#and how ibrahim died

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

as much as suleiman and ibrahim's relationship - including its slow fracturing and the grief that remains in its wake - has, in theory, all the pieces necessary to make me deeply emotional despite me not particularly liking either of them... the show's constant favoritism and whitewashing of ibrahim after his death is making me roll my eyes every time there's a scene of suleiman being sad about him

[earthknights]

an au where nigar lived, moved in with ibrahim's brother as per his wishes, esmanur is happy with her mom and it isn't perfect but they're slowly getting there(a gift for @thevampiricnihal)

He is not Ibrahim. There are certain times when she forgets—they share the same face after all, it's easy to be trapped into false hopes and dreams she knows will never come true, dreams she knows cannot come true no matter how much she wants it because Ibrahim will never be hers.

At certain times, she absolutely despises the very idea of another man wearing the face of the man she loved. She cannot stomach when her daughter calls him dad and they both let her because it's better than her knowing the truth and the very moment they met, when she sees the pity in his eyes because he knows the reality of her situation better than anyone except for Ibrahim and herself.

And at other times, she wishes he was. At other times, like when he takes her angel-faced girl to the sea and they play and his eyes reflect the shine of the sun in the water, when he laughs and it reaches his eyes in the way Ibrahim's never truly could and they radiate life and joy, when he greets her and his face is filled with warmth Ibrahim's did back when she was in his arms and they were trapped in what was, essentially both their paradise and hell, when she watches him roast fishes, listens to the fire crackling and they talk for hours as the moon glows above them.

She refuses to acknowledge these feelings because she had let herself be consumed by her feelings once upon a time. She was willing to burn for those feelings, to lose everything all for false haven, a false sense of peace and passion a woman like her apparently did not deserve to feel because Gods decided her fate for her and she was in the land that is not her own and forced to raise her daughter with no one but herself to rely upon.

This was not news to her because she had been forced to rely on no one but herself even since she was taken away from her home, away from her grandmother and forced into learning to live in a place where she was never allowed to let her guard down.

The lessons she learned at the Topkapi Palace never left her, not even when she was at peace and apparently safe from danger, from being used like a puppet on a string however the royal family saw fit from ploys and from betrayals her mind was always racing, always prepared for the worst.

That's how she's lived for as long as she's known herself and she's fine with it. She will focus on raising her daughter and being present in her life, on being absolutely perfect at the role of a mother to the point where Esmanur doesn't notice one of her parents is missing.

When she came to this decision, she was completely fine with it so why is it that, when another woman(a woman younger than her, a woman with golden hair and eyes as blue as the sea, a woman who was delicate and soft and perfect, a woman not yet forced to face the cruelties of life) shows interest in Nico an ugly feeling swallows her whole, a feeling she is entirely too knowledgeable of because she had experienced it before, when she had to serve Hatice Sultana and watch the man she loved entirely devote himself to her.

Nico refuses her advances quite clearly but this doesn't stop her from showing up with whatever excuse she can come up with to visit either way until Nigar's body acted before she could comprehend her own actions and she wraps her arm around his tightly, informing him that Esmanur must be lonely and that they should go back home.

Nico offers her a knowing look she pointedly ignores, not letting go all the way back home even though the woman is nowhere in their sight and she doesn't have to hold onto him any longer.

He is not Ibrahim.

Perhaps, she thinks to herself, as she watches him carry her daughter on his back and rush into a grass field and their laughter echoes in her ears while the wind is playing with her hair on a perfect spring day, it's not the worst thing.

[nevergetoffthebus]

Excerpt from Greg Rucka's weekly newsletter "Front Towards Enemy" 1 July 2025

Once upon a time, I wrote a story I described as "a fairy tale of blood and bullets."

It was, on its face, an action-adventure that centered on an immortal woman – a warrior – who was at least 6,000 years old. I liked the idea that, if experience is the best teacher, and that, if our greatest lessons come from our mistakes, that she'd be the most lethal person in the history of… history. Six thousand years of fighting, I figured she'd made just about every mistake it was possible to have made. Since the ones that would've killed her didn't, she was the walking, talking proof that "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Andromache the Scythian, art by Leandro Fernández

I thought about all she'd have seen and experienced, and how much that would've changed, especially in the last three centuries. How the world was accelerating. How frustrating it would be to her, and how exhausting. I thought about the fact that, when a new weapon or tactic or technique came along, she could just slip off and spend a year or five or ten mastering it.

I thought about the fact that, after all her time, with all the places she had gone, the languages she had learned and forgotten, the people she had met, the cultures she had experienced, all she'd seen, she would have no patience for racism or bigotry or prejudice. Her personal experience simply wouldn't allow it. She would have long ago determined that, wherever you went, people were always just… people. Some were good, some were bad, and most were just trying to get by. It didn't matter how they looked or who they loved. They were people.

Then I thought, given all this, that kind of bullshit would actually piss her the hell off. It would make her angry. Cruelty would make her angry. Exhausted and worn down by life she may be, but cruelty would always bring her back to the battle.

I thought about how lonely her life would be, and what a double-edged sword (or labrys?) her continued existence would have become. I thought about how impossible it is to move through the world without making some connections, how impossible it would be to defend her heart for centuries upon centuries. I thought about how we fall in love when we absolutely do not want to, and I thought about how many times she had fallen in love, and how many of those loves she had lost.

