Dana Schwartz (2:12)
Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Menke. Listener discretion advised. On the night of September 2, 1651, the most powerful woman in the Ottoman Empire found herself afraid for her life just on the Other side of the doors of her apartment, her 300 armed janissaries, the troops of the Sultan, were attempting to protect her against a troop of assassins who were led by the chief black eunuch of the imperial harem. When the woman's chief private guard refused to let the assassins pass, they cut the guard to pieces. The woman, hearing the struggle, tried to flee through the hidden passageways that connected her rooms to the Sultan's, but she didn't have time. She hid in a closet instead. But she made a fatal mistake. The hem of her dress was peeking out, barely visible, but visible beneath the the door. One of the assassins was said to have dragged her out by her braids while she struggled mightily. She was ultimately strangled to death, blood pouring from her nose and mouth. Strangled with either, depending on your source, a cord torn from the curtains or with her own braids. The death of Kusem Sultan in her 60s marked the end of a political career that had lasted nearly 50 years. Her long tenure in power began in 1605 when as a young concubine, she gained the title of favorite or Haseki Sultan, a title originally created for Suleiman the Magnificent, wife of Roxelana, the subject of a previous noble blood episode. Kazem held power during a unique era in Ottoman history, referred to by historians as the Sultanate of Women, a period that began with the rise of Roxelana from a concubine to legal wife and influential figure in her own right. From roughly 501534 to 1715, the concubines, mothers and grandmothers of the Sultan exerted more power over the political machinations of the empire than ever before. Notably, all of these women began their lives enslaved in the harem, making their eventual accumulation of wealth and power all the more exceptional. Kazem Sultan has been called both single handedly responsible for the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and also the reason it held on for as long as it did. As listeners of this show will suspect, the truth is probably somewhere in between extremes. What can be said definitively is that Kosem's legacy is one of power, with all of the blood that that entails. I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood. Reconstructing Kazem's early life has not been an easy task for historians, who mainly have to rely on unofficial secondhand reports. It's generally believed that she was of Greek and Christian origin, though there are various theories about her birthplace and birth name. As a teenager, Kazem was kidnapped by raiders of the Ottoman slave trade and likely singled out as a candidate for the harem. Because of her beauty in the harem, she was converted to Islam and given the name Ma Pekher for her soft, moonlike face. However, she would become known as kosem, which is believed to have derived from either koze meaning hairless or smooth skinned, or kosem meaning leader or free. The imperial harem has long been a source of both fascination and titillation for Western audiences, probably in part because it's cloaked in mystery due to a complete absence of contemporary Ottoman writing on it. Among the varied extravagant tales and so called accounts of harem life from European travelers, historians generally agree that the most reliable portrait of the harem can be constructed from the writings of ambassadors to Istanbul and captives who served in the palace. The at this point in Ottoman history, following a transition first made in the era of Roxelana, the harem was housed in the main palace. In the 16th century, Ottoman politics were being increasingly concentrated not only within the capital but within the palace itself, and the relocation of the harem from the old palace to the new palace further blurred the lines between the domestic and the political spheres. Even princes, who historically had spent their adolescence governing a provincial capital under the supervision of their mothers, now grew up within the confines of the harem. Structurally, the reorganized harem resembled the third courtyard of the imperial palace, which housed and trained pages and eunuchs. Expenditure registers detailed a hierarchy inside the harem, which divided its residents into three groups. The first of these was the elite of the harem, the sultan's mother, the hasiki sultan, or favorite consort, and princes and princesses. The second group was composed of the harem's administrative and training staff, while the third and largest group was the service corps. In that last class were enslaved girls like Kosem. While the harem had a number of different functions, the purpose most relevant to this episode was, unsurprisingly, to produce concubines for the sultan. There were no legal restrictions barring the son of a ruler and a concubine from inheriting the throne. And by the end of the 14th century, concubinage had overtaken legal marriage as the dominant means of reproduction for rulers. There are a few explanations for this. For one, concubine had no allegiance to a family or foreign power. From a young age, she was forcefully converted to Islam, taught Ottoman cultural values, and promised eventual elevation or even freedom through having the child of the sultan or another powerful man. But as we will see, greater political power was attainable for Kazem during her time in the harem. She would have been taught by senior members to read, write and speak Turkish, to understand Islamic law, to play the harp and sing, and to embroider. Girls who showed the most