8,594 views
129 likes
Becoming the Sultan's mother sounds like winning. Inside the Ottoman harem, every step of that climb could cost you your name, your child, or your life. This is your life as a girl in the Ottoman harem, 1757 to 1789. You are kidnapped at 12, sold in Istanbul, stripped of your name, and handed a new one. You are beaten on the soles of your feet for one wrong prayer, you survive the plague, and you climb the ladder one rank at a time: three servant ranks, four concubine ranks, and one title above them all. Then you lose a daughter, an earthquake splits your room, a poisoner comes for your son, and the Sultan asks for every coin you have saved.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Kidnapped
4:16 The Cane and the Plague
8:37 Chosen
12:55 The Cage
18:06 The Old Palace
📜 WHAT'S TRUE
The setting, the harem ranks, the slave trade, the bastinado, the plague, the 1766 earthquake, and the system of locking princes away in the Cage are historical. The girl in this story is a fictional composite character, built from the lives of real harem women, so you can walk through the story as "you".
🔔 Subscribe for more "Why It Sucks to Be…" videos, where history is told from the point of view of the people who lived it.
#ottomanempire #history #harem #topkapi #whyitsuckstobe #POV #animatedstories