Nicolo di Genoa and Yusuf ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn al-Kaysani, called al-Tayyib, or Nicky and Joe, if you'd rather. Art by Leandro Fernández

I thought about the existential dread of never dying. The cold horror of outliving the planet. The galaxy. The universe. Of everything being gone… except you. 

I really liked this woman, but that wasn't a story. It was a character, but it wasn't a story.

For a story, I needed more. There needed to be others like her. Not many. Very few, in fact. And to complicate matters, and to highlight that existential dread, I decided that sometimes these immortals could die, but they didn't know how or why, that it would just sometimes happen to them out of the blue. The wound that had never claimed them a hundred times before suddenly would. They didn't know why. They didn't know when.

Sébastien le Livre, a.k.a. "Booker." Art by Leandro Fernández

So this woman, she was the oldest of them by far, and yet she kept going. Her time just wouldn't come, and she was so tired, genuinely tired of life, and so worn down and so repeatedly disappointed by the world, and still, as friends and lovers and brothers-in-arms passed, she continued.

Writing all of this, that sounds grim, but the thing was, the story I wanted to write wasn't meant to be grim. It was, sincerely, meant to be fun. I mean, I'd created this group with this woman and these two guys who'd fallen in love trying to kill each other during the First Crusade, and this other guy who'd been conscripted into Napoleon's army, and they did what they knew how to do. They fought. They were soldiers.

And since they couldn't die, I could pretty much do to them anything the Road Runner did to the Coyote in those cartoons, you know? 

Blow 'em up, drop an anvil on them, drive them headlong into a cliff, you name it, I could do it. 

I could do it because Leandro Fernández was going to draw it, and Leo's got an amazing art style that is at once emotive and cartoony. Things that would look turn-your-guts disgusting in another artist's hands instead looked icky and goofy, not gross. Leo understood the absurdity as much as he understood the emotion. Bonus? Leo is something of a history nut, and if I said a scene was set in 1478, he'd get to work finding reference.

The first story, the introductory story, was pretty self-evident. There was a new member to the group. This new member, contemporary, she'd be our way in. 

Nile Freeman, by Leandro Fernández

And this first story would set the foundation, which meant that it had to set stakes, but it had to define the world. Mythology could wait. In truth, I didn't want to ever explain why they were immortal. I think far too many stories are obsessed with explaining the why, and I think it cheapens them. Nine times out of ten, the why doesn't matter, and answering the why very often leads to betraying the promise of the premise.

Beware the why, my children, for that way lies midi-chlorians.

I was writing the fourth issue of the original series of THE OLD GUARDwhen I realized – as I have remarked before elsewhere – that I was really writing about the death of my father. I was trying to make sense of it, not specifically (fuck cancer) but generally. Why do we have to die? What is the merit in it? What is death's benefit?

I've found some answers, one or two that satisfy me. But I still wrestle with it. I suppose that's one of the things life demands, that we wrestle with this question.

I wrote the initial series not expecting much of it, honestly. I'd lucked out big time when Leo had agreed to draw it, I knew that, and I knew the book looked amazing, what with Leo's art and what Daniela Miwa was doing on colors and Jodi Wynne was doing with the lettering. But I didn't really have high expectations for the book. I figured, eh, maybe people will enjoy it. That's not dismissive – if some people enjoy my work, that's pretty much the win condition for me.

I just hoped some people would enjoy it, that was it.

THE OLD GUARD is arguably the most successful thing I've ever written, comics or prose, which just shows you how little I understand the market and my own audience, I guess.

One thing led to another and Hollywood came calling, and the folks at Skydance were willing to let me write the screenplay. This amazing director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, read the script and wanted to direct it. Then this actress nobody had ever heard of before agreed to play Andromache the Scythian. Skydance brought in Marc Evans to produce. The movie did well enough that Netflix wanted another one.

And here we are.

I hope it makes you laugh, and maybe makes you cry, and most of all, gives you a chance to slip into a fairytale of blood and bullets, if only for a short time.

Most of all, I hope that you enjoy it.

(View in browser and sign up here https://front-towards-enemy.ghost.io/09-time-after-time/?ref=front-towards-enemy-newsletter )

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

The legacy of Palestinian resistance leader Yahya Sinwar

PAL-Awda statement on the martyrdom of Sinwar

Yahya Sinwar, Abu Ibrahim, Chair of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement, lived a hero and died a legend. PAL-Awda NY/NJ and the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation join with all Palestinians and oppressed people across the region and the world to honor the martyred leader, whose name will go down in history as a symbol of resistance and liberation.

The oppressors of the Palestinian and Arab people call him a “terrorist,” a “fanatic,” an “extremist.” So say the mass murderers in Tel Aviv and their paymasters and armorers in Washington. So say lying US politicians, including both big-party presidential candidates, and the lying corporate media. This is how the oppressors have always described those who resist their tyranny-Nat Turner, John Brown, Sitting Bull, James Connolly, Patrice Lumumba, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, so many more.. This is what the Nazis called the Jewish freedom fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto. So the zionists and their funders have called the many martyred leaders of Palestine.

[armageddon-generation]

Empire of Death was bad and cemented several fundemental flaws in this season.

I watched this in the theatre, and the contrast between everyone's excitement before Empire, and their universal disappointment leaving the theatre was super disheartening. I'm gonna try to articulate my problems with episode, and how they're linked to fundenental structural issues of this season.

