Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

POWERS BEHIND THE THRONE Many powerful women have featured in İstanbul’s imperial history. Here are our favourites: Theodora The wife of Justinian, Theodora (500–548) was the daughter of a bear-keeper at the Hippodrome and, if we are to believe Herodotus, had been a courtesan before she married. She subsequently became extremely devout and endowed a number of churches in the city. Justinian was devoted to her and she was widely acknowledged by contemporary historians to be the true power behind the throne. During her time as consort, she established homes for ex-prostitutes, granted women more rights in divorce cases, allowed women to own and inherit property, and enacted the death penalty for rape. Zoe Zoe (978–1050) was 50 years old and supposedly a virgin when her dying father, Constantine VIII, insisted she marry the aged Romanus III Argyrus. Romanus had been happily married for 40 years but Zoe and her father threatened him with blinding if he didn’t consent. When Constantine died, Romanus was crowned emperor and Zoe empress. Zoe then took as her lover the much younger Michael the Paphlagonian. After Romanus mysteriously drowned in his bath in 1034, Zoe quickly married her companion, who joined her on the throne as Michael IV. Eight years later, after Michael died from an illness contracted while on campaign, Zoe and her sister Theodora ruled as empresses in their own right. At age 64 Zoe was married again, this time to an eminent senator, Constantine IX Monomachus, who outlived her. Roxelana The wife of Süleyman the Magnificent, Hürrem Sultan (1506–58) was more commonly known as Roxelana. She was beautiful, clever and ruthless. Though allowed four legal wives and as many concubines as he could support by Islamic law, Süleyman was devoted to Roxelana alone. Secure in her position, she mastered the art of palace intrigue and behind-the-scenes manipulation, even convincing the sultan to have İbrahim Paşa, Süleyman’s lifelong companion and devoted grand vizier, strangled when he objected to her influence. She also ensured her drunken son, Selim the Sot, would succeed to the throne by having the able heir apparent, Prince Mustafa, strangled.