Suleiman the Magnificent
This replica from the 16th century exhibited in your room is of one of the 87 talismanic shirts from the Collection of Sultan’s Clothing at Topkapi Palace and it is considered to have belonged to Sultan Suleiman according to the prayers, motives and meanings of the talisman on the shirt and therefore was adorned with one of his poems…
With this Talisman, may the victory be yours in every war you fight…
Known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the west and Suleiman the Lawgiver in the east because of his fair leadership, he was a successful soldier, mighty sultan and one of a kind statesman…
He was also a man of romance and a poet himself who valued arts and artists. Their legendary love with his last wife Hurrem Sultan gained a place in history.
Hurrem Sultan was an infamously beautiful woman originally from Ruhtenia, then a part of Poland. She drew all the attention of the Sultan with her beauty, intelligence and femininity and gained a special place for herself in the harem and then she became Sultan Suleiman’s legal wife. Yet she was not just a wife to the Sultan, she was a woman who was madly in love with Sultan Suleiman and would do everything for her love. Hurrem Sultan who wished her one and only love Sultan Suleiman whose life was spent in campaigns would always come back to her safe and sound and victorious therefore she requested a talismanic shirt from the Head Augur.
After long and toilsome rituals, Sultan Suleiman’s shirt was finished by tens of unknown skilful hands and Hurrem’s prayer was that; Sultan Suleiman would come home victorious, safe and sound from every battle he fights. It was obvious that the shirt was related to the star system considering its motives largely based on stars and other symbols of sky. On the other hand, infinity idea in Islam was put forward through the infinite geometrical patterns that dominate the ornament. Now it was time to send this exclusive shirt of the 16th century to its owner. Sultan Suleiman would wear this shirt and the prayers would keep him safe…
Days and months passed. Hurrem was able to console herself with only the occasional letters she could get from her one and only love. Then one day she heard the victory news. She was overjoyed that her love, her life was returning home… She was euphoric. With never-ending fire and yearning in her heart, she took her pen and wrote her love a letter in the dead of the night:
My Sultan, My Emperor;
"After I put my head to the ground and kiss the soil under your feet blessed with your touch, the sun of my nation and the cause of my happiness, if you ask about me, your servant who has caught on fire from the zeal of missing you, whose heart is ripped apart, whose chest is ruined, whose eyes are filled with water, who cannot say if it is day or night, who was thrown in the sea of yearning, who is desperate, mad with your love, worse than Ferhat and Mejnun*; I am a nightingale whose cries would not die since I was separated from you, being away from you put me in a state I wouldn’t wish even on my worst enemy.
My nation, my sultan, since I have not heard a word from you after one and a half months, God knows I have not had a moment of peace, I have cried day and night, forgotten my life; whole world became small in my tearful eyes, I was helplessly looking at the doors when Mighty Lord of the universe, my Glorious God who gives his mercy upon everyone, who blesses everyone brought me the word of your victory. And only he knows I was dead, my sultan, my emperor, I came back to life again after hearing from you…"
You can find one of the poems of Sultan Suleiman the Lawgiver for his precious love Hurrem on this shirt presented in your room…
*Aslı & Ferhat and Leyla & Mejnun are two legendary couples in Turkish history such like Romeo and Juliet.
