Two Queens, Three Letters and Three Gifts: Metaphors of the Visual Language of Female Sovereignty in the Early Modern Period
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Metin Mustafa
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Abstract: By integrating gender as articulated by Ottoman women sovereigns through their patronage this essay aims to challenge the misconceptions of the sultan's private space, the Imperial Harem, as merely a place of sexual orgies as perpetuated by orientalist discourse. Contrary to this erroneous assertion, this article demonstrates the political assertiveness of Ottoman imperial women as sovereigns in their own right. This assertion of female agency is evident in the Ottoman imperial woman - Safiye Sultan (d. 1619), the haseki (favourite) of Murad III and after his death in 1595, as the Valide Sultan (Queen Mother) of Mehmed III (d. 1603). Through her exchange of letters and gifts as visual medium with Elizabeth I of England, Safiye Sultan, thus, challenges the illusion of seclusion of Ottoman imperial women through the metaphors of visual language of these gifts to assert her sovereignty.
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