#sehzade osman i

[historicalreusedcostumes]

This Silver Kraftan Costume is worn in Magnificent Century Season 4 Episode 3 (2013) on Engin Öztürk as Sehzade Selim and worn in Magnificent Century: Kosem two times, First worn on Taner Ölmez as Osman I in Season 1 Episode 24 (2016) and worn again later on Metin Akdülger as Sultan Murad 4 in Season 2 (2017)

[magnificentlyreused]

This kaftan was first worn by Şehzade Mustafa (later Sultan Mustafa I) in the first episode of the first season of Magnificent Century: Kösem. It was altered by adding gold trim before it was worn again by Şehzade Bayezid in the twenty-seventh episode of the same season. The kaftan was used twice in the second season, first on Şehzade Ahmed in the second episode and then on Şehzade Osman in the twenty-seventh episode.

The kaftan also appeared in the fourth episode of Golden Apple: The Grand Conquest where it was worn during a flashback by Şehzade Mehmed (later Sultan Mehmed II).

[davidcescleo]

While I was watching MC, I always wanted Hurrem to win and I really liked her, she always loved Suleyman and protected her children so she was a pretty rootable character.

Kosem on the other hand is a horrible person but for some reason, I liked her much more than Hurrem, I wanted her to kill Sehzade Mehmet and beat Turhan (because she sucks). This could be because the source of her existence and power is not a man but herself, unlike Hurrem whose all existence depended on Suleyman.

Kosem chose five padisahs (Mustafa, Osman, Murat, Ibrahim and Mehmet) and run the states for like 30 years. What did Hurrem do? She couldn't even listen to the divan without Suleyman exiling her, she had no power compared to Kosem.

I am not mad at her character don't get me wrong I am just annoyed at the writers for never showing (or showing too little) her "state relations" side.

[lorirwritesfanfic]

Berk Atan as Prince Hamid Osmanoğlu

Disclaimer: this character profile was created specifically to fit Prince Hamid on Meant To Be universe . I unfortunately don't own the character, I don't assume to know everything about him and I have no intention to affirm this is exactly who he is and how other people should write him. I'm merely a hardcore enthusiast of this lovely character and I do my best to keep his essence while adding a few headcanons of my own.

Name: Hamid Osmanoğlu

Nationality: Turkish

Birthdate: December 3, 1991.

Hometown: Istanbul, Türkiye

Current Residence: Ithaca, NY, USA

Occupation: Envoy of Türkiye in the United States of America, graduate student of MBA Economics and Management at Cornell University

Talents/Skills: public speaking, a knack for languages, charm, cooking, self-defense and combat skills.

Parents: Murat Osmanoğlu and Raisa Doğan-Osmanoğlu

Siblings: Nesrin Osmanoğlu-Aksoy, Malak Osmanoğlu, Sevim Osmanoğlu.

Closest relatives: Ahmet and Halime Osmanoğlu (uncle and aunt), Osman Osmanoğlu (grandfather - deceased), Kaan Aksoy (brother in-law).

Background: First born of Ambassador of Türkiye in Australia Murat Osmanoğlu and prosecutor Raisa Doğan-Osmanoğlu, Hamid is easy going, perceptive and polite, has the ability to make friends everywhere he goes and charms everyone with his sense of humor and kind heart. With an impressive wit and knack for languages, he's fluent in seven languages (Arabic, English, French, German, Hindi, Mandarin and Spanish) aside from his native tongue. He fell in love with International Relations when he was nine and studied Economics and Finance at Bahcesehir University (2008-2011), hoping to follow his father's footsteps and become a diplomat.

To please his mother, he studied Law in Cambridge (2012-2015), worked with her for six months and quit to spent a month traveling with his father. He returned to Cambridge to get a Msc in International Relations and Politics (2016-2018), getting his first job at UK Parliament, where he worked with Earl Vincent Foredale.

He enrolled in MBA Economics and Management at Cornell University (2018-2021) and now works as an envoy of Türkiye in the USA, taking a job as legal advisor right after that.

What's his family like?

The Osmanoğlu family (on his father side) is composed by direct descentants from the House of Osman. When the Ottoman Empire fell, his grandfather Sehzade Osman was exiled in the UK with his family, then moved to the United States, where he married and lived most of his life. Most of his relatives live in Germany, UK or USA, but they still gather every year for festivities. All Osmanoğlu members follow Muslim traditions, but living in western countries made them inclined to a modern lifestyle.