SPOILERS BELOW:

Sutekh

The moment the UNIT characters died the story was robbed of any stakes. (Also? Kate and Ibrahim?? During Pride month?? Disgusting)

Sutekh was pointless, big CGI spectacle who was barely there. Saying he's been latched onto the TARDIS since Pyramids of Mars was such an asspull. Why couldn't he have latched on during Wild Blue Yonder? wouldn't that make much more sense??

You're telling me the guy who holds all life in contempt is invested enough in learning the identity of Ruby's mum he willingly reveals himself??

And then they defeat him by dragging him through the Vortex just like before, which it's been explicitly stated *didn't work* last time? He just *lets* Ruby leash him??

The 'death of death is life' bit, and the idea of the Doctor representing life as a Ying to Sutekh's Yang, is a cool concept just jammed in there with no real buildup or depth.

The issue is bringing Sutekh back takes so much effort- a literal, clunky clipshow of Pyramids of Mars, a whole episode spent building up to the reveal of a silly anagram entirely unrekated to Sutekh's previous appearance. And it just... amounts to nothing. What a silly way to cap off a season meant to be jumping-on point for brand-new viewers.

Mel was just takingup space. Pointless.

Ruby's Mother

I don't have a problem with the *concept* of Ruby's mum being normal. I really like the idea thematically. The execution was terrible.

First of all it leaves so many unanswered questions (why the snow? Why was time changing? Why was she shadowed? Literally just for the sake of the mystery-box?) and represents the worst thing about this new era- RTD using fantasy logic to handwave any logic at all, and just do whatever he wants without properly justifying it.

Second, I *hate* how easy and simple and neat the reunion is. Ruby seems incapable of getting angry with anyone. She has never once argued with 15, or Carla, or anyone besides that one moment in 73 Yards. She has never expressed any kind of negative feeling towards her mother for abandoning her. And it's fine for her to reach that conclusion! It's just bizzare we never see Ruby struggle with her feelings beyond the shallow goal of wanting to find her.

(Also Carla? Has nothing to say?? Just welcomes that woman in with basically no comment? Carla is a 2D cutout of a person, used as a plot device and otherwise relegated to the single character trait of I Love My Daughter. The children yearn for the ilk of Jackie Tyler, Sylvia Noble, even Francine Jones.)

15 & Ruby

The emotion behind 15 & Ruby's split felt entirely unearned because we've never seen their bond develop. They never argue, never disagree, Ruby hasn't learned anything about herself or grown or changed. The closest we got to that is 73 Yards, which was undone. She was already brave and kind and musical and sure she loved her adoptive family when we met her in Church on Ruby Road.

Similarly, 15 tells us Ruby encouraged him to talk about family in a way he never has, but that was in what, two moments across the season? And they seemed random, unrelated to Ruby being with him. New viewers will assume 15 is just that open anyway- he was discussing fatherhood with a dead man's hologram- and old viewers assumed trauma-dumping was just a new trait of 15's personality, not Ruby-specific.

The problem is we're told Ruby & 15 are best friends but it isn't earned. I liked 15 crying initially but both he and Ruby do it so much (15 cries about 5 times in this one episode) it loses its impact and I'm becoming numb to it. There is no contrast, no downtime.

Season Structural Issues

I think the biggest problem is Season 1's storytelling priorities. It's much more interested in selling *the show* (look at our big budget! And guest stars! And how flexible our format is! Musical episode! The Beatles as props! Bottle episode! Indie folk-horror! Black Mirror! Gay Bridgerton!) it forgot to put effort into developing and investing us in its characters. I liked a lot of the individual stories this year but in retrospect a lot of them feel like they're wasting space that needed to go to essential character and theme setup.

These skewed priorities, combined with the cut down episode count, really impact the pacing of the season. Ruby and 15 were barely together! Even in Rogue they were seperated for most of the story!! We only loop back to a flashback of 15 meeting Carla in Rogue!

This is made worse by the baffling insistence on a 45-minute runtime. We know key sequences were cut from almost every episode, with highlights including:

The Gobin King invading Ruby's flat and her banishing him with scratchcards in The Church on Ruby Road: Her missing 'companion saves the day' moment!

Refrence to the Toymaker in The Church on Ruby Road, which was itself referenced in The Devil's Chord. 'I told you about the Toymaker when we first met' sir, objectively you did not.

The TARDIS jukebox playing the Sugarbabes' Push The Button in the opening scene of Space Babies, hastily cut around in the final edit. This is the setup of a running joke still in the episode, and part of the story's climax. The first encounter with the Bogeyman was also longer, with 15 taking particular interest in its skin

Extended scenes in Abbey Road from The Devil's Chord, including an apparently significant speaking role for Cilla Black, according to her annoyed actress.

Cut dialogue from The Devil's Chord explaining the musoical number was caused by Maestro's power lingering, and that banishing them undid everything they'd done. Fans inferred thos based on the rules established in The Giggle, but again, new fans haven't seen The Giggle and were left clueless.

An opening sequence for The Legend of Ruby Sunday where 15 & Ruby meet Susan as a nanny in 1947 America, a blue-skinned waitress, and an astronaut meeting a colony of giant, sentient ants. At the end of this we actually see 15 decide to go to UNIT for help. In the broadcast version he just sorta shows up.

