Suleiman The Magnificent 1520 1566 (22 page)

4 Busbecq, I, 152-155.

5 Hammer, De? osmamscben Reichs Staatsverfassung und Staatsiierwal-tung, I, 98.

great-grandfather. The Ottoman practice of employing eunuchs to guard the harem and the treasures of the Sultan's palaces owes much to Byzantine precedent, and it is also worth noting that eunuchs sometimes attained to high place under both governments. To the exarch Narses —the victorious general of Justinian, and companion in arms of Belisarius—correspond a thousand years later "Suleiman the Eunuch/' one of the Sultan's most successful captains and the fifth of his Grand Vizirs, and Ali Pasha, the Albanian, who won fame on many battlefields in his master's day and was appointed to the chief command in Hungary in 1556.® And there are a host of official Turkish tides which are almost precisely analogous to those of Byzantine days: the Grand Vizir to the Great Domestic, the Reis Effendi to the Great Logothete, the Kaziasker to the Stratopedarch, and so on down the list to the huntsmen, stableboys, and kitchen servants. 7 The bakshish distributed to the Janissaries by each Sultan at the time of his accession was the lineal heir of the Roman donatwum.

On the other hand, the court of the Ottoman Sultans maintained its own individual character in a number of ways which differentiated it sharply from that of their Byzantine predecessors, and indeed from all the other royal and imperial courts of Western Europe. Of these by far the most important was the seclusion of the women who belonged to it. No one of them was permitted to appear at any of its ceremonies or state occasions. They all lived in their harem, which was situated—at least at the beginning of Suleiman's reign—in what was known as the Old Palace, near the centre of the city, at a considerable distance from the Sultan's own residence, which had been built by his great-grandfather on the site of

6 Busbecq, I, 236-237,

7 Lavisse and Rambaud, IV, 750.

The Harem

the ancient Byzantine Acropolis. 8 Practically no one, save the Sultan himself, was permitted to pass the high walls that guarded the harem. The men and the women of Suleiman's kullar were two wholly separate groups; the sole link between them was himself."

For the women of the Sultan's harem, just as his Grand Vizirs, vizirs, his Janissaries, Defterdars, Nishanji, Reis Effendi, and the rest, were all reckoned as a part of Ms great slave-family, and were recruited in much the same way as were its male members. All of them were either given, purchased, or captured in war, and practically all of them were the daughters of Christians. There were about three hundred of them in ali-a far smaller number than in the days of his degenerate successors-and of these a very large majority were either attendants or else young girls—new recruits—who were being carefully trained in the hope that when they had attained young womanhood, they might have the good fortune to attract the Sultan's attention. If they failed to do so before they reached the age of twenty-five, they were usually sent forth to be married to Spahis of the Porte. The guard of the harem was intrusted to a body of forty or more black eunuchs, who were commanded by an official who bore the title of Kizlar Aghasi, or "Captain of the girls." The Genoese Giovanni Ajitonio Menavino, who was only in Constantinople in the days of Suleiman's father and grandfather, has left us the following description of the ceremonies accompanying a Sultan's visit to the harem of that time.

When the Sultan [he says] will go to the Seraglio of the ladies, either in disguise, or, if he prefers it, on horseback, the

8 Lybyer, pp. 123-124; N. M. Penzer, The Harem (London, 1936), p. 17. Barnette Miller, Beyond the Sublime Porte, pp. 25-26, tells us that t4 with the reigns of Suleiman I and Murad III, who transferred the royal harem to the Grand Seraglio in two successive instalments, the Old Palace" . . . became ..." a place of banishment of the harems of deceased Sultans."

chief of the eunuchs places the inmates, all finely attired, in the courtyard in a line; and when the Sultan has arrived and the door is shut, he and the eunuch pass along the line saluting them courteously; and if there be one who pleases him, he places on her shoulder in the presence of the rest a handkerchief, and walks on with the eunuch to the garden to look at the ostriches and peacocks, and many other birds which are kept there; and he afterwards returns to the ladies' apartments to sup and sleep; and being in bed he asks who had his handkerchief, and desires that she should bring it to him; and the eunuch immediately calls the girl, and she comes gladly, bringing the handkerchief, and the eunuchs quit the room. Next morning the Sultan orders her a robe of gold, and increases her daily allowance by nine aspers, and gives her two more waiting women to serve her. And sometimes he remains in the Seraglio [i.e. harem] three or four days, sleeping with whom he will, and then returns to his own palace. 10

But there is grave doubt if the last sentence of this description holds good for Suleiman's time, save possibly at the very beginning. The overwhelming preponderance of contemporary evidence goes to show that he visited his harem infrequently in comparison with his predecessors; and there can be no possible doubt that the harem of his day as a whole was almost negligible in its influence on the policy and administration of the empire when contrasted with those of his successors. Yet there was one woman in that harem who was to become a dominant factor in the long, complicated, and tragic tale of his relations with his Grand Vizirs and with his own offspring. No story of his reign would be comprehensible without some reference to it, and a few introductory words are essential to show the background against which it rests.

