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Intrigue in Istanbul (Discovery Channel Documentaries) - Roxelana , Kim Philby
Posted by Jan den Breejen on August 04, 2000 at 07:22:38:
Intrigue in Istanbul (Discovery Channel Documentaries) - Roxelana , Kim Philby
Good documentary; featuring the ways of behavior of two historical Self Confident Style characters;
- Roxelana
'Career woman' in the Ottoman empire; very competitive; she was able to outsmart all other woman in the sultan Suleiman's harem to become his 'first lady'. Very Macciavellian woman:opportunistically spreading false rumours and managing her relations ('networking') in the palace, so that the allmighty sultan banished or executed her main rivals. Her goal was to make her son the new sultan on the throne. Her over-ambitous plans and risk taking to become the most important woman in the empire didn't work out in the end because her main 'tool' i.e. her son was not so smart and he was an ineffective ruler.
Case text on Roxelana:
The World of Süleyman the Magnificent
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
November, 1987
story by Merle Severy
Excerpts from the story from the harem and Roxelana
Suleyman fell increasingly under the spell of two slaves he raised to power: Ibrahim, whom he promoted swiftly to grand vizier; and Hurrem, "laughing one"—a captive Russian known to the West as Roxelana, who became his wife. After a fire in the old palace in 1541, she moved with the harem to Topkapi, the center of power. Mehmed the Conqueror had believed in the separation of sex and state.
... Ironically, Suleyman's three greatest personal tragedies all relate to iran - and to his Russian wife, Roxelana. To gain uncontested power over him, Roxelana had to get rid of Ibrahim, who alone shared the privacy of his meals, who was given a palace by the Hippodrome and Suleyman's sister in marriage, and who served brilliantly as grand vizier for 13 years.
Her insinuations finally bore fruit when Suleyman bestowed on Ibrahim the title serasker sultan, commander in chief, hitherto the sultan's alone. Jealous reports came from the campaign in Iran that Ibrahim was acting as if he were sultan. Upon his return Ibrahim was invited to dine with Suleyman. Next morning he was found strangled.
Now she must get rid of Mustafa, Suleyman's firstborn son. Under the law of
fratricide he threatened her own sons . First she maneuvered his mother, Gulbahar, her senior in the harem, away from court. She got her son-in-law, Rustem Pasha, appointed grand vizier. From yet another Iranian campaign, Rustem sent back word that Mustafa, a regional governor, was so popular that his troops were clamoring to have him lead them in place of the aging sultan (as Suleyman's own father Selim had overthrown his father).
Overtaking the army, Suleyman summoned Mustafa to explain. Mustafa trustingly went to his father's tent. The bowstring did its deadly work.
Next, two of Roxelana's sons fought civil wars. Defeated, Bayazid fled to Iran, where his father's executioner tracked him down. That left the least worthy of sons—Selim "the Sot. " ... Indeed, many trace Ottoman decline, in the weak sultans and "Reign of Women" after Suleyman, to Roxelana. To this strong-willed woman in a male world who, prompted by the primal instinct to protect one's young, played a man's game with consummate skill for the highest stakes....
- Kim Philby
Another shamless opportunist; wanting to relate and be with important people; society man with haughty manners who was so good in faking emotions that he could get away with things. He got nearly caught as 'contra spy' when a Russian spy in Istanbul wanted to defect to England and promised disclosing the names of some Britisch contra spy persons. Philby was send to get him to the UK but deliberately prolonged his journey to Istanbul to let the Russian spied catch the defector (who then was thrown into a furnace in Moskow alive.) The Russians probably knew what made Philby tick ('look at me'); and when finally he had settled in the USSR they put his face on a stamp as 'Russian Hero'. It's amazing that the Britisch secret service had so much confidence in glamorous Philby that they didn't research is strange travel pattern and didn't become suspicious; especially since it was a major defeat that the Russians got the defector.
Jan