#canfeda hatun

Hi, I have watched some snippets and clips and that was enough because, from a historical perspective, both shows SUCKED big time, and yet the second show was somehow even worse (even sans the propaganda of the first series, which was particularly there in the last two seasons) and flopped so badly lol. I'm not going to talk about the L writing department just the casting and also, I'll blab about Kösem Sultan quite a bit:

So, we're talking about the main personalities of the show, let's get the men out of the way first:

The actors for Ahmed I and Osman II were simply too old to play barely teenaged boys (both Ahmed and Osman were ~14 at their accessions, so...) In fact the actor portraying Kösem's son, Mehmed would've suited Osman quite well?

The actors for Sultan Murad IV and İbrahim were VERY well-casted (both younger and older versions as far as I've seen...)

Mustafa I's actors were quite very fine too (even the little Mustafa, though he was even moreso younger since the actual Mustafa was around 3-4 years old at the time of Ahmed's accession and I wonder if he got to see his mom like...at all since he was caged until his first accession? I wonder if for the 2 years that she was alive, Mustafa really thought that Handan was his mom, instead.

And, lastly I LOVED the sweet adorable boy playing the little Mehmed IV, just look at him! 🥰🤍

About the ladies:

Safiye's, Handan's and Halime's actresses were VERY well-casted (albeit, they should've aged up Halime during Mustafa's accession considering she was ~50 and well, the sad circumstances she had been trapped in for 14 years and then after a brief respite of a few months, she's again relegated to the Old Palace for 4 years and then again in September 1623— after which we don't even know what became of her). And, while the actress playing Hümaşah Sultan was TOO good, and a Hümaşah, daughter of Murad III existed, she wasn't Safiye's own (Safiye's daughters were only Ayşe and Fatma) and she must've been at most in her late teens in 1603/4 lol, so yeah...

(posted by @haticesultanas)

Then comes my Kösem Sultan—the one person who was there for nearly the whole of the extremely volatile, unstable and predominantly crisis-ridden first half of the XVII century— albeit actually, she had been sidelined and undermined for most of her political tenure and was the lone SoW Sultana who had to deal with angry, stubborn, unyielding and unheeding men like Ahmed I, Murad IV and İbrahim (in whose reigns she figured politically— of course besides the little Mehmed IV's for which she was there for 3 years but it's a damn mess and featured mostly a paralysing situation caused by the simultaneous presence of a 60 year old Kösem's faction and her barely 25 year old rival Turhan's faction which was getting more and more powerful and overwhelming for the former.)

So, talking about the casting, she indeed needed three actresses to portray her: one for the Kösem during the 14 years between 1603 to 1617 for Season 1 (honestly given how young Kösem was when she was abducted, I wonder if she had any memories whatsoever— like she was born around Ahmed's age and must've been trained and brainwashed meticulously before having been presented to Ahmed after his circumcision); Then a new one to play Kösem for S2 from December 1617-1632 (the extreme low of being powerless + having been relegated to the Old Palace and then we get to see Kösem at the peak of her power during her de-facto [co-]regency lasting some 8.5 years before yet again she's sidelined by Murad who takes over the absolute reins of the sultanate in the most despotic fashion possible gradually from mid-1632 onwards and honestly, he had hampered his Regents [the classic partnership of regency split between the Queen Mother & the Grand Vizier and other few in their coterie of high officials] on many occasions even before as a teenaged boy, he gave a lot of headache to Kösem lol...)

The ~6 year period between Ahmed's death in November, 1617 till her second oldest son, Murad's accession in September, 1623 that Kösem had to spend at the Old Palace, stripped of any influence— as she didn't really have any political allies and the one guy she did have was Nasuh Paşa (patronised by Safiye btw), but even after her repeated pleading, Ahmed I executed him in 1614.

And then there's Hace Mustafa Ağa— who was the head of the harem from November, 1605 (few days before Handan's death— most probably put in by Handan herself to take over the management of her son's harem; kinda like how Nurbanu handed it over to Canfeda Hatun) who was reportedly somewhat close to Kösem but was dismissed by Osman II, so yeah this must've been a very vexing time for her especially since Kösem's erstwhile cordial relationship with Osman from 1610s with, Mahfiruze's death in 1609/10 (the relationship fostered by Kösem with her motherless step-son, Osman was with purely ulterior political motives btw lol, unlike how the show portrayed— akin to how Hürrem Sultan had quite the cordial relationship with Şehzâde Mustafa during the 1520s) which was fractured not long after Osman's accession (1618).

