I enjoyed this feature,as the Harem has always fascinated me. These women were true survivors. They were kidnapped, forced to learn an entirely new language and culture-and thrown into a literal hotbed of rivalry. The fact that they were able to survive this and win the love of a ruler who had access to dozens of other women is remarkable.
First of all u should know how the world's rules in it's own way of achiving things. If u r talking about surviving than don't u think that we all somehow are surviving our life's with several problems and issues regarding our own battle field. By battle field I mean our lifehood our existing life. Each and every civilisation dynasti rulers have always been done everything to change others way of life as they are superior so people Should follow their direction and instructions, wether it's about region or language or culture. One need to learn that these different cultures are ultimately our pride our glory not our comdem, so respect it
@@angieweathers7180 Christianity enslaved a whole continent, stole their lands and hunted bisons till extinction to kill natives that didn't turn to catholicism.
Yeah, that's what they did back then. Big deal. Why make such an obvious, uninteresting statement? It's like saying "In the desert, there is this thing called Sand..."
And these slave-women were predominantly Christians. Islam forbids the enslavement of free-born Muslim women. And it seems the Sultans prefer lighter skin and lighter hair-colored women who were forcefully kidnapped from the area of the Slavs and Caucasus. Although, there may be cases that some women in the Harem of the Sultan came freely for education privileges, etcetera, it still does not justify the systematic enslavement of Christian women against their own will and forcefully impose on them the finality that they will be forever the property of the Sultan to do as he pleases under the rule of an Insular Harem. That was very cruel. But then, God works in a mysterious way. Here comes Alexandra, the daughter of a Christian Priest, who became a Muslim Convert later-on, who brilliantly adopted the Islamic teachings and rules of the Harem, figuratively butchered her way to power and chinked the armor of the Harem that was supposed to have an iron-clad rules and regulations established for thousands of years....
28:13 " if i was lived in those days, since i was a younger brother...i would be strangled very young...or as a small child...but afterwards, i would be buried with extradordinary ceremony, which are not much of of consolation " HRH Prince Ertugul of turkey. Got to love the dry dark humour of a member of monarcy
He is nothing of Turkey, we don't have a monarchy anymore. The Ottomans were exiled after the establishment of republic, but today they are allowed to have citizenship that's all.
@@leslielandberg5620 They were married in order to build political alliances inside the state. Most would leave the Harem at a very young age to go join their husbands household. Sometimes they would get back if the husband died. And many were married again, to get another political alliance. And this was it. They were part of the establishment and they also had a role. Which they would know about it almost since they started speaking. Of course they would always be married into powerful households so they would have good material life. They would enjoy some kind of luxury. And they would be expected to act in diplomacy keeping their husbands alligned with the Sultan.
The harem was a cruel life where girls were kidnapped from their parents, often forced converted, enslaved, and kept as property in a gilded prison. How are people still romanticizing this?
They rip these women from their families when they're children, place them in the pressure cooker of the harem, and then seem shocked at how ruthless they are.
@@annisadwiputri7762 Are you sure that's true??? What's that supposed to mean? Did these women go willingly? I'm sure some did go willingly. If your living in the time you could be convinced into thinking this could be favorable. But if you ask me when you enslave 600 women, you ENSLAVE them. You don't send them an invite you steal them. This is fact not fiction.
I feel they're overplaying the 'she did it for power' thing. I imagine she did it because her four sons would be murdered otherwise - which is perfectly reasonable.
Bethany Pickering exactly what I was thinking. If I was in her position I would be doing whatever I could to protect my children from death too. They say don’t forget this was about power, I say pffftt! They don’t know what it is to be a mother
She made those children, so she'll have to protect? or the children where the guarantee of her power? If you answer this questions, you'll find answer to your questions.
Safiye is actually the more interesting version of progenitors Hurrem and Nurbanu Safiye is also the more enigmatic version of successors Handan, Halime, Kosem and Turhan Would love to see a series dedicated to her, her rise in power, her misdeeds, her ill thoughts, etc.
@@skay6454 seen that, Safiye is antagonist in that. But the interesting version of her life is Pre Kosem time when she: Dominated both Handan and Halime. Exchanged gifts with Queen Elizabeth. Also one question on that series: Did Safiye and Handan really commit suicide? I dont think so. Handan was the most beautiful in records, True, but she was awful on Kosem.
It's fascinating to me that many generations of Sultan leaders were almost not ethnically Turkish at all. And when you consider that the wives, mothers, eunuchs, and Ottoman officials were also former prisoners of war, the entire Ottoman government were foreigners.
And they lived on the backs of regular people. When ottoman empire ended all the villagers were living awful lives while sultan has hundreds of girls in a palace.
From my readings about the ottoman empire, the first valide sultan was Hafsa Sultan. She was the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. It wasn't Norbanu who first held this title.
@Johnny Blaze nobody's disputing child marriage is wrong and I don't care about Israel anyway because its a fake terrorist entity nothing like the children of Israel millenia before.
It's so ironic that the Sultans in this familiy just wanted to be monogamous and yet were discouraged, while many kings in Europe wanted more women but were expected to be monogamous.
Actually , when Safiye sultan is in the throne as ''Valide sultan'';She is really send each other letters to Elizabeth Tudor ;They are good friend and they are think similar for both of them
@Eren Yavuz, Yeah, and there's actually a history of Valide Sultanas creating diplomatic correspondence, at least during the Sultanate of Women. Hurrem Sultan is responsible for sharply curbing the Tartar slave trade. No doubt Suleiman was fine with involving her in that because she was captured by Tartar slave traders, so the task would have been a personal one for her that she would have know how to handle well. Nurbanu Sultan wrote to Queen Regent/Queen Mother Catherine de Medici to renew the trade alliance that was struck between France and the Ottomans during the reigns of Francis I and Suleiman. Safiye Sultan's friendship with Elizabeth I was full of letters and gifts being exchanged; one of them actually gave the other a carriage, but I can't remember whom. It might have been Elizabeth gave the golden carriage to Safiye that we see in Magnificent Century: Kosem. Safiye's friendship with Elizabeth I came from Elizabeth's alliance with Safiye's son, (cannot remember his name) which happened during England's war with Spain. England was actually sending over military equipment for cannonballs to Istanbul and Elizabeth and Safiye's son were seriously looking into doing military exercises together. Elizabeth sent a clockmaker over to install some clock machine thing as a gift, which is stated in the documentary.
@@thomasclein884 She was actually not russian but born in a part of what is now ukrania and that made part of poland, so yeah, she was actually polish and wrote to the polish king
Irina, that's not true. She was born in Ruthenia which was then part of Poland, not the Ukraine as it is now. Her father was supposed to have been a priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church, also called Orthodox Catholic Church.
That Prince made me laugh. When he said that a lavish burial would not have been much of a consolation for being murdered. Its not funny but his tone sent me into fits
Actually, it's not him who killed his siblings. Mehmet III was weak and fragile like his father. The mastermind of the harem at the time was his mother, Safiye Sultan, and she was the one who made the conspiracy to kill all of her 19 stepsons on the day her husband Murad III died. She was originally Italian and her name was Sophia before it changed into Safiye (which means pure). Most of those sibling killings took place during an age known as the Sultanate of women where women, the mothers and wives of the Sultans, were the ones in control.
To avoid battle for succession. Remember why Mongol Empires collapsed. After Gengis Khan the founder died and no formal successor his 4 son divided the empire and declare war for each other that kills million people.
@drag0nfly_girl a religion is all about hypocrisy. Starting with pretending to buy the bs you find in these books, at this time and day especially. Before when ignorance flourished it could've been that people sincerely bought the nonsense they sell. But this day, it's pure hipocrisy.
@@poonamshinde9597 You obviously didn't take the same world history classes I did. It wasn't uncommon for family members to arrange "accidents" for those between them and the throne, and wasn't unheard of for whoever was crowned to remove any rivals, either permanently, or by simply sending them off to a monastery (i.e. imprisoning them).
Well now , a woman becomes a mother and then realizes her male offspring will be put to death if they aren't chosen as the sultan. That will make a woman quickly try to become as astute in politics as possible. A great motivation. Kudos to any woman who gains that much power because of such a reason. I have to respect such a woman.
Hareem (aka Roxalana) is treated as one of history’s great villains because rather then go along with this butchery, she made a play to save her children. There has never been a male failure that some historian has not tried to blame a woman for
@@AnIdiotsLantern There is no proof Hurrem had anything to do with Mustafa's death, so it's doubtful. But if she indeed had anything to do with it then I respect her. Better kill 1 person and saved multiple others rather than the way around.
@drag0nfly_girl ahahahaha your brain is provice of your body. sUkraine was mentione dearlier than Russia was created.)) Russia is nothing! ans soon it will collapse
They said Selim was considered a failure for having one son and four daughters in the beginning.. but in a world where brothers need to kill each other to have one healthy son who lived to young adulthood sounds like a blessing and you should stop trying for more damn kids right then and there.
