In the popular TV series "The Magnificent Century," Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent literally demonstrates one of the mysteries of the Ottoman court: after Halvet, most concubines were immediately sent to…
Florentine monks who arrived in the 15th century on a diplomatic mission to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania looked upon the mounted warriors with barely concealed astonishment. Slanted eyes, an…
The life of every Ottoman—from the poorest porter to the most noble pasha—was literally steeped in superstition. And although Islam strictly rejects any form of witchcraft, the people’s belief in…
Young Mahmud realized just how brutal the struggle for power could be when he was only six years old. Back then, as a young boy and one of the sultan’s…
The unification of China and the nomadic peoples occurred at the same time, and these processes were likely interconnected. When the Chinese were at the height of their power, they…
There were many glorious peoples who managed to make their mark on history: the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Vandals, and many others. But historians have been particularly intrigued…
The tribal structure of the Turkic nomads, which remains a prominent feature among the Kazakhs to this day, can serve as a genuine chronicle of this people when properly interpreted.…
Iran and Turan—that is, the settled civilization and the nomads of the Great Steppe—had been at odds with one another for millennia. The former had the advantage of numbers, a…
Nadia was born in 1627 in the Russian territories bordering the Crimean Khanate. In 1640, at the age of thirteen, during another raid by the Crimean Tatars, she was taken…
After the death of Sultan Suleiman I, Selim—the padishah’s only surviving son—inherited the Ottoman throne. At that time, he was 42 years old. And of all the sultan’s sons, excluding…
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