promise were chosen to be the attendants to the valid Sultan or mother of the current sultan, who trained them to become concubines. According to Babovius, a Polish captive who became an interpreter and musician in the Sultan's court, she takes care to keep them splendidly outfitted and to have them instructed in all that they can learn, so that they might be capable of inspiring in the grand Signor the love which might allow them to become concubines and perhaps one among them the favorite and the honored mother of his eldest son, or else to be married to persons of quality outside the palace. That was most likely how Kosem captured the attention of Ahmed I shortly after his rise to power in 1603. We don't know exactly when their sexual relationship began, but we know their first child, Mehmed, was born in 1605. Ahmed had one even older son, Osman, but it's likely Osmund's mother died before his fifth birthday birthday. Ahmed's own mother died in the early years of his reign and his grandmother was exiled to the old palace. The absence of those other women put Kuzem in a uniquely powerful position. She was not just the only living mother of the Sultan's sons, but the most senior powerful mother in the imperial court. Kuzem would go on to have the rest of Ahmed's children, potentially four more sons and four daughters, in her position as Haseki, or favorite. The one mother, one son policy that had once defined Ottoman reproductive politics was now a relic of the pre Suleimanic era. Haseki was not simply a title either. A raise in her status meant a raise in her stipend with privy purse. Records showing that Kazem received 1,000 aspers a day. A rumor even persisted at the time, and still persists today, that Ahmed and Kazem legally married. Kazem likely developed an early interest in politics and held influence from the early days of Ahmed's rule. In 1612, the Venetian ambassador to Istanbul described Kosem as a woman of beauty and shrewdness and of many talents. She sings excellently. She continues to be extremely well loved by the king. Not that she is respected by all, but she is listened to in some matters and is the favorite of the king who wants her beside him continually. He noted, however, that Kosem restrains herself with great wisdom from speaking to the sultan too frequently of serious matters and affairs of the state, likely meaning that she understood how to appropriately appease his ego. We know Ahmed wanted Kazem constantly by his side, but how did Kazem feel about the man who was her maybe husband? Whether legally or in effect? That's a question I cannot answer, as no personal writing regarding Ahmed survives. It's worth noting that even if we did have access to letters between sultan and concubine, such as those between Roxelana and Suleiman, it's inherently difficult to parse the true nature of feelings in such a complex power dynamic. When, of course, you have to remember that Cozam began her life in the harem as an enslaved concubine. What we have a greater understanding of, however, is her political career. Historians believe she potentially played an integral role in the shift in Ottoman succession politics from primogeniture, in which the eldest son inherits the throne, to agnatic seniority, in which power goes to the eldest male in the dynasty. Primogeniture in practice resulted in systemic fratricide upon the new Sultan's ascension. Ahmed's situation was unique. He had a living brother, Mustafa, who was most probably left alive because Ahmed was only 13 at the time of his ascension and his reproductive capacity had not been confirmed. However, once several sons were successfully sired, Mustafa's survival was in question. The Venetian Ambassador reported in 1612 that Cozem had prevailed upon Ahmed to spare his brother Mustafa. She argued that because Ahmed himself was his father's second son, he should not harm the brother whose place he once occupied. The story of Ahmed's elder brother and his execution, potentially organized by his own grandmother, based on a prophecy, is a story for another time. But according to the ambassador, in this case, Cozem's motive in sparing her brother in law was to see if it was possible that this mercy which she displayed at the present to the brother, might also be employed later toward her son, the brother of the firstborn prince. In other words, she believed if she supported Mustafa, her sons might later be spared themselves. Ahmed, remember, had an oldest son, Osman, who would be more likely to simply kill his brothers despite his warm relationship with their mom, Kazem. As a small boy, Osman could be seen going for carriage rides with Kazem, tossing coins to spectators. However, the Venetian ambassador claimed Ahmed later forbade the two from speaking to each other and speculated it was because of Kosem's well known ambitions for her own sons. When Ahmed died, Kazem would legally become a free woman. But if she wanted to maintain power in the empire, it would have to be through her children to realize those ambitions. Kozem was already building a network of powerful allies. In 1616, the Venetian ambassador reported that she was the most valuable ally to have in Istanbul because of her sway over the Sultan, and that she should be rewarded for her contributions to Venice's good standing. But the most valuable way a woman could build influence within the empire was through the marriages of her daughters and other women indebted to her. The marriages of Ottoman princesses especially were important links between the harem and other concentrations of power both inside and outside the palace. Cozem found a close ally in her son in law, the acting Grand Vizier, after he married one of her