And how when the Son would die as many Kids did in that Time? Selim isnt fertil for ever. He had to plan in advantage in case his Son dies that there are enough others.
My mother in law as a child in Istanbul witnessed the release of women in the harem. She and her friends were expecting the women to be beautiful but she said they were all very ordinary.
If you think about, this woman from Ukraine was the most extraordinary and powerful queen ever! Yes, we have few well known French Russian, English .. but all of them were born royals. This woman was a brought there as a slave! She was from different ethnic, religion ... obviously she was incredible intelligence!
Obviously if she were brought to French, Russian or English as you mentioned, she wouldn't be able to survive there. It goes to show how naive people were around her in harem and she used it to her benefit. Her name "Hurrem" means the one who is always happy and laughs", which proves that everyone was just miserable and didn't know how to be entertaining, that's why Suleiman was attached to her more, even though she wasn't that beautiful. Suleiman did everything whatever she asked for, in another words he was under her feet, and she used that to her benefit, that's how she gained power. I wouldn't compare her to other queens, she wasn't that close to compare given the fact of their origins. And Ottomans were excellent warriors not good economists, all they did conquer lands, but were not able to sustain them. That's why they started to decline.
Thats the beauty of women. Look at all of them how they become from the 13 year old slaves to the most powerful woman of the world. Hurrem Sultana it was the first step for womens. Then even Nurbanu, Safiye, Halime, Kiosem. It is something amazing about it. All of them they started from the worst you can imagine and look we are still talking about them 4-5 ages after 👏🏻
@@diliraupova9683 How do you know she was not beautiful? Were you there? Did you physically see her? No. You're simply making assumptions. Most eastern European girls are by far more beautiful on average than the average western girl and 100 times better looking than any girl of royal status. Why are you defending women from royal backgrounds? How does having a royal background and living like a parasite off their own people make them in any way better? It does not. Most "peasant" girls were far more beautiful than girls from "royal" families. "Royal" is nothing more than an earthly title. If anything it means their family background is full of incestuous murderers, snobs, guilty of crimes against their own people. Money and having the best of everything does not guarantee beauty or intelligence. That's common sense. Since you brought up physical appearance, look at modern royal families. The Royal families outside of Britian look better than the British Royal family simply because they've chosen not to partake in incest with 1st cousins like the "British" royal family. Who are ethnically German not British, just FYI. On average every female from a "royal" bloodline does not look better than the average female in Ukraine, past or present. Ukraine is famous for their women.
Hyyacinthus A : many hare women were girls splayed by Christian area or western women captured by moslem pirates and sold to the sultan ( the most beautiful of course) Josephine, wife of Napoleon had a cousin captured by the pirates and ended up in the sultan's harem. She gave birth to a son who became sultan. He became the allay to Napoleon against England. When Napoleon divorced Josephine (his aunt) he broke the alliance with Napoleon. These are the quirks of history. Always cherchez la femme.
She was Russian or Ukrainian so she could have had red or chestnut red colored hair. A lot of women in Asia dyed and still dye their hair with henna so it wouldn't have been a remarkable thing that poems would praise her for it. Some of her children had blonde hair so it is likely that she had that hair color. A lot of red heads produce children with blonde hair.
This was great, I wholeheartedly endorse the idea to do more such videos. I almost always listen rather than watch, so the extra bells and whistles are lost on me anyway. Wishing you less stress soon!
I read that the Magnificent Suleiman mini series’ lead Hurrein had a nervous breakdown and declined to act further in the show. The article stated the Producer would pick up with Roxelana and Suleiman as older rulers to continue the story but no idea when it would continue. Loved the mini-series! I learned a few Turkish phrases that later proved useful at work. Barrack! Evette!
How can anyone in their right mind call a harem a 'university for women'. Leslie Peirce, no matter how much you want to it's just not possible to beautify something that involves enslavement, exertion and forceful conversion.
The women of the harem were educated, they knew how to read and write. Especially poetry and playing instruments. They lacked neither food nor shelter. They could be the mother of the future sultan or the favorite, maximum respect and power that a woman could get in those times. They were locked up in a palace. I doubt very much that they would be better off outside, in a patriarchal and harsh world. Today it would be cruel but in those times it was a luxury to be in the harem of a sultan or rich merchant.
in which country? certainly not the us anymore..britian, austria, germany, france yes, I'd think so..but still a long way to go. Canada likely. many of the scandinavian countries. Where were you thinking of?
Evangelista Women with no name u are oppressed and you dont even know it. U are a slave of your desires. Constantly trying to please everyone except the one who looks back at you in a mirror. U walk, talk and dress the same way that you see gamorourised on tv. And your free? Wat a joke
7Nexus21 So MEN are so virtuous, that they deserve freedom and not women? MEN never run amok, never get destructive by abusing their freedom??? And MONARCHY is less evil than democracy? Open your eyes: a world without freedom is not a place for human life!
Point of note: here's a happy *GET STUFFED* to those who would attack women's rights and enslave us. May God chastise YOU by seeing your own malicious desire fall on your OWN heads!
There was one single reason for the establishment of the harem; Crown protection. If the Sultans had got married to any Turkish-Ottoman, Muslim women from the noble families and tribes with different ethnic or secterian backgrounds than automatically the queen status would have arisen and another noble family or a tribe would have been a claimer of the crown. In the event of the sultan's death or abdication, than the crown would have passed to the family of the bride and rival aristocrat lineages would have been established, thereatening the salvation of the empire, leading to partition. Harem was established to stop this from happening. The sultans never married and never took any Turkish-Ottoman viwes and only had children from ex-slave foreign women, who were from the far off lands of the empire, with no families to lay claim for the crown.
And than what happened; The harem women started to exert influence on the Ottoman administration, gained great political power and personal wealth. One of the favorites of Sultan Ibrahim, 'Schivekar' around 1648 was even awarded all the annual tax renevues of Damascus. These women had their own bankers and brokers outside harem. They were purchasing jewelery and land with their handsome salaries. The first western style hotels in the coastal areas of Turkey was started by the ex-harem women and their descendands.
One commenter suggested this was romanticized - I agree to this in every way especially in the early part of the video. If you've ever seen the Sultan's palace in Istanbul you'll know that this video concentrated extensively on the lavish parts of the palace and never showed any real detail of the accommodations (cells! I mean like PRISON - small, dank, stone rooms with bars on windows etc) where common members of the harem AND their children were housed. Combined with those arsenic body hair treatments I can't imagine that many of the harem population were long lived nor lived pleasant lives! I think it was probably like a very strict monastery/brothel, the Sultan-mother being like a combination of reverend mother and a madam
For royal families, concubines have existed in all societies throughout ages, and yes they have had limited rights. Nothing unusual about that as such.
@@paulchristian7693 back in the 70s, I loved my history classes in high school (NZ) and I have studied history for myself ever since 😊 So much of what I learned back then has helped me to understand global situations during my lifetime.
I’ve always loved history, but recent research shows that the better jobs that involve history degrees are pretty much at a standstill with hiring. It sucks but there’s nothing we can really do about it... I had to switch my major to criminal justice, hopefully I can knock it out fast and start a career as a criminal historian or criminal psychologist
I get them wanting to make money, but you get less commercials on TV, there should be a 5 commercial break maximum for the time of this video, I count 16!
This documentary is much less about Suleiman the Magnificent, and instead about the Sultanate of Women; that being said, its a fascinating and highly interesting subject, well worth the hour and thirty minute watch.
I understand that this is a documentary (and not a motion picture), but Hurem was supposedly a red-haired or a blond-haired, not a brunette, as assumed in this documentary.
So.....basically they had the same beauty standards that permeate modern western society. Young, white, skinny, and everything shaved from the upper lip down.
People in middle ages were all skinny. Back then beauty standards were different. Women had to be "juicy". If you see portraits of noble women from middle ages and the renaissance paintings all women had some extra weight, like Hurrem, Kosem and Nurbanu. Especially on the hips, because that was a sign they will give birth to healthy children. Caucasian girls were the most popular and most expensive in the slave market for their pale white skin, healthy long black hair and almond eyes. People of Caucasus were known for their strength, health and longevity, so it must have played a role.
After hearing about a minute of this video, that was enough! You completely falsified the portrayal of Harems. These beautiful girls were innocent children, betrayed by the system, and never knew who they were because it was all taken away from them at a young age. You minimized and sugar coated it! Shame on you!
If you want to understand a book you must read it till the last page then make your own conclusions. Judging a 1h documentary for 1 minute is so ignorant. Just say you hate Islam and go.
The problem with problem when documentaries like these is that people look at this through a modern perspective forgetting that this use to be seen as normal to other people back then.
Read before you comment. These girls where stolen by moors, black Peter, Pedro, More beautifull for the kings, commn for the common man. Stolen in christian countries. Read 1001 night. Lots of pleasure.
Comrade Avene agree, only a couple in a generation get to birth children for the sultan. As much as I like the ottomans, I feel bad for the other girls in the harem.
you people romanticize every horrid aspect of european culture. but when it comes to the middle east its endless criticism. yawn its not even entertaining anymore
Some writers say that women tried to leave or sucide but later they didn’t do it because they were in love with Sultans. It was not that easy to get power. The sultan’s love for them made them powerful.