Really what Empire of Death exposed to me is how emotionally hollow the season was. I enjoy the exoperimentalism, but not at the cost of character. And then in the finale Russell reverts to almost a parody of his RTD1 finales, with the nonsense logic and lack of consequences. All the worst bits of Last of the Time Lords and The Giggle put in a blender.

[kyriefae]

<TL;DR>

Doctor Who Reality War Spoilers Ahead

For the past week, after seeing Wish World, I was bouncing off the walls when thinking about this finale. I still think everything that led up to The Reality War was phenomenal. The Rani's plan was entertaining and intricate. I felt like the memory of her character was finally being given it's due honor.

I worried for Belinda as she was trying to get back to her life as a nurse. She wanted to return to that humble existence. Despite the pain of things like doctors misdiagnosing patients only for her to save them through critical re-evaluation and for them to save face, she was left to miss out on leaving her shifts; spending time with people she loved. She wanted to return to that life where obscurity and responsibility awaited.

I thought about Conrad and what may become of him. His obsessions that led to an entire world being built around the misconception that safety only exists when you conform; when you comply. A reprisal of how clever I thought The Rani was to chose such a man for her unraveling of reality plan. The doubt others will have when subjected to the reality such a man desperately clings to were the entire point.

I thought about Colonel Christofer Ibrahim and how he has been starting to feel like the new John Benton, if John Benton had been harboring intense feelings for the Brigadier. How fascinated I was to continue seeing his involvement.

The long and short of it: I was looking forward to what mystery Poppy was going to reveal by "being real".

...but the combined plot of the first seven episodes that coincidentally intermingled with the plot threads of Ncuti's first season were ALL just red herrings.

I still very much enjoyed the episode at the beginning. I was laughing and enjoying the CGI silliness all the way through Ncuti piloting The Rani's flying segway. It was when he crashed through the glass and we saw the creature Russell T Davies wants us to believe is Omega that everything plummeted to a screeching halt.

...

I'm mourning the loss of a fictional character. It's stupid but also it's not.

Until this moment, I was hooked. I even loved Space Babies. ...but there's a massive difference between a bad episode or poorly executed set of stories and the results of this finale and The Fifteenth Doctor's entire run writ large.

...

I'm not going to bother with speculating over what I don't know or what is circulating on the Internet in terms of why Ncuti just suddenly left the show.

I think what's upsetting me the most right now, and this is a trigger warning for anyone else impacted by suicide, is the twist that the Doctor decided to kill himself. He killed himself for the hunch of a baby he had forgotten existed who was, leading into this episode, being dangled as a possible tie in to Susan Foreman (a plot point that was completely abandoned). He kills himself by electing to release his regeneration energy into the time vortex? Sorry, but fucking what? Maybe on a rewatch, I'll be able to understand the internal logic here a bit more and I recall other times the Doctor has given some regeneration energy (such as Twelve with Davros). ...but by doing this to the Tardis console he both dies also "fixes" Poppy? K.

It's been said elsewhere but I echo this: WTF RTD. Belinda being made into a "mother all along"? It was written conveniently vague enough prior to the finale and during for us to have to question the integrity of its truth in a way that's meant to lean into our acceptance. This actually just makes me even more angry. Forget the fact her father who can't sing also can't seem to exist...she's in some quiet house in the suburbs when we leave her. She's not in a shared house with roommates next door to Mrs. Flood.

We're left with an extremely disconcerting thought that the Doctor, essentially, misdiagnosed Belinda's entire reality.

I know we're most sensibly going to be left picking up the pieces that this was a rushed re-write but it doesn't change how massively uncharacteristic and illogical the pieces to this puzzle fell.

...

I didn't even get to the fact Thirteen showed up again.

I want to be so excited about her. That scene was a silver lining. On its own, I'd be bouncing off the walls.

...

But Ncuti's gone.

I'm grieving him and I don't have room for Rose Tyler coming in to cosplay The Doctor. I don't have any space mentally for that right now.

His first episode of his first season aired hardly over a year ago. His specials extend this time by a little bit but we had Ncuti for a year.

RTD said he wanted to get Doctor Who going on a consistent basis. Coming back every year. That looks to have immediately gone awry.

The Sea Devil series seems interesting but my mood has been drained on an epic proportion.

I know it's a silly little sci-fi show. I'll eventually get back to something resembling the feeling I usually have regarding the bigger narrative but 15 was becoming a contender for my favorite all-time. Rogue is still my favorite story of the modern era.

...

He was perfect in this role. I'm not exaggerating when I say he should have been a Five Season Doctor (the 3 season and run trope is tiring). In a way, it keeps the pacing off enough to maybe make it more narratively interesting down the road? I'm bargaining. I hate it. So much. The end credits were supposed to say "The Doctor will Return in..."

...

Also I have thoughts about Ruby and her 73 Yards plot twist that seemed like it was going to come up and how that could have just BEEN the ending right there. She's left with the horrors and no one else remembers. "Was Poppy truly real? Were the talking Space Babies a figment of her imagination?" Narratively, that would have been leagues better than what we did get.

Now I guess it's Pride Month and we just lost our beautiful, queer Doctor? I guess I just get back on with it then. Ignore the fact The Rani died immediately upon releasing "Omega". Forget than Carol Ann Ford came back for nothing. Forget that two RTD written companions that were women of color in the medical field were BOTH shipped off as wife or mother. Ignore the eugenics dialogue-- correction to my earlier statement of enjoying the episode up to the flying segway, I overlooked the moment with The Rani and Poppy until the rest of the plot gave us a wasteland of missed opportunity.