10 Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, The Turks in MDXXXIH (London and Edinburgh, 1873), pp. 58-59, translating Giovanni Antonio Menavino, Trattato de* Costmm et Vita de 3 Turchi (Florence, 1548), pp. 181-182.

The principal personality in the harem at the time of the Sultan's accession was undoubtedly his mother, the Sultana Valideh; she lived on for many years Into the reign of her son, 11 and until the day of her death In 1533 continued to supervise the younger female members of his kullar. Suleiman's favorite Sultana at that period was doubtless the lovely Montenegrin "Gulbehar" or "Rose of Spring," who had borne him his eldest son Mustafa before he had come to the throne. She had no overweening ambition, and the Grand Vizir, Piri Pasha, Inherited from Selim's day, was a gentle soul; all promised to be quiet and peaceful. But soon there came a change. At about the same time (June, 1523) that the ambitious Ibrahim replaced Piri Pasha as Grand Vizir, a charming girl was brought back to Constantinople by Turkish raiders into Galicia. Her smile was so irresistible that she was promptly given the name of "Khurrem," or "the Laughing One," though she is better known to posterity as Roxelana. Her beauty, it would appear, was by no means remarkable, but her slight, graceful figure, her gaiety, charm, and never-failing wit enabled her before long to gain complete ascendancy over the heart and mind of the Sultan. 12 The "Gulbehar" remained officially the first Sultana until Roxelana succeeded in getting her exiled for at least a part of the year to Manissa, in 1534; 1S but after she had borne the Sultan her first child there was no question that Roxelana was nearest Suleiman's heart. In the same year that she contrived to rid herself of her rival, she persuaded the Sultan to give her the position of his lawful wife; seven years later, it appears that Suleiman permitted her to leave the harem and come and live with him In the imperial palace. 14 As Roxelana gained power and prestige, she became increasingly jealous of all possible rivals; she

11 Cf. note to page 27, note i, ante. ls Lybyer, pp. 126, 141, note 2.

12 Lavisse and Rambaud, IV, 760-761. 14 Penzer, pp. 175-176.

easily induced Suleiman to marry off the most beautiful women in his harem, as a pledge that she had no rivals for his affection. But that was by no means all. Roxelana was not content with merely being the first lady in the land. She aspired to have a voice in the government. And that meant that, sooner or later, she would come into conflict with Ibrahim. A battle royal was imminent.

The Grand Vizir had gone on from glory to glory ever since he had replaced Piri Pasha in 1523. We have already spoken of his earlier triumphs; by the close of the campaign of 1532 he had come to believe that he really ruled the state. In the next three years Suleiman was apparently content to leave everything in his hands, 15 and it is worth noting that in the Persian campaign of 1535 Ibrahim had dared to call himself Sultan as well as seraskier. 16 What share Roxelana's influence had in bringing about the tragedy that was enacted at the seraglio on March 15, 1536, we shall never know. The fundamental fact remains that Ibrahim had become a menace to the Sultan's authority, and, in so far as Roxelana aspired to direct the Sultan's policy, to her own. Many reasons have been adduced to account for Ibrahim's fate—disrespect for the Koran, secret negotiations with the French, and the jealousy aroused by his enormous wealth 17 —but the fact that he had become too powerful was enough. He came, all unsuspecting, to the Sultan's palace, in response to his master's summons. He sat at dinner with him as usual and went to spend the night in an adjacent chamber. The next morning his dead body was found strangled at the seraglio gate. The state of his corpse was good proof that he had made a valiant fight for his life. 18 It is said that splashes of his blood were shown on

15 Lavisse and Ramband, IV, 762, note.

16 Lybyer, p. 83. But see Busbecq, I, 238, who says that "Sultan" is "the title given by the Turks to men of high rank."

17 Lavisse and Rambaud, IV, 762-763; Postel, M, 48 fL

18 Hammer, V, 233.

the walls of the harem for a century after his death, as a warning to those who should dare to try to Influence the relations of the Sultan with his women slaves. 19 If this be true, it would seem to indicate that Roxeiana was at least partially responsible for the tragic fate of the Grand Vizir.

