People in Turkey, do not care about the tsunami in Japan ,the war in Libya or forthcoming elections if it's Wednesday..
Muhteşem Yüzyıl (English: Magnificent Century) is a Turkish prime time historical soap opera television series broadcast on Turkey's Show TV network. It is based on the life of Süleyman I (also known as Suleiman the Magnificent), the longest reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Hürrem (also known as Roxelana), the slave girl who became his queen.
The show generated controversy and complaints from some viewers, for what they referred to as a "disrespectful", "indecent" and "hedonistic" portrayal of the historical sultan.
About the story;
The magnificent century of the Ottomans begins.
The magnificent ascent of Sultan Suleiman the Lawgiver to sovereignty commences.
At the age of twenty six, when his rule began, sultan Suleiman aimed at such an objective that he was,going to build a sovereignty in this world more powerful and more extensive than Alexander the Great and render the Ottomans invincible...
Throughout his reign that lasted 46 years,Sultan Suleiman became the greatest warrior and ruler of the East and West ,Young Suleiman , who acceded to the throne after receiving the news of his crowning at a hunting party in 1520,unaware that he would be ruling a reign beyond his dreams , leaving behind his wife Mahidevran and his son ,little prince Mustafa,şn his palaca in Manisa,took the road with his close friend and companion,İbrahim to reach the Topkapı Palaca in İstanbul
While they proceeded on their course,an Ottoman ship sailed off of Crimea onto the Black Sea,to bring female slaves as gifts for the Ottoman palace...On this ship was Alexandra La Rossa,the daughter of a Ukrainian Orthodox minister...This young girl,who had been taken away from her family and sold to the Crimean palace, certainly had no idea that in the future she would become Hurrem,the wife of Sultan Suleiman and give birth to princes,ruling his empire together with him whrough bloodshed and intrigue...
As Sultan Suleiman conquered the world,he would be paying the pricefor his great passion for Hurrem with the beheading of his most trusted friend and Grand Vizier İbrahim as well as ordering the death commands for his own sons...For Hurrem,the game of power was bloody and ruthless...Anything was acceptable in order to be victorious in this game...
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She quickly came to the attention of her master, and attracted the jealousy of her rivals. One day Süleyman's favorite, the concubine Mahidevran (also called "Gülbahar", Gül meaning Rose and Bahar meaning Spring ), got into a fight with Hürrem and beat her badly. Upset by this, Süleyman banished Mahidevran to the provincial capital of Manisa, together with her son, the heir apparent, Prince Mustafa. This exile was shown officially as the traditional training of heir apparents, sancak beyligi. Thereafter, Hürrem became Süleyman's unrivalled favorite or haseki. Many years later, because of a fear of rebellion (a fear probably incepted by Hürrem), the Sultan ordered Mustafa to be strangled. After the death of her son, Gulbahar lost her state in the palace (as being the mother of the heir apparent) and moved to Bursa.
Hürrem's influence over the Sultan soon became legendary; she was to bear Süleyman five children Mihrimah (daughter), Selim, Beyazıt, Cihangir) and, in an astonishing break with tradition, eventually was freed and became his legal wife, making Suleyman the first Ottoman Emperor to have a wed wife since Orhan Gazi. This strengthened her position in the palace and eventually led to one of her sons, Selim, inheriting the empire. Hürrem also may have acted as Süleyman's adviser on matters of state, and seems to have had an influence upon foreign affairs and international politics. Two of her letters to the Polish King Sigismund II Augustus have been preserved, and during her lifetime, the Ottoman Empire generally had peaceful relations with the Polish state within a Polish-Ottoman alliance. Some historians also believe that she may have intervened with her husband to control Crimean Tatar slave-raiding in her native land.