...

She came back. They hugged. Ncuti & Jodie hugged.

Ok. Thanks for reading.

I want to cry out of joy at that fact SO BAD!

...but I'm just numb to it all after all of that.

[moxiebustion]

Cursed Old Guard fic idea:

Yusuf ibn Ibrahim ibn Mohammed al-Kaysani.

Died: First Crusades, Ramadan 492, c. 1099

Born: Hijiri Reckoning Safar 473, Gregorian Reckoning 1080

Age: 19

Nicolo di Genova.

Died: First Crusade, Year of Our Lord 1099, July

Born: Gregorian Reckoning, December, Year of our Lord 1082

Age: 16

Notes:

Joe was travelling with his uncle, apprenticed in the family trade, when Jerusalem falls. Joe stays because he's young and hot headed and up for a little derring-do. He very quickly learns a valuable and painful lesson about how wars are.

Nicky gets dragged along with his pious and tyrannical father on the People's Crusade after di Genova Senior loses his wife and he essentially goes off the deep end, which meant Nicky spent about three years on the road and starving for most of it as their ill-quipped band of zealots learn very hard lessons about the effectiveness of prayer as it pertains to things like logistics and supply lines

Joe's beloved uncle is slaughtered. Nicky kind of lost his father to his grief first but he was also killed by the defenders, so both of them hate each other the way only grieving teenagers can hate

It takes them a long time to realize they can't die. Like an astonishing ridiculous level of self-delusion, because young men always think they're immortal anyway

They end up travelling together, although bloodshed ensues for Quite Some Time, because Joe's an impetuous hothead and Nicky's a self-righteous zealot and they're both grieving and don't want to admit it

Teenage Hormones Get Them In The End

Nicky's goddamn lucky he hit an early growth spurt or he'd be in high school until the end of time. As it stands, the very second legal minimum drinking age was established in public houses, he got carded and this trend has continued non-stop to this day

Joe can actually grow a full beard. He lords this over Nicky, who can barely manage one if he puts a lot of effort and time into it (he still gets carded)

Bad Guys are Extremely Weirded Out by this Childhood Sweetheart Teenage Murder Couple

Meanwhile, Andy and Quynh find out that their baby immortals are Actual Babies

Centuries of teenage horniness and melodrama are to come.

Quynh cackles. Andy weeps.

[mihrunnisasultans]

I am not going to defend myself, Your Majesty. Whatever I say, your decision will not change anyway. I could calm you by denying it, but I don't intend to do it. Throw me into the fire like you did with your family and other people you loved. [...] So this is [absolute loyalty] why you killed them all? Hatice, Ibrahim, Mustafa, Çihangir...I remember how our father Selim Han died. He didn't die easily. God did not let him leave this world without suffering first. The same fate awaits you!

Fatma + roasting Suleiman to his face (and to others)

Happy (belated) Birthday Plami! @mc-critical

[reallifesultanas]

Family tree of Mehmed III

Mehmed (1566.05.26. - 1603.12.22.) - Handan (~1568 - 1605)

Ayşe 1583-1632/9 - Destari Mustafa Pasha 1602-1610 * 2 daughters and one son, who all died young - Gazi Hüsrev Pasha 1613-1632

Selim 1585-1597

Şah 1587-1617/8 - Mirahur Mustafa Pasha 1604-1610 * three sons, all died young - Cigalizade Mahmud, son of Cigalizade Yusuf Sinan Pasha 1612-until her death * Mehmed (?-a. 1650), Mustafa (?-?), Karahoca Ibrahim Kethüda (?-a. 1650)

Ahmed I 1590-1617

Süleyman ~1593-1597

Nani believes she had one son Osman, who was 3 or 4 in 1600

Mehmed (1566.05.26. - 1603.12.22.) - Halime (~1568 - after 1624)

Hatice 1585-1617? - Mustafa Aga, one Yeniçeri officer

Mahmud 1587-1603

Safiye 1590-? - Davud Pasha 1604/1605 (consummated 1606)-? * Süleyman (after 1606 - after 1662)

Halime - She could be the wife of Tiryaki Hasan Pasha (1604-1611), but maybe she was unmarried until 1622. - She could be the wife of Budin Ali Pasha (?-1616?)

Cihangir 1598-1602 (identity of his mother is not known for sure)

Mustafa I 1600-1639

And Mehmed III had another daughter Hümaşah, but we dont know anything about her. She could be the wife of Tiryaki Hasan Pasha (1604-1611), or the wife of Budin Ali Pasha (?-1616?) or none of those.

Theories:

Ayşe: I believe she was the eldest daughter of Mehmed, and so the daughter of Handan. Mehmed got Handan after his circumcision in 1582 June, so they could start reproduction in August or so. In 1600 Nani said, the sultan had a daughter, who was 18 years old and that the sultan is thinking about her possible husbands. Based on ottoman calculations 18 is actually 17, so she was born in 1583. Back then Handan as a new favourite, gift of the beloved aunt of Mehmed, possibly was a soley sexual partner for a while making logical that Mehmed's first child was Handan's. And as Destari Mustafa seems to be the first Damad of Mehmed III's daughters, his wife should be the eldest Sultana.