The Doğan family (on his mother side), however, is more traditional. Mostly composed by women, they live in the same neighborhood and gather around at least twice per month. Filthy rich, pragmatic and meddlesome, they often interfere on younger relatives career choices, friendships and relationships, calling family meetings and interventions whenever they see fit. Though Hamid loves his mother and aunts dearly, their intrusive habits are among the reasons why he moved out of his family's house and doesn't have plans to live permanently in Turkiye again.

Favourite childhood memory: sailing with his father, grandfather and uncle.

Nicknames: Aslan (among the men in his family), Osman (among friends at school/university because of the name on his football jersey), Hamidciğim (most women in his family call him that, but according to him, this petname sounds more endearing to him when Daphne calls)

Astrology sign: Sagittarius sun, Aquarius rising, Cancer moon

Hobbies: Driving, fishing, reading, cooking, MMORPG

Relationship status: In a relationship with Daphne Wang

Top 5 songs:

Burcu Güneş - Sen Benimsin, Ben Seninim

Emre Aydın - Hoşçakal

Paul McCartney - My Love

Coldplay - A Message

Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

Favourite books:

The Twenty-One Balloons by Pene du Bois

The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk

Poems of Nâzım Hikmet (1986 edition)

Favourite movies:

Psycho (1960)

Spirited Away (2001)

Sonbahar (2008)

Favourite TV shows:

He likes most cooking TV shows, but his favourite is Masterchef Kids (he is amazed by talented children). From Netflix, his favourites are Sex Education, Aşk 101 and The Crown. But his all time favourites are period dramas (Magnificent Century, Magnificent Century: Kösem, The Great Seljuks: Guardians of Justice, Kuruluş Osman, Reign, The Tudors, The Spanish Princess...), He is also into K-Drama and Chinese drama because of Daphne and his sisters, but he only watches with them.

Biggest guilty pleasure:

watching Daphne's trashy TV reality shows while eating greasy food. He's not entirely ashamed of the greasy food and says it motivates him to exercise more in the next day, but will blantantly deny liking Love Island, Love is Blind and Say Yes To The Dress.

Sweet or savoury?

Normally he says both, but when push comes to shove, he'll choose savoury.

Favourite food:

Menemen, kofte burger, ramen, baklava

Favourite drinks:

Non-alcoholic - Turkish coffee, cappucino, Turkish tea, pomegranate juice, strawberry daiquiri mocktail

Alcoholic - Irish coffee, rakı, wine

Most treasured possessions:

A Ducati Panigale V4R and A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Zeitzone watch with his initials engraved in the back.

Close Friends:

Sevim Osmanoğlu (OC), Yusuf Konevi, Ali Koveni (OC), Sanem Konevi (OC), Veronica Dantas (OC), Bartholomew Chambers.

Goals for the future:

Travel to Sub-Saharan Africa, take Daphne to travel with him more often, buying an apartment in London.

Dog lover or cat lover?

Both (don't expect him to choose)

Early bird or night owl?

Early bird (unless he's jetlagged)

How does he relax after a bad day?

When he's alone, he goes jogging or driving to clear his head then finds something to eat. When he's with Daphne, he stays home with her, preferably resting his head on her lap as they watch movies.

Personality: ENFP-A (Assertive Campaigner)

Campaigners (ENFPs) are true free spirits – outgoing, openhearted, and open-minded. With their lively, upbeat approach to life, they stand out in any crowd. But even though they can be the life of the party, Campaigners don’t just care about having a good time. These personality types run deep – as does their longing for meaningful, emotional connections with other people.

One random headcanon:

During his teenhood, he used to play MMORPG with then Prince Liam of Cordonia and Drake Walker during late nights. He's not as close to the King of Cordonia as he used be, but they're still good friends. He attended the King's coronation, the King's engagement parties to Lady Madeleine and Lady Jade, the bachelor party in Paris and wedding to Queen Jade. He was also invited to the bachelor + bachelorette party in Vegas, but politely declined because he was preparing himself for the interviews for the MBA at Cornell University.

[reallifesultanas]

Family of Ahmed I.

