Hurrem Sultan:​The Women who Changed Ottoman Queenship

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In the Ottoman Empire, royal women were to be neither seen nor heard - after giving birth to the Sultan's child, they were supposed to recede into the background, focused on raising that potential heir. And, yet, in the 1500s, a young concubine captured the heart of one of the greatest leaders of all history. By doing so, she ushered in a period known as the Sultanate of Women. And we don't even know her real name. In this episode, join Elizabeth as she examines the history of the "Joyful One." 

​Podcaster: Elizabeth

Further Reading

Rayne Allinson, "Letters Full of Marvels: Sultan Murād III of the Ottoman Empire, 1579–1595" in A Monarchy of Letters, Palgrave Macmillan (2012): 131-150.  ​

Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: the Structure of Power, Macmillan International Higher Education, (2019).  

Leslie Peirce, Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl became Queen of the Ottoman Empire, Hachette, (2017). 
 
Leslie Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, Oxford University Press, (1993).  
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Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)