and in 1354 this Ottoman sultan captured the current capital of Turkey -.

Murad I. This ruler was able to raise his state to the level of an empire, after which he acquired the title of great sultan. He took Adrianople from the Greeks, where he moved the capital of the state, conquered part of Bulgaria, and in his last campaign he went to the Serbs, and in the "epic-memorable" battle on the Kosovo field he defeated the enemy. However, Sultan Murad 1 was also killed there, in 1389. He was killed by a Serb who pretended to be a defector.

This sultan of Turkey was illiterate, he sealed contracts with a fingerprint, not a signature. But we should pay tribute to him - Murad 1 was very tolerant, granting foreigners citizenship and the same privileges as Muslims, while remaining a true defender of the Islamic faith.

Bayezid I Lightning Fast... The first step as the ruler of the empire, Bayezid 1 made towards killing his own brother. It was this Turkish sultan who introduced the state tradition of fratricide upon accession to the throne. It must be said that this tradition is quite firmly settled in the empire as the elimination of competitors. Bayazid Lightning loved luxury, he feasted and enjoyed himself, drinking wine, which is unusual Muslim religion... Nevertheless, this sultan of Turkey was able to conquer Asia Minor to the end, take large lands in the Balkans and give a crushing rebuff to the crusaders.

He was going to take Constantinople, which had besieged for 6 years, but Tamerlane was advancing from the east to the Ottomans, who captured the Turkish Sultan. Bayazid 1 died in captivity in 1402, according to some sources he committed suicide.

Mehmed I elebi... He emerged victorious from the internecine war and officially took the throne in 1413. He enjoyed the strong support of the Janissaries, he was loved for his education, prudence and strict disposition. He managed to keep the empire, which had been shaken after his father's captivity, and again began military campaigns. He was the youngest son of Bayezid the First, who kept peace with Byzantium and Europe, fortifying the returned lands that Tamerlane had once taken.

Murad II... Like his grandfather Bayazid I, he married a Slavic woman - the daughter of a Serbian ruler, giving his wife complete freedom of religion. After the battle of Varna (in 1444), Murad 2 emerged victorious, suppressing all the energy of Europe. From that time to the end of the 16th century, the entire history of the Turkish sultans is full of some victories and conquests.

Mehmed II the Conqueror... He ruled the Ottomans 2 times, giving his father Murad 2 his throne for 6 years because of youthful judgments in terms of the conquest of Constantinople. After the death of his father, Mehmed Fatih the Conqueror finally began to carry out his plans. It was this Turkish sultan who took and allowed him to brutally rob him for three days. It was Mehmed 2 who transferred the capital of the Ottoman Empire to this city, and converted the sacred temple of St. Sophia into the main mosque of old Turkey. The name of the city was also given by this Turkish sultan, and Mehmed Fatih also insisted on the presence with representatives of the Islamic clergy of the residence of the Greek Patriarchate. Orthodox Church, Armenian and Chief Jewish Rabbi. He also deprived Serbia of autonomy, conquered Bosnia, captured the Crimean Khanate, and almost reached Rome, his death prevented the Turkish sultan from seizing this city.

Bayezid II Dervish... He fought little, he is considered the first sultan who refused to personally command his army, and Bayezid 2 went down in history as the patron saint of culture and literature. Abdicated the throne, handing it over to his youngest son Selim.

Selim I the Terrible... Nicknamed the Merciless, for having ordered the murder of his brothers and nephews, as well as for the brutal massacre of Shiites, killing approximately 45,000 people. He took Kurdistan from the Persians, conquered Western Armenia, conquered Syria with Palestine, Jerusalem, Arabia with Mecca and Medina, plus Egypt. Selim 1 Grozny has doubled the territory of the Ottoman Empire in almost 10 years. This Turkish sultan carried the banner and cloak of the Prophet Muhammad to Istanbul, thereby confirming that he has the right to rule the entire Islamic world.

Suleiman I the Magnificent... Known as the Turkish Sultan Legislator, Magnificent, Great and Qanuni in Turkish style. Sultan Suleiman 1 also greatly expanded the borders of Ottoman Turkey, which, under his rule, occupied lands from Budapest to Assuan and the Nile rapids, from the Euphrates and the Tigris to the Strait of Gibraltar. During his reign, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent dreamed of uniting the lands and peoples of the West and the East. The last 20 years, the famous Turkish sultan was under the influence of his concubine, and then his wife Khyurrem (Roksolana). Leading new hike to Hungary, Sultan Suleiman did not live to see victory, in 1566 he died. The death of the padishah was hidden - the empire was already ruled without the sultan, but on his behalf, until his and Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska came to the throne - Selim II, from whom the decline of the Ottoman Empire began.

Selim II The Drunkard... The son of the magnificent Turkish Sultan was a kind and educated person, he wrote exquisite poetry, was a talented poet, but, apparently, like all creative people, he had a special predilection for something. Selim 2 was called a drunkard, he loved wine very much, which prevented him from following the empire. It was during the reign of this Turkish sultan that the interests of Turkey and Muscovy clashed on the border of Azov and Astrakhan.

Sultan Selim the Drunkard was able to conquer Cyprus, this was his only acquisition on the throne. Although, having drunk another glass of local wine in one gulp all in the same Cyprus, in the bath, the Turkish sultan slipped and fell. Having hit his head on a marble slab, he died in 1574.

Murad III... The son of Selim the Drunkard began his ascension to the throne with the order to strangle his five brothers, like his great-grandfather Selim 1. Murad the third was distinguished by strong greed for numerous concubines, which led to the results of extensive offspring - this Turkish sultan had over a hundred children.

Under Murad 3, Tiflis, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, Shirvan, Tabriz were captured. But the beginning decline of the empire did not stop.

Mehmed III... Portrait - Depraved and Bloodthirsty. This Ottoman ruler did not lag behind his father Murad III in terms of killing his brothers. If you remember, his father had over a hundred children. Turkish Sultan Mehmed the Third ordered the murder of his 19 brothers - this event was the largest fratricide in the history of the Ottomans. Moreover, the newly-made ruler gave a decree to drown their pregnant concubines in the Bosphorus, and after some time, he sent his own son to death. The Ottoman Empire was led by his mother, but he managed to make one successful campaign against Hungary.

Ahmed I... Sultan Ahmed the First lived only 27 years and 14 of them ruled the Ottoman Empire. He was a capricious, but very smart boy. During his reign, he showed character and changed his viziers and advisers whenever he liked, or as the harem required. At the same time, the Turkish sultan lost the Transcaucasus and Baghdad, and the Zaporozhye Cossacks began raiding the empire. Under him, corruption intensified, it was in honor of this sultan that the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul was built, which originally bore the name of Ahmedie, now it is simply the Sultanahmet Mosque.