Some new information about Fatma: "There is no clear information in the sources about the date of Fatma Sultan's death, it is generally stated that she died after her marriage to Kozbekçi Yusuf Pasha. The cause of her death is unknown. The date on which the jewels to be sold in her estate were recorded is shown as March 1671" (...) "Considering that the inheritance was recorded after the funeral and burial procedures, it is seen that the collection of the estate took time."So she possibly died in very late 1670 or early 1671 we can be fine with that. Based on this new study she left money, inheritance to: - Haseki Sultan, who back then was Emetullah Rabia Gülnüş - Fatma Hanimsultan, who was her step-daughter and so the daughter of Esmehan Kaya Sultan --> this is interesting as Fatma Sultan and Melek Ahmed (father of Fatma Hanimsultan) were not in the best relationship... But at the same times Fatma the older cared for Fatma the younger. At this point i must mention something. We usually consider the marriage of Esmehan Kaya and Melek Ahmed a close and lovely one because of Evliya. Evliya praised the two of them, but at the same time Evliya and Melek Ahmed were relatives, sooooo maybe this whole Melek Ahmed and Esmehan thing was not so lovely? Maybe Fatma disliked Melek Ahmed with a reason? Or maybe she just blamed him for the death of Esmehan Kaya? The article mentions only two sons of Fatma: Hüseyin and Ömer. It says that Hüseyin was born from her marriage to Kaptan-ı Derya Canpoladzade Mustafa Pasha; Ömer was born from her marriage to Koca Yusuf Pasha. But we know another son of Fatma, Süleyman Bey also from Canpolzade Pasha; and one son from her very first marriage, Hasan, who died as a baby.Also it is clear that Fatma Sultan married her third husband Koca Yusuf Pasha not in 1656 but ~1637/8.  

[ibrahimnerde]

Sehzade Mustafa promised to not kill his brothers but Hurrem didn’t believe it why? He never hurted them. It is not impossible after all Sultan Ahmed didn’t kill his brother but unfortunately Osman did so nothing is 100% sure.

The thing is,it is either kill or get killed.

One prospective which is Mustafa loves his brothers dearly and will never hurt them and even had a plan to assign them for the future. That’s a promise that Mustafa made and that’s great.

On the other hand, Hurrem can’t depend on promises. Promises could be broken and have been broken so expecting her to live dependently on the sheer possibility that Mustafa might stick to his promises is unrealistic. Cause to her what if he broke the promise? At the end Mahidevran once threatened her and her children’s life how is she supposed to trust Mustafa’s brotherly promises?

I am not saying Mustafa wouldn’t stick to his promise…no one could ever determine what would’ve happened if Mustafa ascended the throne. I am saying that Hurrem was being realistic. Mehmet also loved Mustafa and even put himself in danger for Mustafa so why did Mahi kill him? Because she can’t depend on some innocent lovey dovey promises that are completely unrealistic considering the situation they are in.

In MCK Osman killing mehmet speaks volume about these brotherly promises. They aren’t all fake but one can’t depend on it. First let’s talk about sultan Ahmet and Mustafa. Ahmet initially didn’t kill Mustafa because that hunted his conscience, Mahmut hunted his conscience. But he still tried to kill him twice one of them he was still youngster sultan driven by his emotions and personally stopped the execution. The 2nd time Ahmet didn’t stop the execution himself it was Mustafa who chased a bird and the executioners couldn’t find him. Which means that the 2nd time Ahmet was gonna leave Mustafa die if Mustafa didn’t chase that bird. Then “merciful” sultan Ahmet understands that god is sending him a message to not kill him Mustafa instead he cuts all Mustafa’s human connections. In conclusion sultan Ahmet isn’t merciful because not killing doesn’t make one merciful specially when he attempted to do it twice.

Osman promised to protect the life of his brothers and when he got on the throne what he does? Exile kosem who saved him then kill mehmet because he thought mehmet would defy when my guy did absolutely nothing.

Then we have murat….

Anyway to conclude this just because one promised something doesn’t mean he’ll fulfill his promise. My expectations if Mustafa ascended the throne he’ll definitely send off Hurrem, might kill Selim first. I am not sure whether he’ll kill Cihangir or Bayezid but they definitely won’t be treated like normal princes would be.

[ottomanladies]

the known grandchildren of Handan Valide Sultan -- requested by anon

[magnificent-sultana]

Men of Muhtesem Yuzyil: Kosem

[madamelamarquys]

“The hand of death that reaches out has touched me.”

