Hürrem, whom Busbecq refers to by her given name of Roxolana, first appears in the letters as an alleged participant in a plot against Mustafa, the son of Suleiman by one of his concubines. According to Busbecq, Mustafa was widely seen as the most likely successor to Suleiman. Hürrem, however, was determined that one of her own children should be the next sultan. To this end, she formed an alliance with Roostem, her daughter’s husband and a key advisor to the sultan. Together, they convinced Suleiman that Mustafa was unwilling to wait for his father’s death to assume power and intended to usurp the throne. Seeking to strike before Mustafa could, Suleiman ordered his son’s murder.

Busbecq’s account of the plot was buttressed by descriptions of Ottoman politics and customs meant to help his European reader make sense of the action. We can thus learn much from Busbecq’s understanding of the unfamiliar world in which he carried out his mission. As you read this excerpt, consider how Busbecq’s view of Ottoman society shaped his characterization of Hürrem.

It will, perhaps, not be out of place at this point to relate why Roostem was deposed from his high official position. Suleiman had had a son by a concubine, who, if I mistake not, came from the Crimea. His name was Mustafa, and he was then in the prime of life and enjoyed a high repute as a soldier. Suleiman, however, had several other children by Roxolana, to whom he was so much attached that he gave her the position of a legal wife and bestowed a dowry upon her, an act which is the surest pledge of a legal marriage among the Turks. In doing this he violated the custom of the Sultans who had preceded him, none of whom had contracted a marriage since the time of Bajazet I. Bajazet, having been defeated and having fallen, together with his wife, into the hands of Tamerlane, underwent many intolerable sufferings, but there was nothing which he regarded as more humiliating than the insults and affronts to which his wife was subjected before his very eyes. Mindful of this, the Sultans who followed Bajazet on the throne abstained from marrying wives, so that, whatever fate befell them, they might not suffer a similar misfortune, and only begat children by women occupying the position of slaves, upon whom, as it was thought, disgrace would fall less heavily than upon legal wives. The Turks, indeed, do not think less highly of the children of concubines or mistresses than of those born from wives, and the former possess equal rights of inheritance.

Mustafa, on account of his remarkable natural gifts and the suitability of his age, was marked out by the affection of the soldiers and the wishes of the people as the certain successor of his father, who was already verging on old age. His stepmother, on the other hand, was doing her best to secure the throne for her own children, and was eager to counteract Mustafa’s merits and his rights as the eldest son by asserting her authority as a wife. To effect her object, she employed the advice and help of Roostem, with whom her fortunes were closely linked by his marriage to her daughter, the Sultan’s child; so that their interests were identical.

Of all the Pashas Roostem enjoyed most influence and authority with the Sultan. A man of keen and far-seeing mind, he had been largely instrumental in promoting Suleiman’s fame. If you wish to know his origin, he was a swineherd; yet he was not unworthy of his high office but for the taint of mean avarice. This was the only quality in him which aroused the Sultan’s suspicion; otherwise he enjoyed his affection and approval. Yet even this vice of his was employed in his master’s interest, since he was entrusted with the privy purse and the management of his finances, which were a cause of considerable difficulty to Suleiman. In his administration he neglected no source of revenue, however small, even scraping together money by selling the vegetables and roses and violets which grew in the Sultan’s gardens; he also put up separately for sale the helmet, breastplate, and horse of every prisoner; and he managed everything else on the same principle. The result was that he amassed large sums of money and filled Suleiman’s treasury. . . .

The position of the sons of the Turkish Sultans is a most unhappy one; for as soon as one of them succeeds his father, the rest are inevitably doomed to die. The Turks tolerate no rival to the throne; indeed, the attitude of the soldiers of the bodyguard makes it impossible for them to do so. For if a brother of the reigning monarch chances to remain alive, they never stop demanding largesses; and if their requests are refused, cries of “Long live the brother!” “God save the brother!” are heard, whereby they make it pretty clear that they intend to put him on the throne. Sultans of Turkey are thus compelled to stain their hands with their brothers’ blood and to inaugurate their reign by murder. Whether Mustafa was afraid of this fate or Roxolana wished to save her own children by sacrificing him, it is certain that the action of the one or the other of them suggested to Suleiman the advisability of slaying his son.