@sovietroulette. Yeah, I liked that guy. He had a very tongue in cheek morbid sense of humor about his family's past. You kind of need something like that in his position lol. I read that guy passed away though. :( RIP.
I often think of homely, unloved Prince Charles as not having his own life - and all he is a puppet. Whom he married was the only important decision of his life and he had to marry a woman he didn’t love. He lives in luxury, but is a slave to his mother and to tradition.
@@lisaschuster9187 i think prince Charles finally was able to marry the woman he (and her of course) had originally wanted to. Doesn't change the sad stuff, but I was happy for the guy for that at least. I'm an American and don't actually know too much about the current English monarchy (we get big news over here though), but he seems like a good enough guy who deserves that piece of mind and some happiness. 😊
lilyann168 and mother of sultan’s daughter, even if he may not love her at least she and her daughters would have lived without the fear of death hanging over their heads
That's an interesting jump at 3:13. We went from talking about Alexandra arriving in 1520, to the rule of Elizabeth the 1st (who wasn't born until 1533 and didn't become queen until 1558)
I always imagined the harems as a part of a luxurious palace but fictional movies or even documentary may be very misleading, when I visited one I was in shock they indeed were claustrophobic and small. Not many windows with small rooms I felt very sad for those girls because if for a group of 10-15 tourists is claustrophobic enough to want to exit it as soon as possible I can imagine hundreds of concubines. The man who kept them there for their pleasure in my opinion were less of a man that the eunuchs.
@@privpriv1259 I visited Topkapi Palace when young. I didn'y get to go to the harem, but my dad was able to go and he said it was quite a large area. Now being with the same women day in, day out might prove clauatrophobic, but the harem, not so much.
Nur Banu comes out to be much more strong and intelligent as compared to her mother in law. Hurrem did everything ‘coz Suleiman was always their to support her n make things easy for her while Nurbanu had a very weak king n also she did take things in her own hands after Selim’s death n continued to guide her son also.
20 minutes in and all i know is that we don't know much and are guessing, this is kinda undermining to literally every information in this documentary lol
Good documentary. When life gives you lemons...it's interesting to hear the stories of how these women took so much disadvantage and injustice and make it BIG!
There was a very awesome Turkish series by the name "Magnificent Sultan" based on Suleiman and Hurrem Hatun (Alexandra). The best thing was that Hurren was very beautiful in that and acting of almost everybody was very good, bad thing is that not all episodes were available with english subtitles :(
Dives Vyas it was a very interesting retelling of the story though, pretty much not historically accurate and Hürem in the series was a true beauty but in reality she was quite ungly! :)
Wendy Hull not really... If you google her name you will come across busts of her or even information of the time that mention that.. (though she was bright-witted and with humor, and thus she was named Hurem by the sultan because she made him laugh)
@Mika Aalto - in all fairness, do you really think European royalty of the time was that much better? Nobility could do what they pleased with servant girls and peasant women. While turks were killing off their own sons to ensure the right of succession, in Europe, they had wars of succession where thousands of poor people who had nothing to do with royalty lost their lives. During wars, especially, women were raped by soldiers. This time period wasn't exactly high on human rights.
I’m sooo sick and disgusted with the ways females have been enslaved, mistreated, abused, sexualized and tormented in MANY different cultures since the beginning of this twisted humanity. I can truly understand the passion and rage behind misandry. 😖 My heart goes out to all these women/girls, both from the past and present. These things STILL go on today. Absolutely abhorrent!
As they say sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Instantly what looks like a fairy tale is history and reality .. awe inspiring , sensational and hair raising.
Good for Hürrem. The “manipulator.” I see a smart woman. Even though her “fits” caused the sultan to marry off the other concubines to his courtiers that’s pretty good for both her and the other girls. She definitely gave them a better future that way.
It is a form of manipulation lol it's one of the great powers us women have. We use our mind and cunning to manipulate a situation that already sucks to be better. I take it as a compliment 😉 We don't have brute strength. We have our minds.
Hurrem was actually a redhead.The Magnificent Century series is highly dramatized but pretty entertaining. Hurrem Sultan is pretty inspiring. th-cam.com/video/upf76CVi9hY/w-d-xo.html Th
Of course they did:) This type of documentary channels always do that. Usually, they are only trying to suggest you the historical plots/facts, but they won't show you how bad actually was. People don't wanna see all that...
They aren't romanticizing anything. This is true history, based on real people, Suleiman the Magnificent and his concubine, who ended up being his favored wife, Harrem/the laughing one. Research more and open your mind.
tell me, (I am not justifying whatever they did) what were the christians doing in that same time? Were they still persecuting jews? Or was it the witch season? I cannot really remember you know... Oh, yeah right, it was the time to kill or imprison every genius you have got. Yeah, right, Islam right? is it islam? is it?
jachica11- soo not true! marriage can be considered a cage. we cage ourselves everyday via religion and laws of mankind. is it better to be taken care of and obey rules or to be totally free and starve?
@Nevik. Marriage isn't considered a cage if you marry someone you genuinely love and work at keeping the relationship alive, so you made a poor comparison right off the bat. The life described in this documentary on the other hand, IS a gilded cage. The best way to survive was to scheme your way up to the top as much as you could, Game of Thrones style. To the orphaned girls who were raised by pashas and gifted to the harem, going into the palace was exciting. To the girls like Hurrem *who were captured* however...no, it's a gilded cage and a shiny fancy prison. A prison where you did what you needed to do in order to secure a good future for yourself. And that's not a good thing - that's an evil necessity.
Shell By The Sea I know right? And there were choices back then to be free and not starve. They were just limited and probably dangerous. Being rich and wearing pretty things means nothing when your worth is being defined by your looks and being able to pop out a son that you barely had any rights to. Being rich and wearing pretty things means nothing anyway. I wanted to smack the historian that said in the video the girls were probably excited to wear pretty stuff. They had to give up their identities and their agency in order to do that. They couldn’t write to any family they had and they rarely saw a life outside the palace walls the moment they stepped inside. Aka, a gilded cage.
+Nevik yeah when you cage yourself then it's your own choice and free will, you weren't beaten and shoved into the cage by someone else. If you don't like it then you have the luxury to object and to do something about it. They simply did not. All they could do was smile and swallow their screams.
I don't understand why people are so disgusted by this fact and cannot accept it. It was the same for Asian royal history. Concubines trained in embroidery and cooking. Yes, they were slaves but they had considerably more skills than peasant women outside of the palace. More importantly, they learned how to socialise and play political games since they were constantly competing with each other. So yes the harem was in a way like a university. And not every woman was lucky enough to meet the emperor/sultan. Most of them would be untouched for life so they were skilled virgins.
@@bwilly4503 he to to to try try ty try hi ty ty t hiry to hi from do Dr by the hi hi I'm a to try try try try to go to do so hi hi hi hi ty everyone else
@JessikaEmerald Nothing has changed for most of the world today. Even the British Queen Elizabeth 1 painted her face stark white because it was thought to be more beatuiful
Not necessarily, because they all converted (conversion into Islam can't be forced, against the Islamic law) they were Muslim converts who adopted Turkish culture and raised as Turks. From the time they were brought to the Harem's, these young ladies didn't have any education, talents or skills. They were raised from a young age to learn science, play musical instruments, paint, read and write. They were all raised with the intent of serving the Empire. No empire would survive with incompetent individuals. It is frustrating when some people are clinging onto an ideology of superiority that Europeans love to hold to (but its baseless). IF they were not raised competent by the empire, their beauty wouldn't be sufficient for them to be part of the Empire.
@@larataylor4812 We Turkish are disguisted with harem customs, just ew. Fortunately Ottoman sultans did not have any interest towards Turkish girls. Seljuks etc. did not have harem system, they did not enslave girls into this Silent Hill cages.
@@edenia9080 Read "Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought" by Hüseyin Yılmaz. Ottomans were mystical deviants not muslims. And of course how they fought arabs and neglected their rights in their own homeland, we all know that right???
Oo you bloody busturds you are the most cruelest even though you left your old parents in old houses where they live lonely and die..and you just say that we are modern...WTF...we did'nt forget the past..and also we know the present.
There are always going to be critics of historical stories/ their content/ various documents/ certain movies/authors and their articles. Enough said. Keep bringing the stories and your view to educate us. Thanks for your efforts. "An historical buff".😃
it glosses over so many horrific historical things with the excuse of "fiction" and it romanticizes all the wrong things. It's not worth the time. For reals.
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I enjoyed this feature,as the Harem has always fascinated me. These women were true survivors. They were kidnapped, forced to learn an entirely new language and culture-and thrown into a literal hotbed of rivalry. The fact that they were able to survive this and win the love of a ruler who had access to dozens of other women is remarkable.
'survivor'' is such a meaningless term the way tou sue it
also overuse of 'hotbed'
Depends who did
Many didn't survive.
