Cat's Historical Doodles

Mihrimah was born in Istanbul in 1522; she was the daughter of Sultan Süleyman I (aka The Magnificent) and his concubine, Hürrem Sultan . Her mother was freed in 1533 or 1534 and became the Sultan’s legal wife. On 26 November 1539, Mihrimah, aged 17, married Rüstem Pasha, who later rose to become her father’s Grand Vizier. Though this union was unhappy, Mihrimah flourished as a patroness of the arts and continued her travels with her father until her husband’s death. Mihrimah had two children: Osman and Hümaşah. Mihrimah travelled the Ottoman Empire with her father as he surveyed the lands and conquered new ones. In international politics, her mother sent letters to the Sigismund II, King of Poland, and the contents of these letters were mirrored in the letters Mihrimah sent. Although there is no proof of Hürrem and Mihrimah’s direct involvement in her half-brother Mustafa’s downfall, Ottoman sources and foreign accounts indicate that it was widely believed they worke...

Süleyman bin Selim was born on 6 November 1494 in Trabzon; he was the son of Şehzade Selim (later Sultan Selim I) and his concubine, Hafsa Sultan. At the age of 7, Süleyman was sent to study in the schools of Topkapı Palace, in Constantinople. As a young man, he befriended Pargalı İbrahim, a slave who would become his most trusted adviser. From the age of 17, Süleyman was appointed governor of Kaffa, and then Manisa. Upon the death of Sultan Selim I, Süleyman entered Constantinople and ascended to the throne as the 10th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He immediately began a series of military conquests - in 1521, he conquered Belgrade, something his great-grandfather Mehmed II had failed to do. In the summer of 1522, the Sultan dispatched an armada of 400 to the island of Rhodes, while personally leading an army of 180000 across Asia Minor to a point opposite the island itself. Following the brutal 5-month Siege of Rhodes, the island capitulated and Süleyman allowed the Catho...

Hürrem Sultan's birth name is unknown. It is said that it may have been Anastasia or Aleksandra Lisowska. Sources indicate that she was from Ruthenia, which was part of the Polish Kingdom. She was born circa 1502/4, in the town of Rohatyn, a major city of the Ruthenian Voivodeship. In the 1520s, Crimean Tatars captured her during one of their frequent raids into Ruthenia. Hürrem was first taken to the Crimean city of Kaffa, a major centre of slave trade, before she was taken to Istanbul. There, the Valide Sultan (the mother of the Sultan) Hafsa Sultan chose Hürrem as a gift for her son, Sultan Süleyman . Hürrem probably entered the harem at the age of 15. The precise year is unknown, but scholars believe that she became Süleyman's concubine around the time he became sultan, in 1520. Hürrem's unprecedented rise from harem slave to Süleyman's legal wife and Queen of the Ottoman Empire attracted jealousy and disfavour, not only from her rivals in the harem, but a...