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Sultanate of Women
The Sultanate of Women (Ottoman Turkish: قادينلر سلطنتى, romanized: Kadınlar Saltanatı) was a period when some concubines, mothers, sisters and grandmothers of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire exerted extraordinary political influence.
This phenomenon took place from roughly 1534 to 1715, beginning in the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent with the rise of Hürrem Sultan and ending with the death of Gülnuş Sultan. These women were either the concubines of the sultan, referred to as haseki sultans, or the mothers of the sultan, known as valide sultans. All of them were of slave origin, as was expected during the sultanate, since the traditional idea of marriage was considered inappropriate for the sultan, who was not expected to have any personal allegiances beyond his governmental role; however, Hürrem Sultan managed to become the legal wife of Suleiman, and Nurbanu Sultan, Safiye Sultan, and Kösem Sultan might have also married their respective sultans.
During this time, haseki and valide sultans often held political and social sway, which allowed them to influence the daily running of the empire and undertake philanthropic works as well as to request the construction of buildings such as the large Haseki Sultan Mosque complex and the prominent Valide Sultan Mosque, also known as the New Mosque, in Eminönü.
This period was novel for the Ottoman Empire but not without precedent since the Seljuk rulers, the predecessors to the Ottomans, often let noble women play an active role in public policy and affairs, despite the resistance of other male officials.[page needed]
During the fourteenth century, the agency of women in government began to shrink. This was the age of Ottoman expansion where most sultans elected to "lead from the horse", moving around with a court of advisors, viziers, and religious leaders as the army conquered new lands.[page needed] Ottoman policy from the fifteenth century onwards was to send young princes and their mothers to provincial governorships in Trabzon, Manisa and Amasya in Anatolia. This had the effect of keeping all the women with connections to the higher levels of government away from anywhere where they could hold meaningful power. The practice of fratricide—in which an ascendant sultan would execute all his brothers to secure his throne—made the wives and mothers of princes even more dependent on their men.[page needed]
The situation began to change at the beginning of the 16th century with the concurrence of two significant events: the end of Ottoman expansion, and the absorption of the Ottoman Imperial Harem into the palace proper. During the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, it became clear that the expansion of the empire had reached its limit, with borders stretching thousands of miles in nearly every direction. The sultan could no longer afford to go on extended military campaigns, especially after the failure of the Siege of Vienna.[page needed]
In addition, Süleyman's reign marked the absorption of the imperial harem into the palace and political sphere as he became the first sultan to be officially married to a woman named Roxelana, later known as Hürrem Sultan. Before the Sultanate of Women, the sultan did not marry but kept a harem of slave concubines who produced his heirs, with each concubine producing just one son then following him to the province they were assigned to lead instead of remaining in Istanbul.
The first haseki sultan was Roxelana, victim of the Crimean slave trade and wife of Süleyman the Magnificent, who became known as Hürrem Sultan after her conversion to Islam. Roxelana was mistakenly assumed to be of Russian descent, probably because of a mistranslation of her name, and European visitors treated her as Russian. Her ancestry was actually Ruthenian. Her Turkish name Hürrem meant "Laughing One", or "Joyful" in testament to her character.
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Sultanate of Women
The Sultanate of Women (Ottoman Turkish: قادينلر سلطنتى, romanized: Kadınlar Saltanatı) was a period when some concubines, mothers, sisters and grandmothers of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire exerted extraordinary political influence.
This phenomenon took place from roughly 1534 to 1715, beginning in the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent with the rise of Hürrem Sultan and ending with the death of Gülnuş Sultan. These women were either the concubines of the sultan, referred to as haseki sultans, or the mothers of the sultan, known as valide sultans. All of them were of slave origin, as was expected during the sultanate, since the traditional idea of marriage was considered inappropriate for the sultan, who was not expected to have any personal allegiances beyond his governmental role; however, Hürrem Sultan managed to become the legal wife of Suleiman, and Nurbanu Sultan, Safiye Sultan, and Kösem Sultan might have also married their respective sultans.
During this time, haseki and valide sultans often held political and social sway, which allowed them to influence the daily running of the empire and undertake philanthropic works as well as to request the construction of buildings such as the large Haseki Sultan Mosque complex and the prominent Valide Sultan Mosque, also known as the New Mosque, in Eminönü.
This period was novel for the Ottoman Empire but not without precedent since the Seljuk rulers, the predecessors to the Ottomans, often let noble women play an active role in public policy and affairs, despite the resistance of other male officials.[page needed]
During the fourteenth century, the agency of women in government began to shrink. This was the age of Ottoman expansion where most sultans elected to "lead from the horse", moving around with a court of advisors, viziers, and religious leaders as the army conquered new lands.[page needed] Ottoman policy from the fifteenth century onwards was to send young princes and their mothers to provincial governorships in Trabzon, Manisa and Amasya in Anatolia. This had the effect of keeping all the women with connections to the higher levels of government away from anywhere where they could hold meaningful power. The practice of fratricide—in which an ascendant sultan would execute all his brothers to secure his throne—made the wives and mothers of princes even more dependent on their men.[page needed]
The situation began to change at the beginning of the 16th century with the concurrence of two significant events: the end of Ottoman expansion, and the absorption of the Ottoman Imperial Harem into the palace proper. During the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, it became clear that the expansion of the empire had reached its limit, with borders stretching thousands of miles in nearly every direction. The sultan could no longer afford to go on extended military campaigns, especially after the failure of the Siege of Vienna.[page needed]
In addition, Süleyman's reign marked the absorption of the imperial harem into the palace and political sphere as he became the first sultan to be officially married to a woman named Roxelana, later known as Hürrem Sultan. Before the Sultanate of Women, the sultan did not marry but kept a harem of slave concubines who produced his heirs, with each concubine producing just one son then following him to the province they were assigned to lead instead of remaining in Istanbul.
The first haseki sultan was Roxelana, victim of the Crimean slave trade and wife of Süleyman the Magnificent, who became known as Hürrem Sultan after her conversion to Islam. Roxelana was mistakenly assumed to be of Russian descent, probably because of a mistranslation of her name, and European visitors treated her as Russian. Her ancestry was actually Ruthenian. Her Turkish name Hürrem meant "Laughing One", or "Joyful" in testament to her character.
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