First of all u should know how the world's rules in it's own way of achiving things. If u r talking about surviving than don't u think that we all somehow are surviving our life's with several problems and issues regarding our own battle field. By battle field I mean our lifehood our existing life. Each and every civilisation dynasti rulers have always been done everything to change others way of life as they are superior so people Should follow their direction and instructions, wether it's about region or language or culture. One need to learn that these different cultures are ultimately our pride our glory not our comdem, so respect it
They were groomed to win over the Sultans.
“Win the love of”… Not seeing love in any of this at all. Obedience yes,
Let's call it what it really was: human trafficking.
Meaning that black men were captured from Africa or wherever they were just so that they can become eunuchs for an empire far from home.
I think also. People with nuts brain can't figure it out. Human History is killing others and also extinct other species. That's all about.
and other horrors of islam
@@angieweathers7180 Christianity enslaved a whole continent, stole their lands and hunted bisons till extinction to kill natives that didn't turn to catholicism.
They are still doing it, Jeffrey Epstein was such a trafficker.
Women did not "come to" the harem. They were enslaved.
Some of them were proposed by their parents/ sibling for the political meaning.
www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-unknown-interesting-facts-about-Ravana
Mythical legend about harem.
Yeah, that's what they did back then. Big deal. Why make such an obvious, uninteresting statement? It's like saying "In the desert, there is this thing called Sand..."
Women if wanted could present themselves in the service of the court and later show interest to be a part of harem
And these slave-women were predominantly Christians. Islam forbids the enslavement of free-born Muslim women. And it seems the Sultans prefer lighter skin and lighter hair-colored women who were forcefully kidnapped from the area of the Slavs and Caucasus.
Although, there may be cases that some women in the Harem of the Sultan came freely for education privileges, etcetera, it still does not justify the systematic enslavement of Christian women against their own will and forcefully impose on them the finality that they will be forever the property of the Sultan to do as he pleases under the rule of an Insular Harem. That was very cruel.
But then, God works in a mysterious way. Here comes Alexandra, the daughter of a Christian Priest, who became a Muslim Convert later-on, who brilliantly adopted the Islamic teachings and rules of the Harem, figuratively butchered her way to power and chinked the armor of the Harem that was supposed to have an iron-clad rules and regulations established for thousands of years....
28:13 " if i was lived in those days, since i was a younger brother...i would be strangled very young...or as a small child...but afterwards, i would be buried with extradordinary ceremony, which are not much of of consolation " HRH Prince Ertugul of turkey.
Got to love the dry dark humour of a member of monarcy
He is nothing of Turkey, we don't have a monarchy anymore. The Ottomans were exiled after the establishment of republic, but today they are allowed to have citizenship that's all.
@@birilerivar7666 i know!. But if think like that, you have to forgo to glorify your history too?😂😂😂
What happened to the daughters of the sultan?
They lived their lives in the harem or perhaps were retired to the villa called the House of Tears?
@@leslielandberg5620
They were married in order to build political alliances inside the state.
Most would leave the Harem at a very young age to go join their husbands household. Sometimes they would get back if the husband died. And many were married again, to get another political alliance.
And this was it.
They were part of the establishment and they also had a role. Which they would know about it almost since they started speaking.
Of course they would always be married into powerful households so they would have good material life. They would enjoy some kind of luxury.
And they would be expected to act in diplomacy keeping their husbands alligned with the Sultan.
The harem was a cruel life where girls were kidnapped from their parents, often forced converted, enslaved, and kept as property in a gilded prison. How are people still romanticizing this?
Muslims...
Ironically the people who enslaved them were once slaves themselves.
@@gerharddeusser9103 TURKS* and don't forget same practice also in ancient Egypt, Greece, Sassanid , Byzantine =all over the mid ages in Europe.
@@kazimahin790 Western Europe never allowed harems.
Right, kings just divorced and sent them to a convent or killed their wives when they got tired of them.
They rip these women from their families when they're children, place them in the pressure cooker of the harem, and then seem shocked at how ruthless they are.
Are you sure that's true ?
do you know how many sultans mothers are not originally non Muslims and check why please
zarasbazaar and we have been under ottoman empire for like 500 years...
@@annisadwiputri7762 Are you sure that's true??? What's that supposed to mean? Did these women go willingly? I'm sure some did go willingly. If your living in the time you could be convinced into thinking this could be favorable. But if you ask me when you enslave 600 women, you ENSLAVE them. You don't send them an invite you steal them. This is fact not fiction.
@@morganlowe3353 Concubinage can be voluntary and involuntary,but for the most part it was the latter.
I feel they're overplaying the 'she did it for power' thing. I imagine she did it because her four sons would be murdered otherwise - which is perfectly reasonable.
Bethany Pickering exactly what I was thinking. If I was in her position I would be doing whatever I could to protect my children from death too. They say don’t forget this was about power, I say pffftt! They don’t know what it is to be a mother
@Bethany....Well Said!! 💷
She made those children, so she'll have to protect? or the children where the guarantee of her power? If you answer this questions, you'll find answer to your questions.
Well power was necessary for survival.
@@sugarandsalt1261 so, as you agreed, is power.
Safiye is actually the more interesting version of progenitors Hurrem and Nurbanu
Safiye is also the more enigmatic version of successors Handan, Halime, Kosem and Turhan
Would love to see a series dedicated to her, her rise in power, her misdeeds, her ill thoughts, etc.
There is a series where she features heavily. Magnificent Century: Kosem. You can even watch it on TH-cam.
@@skay6454 seen that, Safiye is antagonist in that. But the interesting version of her life is Pre Kosem time when she:
Dominated both Handan and Halime.
Exchanged gifts with Queen Elizabeth.
Also one question on that series: Did Safiye and Handan really commit suicide?
I dont think so.
Handan was the most beautiful in records, True, but she was awful on Kosem.
I'd love to see a documentary or even a series about Safiye's life specifically, but as an Albanian I'm also a bit biased on that lol
@@theduck0Safiye was Italian not Albanian
@@kalina_apis Nurbanu was Italian. Venetian documents confirm that Safiye was born in the Albanian Highlands.
It's fascinating to me that many generations of Sultan leaders were almost not ethnically Turkish at all. And when you consider that the wives, mothers, eunuchs, and Ottoman officials were also former prisoners of war, the entire Ottoman government were foreigners.
And they lived on the backs of regular people. When ottoman empire ended all the villagers were living awful lives while sultan has hundreds of girls in a palace.
monkiram America before America.
Turks aren't native to that regio. They are pan-asians. The country was later called turkeij.
I thought that
monkiram Exactly !!
Literally not sustaining their own people and race
Women who were slaves, and forced to drop their religions.....this is not a ROMANCE story. They were prisoners, and thought of as "possessions".
Diane Sylvain no one is romanticizing it 🙄
@tart70 I agree with what you've said like the news the commenters exaggerate their replies.
Nowadays westerners praise this religion. They haven't felt what our ancestors have, that's why they romanticize it.
You Mean like Islam.
They exaggerate Romance, suffering and yes Islam.
From my readings about the ottoman empire, the first valide sultan was Hafsa Sultan. She was the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. It wasn't Norbanu who first held this title.
Yesssss, thank you
Hurrein was his soul mate. None other could write such beautiful poems. This is a great documentary!
I used to like Hurrem now i see she did nothing to stop the Sultans evil doings:child n human trafficking
A gilded cage is still a cage...
Zack Smith absolutely not
Wow how profound 🤦🏻♀️
Right?! Like home is home. And one always prefers home. Maybe I am wrong.
People still fantasize about this though
true, but that probably beat starving to death in squalor somewhere....
This is interesting and disturbing at the same time
Krista Lenz pretty much all of history is interesting and disturbing
@@pennydaytreasures8173 MN
My ?if my mom
mp]
@@pennydaytreasures8173 I p lol p no pu
Acquire wealth. Acquire power. Acquire women. I see little has changed.
Money, power, respect, Eaton’ right
Are you talking about the Christian White western pedo rings amongst the elite and celebs or the church clergy?
@Johnny Blaze nobody's disputing child marriage is wrong and I don't care about Israel anyway because its a fake terrorist entity nothing like the children of Israel millenia before.
@@Liveforeever you sound like the typical muslim indoctrinated to hate jews.
And it never will change.....no matter the culture, no matter where on the planet, if there's one constant of mankind, this is it.
The African guard is immortal, he never grows old.
Not a wise move to call anything immortal, no wonder Africa fell.
@@ohk749 ummm... Africa is a continent....
lol yeah sultans die one after another, but same guard man survives on and on :)
😂😂😂😂😂
Black dont crack i guess
They blame women for the decline of the empire and for meddling in politics. Typical.
They certainly helped since they were running things!
Well that's what happened with the Sultanate of women.
hurem was responsible for many historical tragedies like prince mustafa unjust execution
@@Marouanehalit it's not proved that it was her who influenced the sultan ..its just a theory
Actually they can be blamed for both. A great woman like Kosem keeps the empire running while others leads to decline.
