We are still with the comedy of the Ottoman state.. and the mother of Murad III, "Nurbanu Sultan".. who entered into a bloody struggle with his wife "Safiye".. over which of them would control the Ottoman state.
But there was another power on the scene, namely the Grand Vizier "Mehmed Pasha Sokollu", who controlled the Janissary forces.. who owed him loyalty.. and he was issuing decisions as though he were the actual ruler of the Ottoman state.. especially since Sultan "Murad" had come to reside in the harem amid the concubines, the wine, the dancing and the stupor.
"Mehmed Pasha Sokollu" realised from the outset, by virtue of his experience, the nature of the struggle.. and realised that he would need more money in it.. in order to prevail over "Nurbanu" if she were to bribe the Agha of the Janissaries.. and as we know, "Selim" had legalised prostitution.. and made it subject to a tax and a licence.. so "Mehmed Pasha Sokollu" came along and created something called the "karkhana".
You might hear this word in Egypt in the dictionary of the most insulting curses.. but you don't know where it came from.. it came from the "karkhanat".. mobile brothels.. resembling caravans.. moving from one neighbourhood to another.. to satisfy the customers.. and paying a special tax.. exceeding the tax on ordinary prostitution.
In this era came the mufti of the Ottoman state.. Sheikh "Abu al-Su'ud Efendi".. and he took his fee.. and permitted the practice of paid fornication.. so long as it was the command of "the holder of authority".. and so long as fees were collected on it as he wished.
And the Ottoman state began to sponsor the "karkhanat" and allow their existence.. and their revenue poured into the pocket of "Mehmed Pasha Sokollu".. who in turn lavished it on the Janissaries.. so their loyalty to him increased more and more.
"Nurbanu" tries to isolate "Mehmed Pasha Sokollu" and get rid of him.. but he was extremely careful.. so her attempt fails.
And "Nurbanu" was beautiful by the standards of her era.. and roughly "Hend Sabri" when the genie dressed her in the film "The Blue Elephant" by the standards of our era.. but still.. they considered her the beauty queen of her time - she is the one in this picture - to the point that one of her lovers.. and he was a man taken captive from Italy, asked that they castrate him.. so that he could stay close to her in the harem.. and indeed they performed the terrifying surgery on him.. which was done only with a knife heated over flame.. and he remained at her feet after that.. so she rewarded him by appointing him chief of the eunuchs and naming him "Ghadanfar Agha".
I don't know where "Ghadanfar" is after what happened.. but she named him that.. and he was one of her spies and her slaves and one of those closest to her in the palace.
The beauty of "Nurbanu" drives her to think differently about "Mehmed Pasha Sokollu".. so she decides to try to seduce him.. but the truth is he was a man who did not care for women at all.. all his ambition was power and he was very focused in that direction.. so he ignores her completely.. and this wounds her femininity with a bleeding wound.
And "Mehmed Pasha Sokollu" begins communicating with states as the de facto ruler.. to the point that he received the ambassador of Venice and corresponded with the crown prince of Austria.. and these were prerogatives exclusive to the Sultan.
But "Nurbanu" decides to get rid of him at any price.. and she is astonished that "Safiye" has withdrawn into calm and stepped back.. and submitted to her, even if outwardly.. but she does not care much about "Safiye's" affair now.. and she lays her plan to get rid of the Grand Vizier.. "Mehmed Pasha Sokollu".
And in October of the year 1579, one of the dervishes enters carrying a valuable bag into the sultanate's divan, where "Mehmed Pasha" was seated at the head of the divan.. and he asks to meet him in order to give him a special gift..
And this dervish had been hired by "Nurbanu".. and the Grand Vizier did not know.. so "Sokollu" agrees to meet him.. and no sooner had the dervish stood before him.. than he opened the bag.. and poured its contents of pebbles and stones onto the ground.. and drew from among them a sharp dagger.. with which he suddenly pounced on "Mehmed Pasha".. before any of his men could grasp the situation.. and stabbed him a fatal stab.. he died two hours later.. and after that.. the dervish tousled his hair and claimed madness and bewilderment.. so they considered him mad.. and threw him in prison until they could decide his case.. so "Nurbanu" released him two days later.
After his killing.. "Nurbanu" put in his place several grand viziers one after another.. each one of whom was dismissed or killed because of a Janissary revolt.. until "Sinan Pasha" came.. and of course most of the Janissaries revolted against him too.. so he decided to get rid of the rebels.. so he sent them to the war against Austria.. and Austria in this era was very strong.. so of course they went and did not come back.
But with this stupid move.. something unexpected happened.
"Wallachia".. where "Vlad" was.. remember him? With the Austrian war.. it suddenly revolted against the Ottoman garrison in it.. and raised banners bearing the name of "Vlad III" more than half a century after his death.. and slaughtered the Ottomans on its soil.. and impaled some of them.. and challenged the Ottoman state anew.. and joined the side of Austria, declaring war on the Ottoman state.
And here "Sinan Pasha" is forced to mobilise the army.. and move himself to fight the new prince of Wallachia.. in July of the year 1581.
And the new prince of "Wallachia" was in truth.. a woman.
Princess "Catherine Salvaresso Catherine Salvaresso".. the granddaughter of "Vlad the Wallachian" himself.
And this "Catherine" was the first of "Vlad's" line to return to Orthodoxy.. and follow the Church of Alexandria once again.. after "Vlad" had converted to Catholicism.. in order to gain the Pope's support in his war against the Ottomans.
And "Catherine" was an unspoiled princess.. she would wear armour and a helmet and hold a sword and ride a mare.. and lead the army.. and carry memories from her ancestors.. of her great grandfather.. to whom we devoted a whole episode in this series.
