No, they weren’t stuffed into sacks and drowned in the Bosphorus. Although such stories did happen in the Ottoman Empire. The first time was when Ibrahim the Mad became jealous and ordered the elimination of 280 of his concubines—but they were young and his own. The second time this happened was in the early 19th century: Grand Vizier Bayraktar Mustafa Pasha ordered it to ensure that Mustafa IV had no heirs and to make the accession of his brother Mahmud II to the throne inevitable.
As for the rest of the concubines who happened to “grow old” in the sultan’s “service,” a fairly decent fate awaited them. Moreover, “growing old” in the understanding of that time meant “reaching the age of about 25.” In our day, many consider such people to be teenagers.
So, for better or worse, during the “Magnificent Century” and later, a woman’s fate depended on the eldest male in her family. If the sultan himself—who lived long enough—was the eldest, his concubines remained with him in any case.
Thus, Fulane and Gülfem, the first lovers of Suleiman the Magnificent, bore him sons, but the boys died in infancy or childhood. These women had no more children, but retained the opportunity to remain in the harem forever. They continued to bear the title of khatun and were entitled to a generous allowance.
Fulane died before her master. After Hürrem’s death, Gülfem even became the mistress of the seraglio, though she did not hold the title of Valide. She was a couple of years younger than the sultan and could well have lived on, but she angered the padishah, and he ordered her to be disposed of.
If a concubine had no son but gave birth to a daughter, she lived in Topkapi until the girl came of age. Subsequently, the husband of that very daughter became her guardian, and she moved into his home. Given that sultans were in the habit of marrying off girls from the Ottoman family to members of the civil and military aristocracy, their mothers’ future was quite secure. All the more so because the son-in-law clearly valued the court connections and experience of his high-ranking mother-in-law.
Sometimes there were situations where a concubine had no children. Actually, that’s not quite right: this was almost always the case. After all, during her entire time in the harem, an odalisque might share the sultan’s bed only once—and that was if she was very lucky. In such a case, the unlucky woman had four alternatives. But let’s keep the rule about the older man in mind.
The first option was for the girl to return home. In the harem of the Ottoman sultans, there was a rule that if a beauty failed to attract the sovereign’s attention within nine years, she should be granted her freedom. In such a case, she received payment for her “service” and peacefully reunited with her parents.
That is, she had the opportunity to marry of her own choosing, or, as was customary at the time, her parents would find a husband for her. Given that they entered the harem at the age of 10–12, underwent several years of training, and only at 14–16 had a chance to enter the bedchamber of the sultan or a prince, they could leave the harem by the age of 25.
There was a second option. And, one must assume, this happened more often. After all, young ladies accustomed to wealth and court intrigues did not feel particularly enthusiastic about the idea of going to the countryside to live with their grandfather. Odalisques “leaving the harem” were given the opportunity to marry one of the fairly high-ranking pashas or janissaries. Although not as important as if a sultana were to marry them.
For the sultan’s courtiers, this was a highly prestigious affair, as the girls raised at the sultan’s palace were considered highly educated and refined. For example, when Sultan Selim the Grim took the wife of the Iranian Shah Ismail captive, he kept her in his harem for a time for his own pleasure. But then he grew weary of revenge and married the Persian woman to the chief judge of Istanbul.
A third option was the possibility of remaining in the harem as a kalfa—a mentor to young odalisques and a manager of the seraglio. A concubine who had proven herself, perhaps from some very distant place, might choose this path. For example, girls from countries hostile to the Ottoman Empire—many might not have dared to return to Europe or Russia. And the husband proposed to them might have been rejected. However, later on, a kalfa still had the opportunity to marry, but only with the consent of the Valide or her mistress—the Haseki Sultan or a relative of the Sultan.
Finally, the last option was to actually retire and move permanently to the Old Palace. There lived the Valide, the Haseki, the Kadin, and the childless concubines of former sultans—that is, the mother and odalisques of the current ruler’s father. But this was the worst of the options; it was far better to become someone’s lawful wife.
Finally, we should mention the concubines who gave birth to surviving sons. If these sons grew up and came of age, their mothers became very influential women. Before Suleiman and Hurrem, the haseki sultanas would travel to the sanjak with their grown-up shehzades, where they assisted them in governing. But later on, they increasingly chose to remain with their husbands—at least the most favored among them.
These ladies became significant figures in high politics and did everything to bring their offspring to power over the entire state. If he was lucky, they became valide by his side, that is, they managed their son’s harem. If their boy was sent to the afterlife, their path led to the Old Palace.
True, starting in the time of that same Suleiman, the shehzades began to stage rebellions more and more often while their father was still alive—they probably didn’t want to die))) In the end, the sultan himself got rid of his two potential heirs. Mahidevran, Mustafa’s mother, was sent into exile, and her two daughters-in-law decided to follow her. But the youngest of this prince’s concubines married one of the pashas, a candidate whom Suleiman himself had proposed to her.
As for the lovers of Prince Bayezid, one of them lived in the Old Palace and then moved into the home of her daughter’s husband when her daughter grew up and got married. And nothing is known about the fate of the other concubine. It turns out that for the mothers of the defeated Ottoman princes, it was more likely to be sent not to the Old Palace, but into eternal exile.
Therefore, the final conclusion is this: it was very difficult to grow old in the harem of the Ottoman sultans. If a beauty failed to attract the padishah’s attention, she was released long before the end of her childbearing years. They even helped her secure a favorable marriage. Only a few—probably very strict or infertile women—remained in the palace permanently as companions, teachers, or maids.