It's so ironic that the Sultans in this familiy just wanted to be monogamous and yet were discouraged, while many kings in Europe wanted more women but were expected to be monogamous.
ghi6h66 bgyu5 that's not irony
It's not? How is that?
grass is always greener on the other side
Yes but it didn't stop the European ones lol some just had to hide it unless you were the Sun King of France.
the French Kings were not expected to be monogamous
It is so interesting that the events between Hurrem and the Sultan occurred around the same time at the events with the Tudors.
Hona Hona you are an idiot
Yes!!!! So fascinating.
Actually , when Safiye sultan is in the throne as ''Valide sultan'';She is really send each other letters to Elizabeth Tudor ;They are good friend and they are think similar for both of them
what an evil turkish islamic system
@Eren Yavuz, Yeah, and there's actually a history of Valide Sultanas creating diplomatic correspondence, at least during the Sultanate of Women. Hurrem Sultan is responsible for sharply curbing the Tartar slave trade. No doubt Suleiman was fine with involving her in that because she was captured by Tartar slave traders, so the task would have been a personal one for her that she would have know how to handle well. Nurbanu Sultan wrote to Queen Regent/Queen Mother Catherine de Medici to renew the trade alliance that was struck between France and the Ottomans during the reigns of Francis I and Suleiman.
Safiye Sultan's friendship with Elizabeth I was full of letters and gifts being exchanged; one of them actually gave the other a carriage, but I can't remember whom. It might have been Elizabeth gave the golden carriage to Safiye that we see in Magnificent Century: Kosem. Safiye's friendship with Elizabeth I came from Elizabeth's alliance with Safiye's son, (cannot remember his name) which happened during England's war with Spain. England was actually sending over military equipment for cannonballs to Istanbul and Elizabeth and Safiye's son were seriously looking into doing military exercises together. Elizabeth sent a clockmaker over to install some clock machine thing as a gift, which is stated in the documentary.
Why isn't Hurrem's letter to the Polish king mentioned? She is the reason why the Ottoman-Polish peace lasted for so long.
why would she care of poland? it was not her motherland.
@@thomasclein884 She was actually not russian but born in a part of what is now ukrania and that made part of poland, so yeah, she was actually polish and wrote to the polish king
@@chocolatbownie35 she was not Polish, but Ukrainian. +daughter of orthodox priest. Polish were and are not orthodox.
Irina, that's not true. She was born in Ruthenia which was then part of Poland, not the Ukraine as it is now. Her father was supposed to have been a priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church, also called Orthodox Catholic Church.
@@ІринаБашинська-з1и Back then the lands were merged. She was russian.
That Prince made me laugh. When he said that a lavish burial would not have been much of a consolation for being murdered. Its not funny but his tone sent me into fits
I felt that!
I want to meet that man! XP
Yeah I laughed too and then felt a bit bad 😅
Actually funny, excellent black humor, doesn't offend anyone
Quite a grimm sense of humour the prince have there.
Killed his 19 brothers? I guess he wasn't very family-oriented.
Monstrous!
They had to. It’s how the succession worked
Actually, it's not him who killed his siblings. Mehmet III was weak and fragile like his father. The mastermind of the harem at the time was his mother, Safiye Sultan, and she was the one who made the conspiracy to kill all of her 19 stepsons on the day her husband Murad III died. She was originally Italian and her name was Sophia before it changed into Safiye (which means pure). Most of those sibling killings took place during an age known as the Sultanate of women where women, the mothers and wives of the Sultans, were the ones in control.
Mustafa Küçükkürtül
I was talking about mehmet the third, the son of Murad III and Safiye Sultan. I didn't mention Mehmet the conqueror.
To avoid battle for succession. Remember why Mongol Empires collapsed. After Gengis Khan the founder died and no formal successor his 4 son divided the empire and declare war for each other that kills million people.
Soo if it were forbidden to enslave or castrate Muslims, then what makes it ok to inflict those things onto others.... Seems a bit hypocritical.
They look for loopholes.
All religions and their followers are hypocritical.
@drag0nfly_girl a religion is all about hypocrisy. Starting with pretending to buy the bs you find in these books, at this time and day especially. Before when ignorance flourished it could've been that people sincerely bought the nonsense they sell. But this day, it's pure hipocrisy.
@drag0nfly_girl I'm not sure you understand what religion is.
A "bit" you say? More like a lot hypocritical.
I don't get why they wanted so many heirs,when in the end they will be killed.
People, especially heirs, died all the time so one must always have spares. Just in case.
That's how it works in the peaceful religion
@@poonamshinde9597 You realize that it happened the exact same way with christian monarchs too, right?
@@GothWulfe but they don't kills their sons or brothers or fathers mercilessly for the throne smh..
@@poonamshinde9597 You obviously didn't take the same world history classes I did. It wasn't uncommon for family members to arrange "accidents" for those between them and the throne, and wasn't unheard of for whoever was crowned to remove any rivals, either permanently, or by simply sending them off to a monastery (i.e. imprisoning them).
Excuss me, you have video in your ads.
😂😂😂
😂👍
i see zero ads
@@easystreet1888 Well now they've ruined the ad total, it's all video...
@@stevenpedersen3716 ✔️
Well now , a woman becomes a mother and then realizes her male offspring will be put to death if they aren't chosen as the sultan. That will make a woman quickly try to become as astute in politics as possible. A great motivation. Kudos to any woman who gains that much power because of such a reason. I have to respect such a woman.
idiot that is unrespectfull and evil
Hareem (aka Roxalana) is treated as one of history’s great villains because rather then go along with this butchery, she made a play to save her children. There has never been a male failure that some historian has not tried to blame a woman for
@@AnIdiotsLantern There is no proof Hurrem had anything to do with Mustafa's death, so it's doubtful. But if she indeed had anything to do with it then I respect her. Better kill 1 person and saved multiple others rather than the way around.
@@AnIdiotsLantern Hurrem was malicious, cruel and provocative
She was Ukrainian , the daughter of the ukrainian priest , not Russian
A Ukrainian born in the Poland
@@agisi7799 it was Ukraine territory occupiued by Poland!
@drag0nfly_girl ahahahaha your brain is provice of your body. sUkraine was mentione dearlier than Russia was created.)) Russia is nothing! ans soon it will collapse
this is what they said
And a redhead ☝🏻
They said Selim was considered a failure for having one son and four daughters in the beginning.. but in a world where brothers need to kill each other to have one healthy son who lived to young adulthood sounds like a blessing and you should stop trying for more damn kids right then and there.
And how when the Son would die as many Kids did in that Time? Selim isnt fertil for ever. He had to plan in advantage in case his Son dies that there are enough others.
My mother in law as a child in Istanbul witnessed the release of women in the harem. She and her friends were expecting the women to be beautiful but she said they were all very ordinary.
Jeanette bowen How old is your mother -in-law?
@@adbc1f72 She passed away about 1979. She was born about 1911.
Beauty standards change by time. What we consider "ordinary" back then, in that time they were beautiful in comparison with women in 1960s and later.
If you think about, this woman from Ukraine was the most extraordinary and powerful queen ever! Yes, we have few well known French Russian, English .. but all of them were born royals. This woman was a brought there as a slave! She was from different ethnic, religion ... obviously she was incredible intelligence!
Obviously if she were brought to French, Russian or English as you mentioned, she wouldn't be able to survive there. It goes to show how naive people were around her in harem and she used it to her benefit. Her name "Hurrem" means the one who is always happy and laughs", which proves that everyone was just miserable and didn't know how to be entertaining, that's why Suleiman was attached to her more, even though she wasn't that beautiful. Suleiman did everything whatever she asked for, in another words he was under her feet, and she used that to her benefit, that's how she gained power. I wouldn't compare her to other queens, she wasn't that close to compare given the fact of their origins. And Ottomans were excellent warriors not good economists, all they did conquer lands, but were not able to sustain them. That's why they started to decline.
It's a modern political slang Ukrenian...
Ukraine did not exist until modern times.
Thats the beauty of women. Look at all of them how they become from the 13 year old slaves to the most powerful woman of the world. Hurrem Sultana it was the first step for womens. Then even Nurbanu, Safiye, Halime, Kiosem. It is something amazing about it. All of them they started from the worst you can imagine and look we are still talking about them 4-5 ages after 👏🏻
@@annajohnson6010
It's a modern political slang Ukrenian...
Ukraine did not exist until modern times.
nor Budapest existed until 1873 :-DDD
@@diliraupova9683 How do you know she was not beautiful? Were you there? Did you physically see her? No. You're simply making assumptions.
Most eastern European girls are by far more beautiful on average than the average western girl and 100 times better looking than any girl of royal status. Why are you defending women from royal backgrounds? How does having a royal background and living like a parasite off their own people make them in any way better? It does not. Most "peasant" girls were far more beautiful than girls from "royal" families. "Royal" is nothing more than an earthly title. If anything it means their family background is full of incestuous murderers, snobs, guilty of crimes against their own people. Money and having the best of everything does not guarantee beauty or intelligence. That's common sense. Since you brought up physical appearance, look at modern royal families. The Royal families outside of Britian look better than the British Royal family simply because they've chosen not to partake in incest with 1st cousins like the "British" royal family. Who are ethnically German not British, just FYI. On average every female from a "royal" bloodline does not look better than the average female in Ukraine, past or present. Ukraine is famous for their women.
