Emine Hatun

Celebi Mehmed’s wife Emine Sultana lies on golden colored satin sheets, under silk blankets that are decorated with precious stones. Heavy red-velvet curtains, embroidered with gold and silver threads hang on the windows, sheltering the Sultana from the outside world. The warm air is redolent of the perfume of roses and carnations. The gazelle-eyed daughter of Dulkadiroğlu Mehmed has been installed in this handsome room after the birth of her son, the Crown-Prince Murat.

It is midnight in the spring of 1404. The candles have been snuffed out, but the lone great golden candlestick burns into the night. Two tired concubines are sleeping on pillows on the floor. The melodious sound of water sprinkling from the marble fountain in the courtyard wafts into the room.

Emine Sultana is too excited to sleep. Her hennaed hair flows freely down to her shoulders. She leans on her feather pillow. She allows herself to dream about her future glory.

Occasionally she casts a shy glance at little Murat who is sleeping, wrapped in the yellow swaddling clothes of an infant. She is dreaming of the day that he will have ascended to the throne of the Ottoman Sultanate. She imagines the power that will be bestowed upon her because she is the mother of this innocent baby-boy. In this rosy dream, her heart flies far away to the magnificent palace in Bursa, the original capital of the Ottoman Empire.