Dark Istanbul: The Harem, the Eunuchs and the Strangled Brothers

You are beside the Theodosian Walls, at Edirnekapı. Look at the stone and brick towers, some split down the middle. They are over fifteen hundred years old. For a thousand years, these walls protected Constantinople. They held off Huns, Arabs, Bulgars and Rus. On 29 May 1453 they fell. Sultan Mehmed II, aged twenty-one, had pounded them for weeks with giant cannons. He entered the city through this gate. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, died fighting. His body was never identified for certain. Mehmed made the city the capital of his empire. And he left behind a law that would sh…

You are in Balat. Look at the wood and brick houses painted in bright colors, leaning against each other on the slopes. For centuries, this district on the Golden Horn was the Jewish heart of Istanbul. In 1492, the Catholic Monarchs expelled the Jews from Spain. Thousands had nowhere to go. Sultan Bayezid II opened the empire's doors to them. They arrived with their language, Judeo-Spanish, spoken in these streets for five centuries. Some elderly people still remember it. Close by is the Ahrida Synagogue, founded by Jews from Macedonia in the fifteenth century. Its pulpit is shaped like a …

You are in Fener, facing the Ecumenical Patriarchate, seat of the Greek Orthodox Church. Look at the main entrance. The central gate is painted black and welded shut. On Easter Sunday 1821, the Greeks of the Peloponnese had risen against the sultan. In Istanbul, the response was immediate. Patriarch Gregory V had not supported the revolt. It made no difference. He was hanged from this very gate, in his liturgical robes. His body was left on display for three days. Then it was thrown into the sea. Ever since, the gate has stayed shut in his memory. This district gave its name to the Phanari…

You have entered the Spice Bazaar. Breathe in: cinnamon, cumin, saffron, apple tea. Look at the colorful mounds on the stalls. This market and the New Mosque next door were completed in the 1660s. A woman paid for them: Turhan Hatice, the sultan's mother. Turhan had arrived at the palace as a slave, captured as a girl on the northern steppes. She rose in the harem until she bore an heir. But there was already another powerful woman in the palace. Kösem, the boy sultan's grandmother, who had run the empire for decades. The two fought for control. In 1651, one night, men entered Kösem's room…

You are in the Hippodrome square. Look at the Egyptian obelisk, brought from Karnak over sixteen hundred years ago. The square keeps the long shape of the old racetrack. Chariots raced here in Byzantine times. Fans split into two factions, the Blues and the Greens, like football supporters, but with political power. In 532, the two factions joined forces against Emperor Justinian. They shouted Nika, victory. They set half the city on fire. Justinian considered fleeing. His wife, Theodora, persuaded him to stay. Soldiers trapped the rebels in the hippodrome and massacred them. Around thirty …

You have gone down into the Basilica Cistern. Let your eyes adjust to the gloom. More than three hundred columns rise out of the water and vanish into the dark. Justinian built it around 532, the same year as the Hippodrome massacre. It stored water for the city's palaces. The columns were not made for this place. They were recycled from older temples and buildings. That is why there are so many different styles. Look at the back, on the left, for two heads of Medusa used as column bases. One lies on its side, the other upside down. No one knows why they were placed that way. Perhaps to ca…

You are beside the sultans' mausoleums, next to Hagia Sophia. If they are open, go into the tomb of Murad III. Take off your shoes. Inside you will see sarcophagi draped in green cloth. A large one for the sultan. And around it, many small ones. In January 1595, Murad III died. He had fathered dozens of children. One of them, Mehmed III, came to the throne. That same night, following the old law, he had his nineteen brothers executed. Some were children. They were killed with silk cords. The dynasty's blood must not be spilled. The killers were mute executioners, so that nothing they saw c…

You have passed through the Imperial Gate. You are in Topkapı's first courtyard, the only one open to any subject of the empire. Walk toward the second gate, the one with two pointed towers. Before you reach it, on the right, look for a stone fountain set into the wall. Tradition calls it the executioner's fountain. It is said that here the palace executioner washed his hands and his sword after doing his work. Very close by were stones called the example stones. The heads of executed high officials were displayed on them. The chief executioner was also the palace's head gardener. The same…

You are facing the Gate of Salutation, with its two conical towers. It looks like something from a European castle. Beyond it began the palace proper. From here on, everything changed. No one but the sultan could ride through. Visitors went on foot, in absolute silence. In the second courtyard, thousands of Janissaries stood in ranks without moving. European ambassadors wrote that not even a cough could be heard. To communicate near the sultan, servants used a sign language. Silence was a form of respect, and of control. Inside this very gate were small rooms. High officials who had fallen…

You have entered the harem. You are in the courtyard of the Black Eunuchs. Look at the little rooms lined up on three floors, with their blue tiles. This is where the men who guarded the harem lived. They were eunuchs, castrated as boys. Most came from East Africa, captured and sold as slaves. The castration was done during the journey, in terrible conditions. Many boys died before reaching Istanbul. Those who survived could rise very high. The Chief Black Eunuch was one of the most powerful people in the empire. He controlled access to the sultan and his family. He managed vast fortunes. …

You are in the apartments of the valide sultan, the sultan's mother. Look at the İznik tiles, the domes, the niches. She was the most powerful person in the harem. Almost every woman in the harem arrived as a slave. Captured in wars or bought in markets, they came from the Balkans, the Caucasus, the steppes. They converted and learned Turkish, music, needlework and protocol. Very few ever came close to the sultan. Those who bore him a son rose in rank. And if that son took the throne, his mother came to run the whole harem. Sometimes, the empire. In the seventeenth century, several sultans…

You are in the princes' apartments. Look at the tiled walls, the colored glass. It is one of the most beautiful corners of the palace. The Ottomans called it the kafes. The cage. At the start of the seventeenth century, the killing of brothers began to be abandoned. Instead, princes were locked up for life in these rooms. They could not leave. They received no political education. They lived surrounded by servants, sometimes deaf or mute, never knowing if they would be killed the next day. When a sultan died without adult sons, the eldest prince was taken out of the cage and placed on the …

You have reached the terrace at the end of the palace, above Seraglio Point. Look at the Bosphorus. Across the water is Asia. In the water, off the Asian shore, you will see a white tower on a tiny island. It is the Maiden's Tower. Legend says a sultan learned from a prophecy that his daughter would die from a snake bite. He locked her in that tower, in the middle of the sea, to protect her. On her birthday, a basket of fruit was sent to her. A snake was hidden inside. It is the same story you have seen all through the palace: lock someone up to protect them, and find that confinement save…