Why is Hurrem brunette in this video?She had clearly red hair , and blue eyes, she is even known as alexandra la rossa .
In all of her paintings she has brown eyes and chestnut hair....
she is known as "hürrem sultan". if you google it then you'll learn "alexandra la rossa"
Hyyacinthus A : many hare women were girls splayed by Christian area or western women captured by moslem pirates and sold to the sultan ( the most beautiful of course) Josephine, wife of Napoleon had a cousin captured by the pirates and ended up in the sultan's harem. She gave birth to a son who became sultan. He became the allay to Napoleon against England. When Napoleon divorced Josephine (his aunt) he broke the alliance with Napoleon. These are the quirks of history. Always cherchez la femme.
Hurrem could also have hennaed hair, which would also rendered her a redhead.
Same thing in Iran.
She was Russian or Ukrainian so she could have had red or chestnut red colored hair. A lot of women in Asia dyed and still dye their hair with henna so it wouldn't have been a remarkable thing that poems would praise her for it. Some of her children had blonde hair so it is likely that she had that hair color. A lot of red heads produce children with blonde hair.
This was great, I wholeheartedly endorse the idea to do more such videos. I almost always listen rather than watch, so the extra bells and whistles are lost on me anyway. Wishing you less stress soon!
I read that the Magnificent Suleiman mini series’ lead Hurrein had a nervous breakdown and declined to act further in the show. The article stated the Producer would pick up with Roxelana and Suleiman as older rulers to continue the story but no idea when it would continue. Loved the mini-series! I learned a few Turkish phrases that later proved useful at work. Barrack! Evette!
That show was a disgrace to history. I could not tolerate Hurrem's ugly childish faces and tantrums.
Yok is my favorite
How can anyone in their right mind call a harem a 'university for women'. Leslie Peirce, no matter how much you want to it's just not possible to beautify something that involves enslavement, exertion and forceful conversion.
Tell that to your captors
There was no forceful conversion.
The women of the harem were educated, they knew how to read and write. Especially poetry and playing instruments. They lacked neither food nor shelter. They could be the mother of the future sultan or the favorite, maximum respect and power that a woman could get in those times.
They were locked up in a palace. I doubt very much that they would be better off outside, in a patriarchal and harsh world. Today it would be cruel but in those times it was a luxury to be in the harem of a sultan or rich merchant.
@@pavilionman64 they can't see their loved ones or family
The same people that refer to the prison system as a criminal college.
How blessed and grateful I,ll be born in a time and country where women can mostly can life their lives as they want.
in which country? certainly not the us anymore..britian, austria, germany, france yes, I'd think so..but still a long way to go. Canada likely. many of the scandinavian countries. Where were you thinking of?
Evangelista Women with no name u are oppressed and you dont even know it. U are a slave of your desires. Constantly trying to please everyone except the one who looks back at you in a mirror. U walk, talk and dress the same way that you see gamorourised on tv. And your free? Wat a joke
7Nexus21 So MEN are so virtuous, that they deserve freedom and not women? MEN never run amok, never get destructive by abusing their freedom??? And MONARCHY is less evil than democracy? Open your eyes: a world without freedom is not a place for human life!
GLOCK ThirtyFive And you are, of course, the "master" of your own desires, right? *Hypocritical poppycock!*
Point of note: here's a happy *GET STUFFED* to those who would attack women's rights and enslave us. May God chastise YOU by seeing your own malicious desire fall on your OWN heads!
Hurram was 8 years old when she was enslaved, I think she was a teenager, at least, when she was a part of Suleiman's harem.
There was one single reason for the establishment of the harem; Crown protection. If the Sultans had got married to any Turkish-Ottoman, Muslim women from the noble families and tribes with different ethnic or secterian backgrounds than automatically the queen status would have arisen and another noble family or a tribe would have been a claimer of the crown. In the event of the sultan's death or abdication, than the crown would have passed to the family of the bride and rival aristocrat lineages would have been established, thereatening the salvation of the empire, leading to partition. Harem was established to stop this from happening. The sultans never married and never took any Turkish-Ottoman viwes and only had children from ex-slave foreign women, who were from the far off lands of the empire, with no families to lay claim for the crown.
Best explination!
Thank you for that. People tend to do things for actual reasons. It's logical, anyway. :)
Jaylah Lopez sultan Suliman was the first Sultan to marry a free woman and that woman was Hürrem Sultan.He broke the rules.
And than what happened; The harem women started to exert influence on the Ottoman administration, gained great political power and personal wealth. One of the favorites of Sultan Ibrahim, 'Schivekar' around 1648 was even awarded all the annual tax renevues of Damascus. These women had their own bankers and brokers outside harem. They were purchasing jewelery and land with their handsome salaries. The first western style hotels in the coastal areas of Turkey was started by the ex-harem women and their descendands.
Ahmet Sipahioglu yes and that was the Sultante of women.
One commenter suggested this was romanticized - I agree to this in every way especially in the early part of the video. If you've ever seen the Sultan's palace in Istanbul you'll know that this video concentrated extensively on the lavish parts of the palace and never showed any real detail of the accommodations (cells! I mean like PRISON - small, dank, stone rooms with bars on windows etc) where common members of the harem AND their children were housed.
Combined with those arsenic body hair treatments I can't imagine that many of the harem population were long lived nor lived pleasant lives!
I think it was probably like a very strict monastery/brothel, the Sultan-mother being like a combination of reverend mother and a madam
a women's place is in servitude, history has proven this time and time again. Susie, you too.
@@stormbringer3022 wow you really ask for it don't you?
@@stormbringer3022 Oh, you poor delusional little boy.
@@annmcdaniel1092 I guarantee he's single lol!!
This guy must one that sits on his but all day and then asks for dinner! Man you should re visit your backdated views! Looks bad on you!
@19:55 -- Wow: the ancient version of 'Nair'! There truly is "nothing new under the Sun.".
Nothing under that robe either. I thought they would of just shaved it. They had razors back then at lest straight razors.
To get rid of the excessive ads, drag the bar through to the end and then restart.
For royal families, concubines have existed in all societies throughout ages, and yes they have had limited rights. Nothing unusual about that as such.
Anon Anon geisha
I just love historical stories. I should have been a historian😩
History taught in schools is boring. The best Education is done on your own by traveling ,internet, u tube, books,etc.
His-story is not always true facts.
@@paulchristian7693 back in the 70s, I loved my history classes in high school (NZ) and I have studied history for myself ever since 😊
So much of what I learned back then has helped me to understand global situations during my lifetime.
You can still do it. I belive in you.
I’ve always loved history, but recent research shows that the better jobs that involve history degrees are pretty much at a standstill with hiring. It sucks but there’s nothing we can really do about it... I had to switch my major to criminal justice, hopefully I can knock it out fast and start a career as a criminal historian or criminal psychologist
Do you really have to be greedy with the ads??
Luigi Rebollos at least there’s no robot voice, that’s a plus right? :)
Agreed, all of their vids are like this
I know right? How dare they want to get paid for all of the work they do to bring documentaries to people!
add blocker for the win
I get them wanting to make money, but you get less commercials on TV, there should be a 5 commercial break maximum for the time of this video, I count 16!
This documentary is excellent. I saw it when it was televised and I’m glad to be able to see it on your channel.
This was an incredibly interesting documentary. It is also a cautionary tale about why clear rules of succession are ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL.
Lexi Grimbrooke backups necessary
Don't know why it's in my recommendations but I'm watching 🤷🏾♀️
What a trip, my life seems much better now!
th-cam.com/video/w86rotpPU1Q/w-d-xo.html
This documentary is much less about Suleiman the Magnificent, and instead about the Sultanate of Women; that being said, its a fascinating and highly interesting subject, well worth the hour and thirty minute watch.
Yes, it explains clearly in the title that it's about the 'harem', not the sultan.
I understand that this is a documentary (and not a motion picture), but Hurem was supposedly a red-haired or a blond-haired, not a brunette, as assumed in this documentary.
Kitty 🙄
As if red and blonde are the same. So you don’t even know what they looked like either 🙄
They saw white skin and dark hair as beautiful
She was a redhead, Suleiman clearly mentions it in his poems.
@@mohamedahmedyassinhussein6856 dark hair and white skin are beautiful
So.....basically they had the same beauty standards that permeate modern western society. Young, white, skinny, and everything shaved from the upper lip down.
*nose down
People in middle ages were all skinny. Back then beauty standards were different. Women had to be "juicy". If you see portraits of noble women from middle ages and the renaissance paintings all women had some extra weight, like Hurrem, Kosem and Nurbanu. Especially on the hips, because that was a sign they will give birth to healthy children.