Anyways, I personally don't think Hace Mustafa was a political ally of Kösem as such from what I've observed— I mean he enabled Osman to come to power deposing Mustafa (and deceiving Halime btw) within 3 months instead of Kösem's Mehmed (who was barely 4 months younger than Osman)— I mean if he was really her ally, he would've done everything to bring Mehmed to power. Also, there were quite some people who wanted to bring Hace Mustafa down, so his closeness to the mother of Mehmed (Osman's chief substitute and rival) was most likely just to get rid of him but once Murad ascended, Kösem did call back Hace Mustafa to the capital, but he died rather soon (unlike the show lol).

It goes without saying but, while the very beautiful Beren Saat looked the part of "Mahpeyker" ("moon-faced") and "Kösem" ("hairless", but Kösem herself secretly meant for her second name to mean "leader", of course), Gosh her acting sucked so much. Anyways, in this period (the second season), I would have loved if Hümaşah's actress (with her hair dyed black— because the hair inconsistency with Beren and Ece is a tad annoying) played Kösem Sultan:

Then, a third season for the period between 1632-1651, another actress: Nurgül was a very good actress especially with the shite script she was given to play and she looked the part of "Mahpeyker"— but: she's not my Kösem, if I am being honest (again, historically speaking), just look at this defining quote about the actual Kösem Sultan when she was in the second-half of her 40s, Nurgül was somewhat young imo to portray the older Kösem (as in she was 39ish portraying Kösem into her early 60s), let there be older actresses portraying older women lol— so, my Kösem Sultan would've been the very beautiful Greek actress Maria Nafpliotou:

She would've been perfect as an older Kösem starting with Murad's true reign (from mid-1632 onwards) especially since I think she would've captured that aforelinked quote very well. Murad certainly aged her lol (though not as much as İbrahim) like if you read her letters around this time, things were very troubling (so much so that just like Turhan's 3 decades later, Kösem's head was demanded too!) and of course, they'll come to a very terrifying rebellion-crisis yet in 1631/32.

Kösem was a fiercely maternal woman towards her own sons and also, she was very kind, charitable, liberal and very gentle with her slaves and public at large whenever she could like the quote illustrates and simultaneously just like every SoW member, she was also very ambitious— I wanted someone to portray that for my Kösem and so far I think Maria fits the job.

And, of course, I believe Kösem was (unlike the show, where she kills her own son?!) very heartbroken at Murad's untimely death (part of the reason that she must've loved Kaya İsmihan akin to one of her 3 daughters was because she was truly Murad's daughter!), İbrahim's brief Mustafa I-esque behaviour in addition to Kermankeş Mustafa Paşa essentially running the sultanate as the de-facto regent (and actually, remarkably very well so for the 5 years between 1639-1644 he was Grand Vizier, until the palace faction led by Kösem's party— headed by Hanzade too— had him executed in 1644 and well, shit went down south, as we know...)

And, then especially with İbrahim's execution, again something which she had to helplessly watch—a very different Kösem comes to the fore— just imagine all her life for nearly 40 years, all she had tried to do was to protect all of the 4 sons she had borne— crying tears of blood at each of their deaths (3 of them were executed and Murad died untimely at merely 27 years of age...)

Now, Kösem just wanted to retire, but once again, since Mehmed IV's mother, Turhan was so very young (merely 23 years old as opposed to Handan and Kösem having been ~35 and Halime was ~50 when their sons ascended), a ~60 yo Kösem was asked to essentially "train and guide [the very young Turhan and Mehmed] for a short while"— this was the closest state officials had gotten to calling someone a deputy representing the Hünkar until then (as the Naib-i Sultanat title was officially used only several centuries later for Kösem and Turhan— i.e., not a title they were acknowledged by during their lifetimes).

But, of course, from my understanding, that awakened the political animal inside Kösem yet again and of course, she never really trained Turhan and well, the extremely interesting Kösem-Turhan showdown happens.

Anyways, Nurgül really nailed the regality and oomph factor very well (it's just Kösem herself never comes across as arrogant lol, in fact, only one of the SoW members, Nurbanu from 1578 onwards comes across as imperious)— she had that aura and screen-presence, but because of the writing department, I just didn't like how she was portrayed (it was just the pop-history "de-maternalised, only cared for her power" image that I'm vehemently against because that's certainly not Kösem at least before İbrahim's death— and even after İbrahim's death, I find it hard to believe that Kösem would've wished to murder her own grandson— Mehmed's deposition, albeit, she surely tried for but failed, in fact, Kösem only attempted deposition twice in her career and both had been unsuccessful— with İbrahim in 1647 and Mehmed in roughly the last 1-2 years of her life).

