Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie Page A

who’d come before her (mothers of sultans, for example), often taking care of matters of state when the sultan was away. To combat public opinion that she was a witch, she worked hard to foster a reputation as a charitablewoman, doing good works and funding the construction of magnificent and useful buildings.
M URDER M OST C ONVENIENT
    But all her privileges could easily disappear if Roxolana didn’t keep a tight grip on her power. She hadn’t fought her way out of the anonymity of the harem just to become the sultan’s trophy-wife broodmare. And that was why she set her sights on taking down the grand vizier. He was the only other person the sultan trusted, the only person at court with as much power as she had; plus she just didn’t like him. Ibrahim Pasha was no shrinking violet—this was a man who, when a poet slandered him in public, ordered the unfortunate man paraded around the city on a donkey and then strangled to death.
    Roxolana made sure the sultan heard all the court gossip about the vizier and knew how much she disliked him. Ibrahim, meanwhile, didn’t do himself any favors at court: he was becoming increasingly arrogant and seemed to be making decisions without the sultan’s permission. Whispers that he was plotting against Suleiman were growing louder (perhaps because Roxolana was shouting them into her husband’s ear). On March 15, 1536, Ibraham’s battered corpse was found in his bloodstained bedroom. He’d been executed by the sinister deaf-mute assassins the sultan kept around for just such a purpose.
    By the 1550s, Roxolana was a power unto herself, but even she needed allies. She soon formed a political faction with Rüstem Pasha, her daughter’s like-minded husband and the new grand vizier. On the opposite side was 37-year-old Prince Mustafa, Suleiman’s heir and son of the disgraced concubine Gulbahar. Though he governed a distant outpost of the empire, Mustafa was his father’s son in strength of mind, character, and ambition. He was also popular, whereas Roxolana’s sons were not.
    Roxolana knew that if Mustafa took the throne, she’d be either killed or sent back to the Old Seraglio, home to second-string wives and used concubines. She also knew that for Mustafa to clear a path to the throne, he’d need to have her sons murdered. She had only one option: make sure he never got the chance.
    Popular legend claims that Roxolana first tried to dispatch Mustafa herself, sending a gift of poisoned clothing. When that failed, she used her influence to get the sultan to do her dirty work for her. In 1553 Mustafa was executed by his father on the pretext that he was planning to assassinate the sultan and usurp the throne. In the minds of the Turkish public and politicians, Roxolana and Rüstem Pasha were responsible for trumping up the charges and turning the sultan against his son; some even claimed that Roxolana used witchcraft to poison her husband’s affections. Rüstem Pasha took the fall—he was stripped of his title on the day Mustafa was executed. The demotion was only temporary, however; Roxolana’s insistent urging brought him back to his old position two years later.
L OVE C ONQUERS A LL
    Concubines in the Ottoman Empire lived, bore children, and died by the thousands without anyone ever knowing their names. Roxolana’s charm must have been great, indeed, for her to sway the sultan into making an honest woman out of her.
    But all wasn’t due to her craftiness and scheming. At the heart of the story is something a bit wonderful—love. Suleiman loved Roxolana dearly, and for the most part faithfully, for the better part of four decades. His deep devotion is evident not only in how he treated her but also in what he wrote to and about her. One of his poems reveals the depth of his feelings: “My intimate companion, my one and all/sovereign of all beauties, my sultan./My life, the gift I own, my be-all,/my elixir of Paradise, my Eden.”
    Roxolana seems to have loved her