Have you seen “Magnificent Century”, about Sulieman the Magnificent and his harem? Interesting to see the harem portrayed by the culture that it’s from, rather than a Westernised view. This interpretation is a real soap opera.
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Decades ago, mom had got us BLTs from the V nearby coney joint, and they were especially XLNT. I told her, “If only all the world leaders would get together, and eat BLTs like these, we would have world peace.”
{No offense to religious beliefs was intended.}
{Edited b/c tyop}
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Yeah, well, the bacon summit… I’d call in a drone strike.
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I have not! I assume it’s a Turkish drama?
But yeah, I think that we imagine that Harems as either places of pure oppression or as an orientalist sexual fantasy… but the Harem was a place of politics. Who the Sultan brought into the Harem said a lot about who he was trying to make alliances with, and who ended up at the top said a lot about who was seeking power within and from outside of the empire. I’m curious how the show handles that aspect of it.
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I have. I liked it, and it was historically-ish accurate. (I was looking characters up on Wikipedia to follow along). There is a Russian production along the same lines that concentrates more on Hurrem (as she was Ukrainian/Kievskiy Rus) that was also a guilty pleasure.
There have been quite a few historical dramas of that time period, including a docudrama about the conquest of Constantinople, and a docudrama about Vlad the Impaler.
Gotta get the most out of those expensive props!
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Yes, it’s a Turkish drama. The two main characters are Sulieman and his favourite concubine, later wife, Hurrem.
The Ottoman harem wasn’t like, say, the Qing harem, where concubines and consorts were chosen from influential families to make alliances; all of the concubines were captured enslaved women; really a horrible practice, although women could rise to be hugely influential, particularly if they became the mother of a Sultan, a Valide. The thinking was that the Sultan shouldn’t form alliances with important families through concubinage, because that might encourage favouritism, so concubines were acquired from outside Turkeye. Obviously, by the time this all ended, the Sultans had very little actual Turkish “blood”, since they had been procreating only with non-Turkish women for generations.
The Sultans also executed their own brothers once they became Sultan, in order to eliminate all competition and the possibility of other claimants to the Sultanate.
As for life in the harem; according to this drama, aside from the politicking to have an heir, it seems to have mostly consisted of tea parties, dancing, games, and reading and writing lessons.
I really, really recommend “Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace”, a Chinese drama about the Qianlong Emperor and his Inner Court (harem), which in terms of acting, is head and shoulders above “Magnificent Century”. I’ve recommended it before, maybe not to you, though. Also a lot of tea parties; gallons of tea are consumed.
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It was interesting to see how that culture interpreted its own history, particularly how life in the harem was viewed. Undoubtedly idealised, but far different than how the West believed and depicted the harem.
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That’s… not historically accurate… women could be enslaved, but in theory everyone is “enslaved” to the sultan in the empire - it was more a linguistic trick than a reality. There were actual slavery in the empire, which functioned more like Roman slavery than the more modern American model of race-based chattel slavery… for whatever that is worth!
Historically, the Harem was very much about strategic alliances and power brokering. Some of the concubines ended up being incredibly powerful people, in fact. Given that these were Turkic speaking people who came to Anatolia from further east in the 10th or so century, the influence from the east isn’t a huge surprise.
They ottomans did not practice primogeniture, and so for quite a while (into the 15th or 16th century, maybe later), you’d sometimes see a bloodbath to ensure one guy could take the throne.
Seems like they are heavily leaning into the western orientalist tropes about the Ottoman empire and how it worked… which I guess, isn’t a huge surprise, given how Turkey rests on a sense of modeling the western nation-state.
Sounds interesting! Thanks for the recommendation! I don’t get enough dramatic court intrigue in my media!
We’re a couple of episodes away from wrapping up The Apothecary Diaries, which follows an apothecary after she gets kidnapped and sold to the Rear Palace first to work as a servant and later as a food taster for a concubine in the Chinese emperor’s palace… It’s great fun! The wikipedia is for the manga/light novel, but the anime is very good!
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Ah; I was assuming that the show was more historically accurate than it was, apparently.
The Apothecary Diaries sounds interesting!
If you can get it (I could only view the first two episodes because I don’t subscribe to … Roku(?)), but Mr Queen is a Korean historical fantasy comedy drama, about a twenty-first century male chef who’s consciousness is sent back in time to inhabit the body of nineteenth century Josean queen. It’s genuinely hilarious in parts.
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Ooh! I’m putting this on my to watch list. I just finished Loki, which was much better than I expected, and Andor, which — ouch — seemed like our current situation thinly disguised.
I’m ready for some historical drama again.
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I got it on Saturday. I asked for the first aid kit as somebody (a child) had a really nasty fall in the shop while they all stood around gawping at each other I went up to ask for the first aid kit (my summer bag doesn’t have room for one. And they gawped at me until one said we don’t have one. I told them that was completely illegal and went to the restaurant next door where they were perfectly willing to help.
Eventually a gawping goldfish mouth flapping supervisor showed up too and was obviously of no fucking use either. I wasn’t angry because I was busy being reassuring to a child in pain but I fucking am now thinking about it.
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