Anywhere: Ottoman Turks (Keywords)

Abducted by slave traders from her home in Ruthenia - modern-day Ukraine - around 1515, Roxelana was brought to Istanbul and trained in the palace harem as a concubine for Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire and one of the world's most powerful men. Suleyman became beso...

In the opulent palace of the feared and revered Murat III, Hannah Levi, midwife to the Sultan's vast harem, is forced to ensure heirs for the kingdom. If she fails, the entire Ottoman Empire will collapse, but the woman who is chosen to be the Sultan's mistress is not all she seems.

Jem Sultan, born in December 1459, was one of the wonders of his age. A Turkish prince held captive in Europe at a time when the Ottoman Empire was at its peak, he was renowned throughout the continent as a romantic, mysterious figure. John Freely tells his remarkable story.