Caucasian girls were the most popular and most expensive in the slave market for their pale white skin, healthy long black hair and almond eyes. People of Caucasus were known for their strength, health and longevity, so it must have played a role.
They love white women in Muslim countries
@@Yaheleven they "women" love brown men in europe also
akram karim
Women don’t chase after men
They were brought at an early age ? So they were CHILDREN 😬😖😖😖
skorpia g no they were brought form the age 15-17
Haneen Awad
What are your sources ? They certainly weren’t Muslim girls either.
Not any different than any other country during this time
@@Yaheleven you again 😂 you are everywhere
Yes. Starting From 7.
After hearing about a minute of this video, that was enough! You completely falsified the portrayal of Harems. These beautiful girls were innocent children, betrayed by the system, and never knew who they were because it was all taken away from them at a young age. You minimized and sugar coated it! Shame on you!
If you want to understand a book you must read it till the last page then make your own conclusions. Judging a 1h documentary for 1 minute is so ignorant. Just say you hate Islam and go.
@@ismael3259 being against harems does not make you against Islam my dude.
Yeah. Let’s all evaluate medieval history from a modern perspective. What an excellent way to learn (to stay ignorant)!
The problem with problem when documentaries like these is that people look at this through a modern perspective forgetting that this use to be seen as normal to other people back then.
Read before you comment.
These girls where stolen by moors, black Peter, Pedro,
More beautifull for the kings, commn for the common man.
Stolen in christian countries.
Read 1001 night.
Lots of pleasure.
Sorry, but wtf why do they romanticize being in a harem? They're there against their will!
Comrade Avene agree, only a couple in a generation get to birth children for the sultan. As much as I like the ottomans, I feel bad for the other girls in the harem.
Comrade Avene who cares if it's against their will
you people romanticize every horrid aspect of european culture. but when it comes to the middle east its endless criticism. yawn its not even entertaining anymore
Comrade Avene did you actually watch the entire documentary?
Some writers say that women tried to leave or sucide but later they didn’t do it because they were in love with Sultans. It was not that easy to get power. The sultan’s love for them made them powerful.
"Wait! Are you saying if we keep strangling our princes, there is a remote possibility we might run out of them one day?"
Lol
politicians*
Duh. Humankind are kinda notorious for their stupidity. Just look at the 1 child policy of china.
@@nfspbarrister5681 agree
@@2livenoob haha took me a second thinking that’s not what she was trying to spell ooos whoosh lol got it now
nice to know that I am ugly even by ancient standards!
Only if you're black
Only if you're ginger
Medeival my friend. Not ancient. You were most probably a catch back in the good old ancient days...
There there u may find urself a delightfully mad sultan to love ur kind of beauty
So basically you were saved from the harem!! You can celebrate to that, sis 💃
Awesome documentary! Thank you for the upload
"...Sooner or later is going to get a nutter on the throne." I died when the historian said that. Ha!
wanna be my harem?
i liked 'but after they strangled me, i would have be buried with great ceremony'
@sovietroulette. Yeah, I liked that guy. He had a very tongue in cheek morbid sense of humor about his family's past. You kind of need something like that in his position lol. I read that guy passed away though. :( RIP.
I actually read your comment before reaching this part. After an hour plus watching this, and finally he said this...loved it ! Haha
We definitely have our nutter now ...
it was just a prison nothing else
More blood is in harem then in palace ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️
I often think of homely, unloved Prince Charles as not having his own life - and all he is a puppet. Whom he married was the only important decision of his life and he had to marry a woman he didn’t love. He lives in luxury, but is a slave to his mother and to tradition.
@@lisaschuster9187 i think prince Charles finally was able to marry the woman he (and her of course) had originally wanted to. Doesn't change the sad stuff, but I was happy for the guy for that at least. I'm an American and don't actually know too much about the current English monarchy (we get big news over here though), but he seems like a good enough guy who deserves that piece of mind and some happiness. 😊
@Lena B They stayed there for a short time. Then they married nobles and some like Hurrem, became empressess.
Definitely waaay better to be a sultan's daughter, than son!
lilyann168 and mother of sultan’s daughter, even if he may not love her at least she and her daughters would have lived without the fear of death hanging over their heads
lilyann168 but then you will be married to old vizier...
Ica 7804 if he looks anything like marwan kenzari I'm all in!
Sharon Yarbrough hahaha tru2 XD
lilyann168 nope, you will be mixed
That's an interesting jump at 3:13. We went from talking about Alexandra arriving in 1520, to the rule of Elizabeth the 1st (who wasn't born until 1533 and didn't become queen until 1558)
It was the 1% that had harems, just like now.
@@Genevasplaytime lots of money, clothes, travel, nice car, we have modern day monarchs except we dont call them monarchs....
As wrong as all of this is....
I still found that their love was somewhat inspiring. He genuinely loved her.
You should read the letters they wrote for each other.
@Aika Papa Ahh yes a man loving a woman.. it must be witchcraft! Stfu please, thats a silly fairytale which can be disproven very easily.
I always imagined the harems as a part of a luxurious palace but fictional movies or even documentary may be very misleading, when I visited one I was in shock they indeed were claustrophobic and small. Not many windows with small rooms I felt very sad for those girls because if for a group of 10-15 tourists is claustrophobic enough to want to exit it as soon as possible I can imagine hundreds of concubines.
The man who kept them there for their pleasure in my opinion were less of a man that the eunuchs.
Why you always lying
No kidding, much less of a man
then the eunuchs!
There are 300 rooms in harem and only few are open to public
LifeInPink999 you mean this still exist. I thought this stopped years ago. Where did you see this please?
@@privpriv1259 I visited Topkapi Palace when young. I didn'y get to go to the harem, but my dad was able to go and he said it was quite a large area. Now being with the same women day in, day out might prove clauatrophobic, but the harem, not so much.
Nur Banu comes out to be much more strong and intelligent as compared to her mother in law. Hurrem did everything ‘coz Suleiman was always their to support her n make things easy for her while Nurbanu had a very weak king n also she did take things in her own hands after Selim’s death n continued to guide her son also.
20 minutes in and all i know is that we don't know much and are guessing, this is kinda undermining to literally every information in this documentary lol
Good documentary. When life gives you lemons...it's interesting to hear the stories of how these women took so much disadvantage and injustice and make it BIG!
“I am as dark and lovely as the tents of Kedar” (Song of Solomon 1:5).
I think that part of the bible described harems
I'm dark and loving it
Horrible destiny for sons who weren’t the oldest, eunuchs, and women. It was sad for the oldest son because of pressure and expectations.
There was a very awesome Turkish series by the name "Magnificent Sultan" based on Suleiman and Hurrem Hatun (Alexandra). The best thing was that Hurren was very beautiful in that and acting of almost everybody was very good, bad thing is that not all episodes were available with english subtitles :(
Dives Vyas The full series is on Netflix now - with subtitles!
Dives Vyas it was a very interesting retelling of the story though, pretty much not historically accurate and Hürem in the series was a true beauty but in reality she was quite ungly! :)
Mad Craftsman I thought the real Hurrem was beautiful
Wendy Hull not really... If you google her name you will come across busts of her or even information of the time that mention that.. (though she was bright-witted and with humor, and thus she was named Hurem by the sultan because she made him laugh)
Mad Craftsman Oh ok
So nice to have a documentary about the history of the Ottoman Empire
many may not agree to this... but past is past your anger is just a waste of emotion
HEAR, HEAR!!!! I completely agree with your statement & have said something similar myself!
You_Don't_ Know_Me well said
This needs to be the top comment.
And. Whay they soo angry
@Mika Aalto - in all fairness, do you really think European royalty of the time was that much better? Nobility could do what they pleased with servant girls and peasant women. While turks were killing off their own sons to ensure the right of succession, in Europe, they had wars of succession where thousands of poor people who had nothing to do with royalty lost their lives. During wars, especially, women were raped by soldiers. This time period wasn't exactly high on human rights.
Damn! Game of Thrones has nothing on real history. Real History is way more.. intriguing!
Game of Thrones have very horrible finale
true
Ottoman empire in this context were actually and indirectly ruled by women. This is an interesting view of power structure and about the empire.
Yes ... literally p***y whipped .. smh
What!? Hahahahah
I’m sooo sick and disgusted with the ways females have been enslaved, mistreated, abused, sexualized and tormented in MANY different cultures since the beginning of this twisted humanity. I can truly understand the passion and rage behind misandry. 😖
My heart goes out to all these women/girls, both from the past and present. These things STILL go on today. Absolutely abhorrent!
Friea Prydwen : Typical nonsensical response. Wow!
Including the mutilation of women's genitalia that is practiced in some Muslim populations.
@@jessicamartinez3613 And in Christian Population in Afrika as well. Of course you just mention Muslims and hide what Christians do.
Thank you for posting.
As they say sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Instantly what looks like a fairy tale is history and reality .. awe inspiring , sensational and hair raising.
Omg if there was TV back then this would be keeping up with the harem! SO MUCH DRAMAAA!!!!