daughters. In a blow to Kosem's growing influence, Ahmed had that Grand Vizier strangled on charges of corruption in 1614. It's likely that around this time, Kazem also began to build her alliance with the leaders of the Janissary Corps, an alliance that would last her entire lifetime. Later in her life as valid sultan, Cozem was known to free her slaves after relatively short periods of service and to maintain ties with them in their new lives. According to the 17th century historian Mustafa Naima, she would free her slave women after two or three years of service and would arrange marriages with retired officers of the court or suitable persons from outside, giving the women dowries and jewels and several purses of money according to their talents and station, and ensuring that their husbands had suitable positions. She looked after these former slaves by giving them an annual stipend, and on the religious festivals and holy days, she would give them purses of money. This all was very nice, but it wasn't just out of the goodness of her heart, as with the marriages of her daughters. Arranging the marriages of loyal, formerly enslaved girls to potentially influential husbands would be the key to her political success. While her actions may not have been entirely magnanimous, Cozem is remembered for a tradition of charity work. She began as Haseki and continued throughout her career. She arranged dowries for a number of girls whose families could not afford them and provided them with lodgings and furnishings. She systematically delivered water to pilgrims traveling to the holy city and annually distributed clothing and shoes to both pilgrims and locals. Perhaps most surprisingly, every year in the month of Rajab, Kazem would leave the palace in disguise and arrange for the release of imprisoned debtors and criminals, with the notable exception of murderers, through personal payment of their debts or equal compensation. Kuzm's time as Haseki, or favorite ended when Ahmed died in November 1617, likely of typhus. Fortunately for Kazem, her intervention was successful and Ahmed's brother Mustafa, and not Ahmed's eldest son, succeeded his position. Unfortunately for Kazem, Mustafa was both mentally and physically ill and he was deposed only 96 days later. He was replaced by Osman, who ultimately killed Mehmed Kosem's oldest son but sent the rest of her sons to live with her in the old palace. It seems seems he still harbored some affection for the woman who briefly acted as his stepmother and he even paid her a three day visit during his reign. Kuzem additionally maintained her daily thousand asper stipend through Mustafa and Osman's reins, evidencing a level of respect. Osman proved to be another unpopular ruler, which some historians argue was in part due to his lacking a valid Sultan or mother to guide him. He was ultimately killed in a janissary uprising in 1622. Power was briefly returned to his uncle Mustafa, but he was once again deposed due to his instability and he was sent to live in the old palace for for the rest of his days. On September 10, 1623, Kazem's son Murad ascended the throne as Murad IV and Kosem's time as Valid Sultan began. Seeing as Murad was only about 11 years old when he came into power. Kazem was appointed official regent and she governed in her son's place alongside the Grand Vizier through his teenage years. Shortly after Murad's enthronement, a Venetian ambassadorial dispatch read, all power and authority is with the mother in the prime of life and of lofty mind and spirit, who often took part in the government during the reign of her husband. Around the same time, an English ambassador commented that Murad would be governed by his mother, who governed his father, a man of spirit and wit. The title of Walid Sultan came not only with power but with money too. Khuzm had a greater income than any Walid Sultan before her at an astonishing 24 million ASPers a year. Most of this money came from land grants endowed to her through Ahmed, Murad and even Osman. During her regency, Kuzem enjoyed a good working relationship with the Grand Vizier and had numerous allies in powerful governmental positions. In one letter she frankly tells the Grand Vizier, you really give me a headache, but I give you an awful headache too. How many times have I asked myself, I wonder if he's getting sick of me, but what else can we do? Pretty relatable. Traditionally, the Grand Vizier was responsible for day to day imperial affairs and leading the empire in war, while the Valide Sultan and chief eunuch ran the household and palace affairs. As regent, it seems Kazem's influence crossed these spheres. As you can imagine, as Murad became older, a level of conflict between sultan and regent was inevitable. A 1625 Venetian report revealed Cozem and Murad were clashing over the possibility of a truce with the Spanish. The report reads, the imperialists and Spaniards declared that the matter was progressing favorably, being actively assisted by the Sultan's mother, but also states that the Sultan, with a prudence beyond his years, was opposed to such a deal. Kosem had a powerful ally in negotiations, in this case the Governor of Egypt, who by no coincidence was married to one of her daughters. In a letter from Cozem to the Grand Vizier, likely written around 1628, we see her frustrations as both an anxious mother and an anxious regent. First, she expresses political distress, writing, something absolutely must be done about Yemen. It's the gate to Mecca. You'll talk to my son about this. I tell you, my mind is completely distraught over this. The tone then shifts to worrying about Murad. In equal measure, she complains, my son leaves in the morning and comes