What Did the Sultan's Daughter Actually Do All Day?

What did the Sultan's daughter actually do all day? You are Mihrimah Sultan, daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent and Hurrem, on one summer day in Istanbul in 1548. Your father and your husband, the grand vizier Rustem Pasha, are away at war in Persia. From a palace on the Asian shore you run a foundation that lives off eighteen villages, write to the new King of Poland and send him a very modest gift, set the pay of a teacher and his students, and cross the Bosphorus to your mother's rooms, where the two most powerful women in the empire share every scrap of news that might keep their family alive. Life in the Ottoman palace looked like silk and gold from outside. Every hour of it had a price. Mihrimah is a real woman. Nobody wrote down a single day of her life, so this day is rebuilt from her letters, her foundation deed and the mosque that still carries her name. Scenes in between are dramatized. YOUR DAY, HOUR BY HOUR 00:00 A day in the life of the Sultan's daughter 00:33 Istanbul, 1548: before sunrise 01:33 Guess the number 01:50 Morning: washing and dressing 02:14 The face nobody sees 02:36 A letter to the King of Poland 03:31 A gift for a king 04:00 Running a foundation 04:21 How many villages? 04:57 The courtroom you never enter 05:34 Across the water to your mother 06:09 The most dangerous job in the empire 06:26 Mustafa 07:27 Your mosque at the landing 08:27 Evening 09:10 What the Sultan's daughter actually did all day 09:47 Everything for someone else 10:42 The one thing that stayed THE EVIDENCE Every line below is tagged. A HISTORIAN tag points to modern scholarship, EYEWITNESS to a person who saw it, and DEBATED to a point where the experts are split. Mihrimah, the only daughter of Suleiman to survive childhood; two minarets as a privilege of the Sultan's blood, while Hurrem's own mosque had only one. HISTORIAN: Leslie P. Peirce, The Imperial Harem, Oxford University Press 1993. The 1548 campaign against Persia, with Rustem Pasha in the army. HISTORIAN: Erhan Afyoncu, Rustem Pasa, TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi 2008; Peirce 1993. Her letters to King Sigismund II Augustus, signed "the humblest of the poor, Hanim Sultan", and the gift of underpants, handkerchiefs and a towel, the same as her mother's. HISTORIAN: Nejat R. Uctum, Belleten 1980, from the Central Archives in Warsaw; "a family affair": Peirce 1993. DEBATED: the exact date of the letters. Eighteen villages, the teacher's pay, the kitchen for the poor and the three-strikes rule in her foundation deed of 1550. HISTORIAN: Sinem Arcak, Sabanci University 2004; Mahmut Ak, Vakiflar Dergisi. The mosque at the landing in Uskudar by Sinan, finished in the winter of 1547 to 1548. HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993; Mustafa Kacar, Mihrimah Sultan, TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi. Ibrahim Pasha's execution in 1536. HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993. Mustafa's death in 1553. HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993. DEBATED: any part played by Hurrem or Mihrimah; there is no proof. Her place as her father's counselor after Hurrem's death in 1558, and her burial in Suleiman's own tomb. HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993. Her palace in Uskudar, known from visitors a few years later. EYEWITNESS: Hans Dernschwam, via Arcak 2004. DEBATED: where she lived in 1548. STORIES WE CHOSE NOT TO TELL The legend that Sinan was in love with her and built a sunset into her minarets, the "twin brother" story, the lice that saved Rustem's wedding and the claim that she plotted Mustafa's death: legends or rumours without sources. YOUR TURN If you could live one hour of her day, which one would you choose, and which price would you refuse to pay? Let us know below. ABOUT THIS CHANNEL Ottoman Days is an educational history channel about everyday lives in the past. Our videos explain history; they are not commentary on today's conflicts, politics or religious debates, and they take no side for or against any faith, nation or people today. Everything here is for educational purposes only and based on historical sources. #OttomanEmpire #MihrimahSultan #OttomanHistory #HurremSultan #SuleimanTheMagnificent #OttomanPrincess #DayInTheLife #Istanbul #Uskudar #WomenInHistory #History #AnimatedHistory #HistoryFacts #16thCentury #Documentary