The gallant dor lol i like the way you think.
Ever heard of "magnificent century"?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Aman Ammad ikneptune
🤣🤣🤣
Sexual promiscuity leads to downfall not only of oneself but entire civilizations.
Tell that to Tiger Woods and Trump
@transylvanian ahhhh...have you forgotten the Romans?
Helix Snow hyperinflation of their currency and invading tribes from the north had nothing to do with the fall of Rome I guess
Stfu boomer.
Apparently I've stumbled into Ad City.
Good for Hürrem. The “manipulator.” I see a smart woman. Even though her “fits” caused the sultan to marry off the other concubines to his courtiers that’s pretty good for both her and the other girls. She definitely gave them a better future that way.
Hai
It is a form of manipulation lol it's one of the great powers us women have. We use our mind and cunning to manipulate a situation that already sucks to be better. I take it as a compliment 😉
We don't have brute strength. We have our minds.
are you related to monica bellucci ?
Hurrem was actually a redhead.The Magnificent Century series is highly dramatized but pretty entertaining. Hurrem Sultan is pretty inspiring. th-cam.com/video/upf76CVi9hY/w-d-xo.html Th
@@ladyofnoxus6733 That is the true strength of a woman, not the things that modern feminists believes a woman woman should be able to do.
Why do I feel like they're trying to romanticise this?
Of course they did:) This type of documentary channels always do that. Usually, they are only trying to suggest you the historical plots/facts, but they won't show you how bad actually was. People don't wanna see all that...
They aren't romanticizing anything. This is true history, based on real people, Suleiman the Magnificent and his concubine, who ended up being his favored wife, Harrem/the laughing one. Research more and open your mind.
To make islam seem tolerable when it is totally not.
A D they Are!
tell me, (I am not justifying whatever they did) what were the christians doing in that same time? Were they still persecuting jews? Or was it the witch season? I cannot really remember you know... Oh, yeah right, it was the time to kill or imprison every genius you have got. Yeah, right, Islam right? is it islam? is it?
I hope Netflix will continue with series of Suleyman soon!!! The first episodes were fantastic!!! Loved the dresses and the jewels!
Yvette Irizarry Wow, I wonder if it's still on Netflix?
Hope it's still on Netflix. I will definitely look for it
Having Harem is not allowed in Islam.
These kings just used the name of Islam.
Name one islamic king without harem please?
I love how well they describe things and acted them out it really gave a clear understanding of the times in a really fun movie type away!
A gilded cage is still a nasty evil cage!
jachica11- soo not true! marriage can be considered a cage. we cage ourselves everyday via religion and laws of mankind. is it better to be taken care of and obey rules or to be totally free and starve?
@Nevik. Marriage isn't considered a cage if you marry someone you genuinely love and work at keeping the relationship alive, so you made a poor comparison right off the bat. The life described in this documentary on the other hand, IS a gilded cage. The best way to survive was to scheme your way up to the top as much as you could, Game of Thrones style. To the orphaned girls who were raised by pashas and gifted to the harem, going into the palace was exciting. To the girls like Hurrem *who were captured* however...no, it's a gilded cage and a shiny fancy prison. A prison where you did what you needed to do in order to secure a good future for yourself. And that's not a good thing - that's an evil necessity.
I would rather be free and starve. If you were a woman you would understand that
Shell By The Sea I know right? And there were choices back then to be free and not starve. They were just limited and probably dangerous. Being rich and wearing pretty things means nothing when your worth is being defined by your looks and being able to pop out a son that you barely had any rights to. Being rich and wearing pretty things means nothing anyway. I wanted to smack the historian that said in the video the girls were probably excited to wear pretty stuff. They had to give up their identities and their agency in order to do that. They couldn’t write to any family they had and they rarely saw a life outside the palace walls the moment they stepped inside. Aka, a gilded cage.
+Nevik yeah when you cage yourself then it's your own choice and free will, you weren't beaten and shoved into the cage by someone else.
If you don't like it then you have the luxury to object and to do something about it. They simply did not. All they could do was smile and swallow their screams.
Who came here after just finishing watching Magnificent Century please like.
I wouldn't call it magnificent
Agnes Mina Well they have named it tho so it doesn’t matter what we call it.
@@minagica so you're upset cause he controlled most of the world especially Europe?
He was the Sultan of the Seven provinces the magnificent
@@minagica Its the name of the show, genius.
@Crow29Darkness Suleiman tried to take over France .. and succeeded... There's an ep of the show french begging the emperor to free France
the historian said the harem was like a university for women.She actually said that
JoWrkr right I could not believe it either and all they really learned was religions texts and embroidery....
It was. At that time women did not have an access to education, while women in the harem were getting the best education available at that time
It was .. Back then there wasnt options for woman
I don't understand why people are so disgusted by this fact and cannot accept it. It was the same for Asian royal history. Concubines trained in embroidery and cooking. Yes, they were slaves but they had considerably more skills than peasant women outside of the palace. More importantly, they learned how to socialise and play political games since they were constantly competing with each other. So yes the harem was in a way like a university. And not every woman was lucky enough to meet the emperor/sultan. Most of them would be untouched for life so they were skilled virgins.
University of prostitutes lol.
I watched all the 149 episodes of the magnificent 15th century and I'm hooked on them what's a beautiful stories.❤
I also find it fascinating that Eunichs would be so obedient. If someone cut off my junk I would make damn sure to get horrendous revenge...
Some eunuchs choose to get into it.
(Compared to the norm, the
life they led was luxurious ie
lots of food etc.)
They were indoctrinated since childhood the glory of a Eunoch life.
How to get executed in 10 seconds or less.
@Yusuf Isa Many eunuchs were made so as you boys. Yes, there is truth to that. Even this documentary mentions it.
@@bwilly4503 he to to to try try ty try hi ty ty t hiry to hi from do Dr by the hi hi I'm a to try try try try to go to do so hi hi hi hi ty everyone else
so the greatest Muslim empire was run by christian born women. And sultan blood line is European.
Yes European women they enslaved.
@JessikaEmerald Nothing has changed for most of the world today. Even the British Queen Elizabeth 1 painted her face stark white because it was thought to be more beatuiful
Not necessarily, because they all converted (conversion into Islam can't be forced, against the Islamic law) they were Muslim converts who adopted Turkish culture and raised as Turks. From the time they were brought to the Harem's, these young ladies didn't have any education, talents or skills. They were raised from a young age to learn science, play musical instruments, paint, read and write. They were all raised with the intent of serving the Empire. No empire would survive with incompetent individuals. It is frustrating when some people are clinging onto an ideology of superiority that Europeans love to hold to (but its baseless). IF they were not raised competent by the empire, their beauty wouldn't be sufficient for them to be part of the Empire.
@@larataylor4812 We Turkish are disguisted with harem customs, just ew.
Fortunately Ottoman sultans did not have any interest towards Turkish girls. Seljuks etc. did not have harem system, they did not enslave girls into this Silent Hill cages.
@@edenia9080 Read "Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought" by Hüseyin Yılmaz. Ottomans were mystical deviants not muslims. And of course how they fought arabs and neglected their rights in their own homeland, we all know that right???
Calm down with the ads...ppl are trying to actually enjoy your documentry...😩
This was a great watch! I love history!
Anyone here because of Game of Sultans?
It was a cruel world; it still a cruel world!
FA HA p
cultured animals and made worse
Yup, life is exactly the same as it was in the 1400s
Fa Ha do research and then give comment please. Check who is killing the peaceful people.
Oo you bloody busturds you are the most cruelest even though you left your old parents in old houses where they live lonely and die..and you just say that we are modern...WTF...we did'nt forget the past..and also we know the present.
There are always going to be critics of historical stories/ their content/ various documents/ certain movies/authors and their articles. Enough said. Keep bringing the stories and your view to educate us. Thanks for your efforts. "An historical buff".😃
Guys, watch The Magnificent Century, it is about the sultan's and everyone else's life, it is sooooo good!
Oh yes
It's one of the best series ever
it glosses over so many horrific historical things with the excuse of "fiction" and it romanticizes all the wrong things. It's not worth the time. For reals.
So the Queen Mother’s didn’t care about the fact of their grandchildren would be murdered for the throne one day??
Just the same as the women in Eritrea (for example) who are the ones who carry out FGM on their daughters. It was just the way it was done.
@tart70 my point was that often women are the gatekeepers of traditions like these.
@tart70 yeah, sure.
they are not your grandchildren. continuance of the empire was the most important thing.
I'd think the Queen Mothers had far less illusions about our dog eat dog world than most modern women today.
Brutal world. I'd rather have been a peasant.
You are considered a peasant now
Whose life wasn't brutal and short back then??
@@terrandroid thanks. Loving it.
Doubt that.
then your life would have been even worse.
I'm amazed that the cost of keeping all these women didn't bankrupt the empire!!
Brilliant doco. My relatives escaped Istanbul 4 years before the end of the Ottoman Empire.
Was it that bad?
Lucky you
Really 🤔