back at night. I never see him. He won't stay out of the cold. He is going to get sick again. I tell you, this grieving over the child is destroying me. Talk to him when you get a chance. He must take care of himself. What can I do? He won't listen. He's just gotten out of a sickbed and he's walking around in the cold. All this has destroyed my peace of mind. All I wish is for him to stay alive. At least try to do something about Yemen. Another letter to the Grand Vizier expresses similar concerns, but additionally reveals Kazem's fears for her own position. Should something happen to Murad. She writes, I wish you would listen to me and have them stop practicing the javelin in the hippodrome. Why can't they go play in Lehenga? My son loves it. I lose my mind over it. Whoever says it's good for him is lying. Caution him about it, but not right away. What can I do? My words are bitter to him now. Just let him stay alive. He is vital to all of us. While the last line may not be relatable to most, there's something comforting in both of those letters in knowing Mothers throughout history have always been worried about their sons staying in the cold too long, playing dangerous sports and not Stopping by often enough, Murad sought to gain greater independence in his rule through limiting his mother's network of power. In 1628, he dissolved the marriage between his sister and a powerful admiral, one of Kazem's closest allies. She reportedly attempted to appease her son with elaborately outfitted horses and a lavish banquet, to no avail. Murad gained full formal control in 1632, ending his mother's regency. Despite earlier strife, it appears they ultimately came to respect each other's roles in the empire in the latter half of his reign. But respect did not mean peace. In 1635, while celebrating a victorious campaign, Murad had two of his four remaining brothers murdered. In 1638, he used another victory celebration to mask the killing of a third brother. Only at the intervention of Kazam was the final living brother, Ibrahim, and spared. She argued that his mental illness rendered him harmless, no threat to his brother's throne. Kazam's defense may not have only saved her son, but the existence of the Ottoman Empire. When Murad died of liver failure in 1640, with no surviving heirs, Ibrahim was the only living male in the line of succession. During the first year of Ibrahim's reign, Cozem followed in the footsteps of valid sultans before her and constructed a mosque complex. Despite her massive wealth, the complex was considered more modest than her predecessors. As the fate of the Ottoman Empire hung in limbo, it's very possible Kazem sped up her plan to endow a complex and cement her legacy before the potential fall. It was Kazem's responsibility as Velid to make sure her son Ibrahim produced heirs to secure the future of the dynasty. Ibrahim turned out to be rather too enthusiastic about producing heirs and notoriously spent excessive time and money on his harem. Kazem may have later regretted introducing him to his first concubine and future Haseki, a woman named Turan. Though Kazem was not a formal regent to Ibrahim I, she maintained the role. In effect, his sheltered childhood, combined with his alleged mental illness and fixation on his harem, made him an incapable ruler. This naturally left a power vacuum that many were eager to fill. As opposed to the harmony Kazem had enjoyed with Murad's grand viziers, Kazem found herself in competition with Ibrahim's advisors. According to yet another Venetian ambassador in the present government, to the extent that this son's capabilities are less, Kuz's is held in greater esteem than at the end of Murad's reign. And thus, with her commanding affairs within the palace and the Grand Vizier commanding those outside. It happens quite often that these two rulers come up against each other and in doing so take offense at each other. So that one can say that in appearance they are in accord but secretly each is trying to bring about the downfall of the other. These attempts to bring about the downfall of the other appear to have been quite catty at times. When the Venetian ambassador attempted to pass on a letter of congratulations to Kazem through the Grand Vizier, the vizier reportedly did not forward the letters as if scorning them and in the words of the Venetian told me that the queen mothers of the Ottomans are slaves of the Grand Signor like all others, not partners or heads of government like those in Christian countries. It was an ironic attempt to undermine her authority. After all, the Grand Viziers were also enslaved by the sultan. There is obvious gender discrepancy. While the Walid Sultan was technically a free woman upon the death of her husband, the she had begun her career as a concubine, enslaved for sexual purposes. This fact would unsurprisingly appear repeatedly in attempts to invalidate the power of both the Hassekis and Valids of the Sultanate of Women. Despite the infighting, the early years of Ibrahim's reign are remembered as relatively peaceful and prosperous under the joint rule of Cozem and the Grand Vizier. The same cannot be said of the latter years. In the war for control, both of them ultimately lost. The increasingly unstable Ibrahim had his Grand Vizier executed in 1644 after an attempted coup and he planned to exile his mother to the island of Rhodes despite no evidence of her involvement in the scheme. That plan was stopped thanks to the intervention of Ibrahim's own Hasseki, who saw it as too great an indignity. Cozem was instead confined to one of the imperial gardens in the capital. Ibrahim the Mad, as he became known, was ultimately deposed and imprisoned in 1648, replaced