Suleiman the Magnificent: A Life From Beginning to End by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2017-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

Court Life, Consorts, and Counsellors

“My spring, my joy, my day, my beloved, my laughing rose.”

—Muhibbi (Suleiman)

Suleiman’s earliest campaigns demonstrated the Ottoman power and military strategies, causing Europe to fear him. But while Suleiman spent a significant portion of his first few years as sultan out on military campaigns, he also had a life back in Constantinople. This life centered around the splendid Topkapi Palace, originally built by Sultan Mehmed II, but which Suleiman greatly enlarged (and which is still visited by millions of tourists in Istanbul today). Here, under gold-detailed domed roofs and amid walls lavishly decorated with geometric and floral patterns, the Sultan met with officials and advisors. Whenever he had time, he also enjoyed trips outside the palace to practice hunting and falconry.

One significant part of Suleiman’s life in Constantinople was his mother, Hafsa. During Suleiman’s childhood, his father had often been absent due to military ventures; Suleiman had, therefore, spent a large amount of time with his mother. The two of them had a famously close relationship, which continued into Suleiman’s reign as emperor. Hafsa not only ruled the harem—the women’s quarters—of Suleiman’s palace, but may have been quite influential in many of the sultan’s decisions. Hafsa was widely known as Hafsa Sultan; the suffix became affixed after the name of the chief consort of the sultan, implying that the power of the sultan belonged to a family.

In addition to Hafsa, two other women figured prominently in Suleiman’s life in Constantinople. The first of these was a woman known alternately as Gülbahar, “Spring Rose,” or Mahidevran. Gülbahar was born in nearby Montenegro, but an Ottoman raiding party captured her and brought her to Constantinople, where she was given her new Turkish name. While some sultans, including Suleiman’s father, Selim I, consorted with women of their harems in a much more promiscuous manner, Suleiman preferred Gülbahar and stayed relatively true to her for a significant part of his life.

Sometime in the mid-1520s, however, a second woman caught Suleiman’s attention. She hailed from Russia and was an Orthodox Christian captured during an Ottoman raid in an area near modern-day Poland or Ukraine. While her original name is not known for certain, scholars have speculated that it may have been Anastasia or Aleksandra. Her Ottoman captors changed her name to Hürrem, meaning “Smiling One” or “Cheerful One.” Despite her name, Hürrem Sultan was known for her intelligence and will-power, not her looks. Her northern origins earned her another label by which she is primarily known today; the name Roxelana developed because of her Russian ethnicity. Roxelana eventually became Suleiman’s chief consort, bearing him three sons. Like Hafsa, she became a major influence in Suleiman’s life, and therefore in the whole of the Ottoman Empire.

While these three women held significant sway over Suleiman, another key figure who cannot be ignored is the man who became Suleiman’s grand vizier, Ibrahim. Ibrahim, too, came to Suleiman from outside the Ottoman Empire. Though Ibrahim was born in Greece, Ottoman pirates captured him in his youth and sold him as a slave.

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