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Mahpeyker (Māhpeyker) Kösem Sultan (Sulṭān, d. 1061/1651), who became a favorite concubine of Ahmed (Aḥmed) I (r. 1011–26/1603–17), was the most powerful of the queen mothers exercising authority in the eleventh/seventeenth century, as well as the most controversial. Kösem’s stature and influence were facilitated by her astute grasp of Ottoman politics and the large number of children she bore. Two of her sons required her regency early in their reigns, and her daughters’ marriages to prominent sta…

Born in Manisa in western Anatolia, Ahmed I (Aḥmed I, 998–1026/1590–1617) was the fourteenth Ottoman sultan (r. 1011–26/1603–17) and the eldest son of Sulyan Mehmed III (Sulṭān Meḥmed III, r. 1003–12/1595–1603). Ahmed I faced challenges on three fronts during his reign, two external and one internal. In the north-west, he inherited from his father a decade long war with the Habsburg Empire, which had been inconclusive and mutually exhausting. That war was terminated with the Treaty of Zsitva-Torok, negotiated in Cemaziyülahir…

Hadice Turhan Sultan (Khadīja ṭurkhān Sulṭān) (d. 10 Şaban (Shaʿbān) 1094/4 August 1683) was the favourite consort, or haseki (khāṣekī), of the Ottoman sultan İbrahim (İbrāhīm) I (r. 1049–58/1640–8) and the mother of Sultan Mehmed (Meḥmed) IV (r. 1058–99/1648–87). There are no records of her early life prior to entering the Ottoman harem, but she was most likely captured during a slave raid into the Russian steppes and entered the harem of Sultan İbrahim in 1049/1640, when she was approximately twelve years old. A…

Fecr-i Ati (Ātī), was an Ottoman-Turkish literary movement at the beginning of the twentieth century that emerged out of the earlier movement in Turkish literature known as Edebiyat-ı Cedide (Edebiyyāt-ı Cedīde, “New Literature”). Fecr-i Ati was founded on 27 Safer (Ṣafar) 1327/20 March 1909 at Istanbul’s Hilal (Hilāl) press. Eleven months later, on 13 Safer 1328/24 February 1910, its members published the first literary manifesto in the history of modern Turkish literature in the journal Servet-i Fünun ( Thervet-i Fünūn, “Wealth of Sciences”), which had been the organ of …

The kızlar ağası ( qızlar āghāsı, literally, “agha of the girls”) was the chief eunuch of the Ottoman imperial harem. Although the title may have been applied to the head of the palace harem eunuchs from the empire’s early years, the formal office, known as Ağa-yı Darüssaade (Aghā-yı Dārü ʾsaʿāde; Ar. Aghā Dār al-Saʿāda), literally “Commander of the Abode of Felicity,” dates to 996/1588, when Sultan Murad (Murād) III (r. 982–1003/1574–95) transferred the supervision of the Evkafüʾl-Haremeyn (Evqāfüʾl…

Muradi (Murādī) was the pen name of three Ottoman sultan-poets: Murad II (Murād, r. 824–48/1421–44 and 850–5/1446–51), Murad III (r. 982–1003/1574–95), and Murad IV (r. 1032–49/1623–40). Ottoman princes in general received an excellent education from the best teachers and men of learning available. Their education included classes in calligraphy, the arts, and literature. Consequently, more than half of all Ottoman sultans left works of poetry, some of which are sizeable divans (dīvān, the collection of one poet’s poems). Murad II is considered to be the first Ottoman sul…

Karaçelebizade Abdülaziz (Qaraçelebizāde ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz) Efendi (1000–68/1591–2–1657–8), an Ottoman ş eyhülislam (shaykh al-Islām) and historian, was born in Bursa, into the well-known ulema ( ʿulamāʾ) family of the Karaçelebizades. He was brought up by his elder brother, Mehmed (Meḥmed) Efendi, and studied canonical law under Şeyhülislam Sunullah (Ṣunʿullāh) Efendi (d. 1021/1612), after which he became a müderris ( mudarris, teacher) and served in various medreses in Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul, including one in the Süleymaniye külliyesi. The succession of Murad (Murād)…

Mehmed IV (Meḥmed, r. 1058–99/1648–87, d. 1094/1693) is notable for being the second-longest reigning Ottoman ruler, and for having one of the worst reputations of any Ottoman sultan. He presided over stunning military successes, including the conquest of the entire island of Crete in 1079–80/1669, but he was also responsible for the failed siege of Vienna in 1094–5/1683. He sought a historic legacy and a return to an earlier era of pious, manly, gazi ( ghāzī, warrior) sultans, but he is remembered instead as the profligate hunter, avcı Mehmed. By the time Mehmed IV was born in 1050…