In 1612, in a letter to the Polish king, the Turkish signed as follows:

Sultan Ahmed Khan, the Most Blessed, the son of the Great God, the King of all Turks, Greeks, Babylonians, Macedonians, Sarmatians, the Sovereign of Great and Lesser Egypt, Alexandria, India, as well as of all peoples on earth Sovereign and Monarch, Lord and Most Serene son of Mohammed, Defender and Guardian of the Holy Grotto of the Heavenly God, King of all Kings and Sovereign of all Sovereigns, Sovereign and Heir to all heirs.

Mustafa I Lunatic... He ruled in two terms in 1617-1618 and in 1622-1623 - the feeble-minded brother of Ahmed I, seen in sleepwalking. This newly-made sultan spent 14 years in prison, but some considered him a "holy" person, because the majority of Muslims treated madmen with sacred respect. In his prison, the Turkish Sultan Mustafa 1 threw into the Bosphorus not crumbs, but real gold coins.

He survived at the behest of his brother Ahmed, who did not want to kill his only brother. When everyone realized that Mustafa could not rule, he again went to prison. He was succeeded by the son of his brother Osman 2, who was overthrown, and Mustafa was again seated on the throne.

Osman II the Cruel... This sultan of Turkey ruled for almost 4 years, thanks to the janissaries, who brought him to the throne at the age of 14. The portrait is a warlike character and pathological cruelty (a vivid proof of this - he used living people for targets: prisoners and his pages). Lost the battle with the Cossacks during the siege of Khotin. Sultan Osman II was killed by the same janissaries who suspected him of dishonesty. At the time of his death, Osman II was only 18 years old.

Murad IV the Bloody... Another son of Ahmed the first, who took the throne at the age of 11. This is the bloodiest Turkish sultan in the entire history of the Ottomans, however, it was he who cut the knot of the Vizier's yoke and army anarchy. Murad 4 could kill just for the sake of murder, a completely innocent person, but it was he who returned justice to the court, and discipline to the barracks. Under him, Erivan and Baghdad were recaptured. The bloodthirsty sultan died in a fever, and before his death ordered to kill his own brother Ibrahim in order to be known as the last padishah of the Ottoman dynasty ... It is strange that with all his cruelty he did not kill him at all when accepting the throne.

Ibrahim... The mother saved from death of the Sultan of Turkey. Ibrahim ruled for 8 years, distinguished by weakness, weakness, recklessness, but cruelty ... His mother ruled the state for him. The Sultan was strangled by the Janissaries.

Mehmed IV the Hunter... He began to rule the Ottoman Empire from 6 years for 40 years. This Turkish sultan managed to restore the military appearance of the empire in order to then subject the country to an unprecedented military humiliation, which ended with the beginning of the partition of Turkey. It was to Sultan Mehmed the Fourth that the Cossacks wrote a letter on the famous painting by Repin.

Suleiman II... The portrait is religious, spent 40 years in the Ottoman "cage" under the signature of a reserve heir. At the same time, the Sultan was given Belgrade (which was later returned) and Bosnia, but Orshova was taken. Suleiman died the second in 1691.

Ahmed II... Just like his brothers, Ahmed II spent about 40 years in isolation, he stayed on the throne for 4 years.

Mustafa II... He ruled for about 8 years, losing to the Russians in Azov, and to Poland in Podolia. Abdicated under the onslaught of the Janissaries, died in 1703.

Ahmed III... This sultan of Turkey ruled for 27 years. According to history, he offered shelter to the Ukrainian hetman Mazepa and the king of Sweden Karl XII, who lost the battle of Poltava. He made peace with Peter I, lost many lands in Eastern Europe and North Africa.

Mahmoud I... He ruled the Ottoman state for 24 years. He continued the war with Iran and started a war with Russia.

Osman III... Portrait - suffered from musicophobia and hated all women in the world. He spent over 50 years in captivity as a reserve heir. He ruled for only three years, but he swept away the viziers 7 times, confiscating their personal property to his treasury. Hated Jews and Christians, ordering them to wear special patches.

Mustafa III... The portrait is a far-sighted and sane sultan of Turkey, who tried in vain to stop the decline of the empire, but failed.

Abdul-Hamid I. This Turkish sultan ruled for about 14 years, losing to Catherine the Great Crimea, he brought the entire financial situation of the empire into decline to such an extent that sometimes employees and soldiers had nothing to pay with.

Selim III. During his 8 years of reigning the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan tried in vain to modernize it. However, the war with The Russian empire made itself felt, he lost the Black Sea from the Caucasus to Bessarabia to the Russians. He loved music and patronized musicians, he even composed many compositions himself. And, like many Turkish sultans, he was overthrown by the Janissaries, and was subsequently killed by order of the ruling cousin.

Mustafa IV. By ordering to kill the deposed cousin and sibling younger brothers, the Turkish sultan Mustafa 4 himself was able to hold the throne for just over a year. And he himself was killed by the new sultan, his younger brother, whom they could not kill.

Mahmoud II. The Ottoman sultan with French blood in his veins during the period of his throne liquidated the Janissary corps and generally changed the military system in the country. He carried out a number of executions, killing, including his older brother, a former padishah. It was during this sultan that the influence of France and England on Turkey increased. At times he suffered from long drinking bouts, died at the age of 54.

Abdul-Majid the Meek... The first and only sultan of Turkey with that name. He ascended the throne at the age of 16, ruled for 22 years. The portrait is a meek ruler with an attitude of equality and brotherhood. Bethlehem yielded to France and the feat of Nicholas I to declare a new war on Turkey "for the keys to the Holy Sepulcher." Sultan Abdul-Majid died of tuberculosis in 1861.

Abdul-Aziz Nevezha... The portrait is a despot, an ignoramus, a rude person who abolished the reforms initiated by his predecessors. The author of the wild massacre in Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria. Turkish Sultan Abdul-Aziz committed suicide in 1876, having been an Ottoman padishah for about 15 years.

Abdul Hamid II the Bloody... The years of the reign of this Ottoman sultan - from 1876 to 1909, distinguished themselves by the establishment of a despotic regime called "zulum", which meant, simply, violence and arbitrariness. Abdul-Hamid II was named the bloody sultan of Turkey for the massacre of the Greeks in Crete and other brutal actions. He surrendered to the Russians Adrianople, captured by Murad the First, and lost power in the Balkans and North Africa. Only the organization "Young Turks" was able to pacify the bloody sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul-Hamid 2, after which he later left the throne and was arrested. In fact, it was this sultan of Turkey who was the last ruler of the Ottomans with the standard attributes of omnipotence.

Mehmed V Reshad... He is the brother of the bloody Abdul-Hamid, he came to the throne for the kingdom, but not control. The portrait is already an elderly sultan, without much energy, who fell under the full influence of the Young Turks. The Ottomans continued to lose land in annual wars, and then to participate in the First World War in cooperation with Germany. Mehmed the Fifth died in 1918.

Mehmed VI Wahideddin... The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who reigned for about 4 years. I achieved an armistice with the Entente, I will lose warships, straits, railway and telegraph and radio lines. It meant one thing! End of the Ottoman Empire. When, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the war with the Turkish invaders began, victory came, Mehmed 6 fled abroad. After that, parliament passed a law abolishing the sultanate, and a year later it went out into the world.

What were the Turkish sultans

As you can see, dear readers, the rule of the Ottoman sultans was very different, it depended on their personal qualities and mood. Some were brave and energetic, some were distinguished by a brilliant mind and incredible governor characteristics, and some were angry, despotic, rude and cowardly. In general, the Ottoman Empire ascended to unprecedented heights rapidly, but also quickly was able to lose them, only the small Turkish Republic remained, with an area of ​​784,000 square kilometers, and this is with a maximum territorial peak of 5,200,000 km2 in 1683.

With you was the online magazine "" with a list of the sultans of Turkey, we wish you a pleasant pastime, until new adventures along the Turkish coast!

NS The last sultana of Ottoman origin was the mother of Suleiman I the Magnificent, her name was Aishe Sultan Hafsa (December 5, 1479 - March 19, 1534), according to sources, she was from the Crimea and was the daughter of Khan Mengli-Girey. However, this information is controversial, still not fully verified.

After Ayse begins the era of the "female sultanate" (1550-1656), when women influenced state affairs. Naturally, they cannot be compared with European rulers (Catherine II, or Elizabeth I of England) in view of the fact that these women had incommensurably less power, personal freedom and were further from absolutism. It is believed that this era began with Anastasia (Alexandra) Lisovskaya, or Roksolana, known to us. She was the wife of Suleiman I the Magnificent and the mother of Selim II, and she became the first sultana taken from the harem.

After Roksolana, the main women of the country became two relatives, two beautiful Venetians from the Baffo clan, Cecilia and Sofia. And one and the other came to the top through the harem. Cecilia Buffo became Roxolana's daughter-in-law.

So, Cecilia Vernier-Buffo, or Nurbanu Sultan, was born on the island of Paros around 1525. Her father was a noble Venetian, governor of the island of Paros, Nicolo Venier, and her mother was Violanta Baffo. The girl's parents were not married, so the girl was named Cecilia Buffo, giving her mother's surname.

According to another version, less popular, based on Ottoman sources, Nurbanu's real name was Rachel, and she was the daughter of Violanta Buffo and an unknown Spanish Jew.

Little is known about Cecilia's story.

It is known that in 1537 the pirate and admiral of the Turkish flotilla Hayr ad-din Barbarossa captured Paros and 12-year-old Cecilia was enslaved. She was sold to the Sultan's harem, where Khyurrem Sultan was noticed for her intelligence . Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska gave her the name Nurbanu, which means "Queen who exudes divine light" and sent her to serve her son, Prince Selim.

According to the chronicles, having come of age in 1543, Selim was sent to Konya to take up the post he was entitled to, Cecilia-Nurbanu accompanied him. At this time, the young prince was inflamed with love for his beautiful accompanying odalisque.

Soon, Nurbanu had a daughter, Shah Sultan, and later, in 1546, a son of Murad, who at that time was the only son of Selim. Later, Nurbanu Sultan gave birth to four more daughters to Selim. And after Selim's accession to the throne, Nurbanu becomes Haseki.

Selim in the Ottoman Empire itself received the nickname "Drunkard" because of his passion for wine, but he was not a drunkard in the literal sense of the word. Nevertheless, Mehmed Sokollu (Grand Vizier of Bosnian origin Boyko Sokolovic) was in charge of state affairs, who fell under the influence of Nurbanu.

As a ruler, Nurbanu corresponded with many ruling dynasties, pursued a pro-Venetian policy, for which the Genoese hated her and, according to rumors, the Genoese ambassador poisoned her.

In honor of Nurbanu, the Attik Valide mosque was built near the capital, where she was buried in 1583, bitterly mourned by her son Murad III, who often relied on his mother in his policy.

Safiye Sultan (translated from Turkish "Pure"), nee Sofia Baffo, was a Venetian by birth, and was her mother-in-law, Nurbanu Sultan, a relative. She was born in about 1550, was the daughter of the ruler of the Greek island of Corfu and a relative of the Venetian senator and poet Giorgio Baffo.

Sofia, like Cecilia, was captured by the corsairs, sold to the harem, where she fell in love with the then Crown Prince Murad, for whom for a long time she became the only favorite. It was rumored that the reason for such constancy was the problems in the prince's intimate life, which only Safiye knew how to somehow overcome. These rumors are very similar to the truth, because before Murad became sultan (in 1574, at the age of 28, after the death of his father Sultan Selim II), he had children only from Safiye.

Having become the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Murad III, obviously, recovered after a while from his intimate ailment, since he passed from forced monogamy to sexual excesses, and practically devoted his future life exclusively to the pleasures of the flesh, to the detriment of state affairs. So 20 sons and 27 daughters (however, one should not forget that in the 15th-16th centuries, infant mortality was very high and out of 10 newborn babies, 7 died in childhood, 2 in adolescence and youth, and only one had any chance live to at least 40 years), which Sultan Murad III left after his death - a completely natural result of his lifestyle.

in the 15th-16th centuries, infant mortality was very high and out of 10 newborn babies, 7 died in childhood, 2 in adolescence and youth, and only one had any chance of living to at least 40 years

Despite the fact that Murad never married his beloved Safiya, this did not stop her from becoming one of the most influential women of that time.

For the first nine years of his reign, Murad completely shared Nurbanu with his mother, obeyed her in everything. And it was Nurbanu who played an important role in his attitude towards Safiya. In spite of family ties, both in public affairs and in the affairs of the harem, the Venetians constantly fought with each other for leadership. Nevertheless, as they say, youth won.

In 1583, after the death of Nurbanu Sultan, Safiye Sultan began to strengthen the position of her son Mehmed as the heir to Murad III. Mehmed was already 15 years old and he was very popular with the Janissaries, which frightened his father very much. Murad III even prepared conspiracies, but Safiya always managed to warn his son. This struggle continued for 12 years, until the death of Murad.

The Women's Sultanate is a historical definition of the historical period of the Ottoman Empire from 1541 to 1687 (according to another dating, from 1550 to 1656). Almost 150 (or a little more than 100 years), during which women had a great, and in the end - even decisive, influence on the state policy of the Sublime Porte. Mothers, wives and concubines of Turkish padishahs.

The term "female sultanate" was introduced into the history of the Ottoman Empire by the Turkish historian Ahmet Refik Altynay in 1916 in his book of the same name, in which he considered the participation of the weaker sex in the government of Turkey as the cause of the decline of the Ottoman state. Although most of his colleagues, then and later, did not agree with this assessment, explaining the increased influence of women on the politics of the Islamic empire in the 16th-17th centuries. the consequence, not the cause of its weakening.

It should be noted that each sultana who is part of the "Women's Sultanate" was able to truly take power into her own hands only after the death of her master, as a valid-sultan (something like a "queen-mother" in European monarchies) with her sons who became sultans (with one exception - Khyurrem Sultan never became valid, since she died before her husband, Sultan Suleiman). Moreover, in most cases, this measure was forced - because of the minority of the ruling sultan or because of his mental retardation. And yet - all these women, with a single exception, were born and formed as individuals in the conditions of European Christian civilization (two Ukrainian women, two Venetians, a Greek woman), which provided the weaker sex, even in those harsh patriarchal times, much more freedom and independence than the Islamic tradition ...

HURREM-SULTAN (ROXOLANA) Alexandra (Anastasia) Gavrilovna Lisovskaya (1505/1506-1558) , a concubine from 1520, from 1534 - the legal wife of Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent, Ukrainian, daughter of an Orthodox priest from Western Ukraine. There has never been a valid sultan;

AFIFE NURBANU-SULTAN - Cecilia (Olivia) Venier Buffo (about 1525-1583) I got into the harem of the son of Khyurrem Sultan, Shehzade (heir to the throne) Selim, around 1537. Legal wife of Sultan Selim II from 1570-1571. By her origin, she is a Venetian, an illegitimate descendant of two noble families (her parents were not married). Valide Sultan from 1574;

LITTLE SAFIE-SULTAN - Sofia Buffo (about 1550-1619)... A Venetian, a relative of her mother-in-law, Nurbanu. She got into the harem of Khyurrem's grandson, Shehzade Murad in 1563 - she was presented to her nephew by Roksolana's daughter, Mihrimah Sultan. Valide Sultan from 1595;

HALIME-SULTAN - the name given at birth is not known (about 1571-after 1623)... Originally from modern Abkhazia, most likely Circassian by origin. The circumstances under which she ended up in the harem of the future Sultan Mehmed III are unknown. It is only known that this happened even before his accession to the throne, when Manisa was a shehzade sanjak bey. Twice (for a total of two and a half years), she was the Valide Sultan under her mentally disabled son Mustafa I. Due to the incapacity of Mustafa Halime, Sultan, for the first time in the history of the Ottoman Empire, became not only the Valide Sultan, but also the regent of the Islamic Empire.

MAHPAKER KYOSEM-SULTAN - (about 1590-1651)- the most influential woman in the history of the Ottoman Empire, three times Valide Sultan. Presumably a Greek woman named Anastasia, the daughter of an Orthodox priest. Concubine of Sultan Ahmed I since 1603. Valide Sultan (and regent of the state) under the son of Murad IV from 1623 to 1631; under the second son Ibrahim I from 1640 to 1648; under the grandson of Mehmed IV from 1648 until his death in 1651;

TURKHAN KHATIDZHE-SULTAN (about 1628-1683) - Ukrainian named Nadezhda, originally from the Ukrainian Slobozhanshchina, presumably - from the city of Trostyanets in the modern Sumy region of Ukraine. Concubine of Sultan Ibrahim I since 1641. Valide Sultan and regent of the state since 1651 with his young son Mehmed IV. She voluntarily renounced the title of regent on September 15, 1565 in favor of the new Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, appointed by her. This date is considered the end of the “female sultanate”, although Turhan herself lived for another 18 years, and her son-sultan, on whose behalf she ruled, died 28 years later, having lost power in 1687, just four years after her death. mother. Some Turkish historians consider 1687 to be the end of the “female sultanate”, thus extending its term by 31 years. Because all these powerful sultans, no matter how smart, enterprising and wise they were, meant nothing without their own, often not just stupid, but mentally retarded sons, whose name they ruled. Independent rule of women in the Ottoman Empire was absolutely excluded for the Islamic world.

One more point. In those harsh times of the late Middle Ages, with a huge infant mortality rate (out of 10 newborns, 5 died in the first days and months of life) and the frequent death of women in labor, the girl was considered ready for marriage (and, accordingly, for marital relations) immediately after the first menstruation. And in southern countries (unlike northern ones), this is quite common and now occurs in girls at 10-11, even at 9 years old. It is clear that then no one knew or heard anything about pedophilia - life was too short and harsh, a woman had to have time to give birth to as many children as possible, so that, in turn, as many of them as possible survived. In addition, in those days it was believed that the younger the woman in labor, the more chances she has to survive the birth of a child. So all the concubines of the Turkish sultans first got into their bed at 11-12, maximum at 13-14 years old. Which is confirmed by the dates of birth of their children. For example, the father of Sultan Suleiman I, Selim I, his grandmother Gyulbahar-Khatun (Greek woman Maria) gave birth in less than 12 years. At the same age, the concubine of the conqueror of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II Fatih, Sitti Mykrim Khatun, gave birth to her son Bayazid II (grandfather of Sultan Suleiman).

The founder of the "Women's Sultanate" in the Ottoman Empire is considered Roksolana (Khyurrem Sultan) - a Ukrainian slave-concubine, and later - the beloved legal wife of Sultan Suleiman I.

Which is not entirely correct for several reasons.

Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska's success was largely due to and prepared by the activities of her mother-in-law, mother of Sultan Suleiman, Aisha Hafsa-Sultan - an outstanding woman of her time, whom her son loved and respected until his death. Perhaps for the first time in the history of the Ottoman Empire, not only as a mother, but, first of all, as a person.

AYSHE HAFSA-SULTAN (December 5, 1479 - March 19, 1534)
Crimean Hanbika (princess), daughter of the Crimean Khan Mengli I Girey (1445-1515) from the dynasty of the Crimean rulers Geraev (Gireyev). Her father was forced to accept an Ottoman protectorate in 1578, a year before Hafsa was born.

In the harem of Selim's shehzade, Hafsa-Khatun ended up somewhere in the spring-summer of 1493, at about 13 years old. Selim was then the sanjak-bey (governor of the Ottoman province) of Trambzon (now an administrative center in northeastern Turkey, on the Black Sea coast, not far from the border with Georgia) - the former capital of the Trebizond Empire recently captured (in 1461) by the Ottomans - the heiress of Byzantium, so the Crimean Hanbike, in order to become a concubine of one of the heirs of the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, had only to cross the Black Sea on the ship of his father.

The future Sultan Suleiman was born in Trambzon the following year, on November 6, 1494, and his twin sister, Hafiza (Hafsa) Khanim Sultan (1494-1538), was born at the same time. The birth of twins and twins is usually an inherited family trait. In this regard, it is worth remembering that more than thirty years later, in 1530, the younger sister of Suleiman and at the same time the daughter of his mother Aishe Hafsa, Khatije Sultan, also gave birth to twins - the boy Osman and the girl Khurijikhan.

Two daughters of Roksolana's son, Shehzade Selim, from his concubine Nurbanu - Esmekhan Sultan and Gevkerkhan Sultan, were twins or twins - there is even an assumption that their older sister, Shah Sultan, a year older than them, was actually born in one day with the girls - that is, they were triplets. After the death of Sultan Osman II, the great-great-grandson of Suleiman I, twins were born to him, Shehzade Mustafa and Zeynep Sultan. And the paternal brother of Sultan Osman, Ahmed I, also had a pair of twins from Kosem Sultan - Shehzade Kasim and Atike Sultan.

The twin sister of Sultan Suleiman lived a quiet and inconspicuous life. At the age of 20, she was married to Damada-Mustafa Pasha, who later, from 1522 to 1523, was the governor of Egypt. Hafiza the Sultan never had children, and therefore, being widowed at 29, she returned to Istanbul to her mother, Aisha Hafse-validide Sultan, at the Topkapi Palace. She never married again, and here she ended her days - on July 10, 1538, at the age of incomplete 44 years.

The first years of his life Suleiman spent in his father's sandjak, in Trambzon, and after the circumcision ceremony at the age of 7, his grandfather, Sultan Bayezid II, took his grandson to his court in Constantinople. There shehzade studied military affairs, legal law, philosophy, history and fencing. In addition, Suleiman taught foreign languages- Serbian, Arabic and Persian, which he later mastered perfectly. Then he mastered the craft of a jeweler, which became his passion for life.

Grandfather-Sultan treated Roksolana's future husband very well (much better than his father), which is proved by the following circumstance.

According to the Ottoman tradition, all who reached a certain age (usually at the age of 14, but exceptions to the rules in both directions happened quite often), the crown princes (shehzade) were appointed governors (sanjak-beys) of the provinces (sandjaks) in Anatolia (the Asian part of modern Turkey); this was part of their preparation for their subsequent reign. In the Ottoman Empire there were no clear rules for the succession to the throne, all men - bearers of the sacred blood of the Ottomans, had the right to rule. According to custom, the throne was given to the sehzade who was the first to reach Istanbul immediately after the death of the Padishah of the Sublime Port. Therefore, by the distance from the capital of one or another sanjak of each son or grandson of the Turkish sultan, one could judge his preferences - it is clear that the one whom the father saw as his heir became the sanjak bey closest to the capital of the province. And in this respect, Suleiman's father, Selim, everything was not just bad, but hopeless - his sanjak Trambzon, compared with Amasya, the favorite of his father, older brother, Shehzade Akhmet, and Antalya of his second brother-competitor, Shehzade Korkut, was in such deaf fuck @ yah, of which he didn't have a single chance to get to Istanbul first (the distance from Trambzon to Istanbul in a straight line is 902 km. In those days, even on the best horses and in good weather, it took ten days one way to get there) ... For comparison: the distance from Amasya Ahmet to Istanbul is 482 km, and exactly the same distance, only in the direction south of Istanbul, to Antalya Korkut.

And then, like a bolt from the blue - his only son Suleiman, who reached 14 years old (in 1508), receives from his grandfather the first appointment not just anywhere, but in a small sandjak Bolu, located almost near Istanbul (223 km. By straight). However, the favorite of the Sultan's race, the eldest son of Bayazid II, Suleiman's uncle, Akhmet (who by that time had four grown-up sons of his own), quickly corrected this annoying circumstance for him by sending his nephew as governor “to hell on horns” - to the Crimean Kaffa ( Feodosia), to the other side of the Black Sea, to the homeland of his mother, Aisha Hafsy-Sultan. By doing so, he made a fatal mistake.

Some time after Suleiman was sent to Crimea by the sandjakbey, his father Selim asked his father for a sanjak in Rumelia (the European part of the empire), closer to Istanbul. Although at first he was denied these lands, since they were usually not provided to the Shehzade, later, obviously in mockery (apparently, it could not do without his elder brother Ahmet) Selim received control over the province of Semendire (in modern Serbia) - a blind hole in the north -western edge of the empire. Here Selim first showed open disobedience, refusing to go to his new sanjak, and then raised an uprising against his father, moving a hastily assembled army to Istanbul. Sultan Bayazid, at the head of a large army, easily defeated his son in August 1511. Defeated Selim fled to the Crimea - to his son Suleiman and his father-in-law, the Crimean Khan Mengli I Girey, who provided his son-in-law with all kinds of help and support. Sultan Bayazid had no way of catching a fugitive in the Crimea, where he is under the protection of the elite army of his father, one of his sultans. And sanjak-bey Suleiman could imitate the search for a rebel in front of his grandfather the Sultan as much as he wanted.

Meanwhile, the eldest son of the Ottoman ruler, Ahmet, whom his father entrusted the suppression of the Shahkul uprising in Anatolia, having received large military forces at his disposal, while Bayezid II dealt with Selim, declared himself the Sultan of Anatolia, and began to fight against one of his nephews (whose father was already dead). He captured the city of Konya and, although Sultan Bayazid demanded that he return to his sanjak, Akhmet insisted on the management of this city. He even made an attempt to seize the capital, but to no avail, since the janissaries refused to help him, resolutely supporting the Crimean fugitive Selim.

Ultimately, having lost the support of the janissaries, and due to some complex religious motives, Bayezid II abdicated the throne on April 25, 1512 in favor of his father Suleiman.

Having become the sultan, Selim I first of all ordered the execution of all his male relatives who had the right to the Ottoman throne. A month later, he ordered the poisoning of his father. Selim's hated older brother, Ahmet, continued to control part of Anatolia during the first few months of his rule. In the end, the troops of Selim and Akhmet met in the battle of Yenisehir near Bursa on April 24, 1513, the anniversary of the abdication of their father, Sultan Bayazid. Akhmet's army was defeated, he himself was captured and was soon executed.

Selim's second brother-rival, Shehzade Korkut, did not take any part in these strife, being quite content with his position as a sanjak-bey of Manisa. He did not hesitate to accept Selim's authority when he became Sultan. However, the distrustful Selim I decided to test his loyalty by sending him fake letters on behalf of some statesmen of the empire, in which Korkut was urged to take part in the uprising against Selim. Upon learning of the positive response of his brother, Selim ordered his execution, which was done.

All the time while Selim II was deciding, of course, the most important issues for him, not just succession to the throne, but elementary survival, of course, he had no time for Suleiman. The leadership of the upbringing of his son was completely taken over by the mother of shehzade, Aishe Hafsa-sultan - an intelligent, courageous and independent woman. The fact that the Crimean khanshes in their homeland have always enjoyed much greater freedom than the Turkish sultans at home led to the fact that many contemporaries considered Aishe Hafsu a violator of traditional Ottoman foundations. It was she, and not her daughter-in-law Roksolana, who was the first to break the unshakable rule of the main harem of Turkey “one concubine - one shehzade”. The eunuchs did not allow women who had already given birth to a son to the Sultan to attend the halvet (literally - “complete solitude of a man and a woman in a closed space without any hindrances”) (unless the ruler himself summoned one of them). This principle, it must be admitted, made practically equal chances for the throne of the Ottomans of all shehzade after the death of their common father. And he did not give the opportunity for any one odalisque to significantly strengthen its position in the harem (and this could be done only by giving birth to boys). So, it was Aishe Hafsa Sultan who gave birth to Selim I nine children (Roksolana lost to her here too, having given birth to “only” six), of which four sons and five daughters. In addition to five full-fledged (from common parents), Suleiman had five more half-sisters from different concubines of his father. Suleiman's younger brothers, Orhan, Musa and Korkut, died in early childhood. Of all the sons of Sultan Selim, only the eldest son of the Crimean khanbiki survived to adulthood, which, of course, later greatly facilitated his path to the throne.

The significance for Selim I of his concubine Aishe Hafsa-Sultan, the mother of his only shehzade, after being defeated by his father Sultan Bayezid II, he fled to her father in the Crimea, cannot be overemphasized. Hafsa Sultan became the connecting and unifying link between the three men closest to her - the son of Suleiman, the Sandzhak Bey of the Crimea (to whom, of course, the Ottoman troops on the peninsula were subordinate), the father, the Crimean Khan Mengli I Girey, who controlled a considerable local army (the raids of the Crimean Tatars to Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland kept the entire Eastern Europe), and her husband (for lack of another definition), the heir to the Ottoman Empire, Selim.

It is unlikely that Sultan Selim appreciated this - a very cruel and rude man even by the standards of his time, but the young Suleiman, who at the age of 17 found himself in the very epicenter of the dynastic crisis of a huge state, this circumstance, of course, made an indelible impression. And, obviously, this is what made him see a person in a woman, who in those days was not considered a person either.

After the accession of Selim I to the throne in April 1512, he sent Suleiman as governor to the “hereditary” sanjak Sarukhan with the capital in Manisa. The distance from Manisa to Istanbul in a straight line is 297 km. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Ottoman sultans sent those of their sons to her as sanjak-beys, to whom they wanted to leave power over the Sublime Port after their death. Aishe Hafsa Sultan went to Surukhan with her son, and in 1520, after the death of Sultan Selim I, she accompanied him to Istanbul, where he became Sultan Suleiman I. From 1520 until her death in 1534, she led the main harem of the empire. She became the first mother of the ruling Turkish padishah, who bore the title of Valide Sultan.

During the eight years, during which her son ruled Sarukhan in Manis, Aisha Hafsa Sultan did a lot for the prosperity of this land. At her own expense, she built mosques, schools and hospitals in Manisa. The building of the charity center she founded to help the mentally ill has survived to this day.

The day of the death of the mother of Sultan Suleiman - March 19, 1534 - is still celebrated in Turkey as the day of remembrance of one of the most revered women in the country.

If at the very beginning of the Sultanate of Selim I in the Sublime Port there were only two carriers of the sacred blood of the Ottomans in the male line - he himself and his only son Suleiman (he himself destroyed the rest), then after the death of his father, Suleiman arrived in Istanbul from Manisa with three (by other data - five) by his sons from three concubines (in total he had seventeen of them in his harem then), the eldest of whom was 7-8 years old, including 5-year-old Mustafa then. And in Istanbul, he was waiting for the throne of the greatest power of that time - the Islamic Ottoman Empire, which he further expanded and strengthened with military campaigns during his reign. And Roksolana.

The traditional harem (from the Arabic "haram" - forbidden) is primarily the female half of the Muslim house. Only the head of the family and his sons had access to the harem. For everyone else, this part of the Arab home is a strict taboo. This taboo was observed so strictly and zealously that the Turkish chronicler Dursun Bey wrote: "If the sun were a man, then even he would be forbidden to look into the harem." Harem - the kingdom of luxury and lost hopes ...

The sultan's harem was located in the Istanbul palace Topkapi. Here lived the mother (validide-sultan), sisters, daughters and heirs (shahzade) of the sultan, his wife (kadyn-effendi), favorites and concubines (odalisks, slaves - jariye).

From 700 to 1200 women could live in the harem at the same time. The inhabitants of the harem were served by black eunuchs (karaagalar), who were commanded by darussaade agas. Kapy-agasy, the head of the white eunuchs (akagalar), was responsible for both the harem and the inner chambers of the palace (enderun), where the sultan lived. Until 1587, the kapy-agasi possessed power inside the palace comparable to the power of the vizier outside it, then the heads of the black eunuchs became more influential.

The harem itself was actually ruled by the Valide Sultan. Next in rank were the Sultan's unmarried sisters, then his wives.

The income of the women of the Sultan's family was made up of funds called a shoe ("on a shoe").

There were few slaves in the Sultan's harem, usually girls who were sold by their parents to a school at the harem and underwent special training in it became concubines.

In order to cross the threshold of the seraglio, the slave went through a kind of initiation ceremony. In addition to checking for innocence, the girl was obliged to convert to Islam.

Entering the harem was in many ways reminiscent of being tonsured a nun, where instead of selfless service to God, no less selfless service to the master was instilled. Candidates for concubines, like the brides of God, were forced to sever all ties with the outside world, received new names and learned to live in obedience.

In later harems, wives were absent as such. The main source of a privileged position was the attention of the Sultan and childbirth. Giving attention to one of the concubines, the owner of the harem raised her to the rank of a temporary wife. This situation was most often precarious and could change at any moment depending on the mood of the master. The most reliable way to gain a foothold in the status of a wife was the birth of a boy. The concubine who gave her master a son acquired the status of mistress.

The largest in the history of the Muslim world was the Istanbul harem Dar-ul-Seadet, in which all women were foreign slaves, free Turkish women did not get there. The concubines in this harem were called "odalisque", a little later the Europeans added the letter "s" to the word and got "odalisque".

And here is Topkapi Palace, where Harem lived

From among the odalisques, the sultan chose up to seven wives for himself. Those who were lucky to become a "wife" received the title of "kadyn" - madam. The main "kadyn" was the one who managed to give birth to the first child. But even the most prolific "kadyn" could not count on honorary title"Sultans". Only the mother, sisters and daughters of the Sultan could be called sultans.

Transport of wives, concubines, in short a harem taxi company

Slightly below the "kadyn" on the hierarchical ladder of the harem stood the favorites - "ikbal". These women received salaries, their own apartments and personal slaves.

The favorites were not only skillful mistresses, but, as a rule, subtle and intelligent politicians. In Turkish society, it was through "ikbal" for a certain bribe that one could go directly to the Sultan himself, bypassing the bureaucratic obstacles of the state. Below the ikbal were the konkubins. These young ladies were less fortunate. Conditions of detention are worse, there are fewer privileges.

It was at the stage of "show jumping" that there was the toughest competition, in which dagger and poison were often used. Theoretically, “konkubbin”, like “ikbal”, had a chance to climb the hierarchical ladder, having given birth to a child.

But unlike the favorites close to the Sultan, they had very few chances for this wonderful event. Firstly, if there are up to a thousand concubines in the harem, it is easier to wait for the weather by the sea than the holy sacrament of mating with the Sultan.

Secondly, even if the Sultan descends, it is not at all a fact that the happy concubine will necessarily become pregnant. And even more so, it is not a fact that she is not going to have a miscarriage.

The old slaves watched over the concubines, and any pregnancy noticed was immediately terminated. In principle, it is quite logical - any woman in childbirth, one way or another, became a contender for the role of a legitimate "kadyn", and her baby - a potential contender for the throne.

If, despite all the intrigues and intrigues, the odalisque managed to keep the pregnancy and did not allow the child to be killed during “unsuccessful childbirth,” she automatically received her own staff of slaves, eunuchs and an annual Basmalik salary.

Girls were bought from their fathers at the age of 5-7 years and were brought up until the age of 14-15. They were taught music, cooking, sewing, court etiquette, the art of pleasing a man. Selling his daughter to a school with a harem, the father signed a paper, which indicated that he had no rights to his daughter and agreed not to meet with her until the end of his life. Once in the harem, the girls received a different name.

Choosing a concubine for the night, the sultan sent her a gift (often a shawl or a ring). After that, she was sent to a bathhouse, dressed in beautiful clothes and sent to the door of the Sultan's bedroom, where she waited until the Sultan went to bed. Entering the bedroom, she crawled on her knees to the bed, and kissed the carpet. In the morning, the sultan sent rich gifts to the concubine if he liked the night he spent with her.

The sultan could have a favorite - guzde. Here is one of the most famous, Ukrainian Roxalana

Suleiman the Magnificent

Bani Khyurrem Sultan (Roksolany), wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, built in 1556 near the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Architect Mimar Sinan.

Mausoleum of Roxalana

Walide with the black eunuch

Reconstruction of one of the rooms of the Valide Sultan apartments in the Topkapi Palace. Melike Safiye Sultan (possibly nee Sofia Baffo) is the concubine of the Ottoman Sultan Murad III and mother of Mehmed III. During the reign of Mehmed, she held the title of Valide Sultan (mother of the Sultan) and was one of the most important figures in the Ottoman Empire.

She was considered equal only to the mother of the Sultan - Valide. Valide Sultan, regardless of her origin, could be very influential (the most famous example is Nurbanu).

Aishe Hafsa Sultan is the wife of Sultan Selim I and mother of Sultan Suleiman I.

Hospice Aishe-Sultan

Kyosem Sultan, also known as Mahpeiker - the wife of the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I (bore the title of Haseki) and the mother of the sultans Murad IV and Ibrahim I. During the reign of her sons, she bore the title of Valide Sultan and was one of the most important figures in the Ottoman Empire.

Valide apartments in the palace

Bathroom Valide

Spalenka Valide

After 9 years, the concubine, who had never been elected by the Sultan, had the right to leave the harem. In this case, the sultan found her a husband and gave her a dowry, she received a document that she was a free person.

However, the lowest layer of the harem also had its own hope for happiness. For example, only they had a chance for at least some kind of personal life. After several years of impeccable service and adoration, they found a husband in their eyes, or, having allocated funds for a non-poor life, they were released on all four sides.

Moreover, among the odalisques - outsiders of the harem society - there were also their aristocrats. A slave woman could turn into a “gezde” - one worthy of a glance, if the sultan somehow - with a glance, gesture or word - distinguished her from the general crowd. Thousands of women have lived their entire lives in a harem, but neither the fact that the Sultan has not been seen naked, but did not even wait for the honor of being "honored with a glance"

If the sultan died, all the concubines were sorted according to the sex of the children they had time to give birth. The girls' mothers could well get married, but the mothers of the "princes" settled in the "Old Palace", from where they could leave only after the accession of the new Sultan. And at this moment the most fun began. The brothers hounded each other with enviable regularity and persistence. Their mothers also actively injected poison into the food of their potential rivals and their sons.

In addition to the old proven slaves, the concubines were watched by eunuchs. Translated from Greek, "eunuch" means "keeper of the bed." They ended up in the harem exclusively in the form of overseers, so to speak, to maintain order. There were two types of eunuchs. Some were castrated in early childhood and their secondary sexual characteristics were completely absent - a beard did not grow, there was a high, boyish voice and a complete non-perception of a woman as an individual of the opposite sex. Others were castrated at a later age.

Incomplete eunuchs (namely, the so-called castrated not in childhood, but in adolescence), very much looked like men, had the most low male bass, thin facial hair, broad muscular shoulders, and, oddly enough, sexual desire.

Of course, eunuchs could not satisfy their needs in a natural way due to the lack of the necessary device for this. But as you can imagine, when it comes to sex or drinking, the flight of human imagination is simply endless. And the odalisques, who for years lived with an obsessive dream of waiting for the sultan's gaze, were not particularly legible. Well, if there are 300-500 concubines in the harem, at least half of them are younger and more beautiful than you, well, what's the point in waiting for a prince? And without fish, the eunuch is a man.

In addition to the fact that the eunuchs observed order in the harem and in parallel (secretly from the Sultan, of course) in all possible and impossible ways consoled themselves and women yearning for male attention, their duties also included the functions of executioners. They strangled the concubines guilty of disobedience with a silk cord or drowned the unfortunate woman in the Bosphorus.

The influence of the inhabitants of the harem on the sultans was used by the envoys of foreign states. Thus, the Russian ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, MI Kutuzov, arriving in Istanbul in September 1793, sent gifts to the Valide Sultan Mikhrishah, and "the Sultan took this attention to his mother with sensitivity."

Selim

Kutuzov received reciprocal gifts from the Sultan's mother and a favorable reception from Selim III himself. The Russian ambassador strengthened Russia's influence in Turkey and persuaded her to enter into an alliance against revolutionary France.

Since the 19th century, after the abolition of slavery in the Ottoman Empire, all concubines began to enter the harem voluntarily and with the consent of their parents, hoping to achieve material well-being and a career. The harem of the Ottoman sultans was liquidated in 1908.

The harem, like the Topkapi Palace itself, is a real labyrinth, rooms, corridors, courtyards are all scattered randomly. This confusion can be divided into three parts: The quarters of the black eunuchs The actual harem where the wives and concubines lived. The quarters of Valide Sultan and the padishah himself. Our tour of the Harem of Topkapi Palace was very short.

The premises are dark and deserted, there is no furniture, there are bars on the windows. Cramped and narrow corridors. Here lived eunuchs, vindictive and vindictive because of psychological and physical injury ... And they lived in the same ugly rooms, tiny, like closets, sometimes without windows at all. The impression is brightened up only by the magical beauty and antiquity of Iznik tiles, as if emitting a pale shine. We passed the stone courtyard of the concubines, looked at Valide's apartments.

It's also cramped, all the beauty is in green, turquoise, blue faience tiles. I ran my hand over them, touched the flower garlands on them - tulips, carnations, but a peacock's tail ... It was cold, and my head was spinning the thoughts that the rooms were not warm enough and the inhabitants of the harem were probably often sick with tuberculosis.

Moreover, this lack of direct sunlight ... Imagination stubbornly refused to work. Instead of the splendor of the Seraglio, luxurious fountains, fragrant flowers, I saw enclosed spaces, cold walls, empty rooms, dark passages, incomprehensible niches in the walls, a strange fantasy world. The sense of direction and connection to the outside world was lost. I was stubbornly engulfed by an aura of some kind of hopelessness and melancholy. Even the balconies and terraces in some rooms, overlooking the sea and the fortress walls, did not please.

And finally, the reaction of the official Istanbul to the acclaimed TV series "Golden Age"

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan believes that the television series about the court of Suleiman the Magnificent offends the greatness of the Ottoman Empire. However, the historical chronicles confirm that the palace has really sunk to a complete decline.

All kinds of rumors often circulate around forbidden places. Moreover, the more secret they are shrouded in, the more fantastic assumptions are put forward by mere mortals about what is happening behind closed doors. This applies equally to the secret archives of the Vatican and the caches of the CIA. The harems of Muslim rulers are no exception.

So it is not surprising that one of them became the scene of a "soap opera" that has become popular in many countries. The action of the series "Magnificent Century" is set in the Ottoman Empire of the 16th century, which stretched at that time from Algeria to Sudan and from Belgrade to Iran. At the head was Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled in 1520-1566, in whose bedroom there was a place for hundreds of barely dressed beauties. Unsurprisingly, 150 million TV viewers in 22 countries are interested in this story.

Erdogan, in turn, focuses primarily on the glory and power of the Ottoman Empire, which reached its peak during the reign of Suleiman. Invented harem stories from that time, in his opinion, understate the greatness of the Sultan and thus the entire Turkish state.

But what does the distortion of history mean in this case? Three Western historians have spent considerable time studying the history of the Ottoman Empire. The last of these was the Romanian explorer Nicolae Iorga (1871-1940), whose History of the Ottoman Empire also included previously published studies by the Austrian orientalist Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall and the German historian Johann Wilhelm Zinkeisen (Johann Wilhelm Zinkeisen).

Iorga devoted a lot of time to studying the events at the Ottoman court during the time of Suleiman and his heirs, for example, Selim II, who inherited the throne after the death of his father in 1566. "More like a monster than a man", he spent most of his life in drunkenness, by the way, prohibited by the Koran, and his red face once again confirmed his addiction to alcohol.

The day was barely beginning, and he, as a rule, was already drunk. To the solution of issues of state importance, he usually preferred entertainment for which dwarfs, jesters, magicians or wrestlers were responsible, in which he occasionally shot from a bow. But if the endless feasts of Selim took place, apparently, without the participation of women, then under his heir Murad III, who ruled from 1574 to 1595 and lived for 20 years under Suleiman, everything was already different.

“Women play an important role in this country,” wrote one French diplomat who had some experience in this regard in his homeland. “Since Murad spent all his time in the palace, his entourage had a great influence on his weak spirit,” Iorga wrote. "With women, the Sultan was always obedient and weak-willed."

Most of all this was used by the mother and first wife of Murad, who were always accompanied by "many court ladies, schemers and intermediaries," Iorga wrote. “On the street they were followed by a cavalcade of 20 carts and a crowd of janissaries. A very shrewd person, she often influenced appointments at court. Because of her extravagance, Murad tried several times to send her to the old palace, but she remained a real sovereign until her death. "

Ottoman princesses lived in "typically oriental luxury." European diplomats tried to win their favor with exquisite gifts, because one note from the hands of one of them was enough to appoint one or another pasha. The careers of the young gentlemen who married them depended entirely on them. And those who dared to reject them lived in danger. Pasha "could easily have been strangled if he did not dare to take this dangerous step - to marry an Ottoman princess."

While Murad was having fun in the company of beautiful slaves, “all the other people allowed to run the empire made personal enrichment their goal - no matter, honestly or dishonestly,” Iorga wrote. It is no coincidence that one of the chapters of his book is called "Reasons for the Collapse." When you read it, you get the feeling that this is the script of a television series, such as, for example, "Rome" or "Boardwalk Empire".

However, behind the endless orgies and intrigues in the palace and in the harem, important changes in life at court were hidden. Before Suleiman's accession to the throne, it was accepted that the sons of the Sultan, accompanied by their mother, left for the province and remained aloof from the struggle for power. The prince who succeeded to the throne, then, as a rule, killed all his brothers, which was in some way even not bad, because it was so possible to avoid a bloody struggle for the sultan's inheritance.

Everything changed under Suleiman. After he not only had children with his concubine Roksolana, but also freed her from slavery and appointed her as his main wife, the princes remained in the palace in Istanbul. The first concubine who managed to rise to the Sultan's wife did not know what shame and conscience were, and she shamelessly promoted her children up the career ladder. Numerous foreign diplomats wrote about intrigues at court. Later, historians relied on their letters in their studies.

The fact that the heirs of Suleiman abandoned the tradition of sending wives and princes away to the province also played a role. Therefore, the latter constantly intervened in political issues. “In addition to participating in palace intrigues, their connection with the janissaries stationed in the capital is worthy of mention,” wrote the historian Suraya Faroki from Munich.