Now, let's talk my Turhan Sultan and ooh boy, Ece Çeşmioğlu would've been THE PERFECT Turhan Sultan, just look at her:

Ece Çeşmioğlu is my Turhan Sultan! I literally have tagged her as #my turhan in my blog lol

If it were up to me, they could've had Turhan's actress play Fatma Sultan (Kösem's second daughter) and Beren could've played Hanzade Sultan (Kösem's third daughter), they could just focus on these 2 daughters from 1620s onwards out of the 3 daughters that Kösem had borne:

I must say in advance, this is purely my opinion and it doesn't include legal power,but general influence. For example if one woman had more legal power but still was limited to some actions, that another woman could get away with, I will rank her higher. Let's start with non sultans.

Part I: Non-Sultans

Number 5: Çevri kalfa

Çevri kalfa was a woman of Georgian origin and previously loyal servant to Nakşidili Sultan (also Georgian). She became mistress head treasurer( Baş hazindar usta) after accession of Mahmud II, who she saved from executioners by throwing them hot coals and sneaking the prince out. After becoming Head treasurer, she attained so much wealth that she could afford expensive clothes not even sultans wore. A girls school, built in her name, is one of the first schools for girls and the biggest primary school in Istanbul. She remained in her office until her death and was Sultan's trusted and favoured advisor.

Number 4: Meleki Kalfa

Meleki kalfa was a servant of Kösem and Ibrahim, however following the deposition of the sultan, she secretly switched sides as an agent of Turhan. Meleki played an important role in Turhan's rebellion by giving her information about Kösem's plan to dethrone Mehmed. After Kösem's death and Turhan's accession, she became an important person in Valide Sultan's court, was freed and married to Şaban Khalife. The couple built a residence in Istanbul, where Meleki not only conditioned her line of information to Turhan, but also acted as a negotiator in the palace on behalf of people. The political influence of her and her husband grew so much and they were murdered in 1656 for abuse of power.

Number 3: Gulfem Hatun

I have spoken about her in my previous posts

Number 2: Mahidevran Hatun

I have thought a lot about where to put her. People would expect her to be Number 1,mostly because they are used to her being sultan. That is what I first thought,for other reasons,but here we are. She has several significant influences that not many other women had:

1. She was popular with janissaries and people

2. Had a spy network, allowing her to hear major events happening in the capital.

3. She had strong allies. Ibrahim Paşa supported her and Mustafa later in his life, Hatice and her husband were supporting her openly or indirectly.

4. She was a considerable rival to the first and one of the most powerful women in the ottoman empire.

5. She had powerful characteristics: Was an intelligent, educated woman. Could mask her resentment towards Hürrem and act calmly around him.

6. She was a trusted advisor to her son. Actually, she supported the idea of Mustafa revolting against Suleiman,but only after she received information about his imminent execution, through her spy network.

Number 1: Çanfeda Kalfa

Çanfeda was the woman of Circassian origin, who served as second in command of Nurbanu for 18 years and the ruler of harem for another 11, so we can say she was de-facto Valide sultan.

In her almost three decades of service, she acquired wealth, so great that it attracted negative attention of Janissaries and even the grand Vizier. Although she collected such affluence through her salary(that was extraordinarily high consisting of 200 akches a day, it was the average salary of an imperial princess) and bribery, she used it for selfless purposes. She built three mosques, fountains, hamams, two schools, irrigation systems and fixed the roads, costing her several million akches, still she remained as one of the wealthiest people in the empire. In 1595, when Safiye exiled her, she needed dozens of carriages to carry her holdings, which apparently did not consist of much of the furniture, because she bought it from Venice the next year. It's also considerable that as an exiled person, she had to give up some of her wealth to imperial treasury.

Apart from her vital involvements in harem management in which she dominated Safiye, she had considerable influence over state matters as well. Çanfeda used her connections to install her not so bright brothers as paşas and after the series of mistakes,they were imprisoned, Çanfeda not only defied Grand viziers orders and had them set free,but restored them to their offices as well. Her power, wealth and influence came to the attention of Janissaries, who demanded her dead, but she got away with this as well. Another indication of her power, was her attempt to free the second son of sultan Murad. Even though she was caught red handed, the power it would take to infiltrate the prison is still considerable.

P.S. I did not list Halime and Handan,because after becoming Valide Sultans and regents they reached a whole different level, leagues above almost every single woman in ottoman history, however their power and influence was immense even when they were Hatuns.

This brown and red kaftan was first worn by Mahidevran Sultan in the first episode of the third season of Magnificent Century. The kaftan was used three times in the fourth season where it was worn by Nazenin Hatun in the fourth episode, by Canfeda Hatun in the twenty-first episode and by Fahriye Kalfa in the twenty-sixth episode.

(OTTOMAN) WOMEN’S HISTORY MEME | 5 harem servants: Canfeda Hatun