A review by emesskay
Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire by Leslie Peirce
3.0
I liked this book and it is truly a fascinting story, how a slave girl became a concubine, and then drew the attention of the sultan, and then became his wife, but...for some reason I had a really hard time staying awake reading this book. I would settle down in my comfy reading spot, and start reading, and after about half a chapter I would be in noddy-land. I don't know why. I do not think the writing is particularly boring, the story itself (as I said) is interesting, I just had a really hard time staying awake. The only other book that affected me like this was Moby Dick (which I don't know how I managed to read, because i would fall asleep after a couple of paragraphs).
Although the story sounds incredible "Slave girl becomes Empress!" at the time Hurrem (aka Roxelena) was living, it was customary for the Sultan to consort with concubines, and once the concubine had a male child from the sultan, her status would be elevated to something like "Prince's mother" and she would receive all sorts of honors and accolades. Also after having a son, the sultan did not consort with that companion again, he would choose a different one to spend his nights with. The job of the mother was to train her son to be a ruler, and because she only had one son, there could be no cases of divided loyalties.
The ruling Ottomans ended up preferring slaves captured young who were converted to Islam and trained up for their duties over foreign princesses (because foreign princess might retain an annoying allegiance to their country/family of origin, which the slaves usually didn't). What was unusual was that the Sultan became so enamored of Hurrem, he didn't give her up after her first son, he had several children with her (including 3 more sons).
The history is an interesting view into the workings of a harem in Ottoman times, as well as into the relationship between Hurrem and Suleyman, and their children. It also touches on the implications for the empire that this change in procedure would have.
There is also a LOT of discussion of the various charitable building projects done by the Queen as well as other members of the royal family (male and female) and this part seemed to get repetitive.
The only thing that kind of bothered me was the Queen's name was Hurrem (well that was the name she was given after she was captured, there is no record of her original name, and it was the name Suleyman knew her by) but the author refers to her as "Roxelana" throughout the book. According to the author, Roxelana means "the Russian" (or something along those lines), and I guess it is how she is referred to in some histories, and that is why the author stuck with it. But to me it seemed like someone writing a book about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert but calling Prince Albert "That German guy."
Overall, an interesting book, and I learned a lot about the Ottoman Empire which I did not know before. If you are like me, recommend having a strong cup of tea or coffee before you sit down to read it, though.
Although the story sounds incredible "Slave girl becomes Empress!" at the time Hurrem (aka Roxelena) was living, it was customary for the Sultan to consort with concubines, and once the concubine had a male child from the sultan, her status would be elevated to something like "Prince's mother" and she would receive all sorts of honors and accolades. Also after having a son, the sultan did not consort with that companion again, he would choose a different one to spend his nights with. The job of the mother was to train her son to be a ruler, and because she only had one son, there could be no cases of divided loyalties.
The ruling Ottomans ended up preferring slaves captured young who were converted to Islam and trained up for their duties over foreign princesses (because foreign princess might retain an annoying allegiance to their country/family of origin, which the slaves usually didn't). What was unusual was that the Sultan became so enamored of Hurrem, he didn't give her up after her first son, he had several children with her (including 3 more sons).
The history is an interesting view into the workings of a harem in Ottoman times, as well as into the relationship between Hurrem and Suleyman, and their children. It also touches on the implications for the empire that this change in procedure would have.
There is also a LOT of discussion of the various charitable building projects done by the Queen as well as other members of the royal family (male and female) and this part seemed to get repetitive.
The only thing that kind of bothered me was the Queen's name was Hurrem (well that was the name she was given after she was captured, there is no record of her original name, and it was the name Suleyman knew her by) but the author refers to her as "Roxelana" throughout the book. According to the author, Roxelana means "the Russian" (or something along those lines), and I guess it is how she is referred to in some histories, and that is why the author stuck with it. But to me it seemed like someone writing a book about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert but calling Prince Albert "That German guy."
Overall, an interesting book, and I learned a lot about the Ottoman Empire which I did not know before. If you are like me, recommend having a strong cup of tea or coffee before you sit down to read it, though.