Ayse: She survived her husband in 1632 but does not mentioned after 1639 in the register she was listed previously, which could mean she died between 1632 and 1639 or she moved back to the Old Palace, and so we should search for her in another register.

Halime: All we know is that she was unmarried in 1622. This could mean: she was too young to be married off or simply she was widowed. I personally think she was the wife of Tiryaki Hasan Pasha between 1604 and 1611, then a widow until 1622 (at least), or also the wife of Budin Ali Pasha until 1616.

Hatice: Actually the identity of her mother is not known for sure. She is referred to as Halime's daughter in one source, however, her husband's identity is wrong in that source, so maybe she was not Halime's but a random consort's. Her husband is quite low-level compared to others, so maybe she did not have a brother. OR the identity of the husband (yeniçeri officer) supports the original theory of her being Halime's. We know how Mahmud and Halime had a close relationship with the janissaries and then. Maybe Hatice had something to do with it through her hubby? True, her husband was a Yeniçeri leader only in 1616, and true, that we don't know the exact date of their wedding. The agha died at the end of 1616 and Hatice is lost from history. Maybe she died, maybe remarried.

For Hümaşah it is possibly she died before being married to anyone, or she may was the wife of Tiryaki Hasan Pasha between 1604 and 1611, and/or the wife of Budin Ali Pasha until at least 1616.

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

me:

[burningdreambanana]

Loving your re-write project so much! You nailed Mustafa and Mehmet.

Idk if you take requests but if you do, I’d love to see your take on Mahidevran next. Almost every adaption has Mahi acting like her main issue with Hurrem is that Hurrem somehow magically stole Suleiman away when it reality Hurrem’s (literal) never before seen rise, Suleiman’s devotion/monogamy and willingness to break customs, and the plethora of sons were a genuine threat to her and Mustafa. Also would love to see more Mahidevran actively raising Mustafa to be the sehezade that was considered almost universally to be the perfect heir to the throne. I feel like besides a few scenes where she offers him great advice, that he promptly ignores, the show has more of Ibrahim molding Mustafa into this great man which I didn’t necessarily mind. However I honestly didn’t really begin to like Mahidevran as a character until she and Mustafa left and came back and it was clear she was done with Suleiman and wholeheartedly focused on Mustafa and I wish they had done it earlier.

Also, will you be including historical figures and events in the show to make it more historically accurate or is this re-write simply going through and fixing the issues you had with show? Completely fine either way. What you’ve done so far is amazing and I can’t wait to see what else you have in store

Thank you so much !

At this point the rewrite are mostly about fixing the issues I had with the show yeah, notably when it comes to their takes on certain characters.

As for Mahidevran, I hadn't really thought about it because I think she was overall a fairly well-written character despite me not being a fan of her but you make a good point that she's always portrayed as a scorned woman, when in reality, Suleiman and her would have ceased to be intimate years before Hurrem came into the picture. Also Suleiman had two sons that were older than Mustafa and died in 1520, so Mustafa was the only son for only a very brief period and for a while Mahidevran was probably not as proeminent as the mothers of Mahmud and Murad. So if I could rewrite the whole series I would definitely approach that differently. Like she was the mother of a prince but they were two others, then suddenly she finds herself as the mother of the sole prince, but soon after Hurrem gives birth to Mehmed, which she would watch with attention but really starts getting worried when it becomes clear that Hurrem is different and she sees how Suleiman singles her out. She would still be bitter because that has to hurt (why her and not me?) but mostly fearful about her power.

Also something I would definitely change is the weird amount of plot armor Mahidevran gets on certain occasion that makes absolutely no sense, the prime example is her poisoning a pregnant Hurrem at Suleiman's table and Valide and Ibrahim and even Suleiman to a certain extent shrugging it off, that's bad writing. I would still keep the poison plot but make Mahidevran smarter about it so people don't find out

I would keep though her placing in Mustafa's head the idea that he was born to be sultan which proves to be more of a disadvantage when it comes to his father and having very high expectations for him, but also she plays a part in him being so popular which if Mustafa had indeed decided to rebel against his father, would have been hugely beneficial

[mpreg-consandvans]

Muhammad bin Ibrahim Al Saud was his father's only son, born after 12 daughters in a row. Media reports in Saudi Arabia referred to him in his childhood as "spirited" and "devout", while highlighting his interest in arts and the playing of traditional instruments like the oud and qanun. Western outlets didn't often run stories on the lad, but when they did get rare images of the teenager, reactions were more than a little shocked. He was not often photographed in either thawb or keffiyeh, instead opting to dress in what could charitably be described as "midwestern mall emo" clothing. Accompanying comments from anonymous sources in the palace claimed that the King indulged his son's every whim, given his position as heir to the kingdom at large.

King Ibrahim died last year, leaving the now 25-year-old Muhammad to be crowned in his stead. Surprising everyone in and out of country alike, he declared a 12 month mourning period before his coronation was to take place. The King-to-be also asked for privacy and receded from public life, in order to grieve his father properly.

A week before the coronation, Muhammad made a surprise appearance before the United Nations Economic and Social Council, uncharacteristically garbed in full thawb and keffiyeh, though careful viewers noted that his feet were clad in a pair of Vans Slips Ons, much like the ones he'd often been photographed in during his emo teen years.

