Reign of the Favored Women

The Reign of the Favored Women

Ann Chamberlin

OTTOMAN EMPIRE TRILOGY: BOOK 3

Copyright © 1998 by Ann Chamberlin

All rights reserved

A Forge Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

Distributed by St. Martin’s Press

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

Jacket art,
The Music Lesson
, by Frederick, Lord Leighton, courtesy of Bridgeman/Art Resource, NY Map by Ellisa Mitchell

The excerpts from
The Honest Courtesan Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice by
Margaret F. Rosenthal, Copyright © 1992 by Margaret F. Rosenthal. Reprinted by permission of University of Chicago Press.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-10: 0312865929

ISBN-13: 978-0312865924

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.

For

Carl and Jo Ann

Much of the list is the same as for the first two volumes of this trilogy, but repetition should not indicate a lack of appreciation, rather the opposite.

I owe a great deal to the friendly people in Turkey, especially the guides at the Topkapi palace who hardly raised a brow as I went through the harem again and again. I’d like to thank my in-laws, Cal and Jo Ann Setzer—to whom this volume is dedicated—for their support, which allowed me to make that trip. And my husband and sons for their patience while my mind was elsewhere.

Kourkan Daglian, Ruth Mentley, Harriet Klausner, Alexis Bar-Lev, and Dr. James Kelly all unstintingly shared their expertise with me. Again I’d like to thank the Wasatch Mountain Fiction Writers Friday Morning Group for their support, patience, and friendship. Teddi Kachi and Leonard Chiarelli at the Marriott Library, as well as all the Whit-more and Holladay librarians—especially Hermione Bayas and Larraine Blamires—never stinted in their assistance. Early in the process, Debra Sandack and the book club offered their opinions. Near the end, Dave Willoughby, Marny Parkin, and others in the Life, the Universe, and Everything Symposium did so as well.

I’m afraid Gerry Pearce will still disagree with the decisions of orthography I have made. He—and any other person knowledgeable in these spheres—will appreciate the difficulties I’ve faced walking the line between Arabic, Persian, Turkish, both Ottoman and modern, and common English usage. Yes, I know I am still inconsistent from word to word but no longer—I hope—from one use of a single word to the next. At this point—and for the reader’s ease—I’m not going to agonize any more. If you’d like, Gerry, we can try to thrash it out over dinner again. Your turn to buy.

There is another woman to whom I owe much but she didn’t want her name mentioned. She knows who she is. She doesn’t approve—except of good spelling and grammar.

Of course, there are my editor and dear friend Natalia Aponte, and Steve, Erin, Karla, and all the other folks at Tor/Forge.

And finally, Virginia Kidd, my agent.

Without these folks,
The Reign of the Favored Women
would have existed, but never in the light of day. None of them is to be blamed for the errors I’ve committed, only thanked for saving me from making more.

* Indicates a documented historical character

ABD AR-RAHMAN—Son of the deceased Mufti, eventually husband to Gul Ruh.

ABDULLAH—The narrator of the story, Esmikhan’s eunuch guardian.

AGOSTINO BARBARIGO*—Andrea’s father,
proveditore
of Venice.

ANDREA BARBARIGO*—Scion of a wealthy Venetian house, in this novel, lover to Safiye.

ARAB PASHA*—A protégé of Sokolli Pasha, governor of Cyprus and beloved of Gul Ruh.

AYSHA SULTAN*—Daughter of Murad and Safiye, sister to Muhammed.

BETULA—Daughter of the Mufti and Umm Kulthum, sister to Abd ar-Rahman.

DJWERKHAN SULTAN*—Daughter of Selim the Sot, half-sister to Murad and Esmikhan.

ESMIKHAN SULTAN*—Daughter of Selim and half-sister to Murad, the woman Abdullah must guard.

ESPERANZA MALCHI*—Safiye’s Jewish Kira.

FATIMA SULTAN*—Daughter of Murad and Safiye, sister to Muhammed.

FERHAD PASHA*—Advanced first to Master of the Imperial Horse, later Agha of the Janissaries and Grand Vizier, in this novel, Esmikhan’s lover.

FERIDUN BEY*—Secretary of Sokolli Pasha.

THE FIG—The midwife who apprentices to and later replaces the Quince.

FOSCARI—Andrea Barbarigo’s father-in-law-to-be.

GHAZANFER AGHA*—Formerly Mihrimah’s eunuch, now Safiye’s, he eventually gains the post of
kapu aghasi
.

GIORGIO VENIERO—Abdullah’s Italian name.

GIUSTINIANI—A sea captain, native of the island of Chios.

GUL RUH SULTAN—Esmikhan’s daughter.

HUSAYN—A Syrian merchant and old family friend of Abdullah, later known as Hajji.

JOSEPH NASSEY—Sultan Selim the Sot promised to give kingship of Cyprus to this Jewish companion.

THE KIRA*—Women, often Jewish, who brought bundles of goods in for the ladies of the harems to purchase and also served as messengers between secluded women and the outside world.

MIHRIMAH SULTAN*—Daughter of Suleiman, aunt of Esmikhan.

MITRA—A slave girl Safiye purchases and gives to Murad as a concubine. She is of Persian origin and a poet.

MUFTI*—The highest religious judge in Turkey, in this novel, Abd ur-Rahman’s father.

MUHAMMED III*—Turkish Sultan from 1595-1603 c.e., son of Murad and Safiye.

MURAD III*—Turkish Sultan from 1574-1595 c.e., son of Selim and Nur Banu, lover of Safiye.

MUSLIM—As a personal name, it is Andrea Barbarigo’s Turkish name.

NUR BANU SULTAN*—The woman who purchased Safiye, she is a former concubine of Selim, mother of Murad, and stepmother of Esmikhan.

PIALE PASHA*—The Kapudan Pasha, admiral of the Turkish navy.

THE QUINCE—Midwife to the Imperial harem.

SAFIYE*—Born the daughter of the Venetian governor of the island of Corfu, she was captured by pirates and became the concubine of Murad III.

SELIM II*—Known as the Sot, Turkish Sultan from 1566-1574 C.E., father of Murad and Esmikhan, Nur Banu was his concubine.

SOFIA BAFFO*—Safiye’s Venetian name.

SOKOLLI PASHA*—Muhammed Pasha Sokolli, Turkish Grand Vizier, married to Esmikhan Sultan.

SULEIMAN I*—Known in the West as the Magnificent and in the East as the Lawgiver, Turkish Sultan from 1520—1566 C.E., father of Selim and grandfather of Murad. He is already deceased at the start of this novel.

UMM KULTHUM—Widow of the Mufti, mother of Abd ur-Rahman, eventually mother-in-law to Gul Ruh.

UWEIS*—A rowdy native Turk, companion to Murad.

After the very difficult birth of her daughter, my dear lady, Esmikhan Sultan, eventually learned to walk again with the aid of a cane. But she moved more like a duck than a woman and therefore preferred to be carried, either in her sedan or in a chair one of my assistant eunuchs and I would contrive by crossing our hands. She could sit for short periods without discomfort, but mostly she preferred to lie about in the harem, propped up with innumerable pillows.