[sevgilisultana]

Sultanate of Women (4/7)

Safiye Sultan (c. 1550 – 1621)

Safiye Sultan parents are not known

Haseki Sultan (Legal Wife) of Sultan Murad Ill, Valide Sultan of Sultan Mehmed Ill, and Buyuk Valide Sultan of Sultan Ahmed I

Mother of Sultan Mehmed Ill, Sehzade Mahmud, Humasah Sultan, Ayse Sultan, Fatma Sultan, Mihrimah Sultan, Sehzade Yahya (possibly).

Grandmother of Sehzade Selim, Sehzade Suleyman, Sehzade Mahmud, Sultan Ahmed I, Sultan Mustafa, Sehzade Cihangir, Sehzade Osman, Sah Sultan, Hatice Sultan, Sultanzade Mahmud, Sultanzade Hasan Bey, Marice, and Elena.

Mother-in-law of Handan Sultan, Halime Sultan, Nigar Mustafazade Mehmed Pasha, Serdar Ferhat Pasha (?), Damat Ibrahim Pasha,Yemisci Hasan Pasha, Güzelce Mahmud Pasha, Damad Halil Pasha, Damad Cafer Pasha, Damad Hizir Pasha, Mirahur Ahmed Pasha, Gerkes Mehmed Ali Pasha, and Anna Caterina of Drisht (?)

Fun Fact For Newbies: Safiye Sultan was the first women of the Sultanate of Women to be Haseki Sultan, Valide Sultan, and Buyuk Valide Sultan. Safiye Sutan also lived through 6 Sultan reigns: Sultan Suleiman, Sultan Selim II, Sultan Mehmed III, Sultan Ahmed I, Sultan Mustafa I, and Sultan Osman II.

[magnificentlyreused]

This brown and golden coat was first worn by Huricihan Sultan in the sixth episode of the third season of Magnificent Century. It was also used on a guest in the thirty-sixth episode of the same season. The coat was worn again by Şehzade Bayezid's son Abdullah in the thirtieth episode of the fourth season.

The coat appears twice in the spin-off Magnificent Century: Kösem. It is first worn by Şehzade Mustafa (later Sultan Mustafa I) in the sixth episode of the first season. The fur collar was swapped for gold trimming before it was worn one last time by Sultan Ibrahim's son Osman in the twenty-sixth episode of the second season.

[tiny-librarian]

The scene where Kosem goes back in to confront Halime,who told her she'd killed all her sons, and then all 6 of the very much alive Sehzades come in after her?

Stunning.

Absolutely amazing.

Complete awesome on Kosem's part. I loved it so much.

And the way Mehmet and Osman immediately grab their little brothers and pull them in protecting them when they drag poor Mustafa out? God that hurts my heart.

[thefreakyfun]

requested: History of Mahfiruz Hatice Sultan     

[reallifesultanas]

Family of Mustafa I and Osman II. So I was like “I dont make trees for these sultans because it would be too short”, however in the end I decided to make it, because I included all sultans so far, so I must include them as well!

[ottomanladies]

How did concubines negotiate contact with non-eunuch men in & around the harem? I assume princes could interact with their moms, sisters, and other female blood relatives. Yet Mehmed III impregnating a servant while still a prince & Kosem caring for Osman suggests they weren’t 100% isolated from non-sultan men. How was this divide between princes, their “stepmoms” & other non-blood related women in the harem managed?

Royal children and royal consorts belong to the same family even if there is not a blood relation between them. This is something we'll see later, maybe influenced by European practices, but we have princes call their fathers' consorts "first mother" "second mother" "third mother" according to the women's ranks. So, these people — consorts and children — certainly had a relationship, especially after the practice of the prince governorate lapses and princes live in the harem before being secluded in the kafes.

