User:Aurgallagher/sandbox

Sultanate of Women

When I looked at the "Sultanate of Women" page, I first noticed how few citations there were. Many of the existing citations are self published or lack page numbers, which makes them less credible. In addition, the Literature section is under the notes heading, which implies that those books were cited formally, without linked citations. I would also like to include more general information about the role of women in the Ottoman Empire before, during, and as a result of the Sultanate of Women. Finally, I would like to include information about women sultans or similar positions before this period of time, if they existed.

Desired Edits

The three most important edits which need to be made are to locate page numbers for existing citations, reorganizing and clarifying existing information, and adding information about each specific Sultana. The leading paragraph also needs to be clarified and include more detailed information about the Ottoman Empire's ruling system to explain why the role of these women was so significant. If I have more time after attempting to fix those, I would also like to add more information about historical precedence for influential women in the Ottoman Empire, or comparisons to similar positions of women in other Islamic Empires.

Shedden suggestions: These all sound like excellent edits.

Leading Paragraph

Current leading paragraph:

The Sultanate of Women (Turkish: Kadınların Saltanatı) was the nearly 130-year period during the 16th and 17th centuries when the women of the Imperial Harem of the Ottoman Empire exerted extraordinary political influence over state matters and over the (male) Ottoman sultan, starting from the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent.[self-published source]Many of the Sultans during this time were minors and it was their mothers, the Valide Sultans, or their wives, the Haseki Sultans, who effectively ruled the Empire. Most of these women were of slave origin, which was often the case in general for consorts of Ottoman sultans.

Potential Re-write:

The Sultanate of Women (Turkish: Kadınların Saltanatı) was a period of extraordinary political influence exerted by wives and mothers of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. This phenomenon in the early modern period, approximately between the years 1533 and 1656, began during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent with his marriage to Roxelana (later known as Hürrem Sultan). These sultanas were either the wives of the Sultan, referred to as Haseki Sultans, or the mothers of the Sultan, known as Valide Sultans. During this time, Haseki and Valide Sultans held political and social power, which allowed them to influence the daily running of the empire, as well as requesting the construction of buildings, and philanthropic works. Many of these women were of slave origins, as was expected of the sultanate, since traditional marriage roles were considered too large of a risk for the Sultan, who was expected to have no personal allegiances outside his title.

Early Years --> Historical Precedents

I would like to change the title of the current "Early Years" section to "Historical Precedents." The information included in this section is not about the Sultanate of Women period but about the precedence of influential women before this time. I will also take the last paragraph, which is about Hürrem Sultan, and start a new section to include information about specific sultanas.

The period commonly known as the Sultanate of Women was novel for the Ottoman Empire, but not without precedent. The Seljuks, predecessors to the Ottoman Empire, often had women of nobility playing an active role in public policy and affairs, despite the concern of other male officials.[page needed]

However, during the fourteenth century, the agency of women in government began to shrink considerably. This was the age of Ottoman expansion where most Sultans elected to "lead from the horse", moving with a court of advisors, viziers, and religious leaders as the army conquered new lands.[page needed] In addition, Ottoman policy from the fifteenth century onward was to send young princes and their mothers to provincial governorships in Anatolia. In effect, this kept all of the women with connection to the higher levels of government far away from any place where they could hold meaningful power. What's more, the practice of fratricide—in which an ascendant sultan would execute all his brothers to secure his throne—made the mothers and wives of princes even more dependent on their men.[page needed]

Fortunes began to change, however, with the beginning of the 16th century, and the concurrence of two significant events: the end of Ottoman expansion, and the merging of the imperial harem into the palace proper. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, it became clear that the empire had reached its outer limits, with borders stretching thousands of miles in nearly every direction, the sultan simply could no longer afford to go on extended military campaigns, especially after the failure of the Siege of Vienna.[page needed] The vastness of the empire also made the Beylerbeylik system increasingly impractical and, as a result, the princes began to move back to the capital. However, with their primary military and economic strength neutralized, there was no longer a need for the practice of fratricide.

