I was reading "1001 Arabian Nights" the other day and started to get curious about the lives of imperial women under Islamic empires. While watching a documentary about it, I accidentally stumbled upon the Turkish TV series "The Magnificent Century: Kösem" on YouTube. I clicked out of curiosity, but was quickly engrossed in the plot and ended up watching the entire series. It follows the life story of "Kösem Sultana", one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history and a prominent figure during the era known as the Sultanate of Women.
Her ordeal is extraordinary. She was kidnapped at the age of 15 and presented as a concubine to Sultan Ahmed who was then just a prince. From an unknown concubine, she became Sultan Ahmed's favourite consort then legal wife. Finally, for the first time in Ottoman history, she became regent of the empire after Sultan Ahmed's death. Through this tv series, I learned so much about not just ottoman history but also many facets of human nature. That makes this series very special to me.
There are several technical aspects of this tv series I need to point out as well. First of all, each episode is two hours so each of them felt like a complete movie on its own. Adopting the two-hour episodes helped a lot to allow the story to be unravelled slowly revealing the evolution of different character traits vividly. I loved the costumes used, though some historians have commented that the costumes used were not appropriate to those times. The French influence was heavy in costumes but such influence in attires only became prominent after the visit of Nepolean's wife. Nevertheless, I fell in love with the Ottoman Kaftans used in the series. Critics blame several other historical inaccuracies in the series as well. Even I noticed that some inaccuracies like women giving birth on a bed. I had learned previously that the usual practice among the ottomans is sitting on a chair while giving birth.
Watching this series was challenging because of the horrible subtitles. I felt proud of the work done by my brain for hearing nearly over 100 hours of Turkish while looking at the wrong English subtitle yet processing the correct meaning and then translating it to my mother tongue all in real-time. Good job my dear brain.. good job 👏👏
I already knew several historical facts about ottomans before this tv series, facts like ottoman emperors never marry and they bore children only via concubines. This 200-year-old tradition was only broken by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent when he married his favourite concubine Hurrem. Another fact I learned is that when a new sultan ascends to the throne he will execute all his brothers to avoid any future competition for the throne.
The Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide is truly shocking. Maybe that is why I loved Sultan Ahmed in this series because he decided against executing his only half-brother Mustafa who was still a toddler. This marks the first breach in the Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide and henceforth Ottoman rulers would no longer systematically execute their brothers upon accession to the throne. Sultan Ahmed is portrayed throughout the series as a very compassionate man and a passionate lover who was madly in love with Kösem. I was so touched by his character I told myself I would one day visit his final resting place the Sultan Ahmed Mosque a.k.a. Blue mosque build by him.
I also really liked all the actors who played the role of Prince Mustafa. Every time he appears I feel pity for him. Since being a toddler, he lived with the constant fear of being executed. That is a horrible way to live. Imagine waking up every morning fearing whether you will get executed today. Constant fear and trauma since early childhood made him grow into a mentally unstable man. The scene where Mustafa points out to Kösem about her transformation from an innocent girl to a ruthless power-hungry woman makes you feel maybe he is the wisest of them all. Finally, seeing the way he gets executed under orders of Sultan Murad is extremely heart-wrenching.
Another important observation from the series is that the woman becomes extremely selfish after they have children. Their sole focus on life becomes the wellbeing of only their children. I still can't understand from where that amount of selfishness, ruthlessness and hatred for others comes from. I have noticed this phenomenon before as well. I have personally seen a lot of women change like this after childbirth. In all the mothers in this series, you can see that transformation.
From the historic point of view, two other major changes happened during Kösem's period apart from the abolition of fratricide. One is the modifications in the pattern of succession to the throne from a system of primogeniture to one based on agnatic seniority. Generally, since the time of Sultan Suleiman, the heir to the throne is the eldest surviving son. But under the influence of Kösem, the practice where succession to the throne passes to the Sultans's next eldest brother (even if the Sultan has own sons) was adopted. It could also be noted that Kösem might have adopted it for her gains since her sons were not eligible for the throne as Sultan Ahamed already had a son Osman from another consort.
The second change was for the first time in ottoman history a woman was appointed as the regent. This happened first, when Kösem's son Murad took over the throne as he is a minor and later when her other son Ibrahim took over the throne as he is mentally unstable thus incapable to rule. Finally when grandson Meḥmed took over the throne since he was a minor until she was assassinated. The assassination was orchestrated under the orders of Meḥmed's mother since Kösem who has now become completely evil and power-hungry plotted to kill her grandson Meḥmed for gaining more power.
I loved all three actresses who played the roles of teen, adult and old Kösem. They vividly portrayed different shades of Kösem. First, the innocent, joyful, good looking teen. Then protecting, loving and ambitious wife and mother. Finally, powerful, arrogant and cruel regent.
The greatest lesson we all can learn from Kösem's life and death is "More you fight evil, you get so absorbed you become the same evil yourself". Young and innocent Kösem hated Safiye Sultana so much since she was evil and power-hungry and was plotting several times to kill her grandson Sultan Ahmed and his princes for power. Kösem was forced to fight against her to protect her husband and children.
She vowed to Safiye that she’ll be a good-hearted sultana and will never kill her children but later in her life the thirst for power made her do just that. She became just like Safiye if not eviler, powerful and too controlling. Kösem needed the power to protect her kids and in the end, she lost her kids to protect her power. Don't hate someone too much, or you will be like them in the end.
I can imagine why Kösem became like that. She was once too kind but if she didn't change she would have been dead and buried by Safiye. She was forcefully taken away from her loving family then the man she loved so much died young leaving her without any love or motivation in life. The throne became her obsession and her desire to live.
A lot of people felt if she retired early, maybe she wouldn't have died like this. But did she have any other choice? Aren't we all just victims of circumstance? You can't blame Kösem because in the ottoman palace you have to learn to survive. Kill or be killed. She was a great person in the beginning, but people still tried to kill her anyway. So it made her tougher, stronger, and meaner. If the love of her life Sultan Ahamed lived longer like Sultan Suleiman maybe we might have seen a completely different Kösem altogether. But at the end of the day, nothing is permanent, no king rules forever, whatever is meant to happen will happen.
This series is a great example of how a single work of art can spike interest in a nation and its culture around the world. People from different parts of the world got interested in visiting Turkey to see historical monuments and learn more about Turkish culture due to this series. It is evident if you look at comments sections of YouTube videos related to different Turkish monuments. After watching this series, I started to wish that someone would make a similar series based on Tamil history. If you have time to spare, don't miss this amazing series.