Before the reign of Süleyman I, princes as young as 10/11 were sent to provinces away from Istanbul to learn how to rule. It's with him that for the first time actual adult princes live in the harem: Mustafa left Istanbul for Manisa at the age of 18, Mehmed was even older— 21 years old. In any case, princes weren't barred from talking to their fathers' consorts. There's actually a letter of Hürrem's in which she asks her husband to send her hello to Mustafa:

“If you send greetings to Sultan Mustafa, send him my note too.” Apparently she had included a separate letter to Suleyman’s eldest son in the scroll cylinder that carried her own to the sultan. The future would cloud Roxelana’s relations with Mustafa and his mother Mahidevran, but in 1526 there appeared to be harmony, or at least an effort on Roxelana’s part to keep up communication. — Peirce, Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire

Specifically to the examples you've mentioned:

the slave Mehmed III impregnated was part of Nurbanu's retinue, which means that he probably met her whenever he visited his grandmother (which royal grandchildren routinely did— daily in the XIX century, supposedly it was the same in the XVI century)

Osman was Kösem's step-son. Seeing as Mehmed was only a couple of months younger and they had therefore the same tutor, they could not not have a relationship of some sort. I also imagine that the children used to play together when they were little and the only sons of Ahmed I. The Venetian ambassador's remark that she was not to converse with him or his younger brother anymore does not mean that they wouldn't see each other anymore but that they weren't supposed to spend a lot of time together. Or alone. As Osman was motherless, he was "defenceless" because he didn't have anyone to look after his own interests; if Mahfiruze had been alive at the time, Kösem wouldn't have certainly taken him out for carriage rides with her children. They would have still seen each other on a daily basis, maybe for lessons or because Kösem would visit Mahfiruze (for tea, for example) but it wouldn’t have been that dangerous (from Ahmed I’s point of view, at least) because Kösem wouldn’t have tried to lobby the young prince

Hell, I'll even include Ahmed and Kösem who, according to Valier, met each other when the prince used to visit his own mother.

These things could happen, though it wasn't certainly a habit and it was forbidden to entertain an intimate relationship with a woman belonging to the sultan's harem, it doesn't matter her rank.

In the case of step-mothers and step-children though it was perfectly normal for them to have some sort of relationship. I mean, motherless children were entrusted to other consorts by the sultans themselves. In the XIX century, princes would routinely visit their fathers’ consorts on religious festivities and consorts with no children would even have favourites among the royal children: Mahmud II’s consort Tiryâl Hanımefendi was very close to the then-prince Abdülaziz, so much so that when he became sultan, she was considered a sort of second valide sultan. It’s true we’re much later in Ottoman history but in this case, Abdülaziz had a living mother. 

I think the family dynamics of the Ottoman dynasty are very interesting.

[fymagnificentwomcn]

t’s truly something how all princes/sultans in tmck are so pressed…I get their life isn’t easy, but all that blaming & truly how it can affect everyone’s perception. Murad even accused his mother of faking an assassination attempt on her life, incredible *sarcasm of course*. And Atike was just his cheerleader most of the time, ugh. All that blaming by people who even weren’t there. Thanks for writing that piece!

Aww thank you so much! This piece is my magnum opus I guess lol (Link here:https://fymagnificentwomcn.tumblr.com/post/610970504341405696/no-she-isnt-the-whole-evil-k%C3%B6sem-thing-isnt )

Murad’s angry 24/7 & gets so ridiculous with blame-shifting – he would need a good anger management therapy LBR.

And there’s one scene that portrays his character in nutshell:

Doctor: you cannot drink anymore wine, Your Majesty.

Murad, literally 5 minutes later: Yusuf, bring me wine!

Murad in 1 minute, another example:

Kösem: Don’t marry Silahtar to Atike, you also have another sister and if you do it, it will end in tragedy!

Murad: No worriez, I’ve thought about Gevherhan, I will marry her to Kemankeş ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I mentioned a lot of blame-shifting in my previous posts, but he even at moment began questioning his mum about Gülbahar and whether she truly committed treason (and Gülbahar herself admitted to it).

Even when Atike asked him for permission to take children with her & Kösem to vaqf, he was totally okay with the idea, but later after kidnapping snapped at his mother that it was HER fault for gaving taken his sons there & began threatening her with exile far away. Charming as always.

Honestly, he’s like a broken record. In all his arguments, while Kösem has her logical arguments, his only argument is usually “I’m the only/rightful owner of Ottoman Empire, “I’m the shadow of God on Earth. Like dude do you realise how boring you are???

