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Like the Ocean Swells - An Ottoman Timeline

If 'tis state thou seekest like the world-adorning sun's array,
Lowly e'en as water rub thy face in earth's dust every day.
Fair to see, but short enduring is this picture bright, the world;
'Tis a proverb: Fleeting like the realm of dreams is earth's display.
Through the needle of its eyelash never hath the heart's thread past;

Like unto the Lord Messiah bide I half-road on the way.
Athlete of the Universe through self-reliance grows the Heart,
With the ball, the Sphere---Time, Fortune---like an apple doth it play.
Mukhlisi, thy frame was formed from but one drop, yet, wonder great!
When thou verses sing'st, thy spirit like the ocean swells, they say.

A Song for Prince Mustafa

Istanbul, 1548

“Hurrem Sultan” whispered the assassin with what remained of his voice. He had exhausted the greater portion of it in the last six hours, screaming for his innocence. By the third hour, he ceased using Turkish and resumed his howling in the purest, rawest and most universal of human languages, the language of pain. The beating stopped and the assassin gave himself up to a peaceful death. Standing across the dungeon, was the man he had tried to kill, the Grand Vizier and the Sultan’s most loyal and trusted friend, Ibrahim Pasha. Behind him were a number of his fellow viziers and aides. Guarding the room were about twenty palace guards and fifteen Janissaries. Aside from the weary torturer and the scribe taking down the proceedings, the Grand Vizier could summon a solid forty men to act as witnesses to the utterance of those fateful words. Two hours later in a similar scene, the same answer was whipped and beaten out of Rustem Pahsa, an emerging rival to the Grand Vizier who had been implicated by the captured assassin. Several hours after that, one of Hurrem Sultan’s maids, apparently under fear of meeting the same punishment, ran out of the Harem and confessed. By daybreak on the eight day of Rajab, a conspiracy had been unveiled.

Upon telling the Sultan, Ibrahim Pasha called in ten of his forty witnesses for the purpose of confirming the truth. He had selected them on the basis of the Sultan’s closeness and trust in each one. Six of them were his viziers and four were Janissaries of whom the Sultan had acquired an intimate familiarity. But there was no use for them. Before they could say anything, Suleiman waved his hand toward the door, gesturing for them to leave. He did not need their word. Coming from Ibrahim Pasha, the Sultan needed no convincing. He had sincerely believed what he had been told. For the only force in his life that could counter his legendary love for Hurrem was his friendship with the Grand Vizier, which extended back to their earliest boyhood. He had not said a word since hearing Ibrahim’s message and doing so without, sent him out of the room. The Sultan pulled together the linen curtains that covered his bed and lied back down, spending the rest of the day in silent seclusion. His only piece of communication that day was an order that slipped out from the bottom of the bedroom door, summoning Hurrem Sultan to Istanbul.

The conspiracy that had been unveiled that day culminated in the form of a mysterious dervish who demanded an audience with the Grand Vizier. The appearance and behavior of this dervish was noted by the palace scribe as odd, to the effect that made one want to question his sanity. But reverence due to members of clergy had prevailed over these questions of sanity and an audience was granted. Upon being presented to the Grand Vizier’s court, the dervish admitted to being no dervish at all and a few seconds after that, drew a sword and struck at the Grand Vizier. The blade missed his chest by an inch and landed instead in his arm, causing a bloody cut but nothing more. The assassin was quickly stopped by palace guards and Ibrahim Pasha had escaped with his life and a boost to his already seething suspicions. He had reason to believe that there was a plot against him, for in the past few months; an endless pool of defaming rumors had taken hold of the Sultan’s court. Among the most prevalent and dangerous of these rumors was one that stated that he had planned to topple Suleiman and replace him with his firstborn son, Mustafa [1], with whom he was famous for having a profound and unwavering support for, despite some considerable animosity between the prince and his father. Another rumor was that during one of the Persian campaigns [2], he awarded himself the title serasker sultan, which if true would have been a grave affront to Suleiman [3]. He was also quick to observe that these rumors did not originate from the court or the Sultan’s ministries; they had been found to begin in the Harem and always made their way out from there.