Early Years (New Section)

In this section I will move the information about Hürrem Sultan included in the Historical Precedence section and add to it the information I have acquired about her.

This paragraph will be included, after minor edits, in the new Early Years section with the rest of the information on Hürrem Sultan.

In addition, Suleiman's reign famously marked the merging of the imperial harem into the palace and political sphere, as he became the first sultan to be officially married, to the woman later known as Hürrem Sultan. Though controversial even at the time, this act, combined with the centralization of the imperial dynasty, brought the women of the harem closer to real power than they had ever been. As the royal princes lost power from the loss of their governance, their wives and mothers gained significantly, using their prince's status and connections to influence court and imperial decisions. In the late 16th century, Murat III even moved his personal residence from the palace, where he had previously been surrounded by exclusively-male servants and courtiers, to the harem itself. Thus, by the turn of the 1600s, the wife and mother of the sultan became two of the most prominent and influential positions in government, in practice if not in law.[citation needed]

Prior to the Sultanate of Women, the sultan did not marry, but had a harem of concubines who produced him heirs, with each concubine producing one son only and following her son to the provinces they were assigned to lead instead of remaining in Istanbul. The first Haseki Sultan was the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, Roxolana, who later became known as Hürrem Sultan after her conversion to Islam. Roxolana was mistakenly assumed to be of Russian descent, likely due to a mistranslation of her name. European visitors thus treated her as Russian; however, her ancestry was Ukrainian. The name by which the Turks referred to her, Hürrem, meant "Laughing One," or "Joyful," a testament to her character. Scholars are unsure of the date of her arrival to the Imperial Harem, the collection of concubines held by the Ottoman Sultan, but documents on the birth of her first son acknowledge her presence in 1521. Her significance was established with her marriage to Suleiman after the death of his mother, becoming the first wife of a sultan in more than two hundred years. Roxolana was freed from slavery and the new title Haseki Sultan (Imperial Consort) was created for her, which continued to be attributed to later wives of sultans. She primarily engaged in philanthropy, particularly in the building of communal spaces where subjects could spend time. The most prominent was the Haseki Sultan Complex in Istanbul, including a women's medical center, school, mosque, and kitchen to feed the poor, which was built in the 1530s. She died in 1558 in Istanbul, after the passing of her eldest and youngest sons. Nearly five hundred years after her death, the false claim of Russian heritage was removed from Roxolana's tomb in January 2019.

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Sultana_Rossa_by_Titian.jpg

This is a picture that is believed to be of Hurrem

A painting of Hürrem Sultan by a follower of Titian

Political Significance

And ultimately, the most long-lasting accomplishments of many wives and mothers of sultans were their large public works projects. Often constructed as mosques, schools, or monuments, the construction and maintenance of these projects provided crucial economic circulation during a time otherwise marked by economic stagnation and corruption, while additionally leaving a powerful and long-lasting symbol of the sultanate's power and benevolence. While the creation of public works had always been an obligation of the sultanate, sultanas such as Suleiman's mother and wife undertook projects that were larger and more lavish than any woman before them, and most men as well.[page needed]

These public works, known as hayrat or works of piety, were often built extravagantly in the name of the sultana, as had been tradition for imperial Islamic women.

Reactions

I would like to add the reactions to Hurrem Sultan and other sultanas to this section, which is currently very sparse. I have located several sources which claim that Hürrem Sultan was reviled and blamed for bewitching or tricking the sultan into marrying her, which I think is valuable information to include in the Reactions section.