More surprising was the fact that Muhammad's thawb was blousing out in the front quite prominently, due to the hugely rounded belly he had grown in the last year. He had immediately asked to address the Council at large and was granted the request.

In his speech, the future King of Saudi Arabia shared that his father's final words to him had been an exhortation to marry for love. As a result, Muhammad announced that Saudi Arabia had secretly struck down all laws against homosexual activity and legalized marriage equality two days after his father's death, with his own marriage to longtime boyfriend, Algerian professional skateboarder Claude Hamdi, being the first gay marriage performed in the country.

He also announced the impending birth of his twin daughters, both of whom were healthy and enjoying their few remaining days in their father's womb. He admitted to having very little idea how to raise a daughter and was seeking help to make his country a better place for them, with sweeping social reforms. He finished the speech with a request for help in developing an equal rights law for women and girls.

He received thunderous applause.

[krowjet]

Tell me, what crimes did they commit? What crimes did four year old Ibrahim Hashash commit to be mauled by an attack dog? What crimes did six year old Hind Rajab commit to be missing even now? That four year old girl shot and killed at a checkpoint? Over ten thousand children alone under seventeen have died, with over 200 being not even a year old.

An eight year old boy was killed in a West Bank refugee camp by the IDF. The body of a fourteen year old boy was stolen by the IDF. His name was Wadea Shadi Sa’d Elayan. They are not alone in their fates.

Tell me how these children have sinned beyond being Palestinian. They suffer for nothing. Their suffering and deaths mean nothing to Israhell.

Do not forget their names. Do not forget their dreams, their hopes, their families. They will not see tomorrow. And it will not end. Over 120 days of genocide. Speak up.

[gryficowa]

Remember to boycott Disney and the Olympics

Unfortunately, 100 people at the UN school (While in hiding) while praying were murdered by criminals (Israel), I know they will romanticize it (Because they prayed before they died), but still, it's a tragedy, it shouldn't have happened (I hate romanticizing tragedy, that's why I don't like Polish history, because when they talk about it, they say how wonderful it is that people died for their country, and those who wanted to survive? Traitors… Sorry, I'm allergic to romanticizing death)

Please don't romanticize the tragedy, Israel is the perpetrator and these people should live, they didn't deserve to die, especially children (Because there were children among the victims), they should have fun and not be afraid of death (Much less die), that's just it children died… Whether they prayed before they died or not, they should not have died, they shouldn't live in fear of death, no one should, not even adults and teenagers

I can't describe my feelings (ASD), but that's all I could say, I just worry more than I can describe…

Now that I have your attention:

[jinnies-lamps]

Telling you sth random: speaking of Antinous earlier (deified lover of Hadrian): the Prophet's beloved second wife, Maria the Copt, was an Egyptian/Coptic enslaved woman, the mother of his only child that wasn't by Khadija (little Ibrahim, who sadly died). Maria was from a town near Antinoopolis, the cultic center of Osiris-Antinous. Most Egyptians took the Shahada in the twilight of paganism while those altars still stood, would've been part of her childhood memory.

Asking about something personal: Religion. When was the first time that as a person raised in Turkey you learned of Jesus? How was it? / When was the first time you realized you weren't 100% with the teachings of Islam or the people who taught them to you?

I learned about Jesus very early, I live in a touristic city, there are lots of people who believe in different things, we also have a church too. I didn't know everything about it but I know Jesus was a prophet and people from the west loved him. During middle school I had a Catholic friend, my high school friend was Orthodox. Also Muslims are talking about Christianity a lot, if you do something they don't approve u will be labeled as christian , so you kinda learn about things even tho they are not very true but I thought christians were chill.

I learned Islam in school, in my home, from people around me. The most annoying thing was how it was towards women. I was very feminist even at that age, I didn't like how Islam portrayed women, how it kept women in cages, bound to men. I didn't like how my hair not being covered can put me in hell. I hated not being independent. I didn't want to follow a God who saw women beneath men, I didn't want to pray.

Also the people around me portrayed God as someone who punished everyone who did wrong, so I was scared of God, I still am. I didn't understand why god punished me while people who use his name and do bad things were not punished. I didn't want to pray to an unfair God.

There are other reasons too but these two were big for me.

[ottomanladies]

I wish to give an opinion of daughters of Ibrahim. There is a great abyys in lack of prooves to demarcate daughters of Ibrahim, Atike and Gevherhan. At times, I have an opinion that Atike existed, and at another times that she didn’t exist. For now, I favour the other theory, but i will talk one day about that topic more detailed.

Archiv für Kulturgeschichte Band 77 on page 65, that at the very end of reign of Sultan Ibrahim, Valide Sultan received 125 okka per month, daughters of Murad III named Hümaşah and Hatice received 7 okka per month, daughter of Murad III Fahri(han) received 10 okka per month, Kaya Sultan 16 okka per month, daughters of Ibrahim Gevherhan and Beyhan 30 okka per month and daughter of Ibrahim Fatma 50 okka per month.

