December 15, 2022 6:45 pm
The creators of the series embellished historical reality.
A special moment of the series “The Magnificent Century” is the scene where Hurrem deliberately changes his faith in the presence of Suleiman. At the same time, at the very beginning of his stay in the harem, he sacredly honored Christian traditions and even hid the cross in his bed. Therefore, the cunning concubine hopes to win the Sultan’s favor. And the Christian Alexandra becomes a Muslim Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska. Later, she teaches the same to Efsun so as to subdue Mustafa.
However, in the real Ottoman Empire such behavior of a concubine was unacceptable. The girls changed their faith and received other names immediately after entering the harem. Furthermore, their belongings were searched and confiscated, and the cross was allegedly not missing. The concubines definitely did not have the opportunity to voluntarily convert to Islam at the right time for themselves and receive a name personally from the Sultan.
There was another historic oversight in the series. Safiye and Kesem Sultan liked to appear in public with exquisite jeweled crowns. However, in reality, they wore rather modest headdresses – it was a high hotoz, trimmed with cloth. Only sultanas who gave birth to male heirs could decorate such crowns with stones.