In any case, the removal of Ibrahim made Roxeiana, for the time being, her husband's chief minister. The next three Grand Vizirs were unimportant. Ayaz Pasha (1536-39) is said to have had forty cradles in his palace at the same time, and to have left one hundred and twenty children at his death; he died of the pestilence. 20 His successor, Lutfi Pasha, only lasted till the end of 1540; he was suspected of intrigues with the Germans, but Suleiman was fond of him, and he was pensioned. 21 The last of the trio was Suleiman Pasha, the Eunuch, who followed on, at the age of eighty, and was deposed in 1 544; whether the chief cause of his removal was his advanced years or the jealousies of his rivals is not evident. 22 And then, at last, came Roxelana's chance. She persuaded Suleiman to give the vacant office to her son-in-law Rustem Pasha, a Bulgarian by origin, who was already second vizir and had given many proofs of high talent and fidelity; particularly notable had been his services as a financier. 23 But the fact that he had married Roxelana's daughter was the most important of all; it fortified his position and hers, and enabled them to cooperate effectively to win a prospect of the succession for Roxelana's sons.

The chief obstacle to the realization of this daring plan was Suleiman's eldest son Mustapha, the child of the "Rose of Spring." He was handsome, popular, and very able; Suleiman had shown him high favor and given him important

19 Hammer, V, 538-539. ^Hammer, V, 304. 21 Hammer, V, 304, 328. ^Hammer, V, 328, 386. 23 Lybyer, p. 167.

offices; everyone took it for granted that he was destined to succeed his father. 24 But Suleiman was secretly jealous of Mustapha's ambition, which he feared might ultimately imperil his own authority; the fact that the Prince had been an intimate friend of Ibrahim did not help matters. 25 Roxelana perceived what was passing through her master's mind, and was prompt to take advantage of it. In 1553 the Turkish army was sent off on a campaign against Persia. Rustem was in supreme command; for Suleiman, who was then in his sixtieth year, had elected to remain at Constantinople. But presently a messenger arrived from Rus-tem's headquarters to tell him that the Janissaries were calling for Mustapha to lead them; "The Sultan is now too old to march in person against the enemy," so they were reported to have said; "no one save the Grand Vizir objects to having him yield his place to the Prince; it would be easy to cut Rustem's head off, and send the old Sultan to repose." The Grand Vizir added that Mustapha had lent a willing ear to these seditious words, and begged Suleiman to come and take command of the army in person. 26 The Sultan was at first in grave doubt what course to pursue, and in order to satisfy his religious scruples, he consulted the Sheik-ul-Islam. That he might obtain an impartial answer, he put the case before him as follows:

He told him that there was at Constantinople a merchant of good position, who, when about to leave home for some time, placed over his property and household a slave to whom he had shown the greatest favor, and intrusted his wife and children to his loyalty. No sooner was the master gone than this slave began to embezzle his master's property, and plot against the lives of his wife and children; nay more, had attempted to compass his master's destruction. The question which he (Soly-

24 Hammer, V, 489, note xxxH.

25 Hammer, V, 538-539.

26 Hammer, VI, 53 ff.

man) wished the Mufti to answer was this: What sentence could be lawfully pronounced against this slave? The Mufti answered that in his judgment he deserved to be tortured to death. 21

^ receiving this opinion Suleiman hesitated no longer. By midsummer, 1553, he was at the head of his troops in Asia Minor. On September 2 1 , he summoned Mustapha to his headquarters at Eregli. The friends of the Prince suspected danger and begged him to pay no heed to his father's command, but Mustapha proudly replied that if he were to lose his life, he could wish no better than to give it back to him from whom he had received it. At the same time he also plainly showed that he really feared nothing, by establishing his tent next to that of his father and by ostentatiously receiving the salutes of the vizirs and the Janissaries on his way to the Sultan's presence. 25 On his entrance he found three mutes awaiting him with the bowstring; they are said to have been the same ones who strangled Ibrahim seventeen years before. 29 Suleiman witnessed the ensuing struggle and execution from behind a curtain, without the slightest sign of pity or remorse. 30