And after a series of black ground traps.. along the lines of her grandfather.. in which "Sinan Pasha" loses more than 12 thousand soldiers without fighting.. from pits covered with grass.. at the bottom of which were unsheathed spears.. to mountain passes in which rocks collapse.. "Sinan Pasha" marches on "Wallachia".. and there the Wallachian cavalry forces meet him.. at their head "Catherine Salvaresso"...
But "Sinan Pasha" prevails.. and nearly captures "Catherine" herself, had she not withdrawn.. in a suicidal manoeuvre.. and penetrated deep into the interior.
And "Sinan Pasha" advances behind "Catherine".. and she meets him a second time.. and he defeats her.. and she withdraws.. and he penetrates deeper into Wallachia. Until he reaches the capital.
And at the outskirts of the capital.. "Catherine" is defeated and withdraws for the last time.. and "Sinan" Pasha enters the capital... and "Catherine" orders all the women to defile themselves with cow urine and dung.. so that the Ottoman soldiers would not assault them and would be repelled by them.. and indeed the women pour the urine of cows and horses over their hair and bodies and roll in the mud.. and smear their faces with dung and filth.. this custom would persist in Romania, inherited by women generation after generation.. after "Catherine" invented it.. and the women of Romania would do it again in the World War.. when they felt that the Nazis were about to enter their towns.
But in the capital.. the matter did not stop at that.. "Catherine" leads against "Sinan Pasha" a horrific street war.. much like the street war waged in Egypt by the martyr al-Ashraf "Tuman Bay", to whom we also devoted several episodes here, against the butcher "Selim I".. and "Catherine" began raiding the Ottoman camps and burning them.
And when "Catherine" took Ottomans captive.. she followed with them the same method her grandfather had followed.. she impaled them.
And Ottoman morale began to collapse below zero.. and the battle continued in the heart of the capital for more than a year.. between advance and retreat.. and winter came in November.. of the year 1582.. and with it came snow and frost.. and it exhausted the Ottoman soldiers severely.. and "Catherine" poisoned the water tanks they drank from.. and pelted them from above the houses with arrows.. and threw cauldrons of molten lead on them.. and everyone took part in turning the lives of the Ottoman invaders into hell.. to the point that "Catherine" recruited into the army.. every child who had reached ten years of age.
And in the end.. "Sinan Pasha" declared his defeat.. and the Ottoman army withdrew from "Wallachia" in December.. of the same year.
And in Istanbul the struggle was at its fiercest between "Nurbanu" and "Safiye".. and "Safiye" settles it on 7 December, of the year 1583.. just a few years after "Nurbanu's" assassination of the Grand Vizier "Sokollu".. so "Safiye" slips poison to her mother-in-law "Nurbanu".. and gets rid of her.. and she becomes the sultana officially.. and takes the title "Safiye Sultan".
And "Safiye" becomes the actual ruler of the Ottoman state.
Imagine a man whose wife kills his mother while he sits drunk in the harem watching? That was "Murad III".. who dies of liver failure, from sheer alcohol addiction.. on 16 January of the year 1595.
And "Safiye" had prepared her son "Mehmed III", so she seated him on the throne.. as soon as his father gave up the ghost.. and before he was even buried.. and only half an hour after he sat on the throne.. "Mehmed III" ordered his father's corpse to be brought.. and dug 20 graves.
And the new Sultan's request left his aides bewildered.. but they carried it out.. so he ordered them to kill all his 19 male brothers.. and the order was indeed carried out at once.. and 20 coffins came out of the palace.. to 20 graves.. one of them for "Murad" and the other for the rest of his sons.
"Safiye" tried desperately to prevent "Mehmed" from this crime.. but he insisted.. and then he discovered that there were 7 concubines in the harem.. pregnant by his father.. so he ordered them placed in sacks.. each one in a sack, that is.. they put a heavy stone in its centre.. and they tied these sacks.. and they threw these pregnant concubines into the bottom of the Bosphorus.
This method of assassination would be recorded in history under the name of "Mehmed III".. and they would begin to perfect it.. sometimes they would put a live dog or monkey with the concubine in the sack.. and sometimes a group of cats.. so as to imagine the sight of the concubine inside the sack in the water.. and the animal clawing her and tearing her apart as it struggled to survive.
But "Safiye's" grief does not last long.. she merely notices that the law of killing brothers.. which "Mehmed the Conqueror" had laid down.. would lead to the extinction of the Ottoman dynasty.. now if "Mehmed III" died.. she would no longer be sultana and would be in new danger.
And here "Safiye's" mind hits upon a brilliant new idea.
The idea of "Safiye's cages".
And these cages are an idea whereby.. instead of killing your brothers and your sons.. they are placed in a closed room in the palace.. with a plush bed and four walls and nothing more.. even the window closed with iron curtains.. and they remain there.. and when you want to appoint one of them.. you bring him out.. when you want to kill one of them.. you send him the executioner to kill him.
And the princes become regulars of "Safiye's cages".. and this produces for us, after the generation of butchers and addicts that the Ottoman dynasty brought.. a new generation.
A generation of butchers as well.. but insane.. because a person's remaining in a closed room for years.. with food put in to him from under the door.. never seeing a soul and never speaking to anyone.. and every footstep approaching his door making him imagine that his life is over and a sentence of execution has been issued.. led to mental derangement.. that would afflict those who came from this dynasty.. of the rulers of the Ottoman state.
And the story of "Mehmed III" and those who came after him.. would take long.. so we will continue our talk about them later.
And the talk.. has a remainder.
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- Previous posts in the first comment.
- The image is a painting of "Nurbanu Sultan".
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#The_Ottoman_Caliphate 26