Why It Sucked to Be the Sultan's Daughter (in the Ottoman Empire)

What was life really like for an Ottoman princess? Why It Sucked to Be the Sultan's Daughter. You're born the daughter of a prince in the Ottoman palace. You carry the title of the ruler, earn more than a worker earns in two weeks every single day, and you will never rule for a single day. Your wedding will be a party for a curtain. This is a princess's life in Istanbul in the 1500s, lived from the inside. "You" are a composite of several real princesses; every rule and most people are real. YOUR LIFE, CHAPTER BY CHAPTER 00:00 A wedding where nobody sees the bride 00:39 Born with the ruler's name 02:01 Outranked by a slave 02:41 Growing up silent in the harem 04:11 The safest person in the palace 05:12 Married to your grandfather's servant 07:00 The wedding of 1562 08:12 A spy in silk 10:02 The legend about your son 10:49 When the throne changes hands 12:13 Widowed, and married again 13:14 The man who said no 14:08 The night of the carriages 15:30 Why it sucked 16:00 Ask her husbands 17:49 Four hundred warships 19:00 Back to the wedding THE EVIDENCE We label every source, so you know how sure we are. HISTORIAN = modern research · EYEWITNESS = someone who was there · CHRONICLE = an Ottoman-era record · DEBATED = historians disagree Title after the name, hatun becoming Sultan around 1500: HISTORIAN: Leslie Peirce, "The Imperial Harem", 1993. 100 akche a day unmarried, 300 to 400 married; the 1575 register (Safiye 700, Ismihan 300, Mihrimah 600): HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993, from the palace payment registers. The Sultan's favourite ranked above his sisters and aunts: HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993. Harem education (reading, law, sewing, harp, singing; ten embroidery teachers): EYEWITNESS: Angiolello and Menavino, palace pages, via Peirce 1993. Mihrimah's letters to King Sigismund II Augustus: HISTORIAN: Nejat Uctum, Belleten, 1980; originals in the Central Archives of Historical Records, Warsaw. Princesses marrying the Sultan's servants, 6 of Suleiman's 9 grand viziers sons in law, divorce of existing wives: HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993; Fariba Zarinebaf, "Harem". The triple wedding of 17 August 1562 and its accounts: HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993, from the Topkapi Palace archives. The red satin and the coins at a princess's wedding procession (1593): CHRONICLE: Selaniki, via Peirce 1993. Princesses as informants, couriers and political strategists; the letter to Catherine de Medici: HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993. Sokollu "in awe" of his wife: a Ragusan report, via secondary sources. DEBATED. Mihrimah's loan of 50,000 gold coins to Selim II: one account only. DEBATED. Nurbanu's marriage plans (Venetian report, 1583): EYEWITNESS: Venetian ambassador, via Peirce 1993. Ozdemiroglu Osman Pasha's refusal, Kalaylikoz Ali Pasha's divorce in Buda: HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993, after Uluçay. Fatma Sultan's four marriages: HISTORIAN: Uluçay and Sakaoğlu, via Wikipedia summaries. DEBATED in detail. The nineteen brothers and the carriages to the Old Palace, 1595: EYEWITNESS: a foreign witness quoted in Peirce 1993. Shah Sultan and Lutfi Pasha, 1541: CHRONICLE: Mustafa Ali, via Peirce 1993. Beyhan Sultan, Kara Ahmed Pasha (1555): HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993. The rebel pasha lured to the capital (1655) and the dowry worth a year of Egypt's taxes: EYEWITNESS: Evliya Celebi, via Peirce 1993 (a story from the next century). Mihrimah's offer of 400 warships: HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993, after Hammer. Only the offer is recorded. Mihrimah's mosques and burial in Suleiman's tomb; 3 of 5 imperial complexes linked to women: HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993. MYTHS WE LEFT OUT ON PURPOSE "Sons of princesses were killed at birth": we found no source for the 1500s. Many of them grew up and became pashas. "Her husband had to stand until she let him sit": historians call that an urban legend. "Palaces on the Bosphorus": that fashion came in the 1700s. No fez: it only became the dress code in 1829. No ages at marriage, and nothing about wedding nights: this is a story about power, not about that. NEXT IN THE EMPIRE Who should we follow next: the grand vizier who married her, the Sultan's mother, or the man who said no? Tell us in the comments. #OttomanEmpire #History #AnimatedHistory #Istanbul #OttomanHistory #Princess #Harem #SuleimanTheMagnificent #Mihrimah #HistoryFacts #16thCentury #Topkapi #Explainer #Animation #Documentary