by his son Mehmed. While they had detrimental effects on Ibrahim's capabilities as a ruler, Kosem's efforts to secure the future of the empire were successful. Ibrahim's final words as a sultan were, allegedly, I am the father of a dynasty. Mehmed iv, the eldest, was only seven years old at the time of his ascension, thus requiring a regent. In a rare occurrence, there were two valid sultans to choose from Kosem and Mehmed's young mother, Turan Sultan, the chief justice, ultimately appointed Kosem, the new sultan's grandmother, as regent, potentially dismissed despite her wishes because of her decades of experience. According to a 17th century Ottoman scholar. It being an ancient custom that upon the ascension of a new sultan, the mother of the previous Sultan remove to the old palace and thus give up her honored office, the Elder Velid requested permission to retire to a life of seclusion. But because the loving mother of the new Sultan was still very young and truly ignorant of the state of the world, it was thought that if she were in control of government, there would result the possibility of harm to the welfare of the state. Therefore, the Elder Valid was reappointed for a while longer to the duty of training and guardianship and it was considered appropriate to renew the assignment of Queen crown lands to the Walid Sultan. Training and guardianship appears to have been an understatement, as in actuality Kuzem resumed near full control and gave herself the title Great Valid Sultan. As the highest ranking Ottoman woman of all time, clashes with other officials were once again inevitable. Calling an imperial audience with all leading statesmen, the young Sultan dismissed his Grand Vizier and appointed the leader of the Janissaries to the position. All the while, his grandmother was sitting behind a curtain, a practice employed by Valid Sultans before her. Not content to use her grandson as a literal mouthpiece, however, Kazem made a speech from behind the curtain, defending her role and silencing her critics with a vehemence that surprised the audience. She commented on the Grand Vizier's failed plan to assassinate her, declaring, thanks to God, I have lived through four reigns and I have governed myself for a long while. The world will be neither reformed nor destroyed by my death. You might be wondering what Turan was up to during all of this. As her grandmother in law had done in her younger years, Turan was building a faction of her own. Where Kazem had the allegiance of the Janissaries, Turhan had the influential palace eunuchs on her side, including the chief black eunuch, an official position held by an enslaved black African eunuch. Tehran's faction was built around discontent with the level of power and influence the Janissaries wielded, especially regarding their domination over provincial government. Kuzem, of course, learned of the growing intent to have her removed or killed. She began to formulate her own plan in which Ibrahim's second son Suleiman would replace Mehmed, as she believed Suleiman's mother would be a lesser threat than Turhan. According to the chronicler, Naima Kuzem secretly asked the guards to leave the palace gates open so that Janissaries could sneak in and kill Turhan. Sultan in her chambers. At the same time, she allegedly gave two bottles of poisoned sherbet to the head sweets maker in the palace kitchen to serve Mehmed. Yes, she was allegedly attempting to poison her own grandson. The day before enacting the plan, however, one of Kosem's servants revealed the plot to Turhan. You know what happened next? When news of the violent death of the widely respected great Valid Sultan reached the people of Istanbul, they shut down the city's mosques and markets for three days in mourning. In the wake of her assassination, the Central treasury confiscated Kazem's entire wealth, her vast estates and taxes, her jewelry, precious stones, cash and gold coins. According to Naima, the story goes that her wealth was so so vast and varied across different enterprises that it took 50 years for the State treasury to confiscate it all. Commenting on Kosem's legacy, Naima praised her charitable contributions to the empire, but condemned the harsh taxes on the peasants of her estates who dared not complain. In his words, it was divine wisdom that the respected valid, fellow, philanthropic and regal as she was, was martyred for the sake of those unjust oppressions. He considered these ills the result of the Valid Sultan having too much power, a departure from traditional Ottoman norms. The reality is the nearly 200 year Sultanate of women saw the empire through the same peaks and valleys it experienced with men at the helms of power. Just as Helen didn't destroy Troy and Meghan didn't destroy the British monarchy, yet one woman, no matter how powerful, cannot be responsible for the rise or fall of an empire. Kazem was ultimately right. The world was neither reformed nor nor destroyed by her death. That's the story of Kuzem Sultan, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit about her legacy in pop culture. If you're looking for your next drama obsession, I've got one for you. From the producers of the crown comes BritBox's brand new original series the Lady. Inspired by a true story of a royal scandal, it follows Jane Andrews, a working class woman plucked from obscurity and appointed to the highly coveted role of Royal Dresser to the Duchess of York at Buckingham Palace. But after rising to the heights of British high society, everything starts to unravel, spiraling into obsession, suspicion and murder. This is a story of class, ambition and the allure of royalty. 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