Thus, there was little room for doubt in his subsequent conclusion, that this plot against him had been instigated by none other than the powerful Hurrem Sultan for just as the epicenter of these deadly rumors was the Harem, the center of the Harem was Hurrem Sultan. She had both the motive and the means for wanting to destroy the Pasha. Being an influential supporter of the Sultan’s firstborn, he stood as the strongest pillar in support of Mustafa’s ascension to the throne and as such, was the greatest hindrance to the chances of any of Hurrem’s sons in becoming Sultan. Aside from being denied the prestigious title of Valide Sultan or Queen Mother, there was also that certainty that in accordance with Turkish tradition, the Sultan’s brothers, her sons, would be strangled to death so as to eliminate any chance of deposition against the new Sultan. Her means to destroying the Grand Vizier was found in the person of Rustem Pasha, her son-in-law, the husband to Mihrimah Sultan, Suleiman’s much cherished daughter. Before his arrest, he was a rising figure in the Ottoman ministries and a favorite General of the Sultan’s. He had no doubt been Hurrem’s designated candidate to replace Ibrahim as Grand Vizier once he had been eliminated. If all had gone according to this nefarious plot, what would have resulted was a powerful triumvirate consisting of Hurrem Sultan, Rustem Pasha as Grand Vizier and Mihrimah Sultan who was just as cunning as her mother. This triumvirate would then exercise an unlimited power and influence over the Sultan, who despite his skill and excellence in conquest and administration, proved in eventual old age, that he would easily give way to traits of senile gullibility. But Rustem Pasha’s arrest and impending execution meant that Hurrem must be exposed and destroyed in that vital moment before she could find a new tool in the sultan’s court and begin another round of conspiratorial intrigue.

On that fateful day, Hurrem was not in the capital. She was in nearby Edrine, overseeing the construction of a new mosque. She had been there for about a week and had intended to stay there for several more days before returning to Istanbul. She had most likely intended to stay away from palace affairs at that time, to distance herself from any blame and suspicion that would ultimately rise from the incident. But on the Sultan’s orders, she returned to the capital immediately. Part of his order required that she be kept ignorant of the news. But she did not wonder why she was summoned by the Sultan. She had expected that she be called back by Suleiman, though for a different reason. She thought that he would need her for comfort and consolation in what would be a time of grief over the loss of his beloved Grand Vizier. So up until the point of her meeting with the Sultan, she was confident that all had gone according to plan. What exactly happened in her meeting with Suleiman remains a mystery. All that is known was that the Sultan called her into the royal bedchamber and less than half an hour later, Hurrem stormed out of the room with a bitter, tearful face and retired to her quarters in the Harem. Palace gossip however offers several explanations that help fill in the gaps left by the official histories.

One story relates how the Sultan led Hurrem on into admitting knowledge of the conspiracy despite not being told anything about it. He reportedly wept, complaining of being devastated by something although not mentioning what that something was. Hurrem is said to have expressed words of consolation for Ibrahim, to the effect of “The whole Empire joins you in mourning for Ibrahim” at which point, Suleiman is said to have leapt from his bed and pointed at Hurrem with an exclamatory “Ha!”, while another story posits Suleiman promising Hurrem not to cause any harm if she only told the truth. Hurrem admitted everything she had done and the devious intentions behind it. Suleiman was said to have erupted into a fit of rage and going against his promise, attempted to strangle her but after managing to push Suleiman away and making him realize he had gone too far, she ran off. Another story tells of how Hurrem, not giving up on her intrigues, immediately admitted to the Sultan’s accusations but afterward tried to seduce him into seeing things her way by reiterating the defaming rumors regarding Ibrahim. Suleiman refused her advances and pleaded the cause of justice. Hurrem turned red with rage and embarrassment and stormed out. Whatever version of events was true; the only thing that could be said with certainty is that the last encounter between the Sultan and Hurrem was not a pleasant one. It is the last because on the morning of the following day, Suleiman’s once beloved Hurrem Sultan, whom he had called “his love, his moonlight, his springtime and daytime, his Istanbul, his Karaman, his Baghdad, his Khorasan, the earth of his Anatolia and the tormentor of his heart", the Muktul of his Muhibbi [4], was discovered dead in her Harem chamber. She had slit her wrists with a knife.

[1] Mustafa succeeds Suleiman; this will be the TL's primary POD. Prince Mustafa was known as the most talented and gifted among his brothers and was said to have inherited the great traits of his father and none of the bad. This TL will definitely make use of his statesmanlike talents and qualities.

[2] Despite the changes to Suleiman’s personal life, nothing much changes in his military and administrative career. By the time of his death ITTL (which occurs at the same time in 1566, fighting the same campaign at the same place in Szigetvar, Hungary) much of his career as we know it from OTL has been the same ITTL.

[3] In OTL, this was the cause of Ibrahim Pasha’s downfall. He was executed for it in 1536. It has been suggested that the whole thing was the responsibility of Hurrem Sultan. This TL goes with that thought and makes the controversy never go beyond the status of a mere rumor. This could probably be called the TL’s proper POD because it is what enables Mustafa to ascend the throne.

[4] I’m not exactly sure what this means, probably something like “love or loved of the lover”. All that I am certain of is that “Muhibbi” which means “lover” was Suleiman’s poetic pen name.

***

Credit for the basis and inspiration for this TL goes to a certain essay, the title of which I will not (yet) mention for fear that future elements of TTL may be revealed, thus "spoiling" the TL. However, when the TL reaches a certain point, I will be sure to mention the name of said essay.

Comments and thoughts would be much appreciated! :)
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