Sultanate of Women

Uncommon card · No. 140992

The Sultanate of Women (Ottoman Turkish: قادينلر سلطنتى, romanized: Kadınlar Saltanatı) was a period when some concubines, mothers, sisters and grandmothers of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire exerted political influence. This phenomenon took place from roughly 1534 to 1715, beginning in the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent with the rise of Hürrem Sultan and ending with the death of Gülnuş Sultan. These women were either the concubines of the sultan, referred to as haseki sultans, or the mothers of the sultan, known as valide sultans. All of them were of slave origin, as was expected during the sultanate, since the traditional idea of marriage was considered inappropriate for the sultan, who was not expected to have any personal allegiances beyond his governmental role; however, Hürrem Sultan and Nurbanu Sultan managed to become the legal wife of Suleiman I and Selim II respectively and Safiye Sultan and Kösem Sultan might have also married their respective sultans. During this time,...

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