Many people fell in love with the TV series The Magnificent Century, but in this work there is a lot of fiction, a little "truth" through the eyes of historians and ours too))))
How not to study at least a little of the history of the country that we love so much.
So, the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Roksolana.
The great Turk, as he was called, the Grand Senor. Years of life 1494-1556 He himself preferred to be called Suleiman Qanuni (legislator). Ruler of 37 kingdoms, Lord of the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, Great Jerusalem and the Throne of Egypt, etc. The title of the Sultan is very, very long, it is better to read about it in the book of the excellent writer Jason Goodwin, The Greatness and Collapse of the Ottoman Empire. We will focus on the most interesting points.
He became Sultan in 1520 after the death of his father. Selim the Terrible (cruel) He did not build an empire from scratch, he already received amazing lands, an empire, wealth. The Turks fought numerous wars and conquests, one of which was the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. But on all campaigns, the weather was very disturbing to him. The fact is that in the period from the 14th to the 19th centuries, history remembered this period as the "Little Ice Age", which was the coldest in the last 2 thousand years.
The main feature of the strength of the Ottoman Empire was a well-functioning management system. within the borders of the empire (which the Turks called "the house of peace", and all the lands outside the empire were the "house of war") lived different nationalities, religions, languages.
All the lands that were in the empire belonged only to the Sultan. They could not be inherited. After death, all the lands that the Sultan had previously endowed for services to the empire were transferred back to the Sultan. This greatly strengthened the power of the Sultan.
Suleiman was very fond of theatrical solemnity, he loved everything that glitters, dressed in gold fabrics, was strewn with diamonds. Sultan Suleiman was incredibly rich, the size of his wealth could not be imagined by any European ruler of that time. Against the background of all the greatness and heroic conquests, there were "buts". He could not figure out his family.
Suleiman the Magnificent had an elder concubine Gulbihar (pink flower) who bore him a son, Mustafa. In general, Islamic sultans did not marry concubines. He loved her for a long time. Subsequently, the Crimean Tatars raided Ukraine, somewhere in the Ivano-Frankovsk region (different cities argue for the right to be considered the Motherland of Roksolana) and captured the daughter of a local priest Gavrila Lesovsky. It is not known for sure whether she was Anastasia or Alexandra. In Europe, she will be called Roksolana (which means Russian beauty). Ibrahim Pasha bought it and presented it to the Sultan.
They said about her that she was not a super beauty, she was more graceful than beauty. She was distinguished by a very lively disposition (Khyurem - smiling). Many believed that she bewitched the Sultan, she sang a lot to him. It is not known what songs (Ukrainian, Russian, Polish songs).
Now, I can't live without humor, I'm sorry. Sultana, attention! He began to talk to her, began to reckon with her. It is not conceivable at all.
Ibrahim Pasha was such a close friend of the Sultan that some historians point out that there were even suspicions of various kinds. But none of this happened. They never parted, after the battle, the Sultan placed a heron feather adorned with diamonds on the head of Ibrahim Pasha, and this was a great honor. At some point, Ibrahim Pasha became arrogant, the ambassadors recorded strange speeches in which he equated himself with the Sultan. Ibrahim was bright, handsome, spoke many foreign languages, fought amazing, but had a lot of power. The Sultan sent a request to Meka to release him from the oath given to Ibrahim never to remove him from his post in order to deal with Ibrah, and he was released. And one day the body of Ibrahim was found in the Topkapi Palace.
As I said above, Ibrahim Pasha gave Roksolan the Sultan, and it seemed that she should have been grateful to him, but there are many versions according to which both of them tried to get rid of each other. And he had a plan to capture the incredible beauty of the Italian, heretic Julia Gonzaga and put her in a harem to cool the ardent feelings of the Sultan. But Julia was able to escape. By the way, she really was still a beauty. Pope Pius 5, having studied her papers, wrote "If I saw her alive, I would burn her."
Roksolana once made such a scandal when the Sultan the Magnificent, with many titles and incredible power, was presented with new concubines. And what do you think? The Sultan REFUSED the new concubines. Here is a woman, I understand that!
Subsequently, Sultana also married. And many women know, promised, does not mean married.
Then everyone killed each other there, Selim survived, and after him historians already testify to the beginning of the end of the greatness of the Ottoman Empire.