Although it was a time of unprecedented power for royal women, they were not without significant opposition. To foreign ambassadors and emissaries however, many were more direct. On one occasion, when a Venetian ambassador tried to send a letter to the queen sultan through the grand vizier, the vizier refused to transmit the letter, claiming that the queen mother was nothing more than a slave, and held no power of her own. Of course, such passionate denial implies that in fact, the valide sultan held a great deal of authority which the vizier resented. And in point of fact, many foreign ambassadors at the time reported to their own countries that if one wanted to do business with the Ottoman Empire, they ought to go to the Sultan's mother before any other.[non-primary source needed]

Hürrem Sultan's marriage to Suleiman was so unusual that the public referred to her as Ziadi, and accused of using witchcraft and charms to trick the sultan into marrying her. Later Hasekis were greatly respected as political advisors to the sultan, particularly due to their position as mother of the heir-apparent.

Shedden suggestions: Looks good, but the second sentence doesn't fit quite as well.

Possible Sources

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?v=2.1&u=eckerd&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX3656400146&p=GVRL&sw=w

The first influential female sultana (the wives Haseki Sultans and mothers Valide Sultans) Hurrem Sultan (also known as Roxelana, Roksolana, and Roxelane) had Ukrainian background and was taken to be a slave of the Sultan. Got her name after conversion to Islam. Uncertain when she was acquired by Sultan. Moved to Eskiserai Palace in Istanbul. Probably around 16 when she had an heir, first time we know of her at the palace. Traditional marriage roles not trusted, so typically a woman in the harem would have only one son and would be granted special privileges such as removal from the harem if her son became the chosen heir. Mothers left with their sons to the provinces they led and would return to Istanbul only with their sons. (305). After the death of Suleyman's mother, he and Roxelana officially wed, a notable occasion as two centuries had passed since a sultan had taken an official wife (due to the lack of trust of traditional marriage roles for rulers). She was freed from slavery before the wedding. The new title of Haseki Sultan (Imperial Consort) was created for Roxelana, once again demonstrating how unique her experience was. (306).

2/22/2019: Added citation to last sentence of leading paragraph and corrected the citation.

The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire by Leslie P. Peirce

This source has already been used liberally in the article, but no page numbers are included. I intend to locate the page numbers to correct the citations. This includes the dates during which the Sultanate of Women occurred, probably between 1533 and 1656, which I would like to add to the leading paragraph (p.255-256).

The Imperial Harem: Gender and Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1520-1656

by Leslie P. Peirce

This source has also been cited without page numbers, so I would like to add those to existing citations.

Yermolenko, Galina. 2005. “Roxolana:‘The Greatest Empresse of the East.’” Muslim World 95 (2): 231–48. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.2005.00088.x.

Information about Roxolana and her place in court, particularly popular opinion on her position and power. This attempts to correct the negative stereotypes formed about her by Europeans at the time.

https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/561610.html

Article stating that the false Russian lineage was removed from Roxolana's grave in January 2019 at the behest of the Ukrainian Embassy, after nearly 500 years.

Article Evaluation

Revolutionary Song

The title of the article should be plural, as it covers multiple songs. Introductory paragraph includes information which is never expanded upon. There is no significance section, which could have been a helpful section to include.

The revolutions themselves are organized poorly, with no clear explanation of why they have been separated this way. I would list them alphabetically or by geographic region. Each revolution, also, does not need its own link in the side grey box. The links should go to the heading, which in this case is "by country."

Additionally, in the American Revolution section, there are links to pages which do not exist. Russian Revolution and North Korea link to a separate page, without including any information typed into it.

The French revolution section does not explain that "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem, which is significant due to the time since the song was written and the number of regime changes France has experienced.

The psychology section is one sentence, which elaborates on nothing, and serves little to no purpose without more information. There could

Definitions of revolution, protest, and counter-revolution should be explained clearly in the beginning of the article in order to classify songs accurately.

The musical genre section should include separate spaces for created songs for the media, for example musicals, movies. In addition, it never defines what a musical genre is, nor what lullabies and folk songs are. Also, the lullaby has no citation for where it came from or who translated it.

The article overall has very few citations, while entire sections do not have any sources at all.

The citations are improperly cited, with inconsistencies with order of author, date, and title, while some do not include all of these facts.

Citation 10 has a page number but no book or author, as well as being directly plagiarized from the quote.