Don’t forget how mad he got when Kösem wrote to Kemankeş to have a backup plan if Murad died and Bayezid wanted to take the throne, which could have meant danger for other Kösem’s sons. After all, she didn’t take it from nothing, Gülbahar told her about assassination attempt to come & it actually already had happened by the time Murad received the letter. Yes, dude you are not immortal, you could have been killed, and life goes on you know? It doesn’t mean your mother doesn’t love you or is not going to mourn you, but she also needs to take care of your brothers and state ffs. He’s truly obsessed with this idea that after his death life will  (unfortunately in his view) go on – which is also meaningful since Kösem reminded him like two episodes earlier that state was going to remain even with both of them dead. And well we all know the “masterful” idea he conceived just before his death.

And it’s clear how even some of his siblings fear him – Gevherhan was scared immediately following the announcement of Kösem no longer being a regent (especially since he did in a way to put  blame on his mother for recent events to prop himself up, and he was also engaged in state matters at that point). Kasim also immediately fears being locked up in kafes or even executed. Judging by their conversations, despite problems going on, last 10 years were a peaceful time for their family.

As I said, out of all Kösem’s opponents only Handan and Derviş weren’t worse than her, and she was the only main player that never engaged in mass slaughter – Safiye, Halime&Co., Gülbahar&Sinan, Murad, Turhan - all did.

Same with Atike – she was a baby when when her father died, didn’t even spend her early years locked up as Ibrahim…. she’s honestly so blind it’s painful. The scene where she jumps at Kemankeş for trying to talk sense to Ibrahim not to appoint Genie Master as chief judge… please your brother is now acting contrary to Imperial law and it’s asking for further disaster if Cinci increases his influence among ulema by bringing people who pay him into it & it’s good Ibo is controlled in this way… nah, it’s actually necessary. And how you jump from this to your mother I have no idea either. A true performative “activist”, who talks about protecting her brother, but all is limited to talking  & exposing her moral superiority, while it’s not supported by any real actions helping him.

Well, you got your revenge on your mother for killing the husband who despised you, acted against your youngest brothers at that point, and likely was only praying you wouldn’t follow him also into afterlife.

I also forgot to mention one more example of Mu/rat manipulating the narrative – when he tells Atike following the failed dethronement attempt & Kasim’s death that their mother had lied to her and tried to kill him – he was after all put in kafes, he should be aware nobody planned an assassination attempt, bah he KNEW the whole plan from Sinan… and yes, Kösem being so adamant that nothing can happen to Mura/t cost her Kasim in the end.

Atike herself was aware that Mu/rat would have killed her brothers even if the dethronement attempt had not happened as she told him to his face after Kasim’s death and she stated that he had made the decision long ago. Later however she got the letter from Murad informing her who killed Silahtar and she even released Traitor No. 1 Sinan to spite her mum 😂.

I suppose princes at this point led the hardest existence because they were closed in kafes, unable to get decent education&experience or have families (maybe they were allowed to have sex with cariyes, but contraception had to be used or even abortion if the concubine of a sehzade has got pregnant) but at the same time they weren’t certain whether they wouldn’t be killed because the switch to anti-fratricide was pretty new&the times were turbulent. Osman clearly broke Imperial law by getting fetva from military judge to kill Mehmed, and Murad killed the biggest number of Ahmed’s sons obviously (yeah more than in the show because not all princes appeared in MYK, though we don’t know the exact number of Ahmed’s sons, Murad definitely also executed Suleiman, most likely his full brother). I laugh when people go about “rule-breaker” Murad. Wow by getting back to law that has already began to run its course, clap clap.

Murad was king of hypocrisy and it’s also a historical fact. As Halil İnalcık states in his book Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age: “ The tyrannical Murad IV was a habitual drinker and at the same time the most ruthless supporter of the prohibition againt alcohol”. Mu/rat tried to make use of religion in his attempts to drill absolute obedience, but he wasn’t a religious person himself & definitely tried to take from religion what it most suited him, while ignoring other things, e.g. he kept decreasing zakat, aka income tax that goes to charity. A small bit of trivia: apparently he was a big fan of Machiavelli’s The Prince, there were even some rumours that he translated the book himself (we can only imagine he also took from this book what he wanted 🤪 ).