The Sultan being at war with Sagthama, King of Persia, Roostem had been sent against him as commander-in-chief. As he was approaching the Persian frontier, he suddenly halted and sent a dispatch to Suleiman saying that he was in a critical position, that treachery was rife, and that the soldiers had been bribed and were zealous for no one except Mustafa. The Sultan, he added, alone possessed the necessary authority; he himself could not cope with the situation, which required the Sultan’s presence and prestige; if he wished to save his throne, he must come at once. Alarmed at this news, Suleiman hurried to the spot, and wrote summoning Mustafa, warning him that he must clear himself of the crimes of which he was suspected and now openly accused; if he could do so, no danger threatened him. Mustafa was confronted by a difficult choice: if he entered the presence of his angry and offended father, he ran an undoubted risk; if he refused, he clearly admitted that he had contemplated an act of treason. He chose the braver and more dangerous course. Leaving Amasia, the seat of his government, he sought his father’s camp, which lay not far off. Either he relied on his innocence, or else he was confident that no harm could come to him in the presence of the army. Be that as it may, he went to meet certain doom.

Suleiman before he left home had determined upon his son’s death, having first taken the advice of his Mufti (who is the chief religious authority among the Turks, as the Pope of Rome is among us), so that he might not seem to have neglected the dictates of religion. . . .

On the arrival of Mustafa in the camp there was considerable excitement among the soldiers. He was introduced into his father’s tent, where everything appeared peaceful; there were no soldiers, no bodyservants or attendants, and nothing to inspire any fear of treachery. However, several mutes (a class of servant highly valued by the Turks), strong, sturdy men, were there—his destined murderers. As soon as he entered the inner tent, they made a determined attack upon him and did their best to throw a noose round him. Being a man of powerful build, he defended himself stoutly and fought not only for his life but for the throne; for there was no doubt that, if he could escape and throw himself among the Janissaries, they would be so moved with indignation and with pity for their favourite, that they would not only protect him but also proclaim him as Sultan. Suleiman, fearing this, and being only separated by the linen tent-hangings from the scene upon which this tragedy was taking place, when he found that there was a delay in the execution of his plan, thrust his head out of the part of the tent in which he was and directed fierce and threatening glances upon the mutes, and by menacing gestures sternly rebuked their hesitation. Thereupon the mutes in their alarm, redoubling their efforts, hurled the unhappy Mustafa to the ground and, throwing the bowstring round his neck, strangled him. Then, laying his corpse on a rug, they exposed it in front of the tent, so that the Janissaries might look upon the man whom they had wished to make their Sultan.

When the news spread through the camp, pity and grief were general throughout the army; and no one failed to come and gaze upon the sad sight. Most prominent were the Janissaries, whose consternation and rage were such that, had they had a leader, they would have stopped at nothing; for they saw him whom they had hoped to have as their leader lying lifeless on the ground. The only course which remained was to endure with patience what they could not remedy. So, sad and silent, with their eyes full of tears, they betook themselves to their tents, where they could lament to their hearts’ content the fate of their luckless favourite. First they inveighed against Suleiman as a crazy old lunatic; then they railed against the treachery and cruelty of the young man’s stepmother and the wickedness of Roostem, who together had extinguished the brightest star of the house of Othman. They passed that day in fasting, not even tasting water; nay, there were some who remained without eating for several days.

Thus for some days there was general mourning throughout the camp; and it seemed as if there was no likelihood of any end to the grief and lamentations of the soldiers, had not Suleiman stripped Roostem (probably at his own suggestion) of his dignities and sent him back to Constantinople without any official position. Achmet Pasha, a man of greater courage than judgement, who had occupied the second place when Roostem was Chief Vizier, was chosen to succeed him. This change soothed the grief and calmed the feelings of the soldiers, who, with the usual credulity of the vulgar, were easily led to believe that Suleiman had discovered the crimes of Roostem and the sorceries of his wife and had learnt wisdom, though it was too late, and had therefore deposed Roostem and would not spare even his wife on his return to Constantinople.

Source: Edward Seymour Forster, The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927), pp. 28–33.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER