Empress of the East by Leslie Peirce

Author:Leslie Peirce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2017-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

While the foundation’s users doubtless took care to conduct themselves with circumspection, the Haseki complex was rarely silent. In warm weather, the voices of children reciting their lessons might waft beyond the foundation’s walls from the open porch that served as the schoolhouse’s summer classroom. From the mosque echoed a variety of sounds—some, like the call to prayer, were meant to be heard from a distance; others were more subdued. In the intervals between the five daily prayer times, a buzz of voices echoed on a nearly around-the-clock schedule, except for the hours between the last prayer of the day and the dawn prayer of the next. Roxelana’s charter provided support for a roster of forty-seven individuals to recite portions of the Qur`an or repeat the Shahada, the succinct Muslim declaration of faith. The most elaborate recitations occurred after the noon prayer, when thirty men in unison each recited a different juz`, a thirtieth part of the Qur`an.

All such mosque staff would naturally be trained in recitation techniques. Their small stipends suggest that perhaps they had other occupations or were retired. Roxelana was not unusual in her devotion to prayerfulness, for even Muslims of modest means habitually endowed such recitations, in part to secure the well-being of their souls after death. The Qur`an and Shahada reciters supported by Roxelana’s largesse would dedicate their effort to her posthumous spiritual welfare. Those who lingered between prayers might recognize the purpose of the steady hum and offer their own prayer to the mosque’s benefactress.

Who made sure that Roxelana’s detailed vision for the Haseki was realized, so far at least as human and material resources allowed? The queen’s appointees to the two top managerial posts were the principal enactors of her will: the executive supervisor of the foundation, responsible for its financial well-being, and the trustee, responsible for on-the-ground operations. Although Roxelana assigned the office of supervisor to herself for her lifetime, she also named as “honorary” supervisor the chief eunuch of the New Palace.

This honorary supervisor no doubt handled most of the work of overseeing the complex, including scrutiny of the trustee’s performance. But Roxelana could communicate with the chief eunuch easily, even face to face. Later in the century, when black eunuchs rose to prominence along with the expansion of the New Palace’s harem section, their chief would act as the overseer of all royal foundations. His office controlled a vast budget and by the eighteenth century ranked third in importance after those of the grand vizier and the chief mufti.

As her first trustee, Roxelana appointed one Mehmed son of Abdurrahman. Though not a eunuch, he had ties to the palace (his titles suggest he was a fairly high-ranking member of Suleyman’s household).20 The salary of fifty aspers per day, equal to that of the madrasa professor, was worthy of such a remarkable individual. In the graveyard of the Haseki mosque, one of the most beautiful tombstones belongs to a Mehmed Beg (Sir Mehmed), who died in 1562. He may well have been the foundation’s first trustee.

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