Similarly Turhan manipulated the narrative, also in a hypocritical way – remember her going like: “how many padişahs you killed?” and she was the main force behind Ibo’s death… the moment Ibo told her that she “was a coward who hid behind his mother’s skirts”… it was clear he was doomed. There was explicit anger on Turhan’s side here. Not only because she felt insulted by him, but also because she felt a need to prove both to him and the world that she was capable to be on top without Kösem’s support.  Not to mention all her actions leading to Ibo’s situation, also her ordering Mehmed to sign his dad’s death order was so chilling “I don’t want dad to die”. Well, now let’s play morally pure, especially while murdering elderly (very elderly lbr :p) Haci in again a brutal way, including twisting his neck. It’s not even that she removed a padisah – she actively worked to make him crazier and for his rule to be total failure, it wasn’t even about her, Ibo or Kösem – whole nation suffered because she was impatient to take power into her hands./BTW pity we skipped the time period when they were both Valides and we know both tried to get rid of each other, without harming Mehmed/ And frankly even with Kösem it was a terrible & undeserved backstabbing because also Ibi criticised Turhan for this saying his mother always “loved and protected her, did so much for her” and I doubt Ibo was biased here considering that he was also on bad terms with his mum at that moment.

Later the situation truly calmed down & later princes could live much more peacefully because the practice of killing truly went out of style and also later there were less and less restrictions on princes and they could for example travel abroad with the reigning padişah. For example, Sultan Abdülaziz took princes for a European trip and they even had a chance to meet Queen Victoria.

And I laugh when people blame Kösem for “failing to protect the princes” instead of you know, blame the actual killer. Ahmed truly replenished dynasty, while Murad axed a number of his brothers, at the same time of course used his own propaganda. It is true that Murad executed the favourite of princes, Bayezid, during celebrations following the successful Revan campaign. Similarly, when Kasim was executed someone spread rumours about the prince impregnating a number of concubines & it was before the Baghdad campaign when even setting out on it Murad had to display his “splendour and glory”.

Show-wise I legit one read that Kösem killed Ahmed because she spared Bulbül following Safiye’s attempted coup lmao. It’s not like Ahmed wasn’t there when she made the decision & it’s not like it wasn’t Hümaşah who after all got Yasemin in, and I doubt anyone could oppose an Imperial princess anyway – she would have found another servant. And Bülbül later saved Kösem’s kids, so… scapegoating truly is in some people’s blood lmao.

I love how MYK played with the idea of historical representation & creation of narrative, how people “see” and how different factors might influence their perception & creation of narrative. And also how S2 put into different perspective some stuff from S1. I admit there were some things that back during first watch of MYKS1 made me go WTF? that I later understood when compared/contrasted with MYK S2. It’s clear that they truly planned a lot of the whole show back in S1.

It’s sometimes interesting how narratives may be created and repeated even without evidence supporting it - there is no historical evidence that Kösem took part in Osman’s dethronement, yet it is something that often pops up even in “historical articles” for example. People deduce since Kösem later became Valide quite soon because Mustafa’s (or rather Halime’s) reign didn’t last long, know Şehzade Mustafa’s (Suleiman’s son) story, and some rumours about what Ottoman women did to secure throne for their children, so they see getting rid of one’s stepson to claim throne for one’s child as logical and usual in Ottoman system,  even when there is no proper evidence backing it up. Because it seems natural and logical, so why not make it more spicy? We know next to nothing about Mahfiruz, but there is this “Betty vs Veronica” trope, so suddenly we learn that Mahfiruz was Kösem’s opposite, not politically involved or ambitious, but gentle & sweet, and even details like light hair pop up as opposed to Kösem’s dark hair (sometimes of course it is also extended to good vs. evil). Taken from where, other than fitting a known trope? Or when she’s presented as some sort of Mahidevran vol.2 as having as close relationship with Osman like Mahi did with Mustafa, perfect prince and jealous stepmother Kösem. I know some of the stuff is also derived from Western, orientalist plays, but those are obviously not sources and should not be treated as truth. And sometimes it it even repeated by historians. For example Uluçay, who  was very against Sultanate of Women & pretty much propagated a lot of rumours (and new approach to the period truly changed a lot of how academia writes about these women now). Let us look at this quote:

Taken from: Necdet Sakaoğlu, Famous Ottoman Women.

It’s clear what narrative Uluçay chose for his research.

It’s common practice to sometimes fill in the blanks (and sometimes even change stuff) with known cliches, tropes, and narratives.

It is truly a topic for an extended discussion, so I will stop for now, but when it comes to Ottoman history I do recommend Daniel Piterberg’s Ottoman Tragedy. History and Historography at Play, which shows how the same event may be even differently presented in historical works depending on chosen narrative that is often rooted in current context.