Kosem Sultan: The Slave Girl Who Ruled the Ottomans

She was captured by pirates, sold into a palace, and stripped of her name. Forty years later, she decided who sat on the Ottoman throne, and who was removed from it. Kosem Sultan never held an office. Her name was never struck on a coin, never signed on a decree, never read in the Friday khutbah. And yet for four decades she was the most powerful person in the Ottoman Empire - ruling through her husband's name, her sons' names, and finally her grandson's. This is the full story: how the Ottoman law of fratricide collapsed and handed power to the mothers of the harem, how a captured girl learned the system better than anyone in it, what happened on the ten days in August 1648 that ended her son's life, and the night in September 1651 when the system she built turned on her. CHAPTERS 00:00 - Intro 02:04 - Behind the Cutrains 06:07 - Throne or Grave 10:13 - The Real Sultan 16:50 - A Mother's Silence 24:35 - Two Valide Sultans Watch our documentary on Sultan Murad IV, the missing piece of this story:    • Sultan Murad IV | The Ottoman Sultan the W...   #KosemSultan #OttomanEmpire #Dareecha