Why would Gevherhan and Beyhan receive less stipend than Fatma, as Fatma was adopted and raised by Turhan? Btw, Fatma survived her husband, read Sakaoglu (actually, Ulucay proved it first). Also, in Acta et Diplomata Ragusina, Fatma is mentioned in 1658 document as widow of Fazli Pasha, nothing else is said unfortunately…

Anyway, I would claim that Ayşe Sultan binti Ibrahim really existed. See this quote from work The rise of the Köprülü family (p. 129):

For instance, when Prince Mustafa, the first son of Mehmed IV, was born in Edirne Palace in 1664, Ayşe Sultan, Gevherhan Sultan and Beyhan Sultan, sisters of Mehmed IV, were called to Edirne Palace from Topkapı to join in the celebration for the new prince. This summons shows that some members of the sultan’s family still resided in Topkapı Palace after 1663.

I consider her being the own sister of Mehmed IV. Kütükoğlu was only one right, he was married to Ibrahim’s Ayşe. Ahmed’s Ayşe really died in 1656, in document Vakfiler su defteri there is one document mentioning Ayşe Sultan died before 1660 (if I recall). Her last husband was Ibsir Mustafa Pasha. Sadly, Ibrahim’s Ayşe was wrongly confused also as Ibsir’s wife. Her one and only marriage was with Suleiman Pasha Malatuk (Ermeni). Alderson confused her with Murad IV’s daughter.

In work Atik şikâyet defteri (7 numaralı H.1081-1083/ M.1671-1672) transkripsiyon, Mehmed IV wrote several letters in 1671/72 to his sisters Ayşe and Gevherhan, and their husbands. He doesn’t refer them as hemşirem, but it’s them.

Anyway, in work OSMANLI DEVLETİ’NİN 1660-1661 (HİCRİ 1070-1071) TARİHLİ SEFER BÜTÇESİ  (pp. 23-24), there were provided annual payments of some Ottoman princesses in 1661. This payment list does not refer to all of the Sultanas who were knowly alive in 1661, as Ahmed’s daughter Fatma Sultan for example. Only some of them.:

Hâshâ-i hazret-i Valide Sultan 12.000.000

Hâshâ-i paşmaklık-ı Ayşe Sultan 2.595.333

 Hâshâ-i paşmaklık-ı Fatıma Sultan 2.005.000

 Hâshâ-i paşmaklık-ı Rukiyye Sultan 1.235.000

Hâshâ-i paşmaklık-ı Safiye Sultan 1.005.000

Hâshâ-i paşmaklık-ı Beyhan Sultan 1.560.000 24

Hâshâ-i paşmaklık-ı Gevherhan Sultan 1.520.000

Hâshâ-i Ayşe sultan haseki-i merhum Gazi Sultan Murad Han aleyhi’r-rahmeti ve’l-gufran 100.000

Hâshâ-i paşmaklık-ı Ümmi Sultan 295.000

Hâshâ-i paşmaklık-ı Sâime Sultan 285.000

Hâshâ-i temlik-i merhum Kaya Sultan 1.250.000

See how Mehmed’s cousins (Murad IV’s daughters) and sisters (especially) received high payments, in difference to his aunt Ümmi Sultan and his great-great-aunt Saime Sultan. But, you would notice his sisters Ayşe and Fatma received the highest salaries; Ayşe the very highest as own sister, Fatma little lesser as adopted sister.

Sorry for the long wait, I have been incredibly busy these past few months.

About Ayşe binti Ibrahim, I would refer to this post, in which @rhaenahanzades found that the one married to Ermeni/Malatyalı Süleyman Pasha was Ayşe binti Ahmed I. I’ll paste the citation again, here:

“Soliman passa, Visir della Porta. Ritrouai anche alla Corte per Visir della Porta il Sr Soliman passa, stato un tempo Visir Supremo, dal quale fui all'udienza e lo presentai secondo le comissioni, il quale nell'honorarmi e trattarmi bene non uolse mostrarsi meno cortese degl'altri, offerendosi con molta humanità per ogni occorenza de publici seruitii. Questo Sr è assai noto all'EE. VV. per rellationi di diuersi loro ambassadori, onde a me non occorre tediarle in detto proposito. Dirò solo questo, che non le uol male e che sia personaggio da potterle fauorire, essendo ben uoluto da S. Mtà, col quale è ancor congiunto col uincolo di parentella, mentre la sua zia Aisce sultana tiene per moglie.” (“Dubrovačka akta i povelje” vol. 3, pages 661 and 662)

I believe Ayşe binti Ibrahim died pretty young and therefore never entered the Ragusian ambassadors’ lists of gifts.

As for Fatma binti Ibrahim, I must have missed when it was decided that she had been adopted by Turhan because I have never heard of this.

About the list of payments you’ve found, I’m not sure those princesses are identified correctly:

I have identified them based on seniority and the amount of money, which seems to me to be what their lands yield. I don’t think these are stipends.

Anyway, if we put the princesses in order of amount of money, I think it’d be easier to understand who is who:

Ayşe and Fatma stand at the top of the hierarchy because a) they’re older and b) they must have amassed a great amount of land during their lives. After them we have the sisters of the reigning sultan (Mehmed IV), so Beyhan and Gevherhan (possibly in order of birth??); then we have Murad IV’s daughters (Kaya is mentioned as deceased because she was at the time), and lastly we have two minor princesses: Saime, a daughter of Murad III and a non-haseki concubine, and Ümmi, either a daughter of Ahmed I or of Murad III as well. I say this because I think their small amount of land means they were not daughters of Haseki Sultans: if Ümmi is Ayşe and Fatma’s sister that’s the only reason she would possess less land than them.